I do not think that my name, Grumpus Pehsahmiste McSihnac, had any affect on me at all.
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peas on earth
Stina…that’s one I hadn’t thought of… can’t say that I like it, but it is unique.
For boys, I like short, all-purpose, and not terribly common. For instance, my son’s name is Bowen. I’m almost certain that he will never have to go through life as “Bowen S.” because there are two or three other Bowens in his class. It doesn’t seem to predestine him to athletics OR the priesthood, and it’ll be “sexy” whether he turns out gay or straight. The single drawback: My country-western fanatic mother immediately started calling him “Bo”… and she doesn’t care one bit that it drives me insane.
My position on girl’s names is a bit different. I rather like a long name from which a slew of nicknames can be derived. My very favourite girl name is Anastasia. (But it has nothing to do with the Romanovs, the Fox animated movie, or the Anastasia books…nothing at all. :))When I was pregnant and didn’t know whether I was having a boy or a girl, I decided on that and made a huge list of all the nicknames that could be created of it.
In short, I really have no idea whether the name makes the person or vice versa. I just felt like contributing my completely useless two cents.
“ChrisCTP-…the sweetheart of the SDMB…” --Diane
Chris’ Homepage: Domestic Bliss
My parents both having unusual names, they were determined to give me a common name no one could misspell or mispronounce.
Well, they got half right. I’ve always been one of three in the classroom, but I guess in all the excitement they forgot that there are two common spellings, and I have the marginally less common one. I know I’m getting old because I used to be a fanatic about correcting people, and now I look at that extra letter and confine myself to a private shudder.
I was neutral about my name until kindergarten, when I encountered the devilgirl, and she had the same name as me! I did not like it at all thereafter for quite a while. Now I’m nearing neutral again, although the fact that every time I turn around I encounter another “me” keeps it slightly on the negative side of neutral. I’ve considered changing it, but never thought it would be worth the effort (of retraining everyone).
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
Most of the time I love my name. It is unusual enough so that I was the only one in my school, nobody’s ever given me a dippy nickname, everybody remembers me, and in the past week alone, I’ve had two different people tell me that I am as “lovely” as my name. (Yeah, they were old ladies, wanna make somethin’of it?) BUT I hate what other people do to my name! They spell it wrong, they pronounce it wrong, and worst of all, they go on national television with the same name as me and make a**es out of themselves! Yeah, Viera! I’m talking about you! Whoops! OK, deep breaths…
Much better! I know this is getting wordy, but I must say one more thing. My DH’s family is really into nicknames. He barely escaped “Dicky-hood” by becoming an adult. When my mother-in-law met me she said, “Oh! That’s a pretty name. What do they call you?” Grrrrrr. Wait! It gets worse! When we told her we were naming our son Holden, she said, “Oh! That’s different. What are you going to call him?” > 
OH, the topic of first names, where do I begin?
My name is Christiana (witness my user name…) seems easy enough, right? Wrong. Nobody gets it. They can’t seem to see that first A there, and I get called Christina on a daily basis. Just about every credit card I’ve ever gotten has been spelled Christina, and the credit card companies never want to change it… They all want to know why I can’t just live with it. I got one one time spelled ‘Christian’ (also the name of an evil ex-boyfriend) and when I called to correct it, the woman I spoke to informed me they came to the conclusion it was really Christian, and I was a man, and the A at the end was a mistake. Oh, OK…
I had a teacher in high school start a fight with me on the first day by telling me my name really IS Christina and I was just trying to be “exotic” and I added the “extra A” myself. Needless to say, I transfered out of that class.
I do know the story of how I got my name, and am thankful Mom and Dad settled on this one. Mom’s name is very unusual and starts with an X. She wanted something with an X in it for that reason and went down the list with Dad. He had an exuse for all of them…
Roxanne (“They’ll call her Roxy”)
Alexandra (“They’ll call her Lexi”)
Oxana (“We’re not sending our child to school with a name that shortens to Ox” THANK YOU DAD…)
Mom then moved out of the X names and suggested Ariana. I would have been fine with that, but Dad didn’t like the consept of anyone calling me Ari. Mom went back to the baby book and discovered that Christiana shortens to Xana, and there was her X. Dad was cool with Chris as a nickname and there it is. Mind you, my nickname is Chrissy and not one person has ever called me Xana, not even her. I like it, though, I wonder if it’s too late to ditch Chrissy? Hmm, I think so.
