Do you like your name?

I do now, but that's because I did a deed poll and changed my first and middle names. Before they were both ten a penny late 70's/early 80's popular names and they were horrible. So I changed them.

I'm the same as princessfaff. I'm meh about it, can't say I love it or hate it. When I was younger I didn't like it at all, bullies teased me using my name and it led to a lot of negative connotations. I tried changing the spelling to something I thought was cooler (that lasted all of a week when an English teacher pulled me up on it in front of the whole class, even though she MUST have known how unpopular I was, and gave them even more reason to laugh at me! Thanks Mrs Davies you cow ).

It also rhymed slightly with my surname which sucked. Mind you it rhymes even more with my married name but I don't care now! Now it's just my name, I can't imagine being anything else. It's not too out there but I wasn't one of many.

I'm an Emma, middle name Louise. There were so many of us in my school. I hated my name growing up, and made several attempts at changing it, but it's grown on me as an adult and I like it being shortened to Em. DD sometimes calls me Mem instead of mum as it's a mix of mum and Em! I quite like that too.

DD doesn't like her full name, but likes the shortened version. We never use DS's full name either. DH has a really short name that cannot get any shorter!

Mine is Maria & I really like it x

I've never really liked my name. It's a mixture of my fathers and mothers names. Mind you my Mother was thinking of naming me Andromeda!

I like mine. It’s never been popular, but has always been around. I don’t mind the shortened versions of it either, although I did as a child because there was a small doll (I was also very small) with an annoying advert jingle which friends used to sing to me.

I like my name. I don’t actually go by my first name though, never have, I don’t really understand why my mum decided to give me a first name which would never be used, apparently she didn’t think it had the right ring to it the other way around. My first name is long, middle name is shorter so I get her point but it does cause confusion. My (middle, the one I use) name is 6 letters, can’t be shortened to anything which I’m really happy about, it’s not massively popular - I would hate for people to give me a nickname without it being something I have decided to be called if that makes sense?

Oh, and I also hate my initials. SEA is the abbreviation for South East Asia in all our online systems at work. Having the same initials as this region is a PITA and frequently fucks things up.

I’ve never liked my name. It was just too popular. Almost half the girls in my primary school class were called Sarah - I was one of seven. It is difficult to pronounce with my surname (and they were constantly pronounced together - the initial of my surname wasn’t sufficient to distinguish me as there were two Sarah A’s). Think Sarah Ashley (not my actual surname, but a similar sound).

I have my grandmother’s name as a middle name (Eileen) - which is actually worse than Sarah (how I wish I’d got my other grandmother’s name instead - Elizabeth would’ve been much better).

These days I can appreciate that it’s quite neutral (I work for a large multinational company, so a ‘simple’ name recognised in several countries/regions is quite useful). I’ve learnt to tolerate my name, but I will never like it.

My name is Alice and I love it. It is one of my DDs middle name, and I would have loved to use it for my next daughter too but I already used it as a middle name. and my siblings all have very strange and out-there names so I’ve always been happy that I got saddled with the normal, nice name

Really interesting how many people are unhappy with their "popular in X decade" names.

I wonder how many Islas, Olivias, Avas and Evies will be on some version of Mumsnet in 30 years' time complaining their name is so 2010s and really common.

Yes I like my name and always have done.

When I was young (born late 60s) I didn't know anyone else called it. It was often pronounced incorrectly but it didn't bother me. I liked being unusual. A bit different.

Now it's quite popular and people mostly like it on Mumsnet . Lots in dd's age group - early 20s. It's got some ok short versions too.

I can't understand why anyone would give their child a very boring "safe" name but I don't get the need to go for an outlandish name either.

Vagabond225

I'm an Ann-Marie too (slightly different spelling, I don't have the E on Ann).

I never liked it when I was growing up but I would never allow anyone to try and shorten it an Anne is my mum's name (I'll really never understand why she chose not to spell mine without an E lol) but Marie just sounded odd to my ears without the Ann in front of it.

It sounded so old-fashioned and boring when I was younger and in a school full of girls with much prettier names but now I am in my mid 40's I feel that I have finally grown into the name.

It was called a "classic" name on a baby thread the other day about double-barrelled names

No I dont like my name (Lonnie)
I dislike getting asked what it is short for.. (nothing)
I dislike it being unisex
I dislike the sound

I DO however
Like it is unusual
That my parents loved it and still to this day it gets a huge grin from my almost 80 year old father when he recall peoples reaction to it.

& I never minded having to spell it for people.

Hated mine so much [Nicola] that I changed it by deedpoll.

I get lots of comments about my new name being unusual [its a shortening of one of my middle names] - but there are now quite a few babies called it too.

I like my full name but I hate variances so people who I don't even know well my name is not Phee or Pheebs grr

I like mine (Diana) I was the only one in my senior school, but mostly go by Di. Although people do assume my parents are big royalists though. I like to look at the meaning behind the names as that can give you some history behind them.

I have a VERY Irish name. Growing up in England was a bit annoying having to correct people-or even worse people would just not bother trying, even though the spelling is scarier than the pronunciation! More often than not though it was fine and it wouldn’t put me off giving my dc Irish names. My name has history and meaning and has been featured in Irish literature forever. I’m a Saoirse (the Irish for freedom)

I dislike the logistics of my name.

Its a unisex name, but more commonly given to a boy. Im female.

There was a movie about a boy with said name released when I was in school which wasnt ideal.

My mum wanted my name to "fit" with my sisters so spelled it a weird way that ive never even seen before, so naturally no one else ever spells it right

The name itself it ok 🤷‍♀️

I've never been a fan of my name, I think it's quite harsh and blunt - Adele. My husband loves it but I'd rather have been called something a little more feminine. I'm currently pregnant with my first child and we have names that we both like, they're unusual but easy to pronounce and not too unusual.

Mines Joanne, I hate it! I'm only 29 but feel as though it's a 40 years + name!

My sister is 29 and was going to be a Joanne apparently, but a neighbour unknowingly nabbed it a few weeks before DSIS was born. So DSIS is a Louise.

My first name is an uncommon Welsh name and my parents slightly anglicised the spelling. I've never met another person with my name (of either spelling). I love that's it's unusual, but don't really like being mistaken for a man (the name ends in "n"), and spelling it out to everyone does get boring. But overall I'm happy and wouldn't change it.

I've always disliked my name. Its an ie/y/ee type ending, and quite girly which I'm not. It doesn't feel like an adult name to me, and doesn't really have a shortening that doesn't sound like a nickname. It was relatively uncommon when I was growing up, so I was often called another more common name. Then it had a short peak making it a more known name but I don't think is popular now. Never liked my surname either for that matter.

We purposely named DC with names that can me shortened but they can use a full version if they choose when they're older. I really hope they don't feel similarly to me when they're older though!

I like my name. It’s popular but was never faddy so doesn’t pinpoint when I was born at all.

I’ve tried to follow similar with DC’s names - I don’t mind something often in the top 10/20/50 (ie classic names) but what I DO mind is something that went from Top 200 to Top 10 overnight and will date massively.

I really like my name.

Though number views it as one of those scary Irish ones.

@Princessfaffalot

If I remember correctly (dodgy memory), in Dallas decades ago, JR Ewing's new bit of fluff was called Carly or something similar.

In the 80's she was much maligned.