Choosing your name

I should been named Adrienne but my dear father changed it unbeknown by my mum who was still in hospital due to complications.
So, I was named after a nurse he fancied & I really dislike it!

I mean I fancied the names, not the girls if you get my meaning!

I always fancied, Caitlin, Eleanor or Letitia. They were girls at the drama school I went to and seemed to get the best parts!

watermeadow

I once heard someone explaining her unusual name by saying, ‘My mother got it off a gravestone’.

When my mother was pregnant, my parents too went to cemeteries for inspiration. Curiously, although I had been already named, my father saw his grandfather’s first wife’s gravestone. Same name as me. He had forgotten…

I once heard someone explaining her unusual name by saying, ‘My mother got it off a gravestone’.

Always thought my name too short and plain (?) but then when you were named after a race horse what do you expect? It’s a little amusing that people say what they would like to have been called here but we don’t know what they actually called !

I like my name. If I had to choose another then I would go for Ella.

I'm happy with my Christian name but would love to change my surname back to my maiden name. It's French and double barreled so much nicer than my common surname now.

As a child I was only called by my given name when I was being rebuked for some misdemeanour. As an adult, it is just the NHS that insist on using it. Why my parents chose it was that supposedly it was a modern version of my grandmothers but I know no other person named the same! My second name is that of my other grand mother.as was the custom.

My friends call me by three different names, I do not know why! I always wanted to be called Anna, after a very pretty girl at school I always wanted to be friends with but she was a butterfly, I still find it attractive.
Consequently my sons names are very traditional.

I am called by variations of my name - Elizabeth for formal occasions and when I was naughty by Mum (and find it an awkward word to pronounce), and now answer to Liz, Lizzy/Lizzie and occasionally Lee/Leigh. I don't mind those but also like Lillian or Lily so would have been happy with those.

I don’t like my name at all, it was very common in my class . I often wonder if we call our daughters our favorite name?? I called mine Kirsty which was very unusual in 1970’s .

Parents shouldn’t choose names which are difficult to pronounce or spell. If you’re anywhere outside Ireland that includes most Irish names.
It’s also a nuisance having to spell your name every single time you’re asked for it because there are alternate spellings.
Today’s parents want something ‘unique’, without knowing what that word means, so they make up bizarre names or change the spelling. There’s a lot to be said for classic names. My family tree is full of the same few names for hundreds of years.

I would have liked Tamzin or Jade (probably due to children's books with heroines of those names) - I nearly called my daughter one of these but ended up going with an Irish name to reflect on our ancestry - which was also what we did for our son's name.

An aunt of mine was called Peggy, but this bore no relationship to her actual name. Her husband was very surprised, standing at the altar, to learn that he was present at the union of X ( himself) and Y, of whom he had never heard.

I have never liked my Christian name, it’s so old fashioned, people I meet often say, ‘oh that was my mother’s name’. Like Greyduster I don’t know what my parents were thinking of! I think they’d been hoping for a boy. Far too late in the day to change it now, but could have switched to Rosie, being a derivative of my middle name.

I have always disliked my Christian name and never use it if I can help. I don’t know what my parents were thinking of! Only my GP gets away with using it. If I had my choice I would be Eleanor. Eleanor of Aquitaine was my heroine. A strong, beautiful, feisty woman. I am also strong and feisty (two out of three ain’t bad😂).

Beware unusual names. At primary school sometimes I would have to spell it for the teachers I would get a boys coloured medical card. Now the name is much more common but is likely to be spelt incorrectly. There are many versions of the spelling.

Never liked the name Gillian so I use the shortened version Gill. Gillian is old fashioned but not one that will come back into fashion. I've noticed that this was quite a popular name for women born in the early 1950s as I was. I would have liked the names Isabella, Ellen or Lydia. I don't have a middle name.

Muriel is an Irish name meaning of the sea so should be a perfectly nice name. Why do we wince? Is it just that it has associations for us which we don't like or is just old fashioned?

We nearly named our first born Ethel. Luckily for him he was a boy so didn't have to suffer 😂. We must have liked it at the time.

My parents considered calling me Muriel. Thank goodness they didn't! Apologies to any Muriels out there. 😊

3 great aunts were given very long names which they had to write in full, middle names included, at the top of their school work. The eldest decided to change her name and called herself Mona after a singer of the day. She remained Mona ever after.

Her next sister was christened MacGregor (a family name) so changed hers to Roma and the third again gave herself a short name she liked!
These three were strong women who are are proud of.

I would have preferred anything rather than cheryl . So I picked cherie and nicole for my daughters. Only for "my cherie amore " to be popular and then the nicole! Papa ! Advert ! I give up ! Sorry girls .

I have four. A boy was wanted so I was always going to have my father's/ grandfather's name, but mum rebelled thankfully and I was given his second name, also with a long family history. I spent a lot of time spelling it so shortened it.

I would love to have had a pretty girly name - Daisy, Lily, Aurelie, Evelyn...

My parents could not agree on a name for me, both wanted their mothers' names. So at the last minute my mother opened the newspaper and saw a story about a local mother throwing her baby from the window of their burning house! The baby's name was Sharon so that is what I got!

Peaseblossom, I like the anonymity of Gransnet and although no-one is likely to recognise me on Gransnet from my first name, I prefer not to give it. Maybe others feel the same! I’ve nothing to hide, but that’s just the way I feel.