So hands up - who likes their own given name?

I've never met another one of me - Alix.

Not short for anything, just that. I don't mind it actually. It's not too girly but sweet enough. Just like me! ;)

The only problem is the gender confusion it causes. I have people call up our switchboard at work and ask if I am a Mr or Mrs ! I have lots of post also addressed to Mr Alix !

Sarah is my top favourite -if I had a girl I would have used it.

I'm a Julia, hated it and wanted something more exotic for a while. Then I found out DDad wanted to call me Aggrippa - think i got off quite lightly!
In the 90s the boy i had a crush on kept singing Julia Says (wet wet wet) to me too. Oh the joy!

Really like mine - Sarah.

I love my name. Think Aniston, Lopez etcetera...

When I was a kid I was JJ
When I was a teen I was Jenny
Now I am Jen

Only ever Jennifer when I'm getting told off :)

I love my name.

It's very much an older womans name so very rare that I meet people my age or younger with the same name.

I also like the shortening of it and the way people with different accents say it differently, for example my ex who was from near Leicester way used to JackEH instead of JackIE and a friend from Minnesota used to really pronounce the Jaaaaackie. Makes me smile.

Plus my Nana named me and I barely knew her because she died when I was very young so even though I havent got any memories of her and can still think she cared enough to name me IYGWIM...

I have what is thought of now as a 70s name. I have never had any problems with it or wished I was called something else.

I hate my actual name, but love the name everyone knows me by...
Caitriona - Irish spelling of Katrina, always had teachers stutter over it, people ask me about it, and have to spell it to people...
I go by Kate! and I love it :)

My adopted brother was called Xenon by his BMother... funnily enough, he changed his name and is now Alex... I actually think its cruel to give a child an unusual name after seeing how terribly he was bullied by his peers and treated by adults!

I'm one of millions of 70/80s girls. One syllable, every other friend is called the same thing.

Dh has another v common (in Wales) name.

We thought long and hard about giving the dcs names that weren't gonna be popular, but weren't going to be weird. We love them and they always get commented on.

I hated name growing up, so much so that when I was 5 I renamed myself to something very very boring ordinary and answered to only that for 2 weeks. It's an unusual but very classic name that has recently come back into fashion. Unfortunately I'm saddled with a nickname that everyone else seems to love, but I detest. Constantly spelling my name gets tiring, and when I went to University I was going to switch my middle and first names only to find that my new housemate shared my middle name.

However it was nice to be the only one in the school with my name & for people to always say "oh that's lovely". It's nice to be somewhat unique without my name sounding ridiculous or made up. I swore blind I would never give my children unusual names but have actually deliberately given them slightly more unusual names - one of them is around 90 in the ONS rankings, the other is about 200 or so.

I love mine - Anna. Beautiful, classic & versatile, IMO

I would happily name my daughters Anna, if it weren't a bit weird...

exotic spot on re my guessing game

Elizabeth is my favourite name!

Hate hate hate my name, it's Elizabeth. Luckily for me I have never been known by this and have always, will always use my nickname.

I hated mine when I was younger, but as an adult, have come to love it.

Maria by the way- Classic, not heard too often but often enough that people don't fuck it up.

I quite like my name, Cassandra. I've always been Cassie, despite a brief attempt at 'Caz' when I was a teenager. I've only ever met a handful of other Cassies during my life, which is quite nice.

(Now to namechange back for anonymity...)

lazymonkeyface I was nearly called Kayleigh because of the Marillion song. The only reason I wasn't called it, was because my parents close friends had a girl and named her Kayleigh.

hiya

i dont like my middle name marie (sorry to all you maries )
when i was young telling people my full name all i got was was your my and dad a fan of elvis yes its lisa marie

I like my name. It is a classic 1970s name and was popular at the time. Hardly ever used now though. It is a classic name and I go by the shortened version. Funnily enough DD1 (13) tells me it is quite cool! I love my DD's names. DD1 has a classic timeless name, never in or out of fashion. Not unusual but not popular either. DD2 has an unusual name that I love.

I love my own name because my father gave it to me and now he is gone, I love that he chose it for me.

don't like mine. It is the name of a margarine. which school mates never hesitated to remind me. then I got the teen years and 'spreads well' comments. then went to uni, studied microbiology for a while, and got lots of jokes there too about normal/gut/vaginal [myname].

we have given our DC very popular names as DH and I both have less common ones, and find them a pain.

I like mine. Was very very unusual when I was named it but has since had a popularity surge so lots of little girls called it now.

I like the full version of my name, which is on my birth certificate, but I've only ever been called by the shortened version, which I don't really like but am used to IYSWIM. I think it would seem a bit weird to suddenly ask everyone to call me by my full name and I'd worry that people would think I was being a bit pretentious.

Lesley

I hated my name - Jamie - when I was growing up because people would always comment ' what an unusual name for a girl' and a few times I ended up in the boys pe register, which I found very embarrassing.

But I like it now, it's quite unique at least for women my age, and I think it's quite 'cool' in a tomboy kind of way.

I love my name