So hands up - who likes their own given name?

Don't like mine. Was very popular when I was born and there were always 5 in my class and now there are 3 of us at work, there were 5 but 2 have left. Its just irritating to have such a common name.

DH isn't keen on his either as it was old fashioned when he was born and isn't showing any signs of coming back (thankfully).

DS has a family name which is common but not too common only a couple of others in the school and none in his class.
DD has a strong and unusual name, we've only met one other so far.

Thankfully they both love their names.

It's OK, but a bit too classic and prissy for me. It wasn't that common when I was little but now there are millions of us, mostly preschool-aged.

I would LOVE to have a really unusual, nerdy, odd or slightly masculine name, like Thora, Hadley or Mars. Or a supercool nickname. Sadly it's a bit late to engineer one, now I'm in my 40s.

Mine's ok. I wouldn't pick it myself, but I can't imagine another name now as mine is 'me' IYSWIM. It's quite unusual so at least it doesn't give me an age label, which is the worst thing with some names IMO.

I've given my DCs fairly traditional names, none of which were in the UK top 50 names lists at the time or now, not intentially exactly, but I did know I didn't want them to have a name that would 'age' them.

mine is Kayleigh. I hate it, there were loads of us called that growing up because of the Marillion song

Love mine - its Polly!

I liked my given name and it went well with my Scottish surname. I was a bit dismayed by the Winona Ryder/ Christian Slater film that revealed my name as the byword for bitch in American high schools! but that doesn't bother me really. I have a different surname now but I still like my given first name and would never change it.

My dd on the other hand was telling me yesterday that she didn't like her name anymore and wanted to be known as Rebecca! I was not impressed.

I like my names! I'm Harriet Alice, my sister and dad call me Hal and DP and mum call me Harry, everyone else calls me Harriet. There were hardly any Harriets around when I was at school, and now it's getting more popular ... I'll take that as a compliment I think :)

I didn't like mine growing up - it was deeply unfashionable, very old-lady and not in a good way. Names that aren't timeless go in cycles and just after I was born (named after my grandmother, born turn of last century) a load of them appeared in the obituaries... My Dad panicked that they'd made ad really bad choice! But rationalised that I could always go with my plainer middle name if I really turned out to hate it. This was how badly it was viewed then.

I've never met another one even vaguely my age. I always used to wish that I'd find stuff - mugs, keyrings, general tat - with my name on, and never ever did.

Now - it is the least-frilly variation of probably the most popular girls name (if you combine all the variations) for several years running.

I love it now, though!

The thing that changed it for me was - years ago before it came back into vogue in a big way, and when I was going out with my first boyfriend, he said that it and all its variations was invariably a name for beautiful women, and refused to call me by the default nickname most of us get lumbered with - the awful Izzy. (He was smooth ). After that, I started to like it a bit more. Likewise, and completely independently, DH has never called me Izzy and uses a far nicer shortening instead.

I hate my name. I'm the only person I've ever met with it, I'm in a fb group with others with my name...there are 5 of us (across the entire fb universe).
I also hate my middle names. The only part of my names I like is one of the nicknames I've got.

We thought long & hard over DS's name & have given him 2 middle names (one normal, one a bit out there) so he can swap if he hates them when older.

I don't have a problem with mine - Hannah - it's inoffensive, classic, doesn't date too badly (although it was a 'Top 5' name the year I was born, I was named after a great aunt). I was used to there being several of us at school and I have numerous friends around the same age who share my name. However when I was little I hated it because I thought it was really boring and wanted an exciting, quirky name.

No I always hated it.

There were three Karens in my junior school class
Parents made it worse by giving me middle name Elizabeth.......I know we had a beautifull young queen and all that!

I think they are lovely names on here- love Rebecca, Emma, Hannah, Alexandra, Jennifer, Lucy, Abigail and Catherine/Katherine.

It is either Rachel or Deborah?

Classic biblical name, popular in the 70's and teachers always called me "Rebecca" by accident. Can you guess what it is yet?

I like it now. When I was young I wanted to be called Priscilla, and used to tell people that was my name, much to my mum's embarrassment.

Lots of lovely names on this thread, and Emma, Philippa and Alexandra are on my list for DC2.

i don't like my given name.

it's faddy, dated, embarrassingly popular in my year of birth. plus it's misspelt. it wouldn't be so embarrassing if it were the trad spelling at least.

i prefer classic names, trad spellings without a touch of faddiness so i guess my given name has affected my naming style!!

thank you Hassled ... wish i had been called Lara or Olivia :) But hey ho there are far worse things going on... Will keep sucking it up!

Never met anyone with my name though it's not that odd. It unfortunately has connotations now and it's never suggested in baby names. I prefer the shorter version of it.

I really like my name - Katie. It's simple, people know how to pronounce it and it gives plenty of nicknames (I've been Katie, Kate, Kat, Kit and Kitty).

I was named after Kate Bush. But my mum thought Katie would be better than just being a Kate.

Wow mybootsaremuddy I didn't think it actually would be that! I am looking at a pohutukawa out of my window at the moment so maybe that gave me the idea...

Definitely better than cabbage tree

Jennifer is lovely :). I've always really liked it.

Mine looks nice written down but is unpronounceable for most people, which was incredibly annoying when I was younger. Now I don't mind - I like the fact it's quite non-standard. I did give my own DCs very standard names, though.

I'm Jennifer and I bloomin well hate it... Came from nowhere... parents liked it. child of the 70's here... Manky name imho :(

bobbly, I have the same name as you. I like it, and always have, although some people shorten it to Cat, which wrecks my head...

I can't ever see it being popular, but there were always one or two in my year at school, which I don't mind.

Yes, I like mine, although it is quite conventional Julia. My kids have conventional but classic names too. I don't really like trendy names.

I like my name, although growing up I got called posh! I'm Abigail. And pictish my best friend at infant school was Iona!

Mind you it did take years to get to like my middle name, Nerys. But I actually do like it now. The DS's have similarly poncey names, and no doubt they wish they were called Ethan or James or some such

whatshesaid Of all the Native trees of NZ you could have chosen Kauri/Kowhai/Ponga/Manuka/Cabbage treeetc. You got the right one at first guess(your good)... have a as your prize .