What is a Conquestador? Someone who conquers various cheeses?
Is that all cheeses or just those associated with Spanish speaking countries?*
*Sorry. I’ve playing the answer a question with a question game perhaps a little too much.
'Scuse me…the diminutive for Elizabeth? That happens to be my moniker, and I hate it. However, I have plenty to choose from. Ellie, Liz, Beth, Bette, Betty, Betsy, Lisa, Lizbeth, Buffy, and probably others which I just haven’t stumbled over. At work, I’m Elizabeth. My husband calls me Beth, (actually both of them have. #1 because it was “more feminine” {JackAss!} than my choice, #2 because I had not yet gone back to my choice when I met him). Everyone else calls me BJ at my choice. I despise Liz, but certain elderly relatives are allowed to use it because I love them.
Have it lagally changed to whatever you wish!
My parents named me with a name they have never called me by in my entire life (I like to say I was named for the archangel and the prophet, but I think I was named after my maternal grandfather).
So my whole life I have gone by my middle name, which made the first day of school really annoying
Teacher: Is X here? Me: Yes. But I go by Y. Teacher: Oh. (scribble scribble scribble)
Until one year when I decided to just answer to my first name - which eventually confused the crap out of my friends - who had no idea.
To this day that still happens - people see my credit cards or whatnot and go “Hey! Your name is X! Why do we call you Y?!”
Of course, it makes screening calls easy - since anyone asking for X is either a doctor or businessperson (who has my info and will identify as such when they call me) or a telemarketer.
Well, of course there’s only one Robin. Otherwise, Batman would get confused.
When I was a freshman, my dorm floor had 5 Marks (one of which was me) and 6 Daves. It was pretty amusing to hear us passing each other in the hallway. “Mark… Dave… Dave… Mark… Mark…”
It’s common as all-get-out, but it’s a perfectly servicable name.
Ain’t it the truth. I have a nickname that my family has always used from before I was even out of the playpen. My wife uses it now and when I went back to visit the first of this month my cousins and all of my old friends still used it.
By the way, that’s OK by me.
Robin? *So * common 
Try being an Angelique!
(I actually love my name, but it sucked when I was little and wanted to buy things with my name on it. Heck, I had to buy things for Hispanic boys that said “Angel”. So lame).
Well, Venus doesn’t have the same poetic ring as Aphrodite, but I’ve gotten used to it over the time…
(Seriously, I used to think my name was horribly gawkish and plain; now as years pass I’ve been reconciled and I kinda like it. It’s friendly and easy-going, like me. :))
Well, do what Prince did: adopt some weird cuneiform hieroglyph, then change it to “The Hottie Formerly known as Elizabeth”. No on will comment on it, I’m sure.
Oh. Well, OK then!
First things first, in some parts of India (my birthplace) you don’t really get given a name until a Naming Ceremony. So they call you something kiddie.
So my kiddie name was Name # 1. Just to keep all these upcoming names straight…Let’s call it Anna.
Then I had my Naming Ceremony. Due to the fact that I was born out-of-wedlock, I ended up having my ceremony really late, (almost a year old) so the first one stuck pretty good.
Naming Ceremony was Name # 2. Let’s call it Bea.
Then, at age 2, I got really really sick from malaria and nearly died. They prayed a lot, and claimed God saved me (not the quinine!), and gave me a name that meant “Prayer”. It was meant to be my middle name, but when I came to the States, it was changed to my de facto name.
Prayer name was Name # 3. Let’s call it Cecilia.
Then, after I came to the States, I was adopted by my aunt. She wanted to wipe all traces of the adoption, and not have me remember I wasn’t her daughter, so she gave me a new name - but kept the old one as a middle name.
Adoption name is name # 4. Let’s call it Deirdre.
So at this point, my legal name was “Deirdre Cecilia Bea lastname”, but I was referred to affectionately as “Anna” (my baby name). Following all this? Good. I’m surprised.
I got to college, and basically ended up dropping **Bea ** completely, and going by a dimunitive of “Deirdre”. Only my family still calls me “Anna”.
As I even read this I find it complicated. Holy hell. I’m going to leave now, leaving you all in mystified stupor.
I am not too fond of my first name but I can’t say I hate it. My parents chose it because they liked it, and because it wasn’t terribly common at the time and place of my birth. Later we moved north and suddenly there were many girls in my age group with that first name. Now we are in the south again, and I find my name is fairly common…but it’s mostly guys that have it!
Huh.
One of my cousins has always been called by his middle name. His parents planned it that way. Why they didn’t give him the middle name as a first name, I don’t know.
Anyway, after all that self-centered digression (hey, I have to stick to what I do best), I say call yourself what you want. A name is one of the most personal things about you, and you have every right to choose what you want people to call you.
I don’t really like my name either, and it’s quite common where I live. But I have never really found a name that I would like to change it to. That and my life-long friends would have problems with trying to convert.
