Choosing your name

I love my name, it was very popular in the sixties when I was born. I've given it as a middle name to my daughter and she loves it too. I was nearly Lynne which I'm not keen on (sorry) until my Mum & Dad went to the cinema the day I was due and the leading lady was named Janine and the rest is history

I hated my dull name and changed it aged around 30. I considered several options then found one I liked that was (coincidentally and fortunately) a version of my other forename. I felt the original name was holding me back and this proved to be the case.

My name's Ann and I hated it as I thought it was boring. But I've grown into it and like it now. I loved my mum's name, Kathleen.

My name is French but I don't have a middle name which I would have loved to have had as all my childhood friends had middle names and I felt very left out.
As a consequence both my children have 2 middle names.

I was called Anne-marie until I was two and a half then had my name changed to Colleen when I was adopted. Ann-Marie the little girl doesn't feel part of me

I wuld have called my daughter Emma as it was my father's mother's name. She died when my father was in his teens but I only found out her name when doing some family history years after my father died. He never spoke of her.

My great grandmother was named Elizabeth but always called Cissy. My grandparents decided that their first daughter should be named after her but my grandfather only ever knew his MIL as Cissy and so that is what he told the Registrar. Apparently, my grandmother was livid!

My name is Helen and I wouldn’t change it. I like it

Hayward. My mum wanted to give me this for my middle name after her favourite actress. Susan Hayward but my grandmother wouldn’t wear it.

I never liked my name when I was growing up, but as an adult I don’t mind it so much, my mother named me after a song that was a hit at the time it’s not that common really but not unheard of, I don’t really know what I would have liked to be called

My paternal grandmother chose my name. I hate it. I don’t know who chose my middle name. Grandparents held too much power back in the day in my opinion!! Much too much. Other relatives chose
Godparents too. Crazy. My parents must have been very weak! This sort of thing went on
my whole life with the other side of the family too! Must be in their genes but not mine!

Iamthewalrus I wonder if your name is the same as mine. I was due to be born on Coronation day so my dad decided to call me Corinne after an actress he liked. I hated it as a child as no one spelt or pronounced it correctly but I like it now. As a child I wanted to be called Mary, but I’m happy now with my own name.

I hated my name as a child as Joan was so old fashioned. I tried changing it to Joanne when at school and a particularly annoying maths teacher made me do a piece of work again 'With the correct name on it'! I succeeded in changing it when I went to Uni. I didn't do it by deed poll but now it is on my passport and driving licence and everything, though I have to include my original name every time I apply for a DBS certificate!
My mum would have preferred Jane Ann but as my maiden surname began with a P she was worried about the initials JAP as it was soon after the war! She had had a teacher at school called Phyllis Irene Greenwood who had her initials on her briefcase!

I like my first name but would change my middle name which is Kay. I would prefer Katherine.

I would have liked my name to be Loretta Devine. Rolls off the tongue perfectly.

My name is the most common girl's name of my generation, born in the 1940s. It dates me, which I find slightly annoying.
My sisters have unusual names, which make them more memorable and interesting.

I’ve been known by a short version of my first name for many years by non-family. My Mum loved the full length version which she read in a book when she was quite young herself and vowed if she ever had a daughter that’s what she would call her. Mum/rest of family never abbreviated it.
My Dad was Polish, his name translated to a fairly uncommon English name but he was always known by a more colloquial version of it. He thought Mum chose my name because it was a female version of his, Mum always told me she didn’t have the heart to disillusion him that it was actually just coincidence. I prefer to think of it as serendipity.
My middle name of Elizabeth is after my maternal Granny, she was always known as Lizzie. I would quite liked to have been known as either Liz or Beth.

I dont like mine, its seasonal,but my gran asked her to name me it after a relative.I used to pretend to try out different names when we played as kids.My mum would have preferred to name me georgette, but i suppose i'd have had it shortened to georgie,or george,which i wouldnt have liked.My sons all have 3 forenames,(me & my best friend at school both said we would do this when we had children,and so we did.) and they've followed the tradition of it with my grandsons,but the girls all have 2.Mine& my sisters middle names have same meaning,but are different variations.I dont think my mum knew that then though.

I have a typically masculine name that is also sometimes given to girls. As a child I hated it but I now quite like. I quest if I still hated it I would have changed it

Sparklefizz- when i started secondary school we were all amused to find two girls in our class with same first name and surname but had different middle names, so were known as Julie E.and Julie I.(even by teachers) But i dont think they were as amused by it as the rest of us.

I’m a Lorna and constantly get called Laura …. It’s tiresome sometimes so I just go with the flow.

How can a name hold you back?!

I love my name (thankfully!) although many people spell it wrong - my name is the more unusual (though certainly not uncommon) way and I feel I have to spell it out to new people (if needing to give my details), as the other spelling seems to be the go-to for most people. My name is also very much of its era, even though it’s still fairly classical.

But it turns out that my father gave my names the wrong way around to the priest for my baptism, (it was a film star in those days,whom im guessing he liked)😁so apparently,officially i could have actually used that name by law.😆

I find it very strange that hardly anyone is saying what their names are. Hardly any point in replying to the post! My name is Susan, which I like, but there are too many of us, mostly called Sue, which is why I prefer to be called Susan. Some friends call me Sue, but my family never do. There were five of us in my class called Susan, I think it's because of the actress Susan Hayward, who was famous at the time. I would have liked something more unusual like Melissa or Vanessa.