So hands up - who likes their own given name?

I like mine, but plenty of us women of a certain age are called it: Kathryn/Catherine/Katherine. Even my best friend of 25 years is a Catherine as is my sister in law, so DH and his brother both marrieda Kathryn/Catherine.

It is classic, but there aren't many little girls/babies called it. Are we the Beryls/Ediths pf our youths?

I hate my name. I always found it to be very girly and posh of which I am neither. It?s double barrelled and my family always used my middle name. Fine, but it happens to be one of the most common names amongst girls between '74 and '77.

I do like the story that my parents decided on it because a friend of theirs had liked it and had died shortly before I was born and they thought it was a fitting tribute. Especially as my mum really liked the name Aphrodite. (Not really a problem, just think it might have been a difficult name to live up to.)

However, as someone has already posted its quite, because it is a tad unusual for a Caribbean woman, people have been known to ask me if I'm sure or do a double take. I have enjoyed it for that kind of reaction.

mybootsaremuddy I'm imagining you're called Pohutukawa now!

I have always hated my name, the piss was royally taken all through school, as i was born in the early 80s and I have a name from the 50s. As I am all grown up now, I may start using my full name again when I start full time work.... I'm a Barbara

I have given one DC a stupidly 'individual' name (I was young and knew no better) and the other has a name that is now getting to embarrassingly popular and has been described on here as "faddy"

Rebecca, I'm fine with it. Dc have less popular names. I do wish family had not shortened my name as a child as the nn's are not as nice.

Lucy Alexandra - I like my name

I've never minded my name - pretty neutral about it - traditional one - but what did annoy me was that because it could be spelt multiple ways and my surname is very unusual I was constantly having to spell out both names.

Have always loved my name - never had to 'share' my name with anyone at school, although have met a couple of others with the same name over the years (and moving abroad).

I'm a Holly and I quite like it. Was always the only one in my class at school too - and yes I was a Christmas baby

Never had a problem with my name, even though (as schoolmates noticed) it rhymes with 'barrel'.

[have namechanged]

I love my name- Serena
Perfectly 'normal' whatever that means yet not common enough to bump into another one too often.

Love mine.

I can't say or I'd totally out myself. My name is ok but is frequently called chavvy on MN as it begins with a K. I also have a scandi spelling of it that's a right old bugger for people to get right.

I don't hate my name, as it's fairly pretty sounding and inoffensive. However it's incredibly popular for my generation, which I always hated. Even now I feel it's popularity makes it beige.

Still, there are worse names..

Oh and I've used Gillian as an alias when necessary.

Yes, I'm an Alexandra and I'm very happy with it.

Did go through a crisis some years back and considered adopting a new identity and was in the process of changing to Francesca.

Just googled native NZ trees

Im known by my middle name but thats because people have trouble pronouncing my first name and there is no nice shortening for it.
My first name isnt actualy a 'people' name, its a native tree of NZ (where im from)! So im quite possibly the only one with this 'name'(ive googled and get nothing but the tree!).

My middle name is also uncommon but quite easy to pronounce so i go by this name in the UK. It was chosen by my grandparents as it means 'sacred' and as i was the first girl born into my fathers side of the family in many years (over 20 births) they saw me as sacred and a gift when born and so i needed a name to reflect this! Think i may have dissapointed GPs as im not a 'girly-girl' but who can blame me when i grew up with 7 brothers

I Love both my names as they were chosen for a special reason. They reflect my herritage and culture (im 1/2 Maori) and this is important to me.

We chose 'English' first names for DC but they all have Maori middle name then a family middle name. Would have loved to give them Maori first names but live in area mostly consisting of 'yokels' who would have terrible trouble pronouncing anything remotly 'foreign' (they have enough trouble with DS1s name so he is known as 'Vee').

I love my name, which is Mary-Elisabeth.

My parents liked the sound of Marybeth, but the name (inc. the Maribeth spelling) had reached its peak (back home in the States) in the 60s and both spellings had long fallen out the Top 1000 when I was born in 1984, so they realized it was incredibly dated.

Their solution was to name me Mary-Elisabeth but call me Marybeth.

In the end, my mom and dad ended up preferring Mary-Elisabeth, so they mainly call me that. Other people do call me Marybeth though. My husband calls me Marybet. I never answer to just Mary though, my name is Mary-Elisabeth!

My name wouldn't have won my parents any points for originality, heck I've got two of the most common names for women ever as part of my first name, but it's shielded me from the perils of having "trendy" and "fashionable" names. For that I thank them.

at the other Hannahs, see I also hated the fact that people, to this day, inform me that my names a palindrome as if no one ever told me before...

In my defence have an incredibly rare surname that is actually a word, I think we're the only family in england with this surname and having to explain that every time and also laugh and smile when people want to talk about both names for half an hour whenever I meet them has ground me down over the years. Oh, and doneven get me started on Hannah banana
Maybe I'm just a miserable so and so

I like mine - Victoria. Went through the obligatory Vicky stage in my teens. But now I love the full version.

I don't like my name. It is harsh sounding and very unusual. I have only ever met one other person with the same name. I hated it that some people struggled to spell it when I was younger - not that it is difficult to spell.

As a result I gave DD a name that people had at least heard of and could spell easily.

I like mine, it's an unusual spelling of a reasonably common name (so everyone spells it wrong! ), but was both my parents' favourite name so i like it for that. My middle name is unusual. All the dc's have fairly uncommon but classic names with a variety of shortenings and spellings- so they will be forever spelling theirs, too! Dh hates his......

I don't hate my name but I don't love it. I have a shortened version of a classic, I hate and never ever use the long version and there are about a million of the shortened version. I always have to use my surname to identify myself. My sis has a fab name, unusual but not weird I have always been a bit jealous. I think how I feel about my name has influenced my DC names, I hoped to find names that were a bit less common but not too crazy.