Choosing your name

dalrymple23

For some bizarre reason, Junior daughter called her youngest "Agnes". She is now about 7 and so pretty. Such a shame. Becauuse of her \Scottish roots, I m afraid my trranslation into The Haggis has stuck!!!

I temember many moons ago when we were doing ‘O’ levels we had to take our birth certificates into school. Three girls in our class ( known to us as two Lindas and an Evelyn) were horrified to discover their name was really Agnes!
Another cause of weeping that day was the girl who discovered that her parents married just six months before she was born, Oh, the shame!
I have never thought of having another name, but maybe I will.
Incidentally, as I said, there were two Agneses known as Linda, and an Elizabeth known as Linda. Now, I am 74, and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone older than me called Linda, so did it maybe become fashionable around 1952?

My Christian names were Rebecca Margaret. I hated both but
was always called Rae at home. When I met my husband to be, he was called Raymond. We both lived Northern Ireland. His name had never been shortened.
When he moved to Somerset, he very quickly became Ray.

This never really bothered us but a group of his friends asked him what my full name was , as it was too confusing to call us both the same name. He, of course, had no idea my birth name was Rebecca. Someone suggested Rachel and he (cravenly )agreed. When I next came down to visit everyone was calling me Rachel.
When I asked him later why everyone was calling me Rachel, he explained that, when they had asked if my full name was Rachel, he had agreed it was.
I told him he would have to put them right and he said that would make him look stupid.
He didn’t correct them and I didn’t push it as I never wanted to be called Rebecca anyway.
Looking back , I should have wondered why it was more important to him not to lose face in front of his friends, than to land me with a different name for the rest of my life.

Thank you Kitty I think your ‘real’ name is rather Jane Austenish and I like it. 👍

Glad you are enjoying the thread Greenfinch

For some bizarre reason, Junior daughter called her youngest "Agnes". She is now about 7 and so pretty. Such a shame. Becauuse of her \Scottish roots, I m afraid my trranslation into The Haggis has stuck!!!

JamesandJon33

I remember when atgrammar school , we were given French names , always used in the lesson. Peter was Pierre etc. There was no equivalent to my name so I was given Marthe absolutely hated it.

We were given names in Latin, too. I was Hortensia. Quite glad I’m not saddled with that in real life.

I had quite a few relatives and people I knew. All deceased a long time ago that used their middle name and yet they had lovely first names.
My mum had names she absolutely hated. Gladys Hilda.
She used to say she had a wicked mother. All of her sisters had lovely names.

I have four Polish forenames! I always wanted to be Sarah. I went back to my maiden name after I divorced because I thought it 'went' better with all the other Polish names than the very plain English married name I acquired.

My name is so simple, Ann, no middle name.
I have never really thought much about it but later thought I would have liked Caroline.
Strangely I didn’t name my D this and on the thread no one has said they named their D’s with their favoured name.My mother was Clarissa, a name she did not like , when we did the family tree her direct something ancestor was named Clarissa and it was used either as that or Clara in every generation until me.
My D liked it when she was pregnant so her D, my GD has it as a second name and she loves it.
On my Father’s side the name Sabena was often used , the name of my GGM, the last time for an Aunt of mine, Father’s sister.

I remember when atgrammar school , we were given French names , always used in the lesson. Peter was Pierre etc. There was no equivalent to my name so I was given Marthe absolutely hated it.

As I said I don’t mind my name, and it is quite unusual, but the whole family, and now friends as well, call me by a nickname that has nothing to do with my actual name but which I actually like more.

I disliked my name when at school. It was an old fashioned name at that time.
No one else had it at primary school, and at senior school there was only one other with the same name.
However, it became popular during the 80's, so I didn't feel so bad about it, and now I really like it!

I don’t like my first or middle name. Very dated. Elizabeth and Alice have always been names I like but only used these as second names for my two daughters. I also like flower names like Rose, Lily, Poppy.

I traced the same name back seven generations on my mother's side. Apparently the Registrar misheard when Mum's name was being registered so that a slight alteration to the spelling broke the long tradition. A shame really, although I do like the version I've inherited.

I've always thought that I would like to be called Eve. I just think it's sounds very earthy and somewhat sexy!!

I’m ok with my name. My middle name is Anne after my GGM, who died just a fortnight after I was born. She was Phoebe Anne and I’d much have preferred the Phoebe instead.
DH was always known by his middle name, picked by his sister. He disliked it to his dying day.

My birth mother named me Moira Isobel but my adoptive parents changed my names completely. I do quite like Moira though.

I did change my name by deed poll. My original name was very dated and I had no middle name to fall back on

I never met another one of me until I was thirteen. Now they are all over the place. But I love my name wouldn’t want to change it.

My given name is my great grandmas maiden name , it is not a common surname , and I have never heard it used as a first name , except for myself , and it is Scottish .
I now live in Ireland where it is pronounced differently , and all my life it has been a pain in the b.m !
At 88 yrs old I’m now resigned !!

I was named after my grandfather's sister who died earlier in the year I was born. My middle name is the one chosen by my parents. I always disliked my given name and grew to hate it when Coronation Street introduced Mrs Ogden. I was teased about it at school.
The great aunt that I'm named after was a lovely lady so these days I don't mind it, after all, I am me regardless of my name.

I don’t mind my name but I love Freja so one of my cats has that name. She is a lovely little cat,too. Purrs all the time.

My name was unusual when I was growing up and I wished I had something that didn’t stand out. I never met another with my name until I was 17 and in Canada.

It is now a very common name and I’ve learned to like it. Can’t imagine being called anything else.

My mother actually named me Fenella when I was born but had second thoughts as she thought I’d get called ‘Nellie’😂. I’m glad I dodged that bullet!

My mother gave me and my siblings just one name because she disliked both of her names and didn't want to saddle us with two names to dislike .

However, I'm perfectly happy with the name I got, though it was very popular around the time I was born and there were never fewer than two of us in all my classes at school, which could be confusing..

It's a matter of luck really. My DD has in the past expressed not much love for either of her (very nice, IMO) names 😕 I suppose people could choose to go by a completely different name if they wanted to. My maternal Gfather was called something completely different from his given names. I never found out why.

Sparklefizz suits you a treat imo 💐

My mother chose my name and it has been a burden as it is a 'virtue' and unusual. I have only ever met 3 others.

I quite like the shortened versions of it now and, as someone said uptrend, it is part of who I am.

Alice is a family name on both DH's side and mine. We resisted calling our daughters that for the first two but then decided that we should use it for DD3 - she hates it.