My middle name is actually Elizabeth 
I like my name okay. It’s not bad. I’ve never met another person with my name face to face, but I know there are others out there.
It’s Anastasia, friends and family call me Stasia.
There is, however, one dark period when I was a child when my mother wanted to call me Stacie (spell it with an IE, good Og, or she’d tear you a new one!) I didn’t care for it much, thinking it sounded like… hmm. Well, like cheerleader from the 80s, similar to** Scarlett67’s ** opinion of her own name, but with rainbow legwarmers. And maybe one of those “side ponytails”.
So, Stasia it is. There’s a pizza place near here called Stacia’s. I don’t know how she pronounces it, since I’ve heard some say “Stay-see-ah”. Mine is “Stay-zhya”. You know, “zhya”, sounds similar to the “zsa” in Zsa Zsa Gabor. Some add the “y” sound, some don’t. Me? I don’t care. I don’t say my name very often, unless someone asks. I mumble it, anyway.
My family calls me by my diminuative. If I had any friends from childhood left, they’d probably still call me that.
I never liked it so I introduced myself by my three syllable first name late in high school and throughout college and into the work world. That’s how darn near everyone I know knows me now. (Mine is also cheerleader like in its enthusiasum when it isn’t causing people to think of little girls in pigtails).
My husband, who I’ve known since I was 17, has a hard time remembering his wife is the person with that cutsey little girl name at family gatherings.
Introduce yourself how you want, it will be easier with a life change (moving, new job, college is a great one). But a friend of mine sucessfully became Cynthia after hating Cindy. And I know several people who have completely changed first names.
That’s one of the reasons I prefer names you can do something with (Anastasia is lovely for that, Statia, Stacy, Anna, Sasha, or Anastasia). Elizabeth is really flexible - from Bess to Liz to Eliza to Beth. Margaret, aka Daisy of all things! As well as Maggie, Marge, Peggy. Mine isn’t bad in that their are diminuatives I like, just not the ones my family uses. But sticking someone with Liz rather than Elizabeth means you are stuck being Liz or Lizzie, unless you just start correcting people with something completely different.
IRL, I don’t go by my given name.
Well, I take that back. I tend to figure out how people know me by what they call me.
If it’s “Tripler”, I know you know me from the Dope. If you call me by my first name, I figure you’re family or my dog. If you call me by my last name, I figure you know me from high school or college. If you call me by my nickname “Oswald”, I know you know me from the Air Force (yes, even the enlisted call me “Oswald”)–more people know me by this name (aside from you guys) than know me by my birth name. I’ve even had people tell me, "You’re name is ‘Robert’? I always thought it was “Oswald”!
Thus, I have a hierarchy of names. It’s not confusing at all. It’s just a timetable.
Tripler
Yes, even my dog calls me “Rob”.
I have a relatively common name but with a nonstandard spelling. In conversation, therefore, everyone calls me by my name, but throughout my life they’ve misspelled it more often than not, and this has always bothered me. An example might be Stephen/Steven: a trivial difference to non-Steves, but key (well, orthographically key) to the identity of those who bear the name.
Now that I live in Seattle where my own spelling is more common (in Ohio it was almost unheard of), many people get it right or at least think to ask. I’m home!
I feel your pain. My real life name screams 1970’s female. It has five separate spelling variants and my mother chose one of the less common forms.
You could always tell people your real name is Elizabeth.
Families are funny sometimes. I always was called by my nickname. My sister was just Sis. Even the boarders we had during the great depression called her Sis.
One of my uncles had two girls and a boy. The one named Lucille was Cille. Evelyn was Gus. They spend months choosing just exactly the right name for Lorne and then always called him Sam. Go figure.
My dad’s other six brothers and sisters were odd balls. They called their kids by their proper names.
I dont’ like my given name all that much either. I get told all the time that it’s ‘pretty’–which I actually don’t like hearing, because it’s too feminine for my tastes. Fortunately, over the years I’ve gained nicknames, one shortening in Junior high, and then another in senior high (though some people still call me by the former (I don’t have the heart to correct them–they’re good friends and the difference isn’t major, but I don’t like it as much)). It’s less feminine, and like my given name isn’t one you hear often, especially not for my age group. It also provides me with far fewer procunciation problems, though I still have people spell it wrong (Marj, not Marge please. Marge makes me think of an old lady with big blue hair)
Nowadays I often introduce myself as Marj, just because it’s easier. I think most of my friends currently know what it’s short for, though likely at least a couple don’t. I get the occassional joke no matter which one I go by, and I hate every one I’ve ever heard.
Although I must say, all of it is better than what some people called me in Grade 6–Margarine-butter :smack:
Hee. I’m an Amy, married to a Dave. We’re beloved, but common. Probably should name our kid Zygmunt or something.
My father-in-law’s given first name is Elton, but he hates it. He goes by Keith (his middle name). Signs everything E. Keith Lastname. Perhaps you could go this route?