My name’s okay but my mother actually had hers legally changed. Quick version:
She was going to be baptized “Patricia” but at the last minute, my grandfather decided he wanted her named for his wife and his mother so she became “Harriet Alice”. However, so she wouldn’t be confused with her mother, who was also Harriet, she was called “Pat” by family and eventually friends. She waited until her mother passed away to legally change it to the the name she had been called for 50 years, but she really hated “Harriet” because it was so old fashioned.
Mother is now 78 y.o. and the popularity of Harriet as a name is rising again. I’ve never understood her dislike. I rather like it.
I like my name. However, I don’t like going it when going through immigration ENTERING the U.S. I have a common Christian given name begining with “J” and a very common Spanish surname beginning with “H”. I don’t use any middle name or initial in my passport or other official document.
Since the 9/11 attacks, every time I return home from Tokyo via LAX, I’ve been stopped and interrogated. It usually begins with JpnGal and I going through the “U.S. Citizens” line fairly quickly. At the counter, the agents checks our passports and asks a few routine questions.
After JpnGal gets the entry stamp on her Japanese passport, she has to wait until I get the third degree in an interrogation area…“Have you visited any South American countries recently?” “Have you been arrested in the past 18 months?” “Do you have any scars or tattoos on your chest?” It goes on for about 20 minutes as the agent is busily entering my replies into the computer. It ends without anything more than a “You’re free to go, we got nothing.”
One time I asked, “After years of going through this hassle and you guys entering all that info on me into your database, can’t I get the ‘All-clear’” from the get-go?" The agent said, “Well, you just got one of those names and the computer pops up an alert when we scan your passport.” I asked if there is anything I could do to avoid this. He said, “You can legally change your name or you’re shit out of luck.” DOH!
I hate my name. I hate it so much I’ve started going by its shortened variant, even though I hate that too. I posted a thread a while back about changing it, which I did decide I’d do, but in stages and ideally not until I move and get a new job, so I can start out fresh.
SunSandSuffering in East Tennessee lots of men are named Huell, if that helps any.
And Dennis Arthur PERRETT we’ve got Llewelyns running all over the place. The only question anyone would have would be, “Why’d your parents name you with a last name?”
I am not my parents’ property. I am not anyone’s property. Of course it was impossible for them to know, when they named me, whether I would like the name they chose for me. That doesn’t mean I owe them to keep using that name.
I don’t demand that my family eschew my given name when addressing me; that’s unreasonable. Except for my wife, who met me as an adult, I’ve never even asked it of them. (She doesn’t use my given name, though; I think she would find it unnatural at this point.) But I think it says something that several of my siblings, observing that I never introduce myself as such and knowing I’ve never liked it, began addressing me by my middle name (which my mother always used anyway) or by the same nickname (or variant thereof) which all my friends use. Those are the siblings who are actually my friends.
Sorry mate. Got carried away. No offence intended. My words, my anger and I do sincerely retract them. Need a good Anger Management course, know of any…?
PS-funny and smart arse reponses will be accepted as long as I have a Right of Reply.
I am an Elizabeth who is almost always called Beth. Any varient of that is fine. & yeah, I like my name. Always have. ( My madien name lended itself to school teasing, tho)
I actually like my name (it’s a family name and has been in the family for generations) but hate the fact that no one pronounces it correctly. I wish we had kept our last name, but I can understand why it was anglo-cized when we came to the US (it is equally unpronounceable to most people).
I am a 44-year-old Amy Jo. (There, I said it.) UGH.
Parents, please remember when naming your child that he or she will (God willing) will spend more of his or her life as an adult than as a child.
I have simply gotten used to “Amy” and only inertia has kept me from changing it. If I had ever pulled up stakes and started a new life somewhere else, I’d have probably started using “A.J.” I do use the J. on my business cards and in professional correspondence because IMHO it helps balance out my short first name and long (and reasonably common) last name.
I wish I had a name with a “formal” version and a diminutive (like Elizabeth). Only one person, a dear friend, has ever been allowed to call me “Ames.” A few times people have asked if Amy is short for Amelia. Seriously? Is it ever?
Meanwhile, though my full name is a dime a dozen, Mr. S is the only living person with his name in the United States, if not the world. There’s another person with his name who has resided in a cemetery in Texas since 1984.
My full three names sound like I’m putting on airs (or vodka martinis). My shortened nickname just taught me two things growing up:
Someones always going to be there to make fun of it and 2) if you keep punching the other guy in the same spot, eventually he will drop. (That actually works, btw.)
Viggo pulled it off better than I ever could; good on him, wherever he is.
We Kirsten/Kristin/Christine/Christinas sort of have an issue there where letters get randomly dropped, moved around, added and Cs and Ks are interchanged, h’s dropped, and, of course, shortened to Kris, Chrissy and Krista just cause. Its just one of those names with a ton of valid variants (and that doesn’t even get into the odd spellings which add the random y)
I’m a Christina who has spent a lot of my life being called Christine, which I dislike, but its seldom worth correcting. Either I’m never going to speak to you again, in which case, yeah, whatever - or I’m about to embarrass you by correcting you - my poor mother in law called me Christine for years until my husband pointed out to her that it was Christina, and I disliked Christine. Over time, most people have caught on.
We have friends whose daughter is Amelia, called Amy. I didn’t know that until we had already named our daughter Amy and I told my husband I regretted that she didn’t have a name with variations (especially since both her siblings do). That was when he mentioned that the only other Amy we knew was actually Amelia. Thanks, dear.
Our Amy also would rather be Elizabeth. The main reason she isn’t is that I only like some of the diminutives of it.
As for me, my name is out of its time. There were a lot of them forty or so years before me, and it’s beginning to be popular again. But me? I’m right in the middle of that. So as a child I had a first name I didn’t much like and a middle name I hated. I’ve grown to like the first name, and I dropped the middle one in favor of my maiden name.
I rather like mine. My first name is one of the original “Right Stuff” astronauts (he went up when mom was preggers…) My middle name is my Grandfather’s.
I am definitely a Christy. My full name is Christina Marie and that’s all well and good, but I love being Christy. And now, with a very nice married surname, I like it even better. Thanks Mom!
Well, in my case that was just an example. I haven’t really considered what specific name I would rather have. Nothing particularly girly. Something a little more solid. I am not a delicate flower.