Now, for one brief moment, let’s discuss Chris as a nickname. My Dad and my brother are the only people who call me Chris at this point. I can’t stand it. I heard one too many Chris Everet Lloyd references as a kid. I don’t feel it suits me at all. Oh, and then there’s the fact that it rhymes with piss, something not one kid in my 4th grade class was able to overlook. In that same 4th grade class, there was a boy named Chris, so in order to distinguish the two of us on art projects or whatever, they had us put our last initials on everything. This made me Chris P. Crispy. Fantabulous. Nobody overlooked that one either…
In the end, I adore my name. I have a lot of friends who refuse to shorten it and call me Christiana (one says Chrissy reminds him of 3s Company, and being a smart brunette, he doesn’t feel it works for me. I can see that)Oddly, with one exception, all the people who call me Christiana are guys. All the girls (save that one exception) call me Chrissy. I need to ask one of the guys what’s up with that…
~ Christiana~
“No smoking in bars in California… And pretty soon, no drinking and no talking” ~ Eddie Izzard
My name is Alanna, and according to the book we have stashed around here somewhere, it means: bright, beautiful and fair. Heh.
Let’s try again, shall we?
Nearly everyone I know calls me Annie. This means beautiful, or grace.
Either I have some qualities I’m unaware of, or my name doesn’t suit me too well. Nor do my initials, really…
My full name is Alanna Rose Dutra, so I’m ARD. of course, in first grade, people decided to add an L to that. I’m 5’8" and 105 pounds, however, my friends still refer to me as LARD. They think they’re funny. I just find them to be retarded.
I like my name though. It’s pretty, and yet sounds somewhat professional, while still modern and feminine. I just wish my parents had decided on a pronunciation… My mom calls me “A-LAN-na” whereas my father calls me “A-lawn-NA”.
-Lanna
Mary Mary quite contrary…
Mary had a little lamb…
Mary Mary, why ya buggin?
Oh yes, everyone is a comedian. Never heard that one before, ha. ha. ha.
Such a common name, but no one else seems to have it anymore.
Even worse is adding my middle name, Lea. Mary Lea. Merrily. Merrily we roll along.
My name has put me in mother goose hell.
Probably the best bastardization of my name came from the Chinese exchange students who lived next to me my freshman year in the dorms. They called me Murray.
I only read the first page of this topic and I only saw one person complain about being named Debra. I spell it Deborah. This name sucks for mainly 2 reasons. 1) It’s shortened to Debbie. The classic cheerleader name if you ask me (and I am NOT the cheerleader type). Do you ever see that HIP commercial? “Do you want Debbie in charge of your health care?” Embarrassing. And to top it off, I’m blonde. 2) Nobody can spell it properly. They either spell it right, Deborah, and pronounce it wrong De-Bore-Ah. Or they spell it wrong, Debra, and pronounce it right. I can’t win. The only good thing I can say is that my first, middle, and last names go together well.
And one more thing. The only definition of my name that I’ve ever found is “Bee.” Can someone explain that to me please?
My real name is Tyrone Rufus Washington Jr. I don’t think it’s had much of an effect on me, but sometimes I wonder if my name has had something to do with the extraordinarily long times I’ve had to wait for my country club applications to be processed.
DHR
*GuyShyGirl: And one more thing. The only definition of my name that I’ve ever found is “Bee.” Can someone explain that to me please? *
On http://www.babynames.com , Deborah (the main reference for Debra, Debbie, & Debby) is listed as meaning “to speak kind words”.
Better than “bee”, eh?
My parents picked “Kevin” because they thought it was an uncommon name. I guess so did everyone else.
I was always told it means “gentle”, but babynames claims “Handsome”. I’ll take either I guess.
I never got any grief over my first name… it was the last that did it. Doesn’t anyone know greek anymore? At least I know it means “Wolflike”.
http://www.madpoet.com
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
My mom liked the name Carrie, but thought that spelling was too long for our 9 letter last name so she spelled it Kari, but pronounced it “Care-ee” not “Car-ee”. The only person I ever allowed to call me “Car-ee” was my German teacher, cuz if he called me “Car-ee” he wasn’t calling me Jill.
I never got teased about it, but I’m forever having to spell it. I really don’t care how its spelled as long as it’s correct on my paycheck.