What about your name?

@freeingNora similar situation

I think we may have the same name @Whatsyourflava

My name is very common in some countries but not so where I live. I have always been called, and answer to, a whole bunch of variations. As a teenager I found out who I was named after and it is a very sad story. Only I know, but it still hurts. That's why I rather be called anything else.

Wasn't keen on my name as a child, now I love it. It was always misheard though, even the mother of a friend kept calling me the wrong name for years. It's not very common where I'm from (Denmark).
My name doesn't match with my siblings names.

My name is Sharna, and I like that there aren’t many Sharna’s but I hate that people call me Shauna

Groover are you Deborah ?

@SallyWD - I had a similar experience. Got the odd bit of teasing for my name, but was bullied far more for having SEN than I was my name!

I was quite a shy child so I liked that my name was such a conversation starter. By the time I had explained my heritage I was eased into conversation.

On the other hand my husband who has a name which was very popular at the time we were born liked being one of several, and as a shy child would have hated to have had to explain his name to people.

You just can't tell how any one will feel about their name in advance. I wouldn't avoid giving my own child an uncommon name as it didn't bother me having one. They could just as equally wish they had an unusual name if they had a common one.

All you can do is avoid names you can easily predict problems with, like Jezebel (I went to school with one, she insisted on being called Jez).

I have an unusual name. I am 45 and have only met one other person with my name (about 2 years ago). Although it's so unusual it's a name people have heard of and know how to spell. At school I was occasionally teased for my unusual name but to be honest I was teased for many things. My name was the least of my worries! I think as a child I felt like a bit of an oddball and having an unusual name seemed to reinforce my feeling that I was different. As I got older I grew to love my name. Having such a rare name has made me feel unique. I just can't imagine knowing anyone else with the same name! It's an old fashioned, vintage type name but unlike the other vintage names it hasn't come back in to fashion. I'm really pleased about this. I want to keep being the only person with my name that people know!

I like my Christian name, but my parents did not think through the implications of my initials with their surname, which ended up being something really rude that I got mocked for. I hated it and ended up hating my surname. I was very pleased to take my husband's surname when we got married!

groover Are you called Fiona? I’m not sure it fits all the clues, but I’m keen to get the answer.

I have a name that isnt that unusual but isn't really common either which I think is the right balance .
No one else in any of my classes had the same name as me but there was a girl with the same name in a different year group in primary and one other in my year group but in another class in my very large secondary school.
The only thing is now that I think it has dated , so I think if you heard my name you'd have a good idea of my age!
Tried to pick classic names for my DC that weren't in top 100 however my both my oldest and youngest dcs names have since become very popular and my eldest name can be spelt several different ways so she always correcting. My son has a more unusual name, teenager now but when younger was forever cross he couldn't get anything with his name on in a gift shop.

My name was very common at the time and therefore my surname was always used too. I hated it.

Hated my name as a kid. I wanted to be called Anastasia, Francesca or Bernadette, which sounded far more flamboyant and feminine. But I grew into my name, and now I love it; it's elegant, shortens nicely and goes well with my surname and Scottish ancestry. It has versions in other languages, including Greek.

Rock stars have written songs with my name in the title!

To cap it off, in a discussion on MN a poster wrote "(name) has always been cool." That was like winning the Oscar of names!

Can you guess my name?

My name is Catherine. It was top of the Times list of birth names announced in its pages the year I was born. Interestingly, it doesn’t feel particularly prevalent, because many of the other Catherines are calling themselves Kate or Katie.

I didn’t particularly like being Catherine X at school, but I think that’s more because the other Catherine was not someone I liked.

The main issue with the name is the number of ways people spell it. And I don’t really get wound up about that. Oddly, many people who have been introduced to me will call me Caroline on their first attempt to use my name. That is annoying - but unforeseeable by my parents I think!

I had the most unusual name it got mis-everything they named me after someone who killed themselves young so I was living for two people utter crap and an awful burden for a young child.

Oh yes to every mistake being known so I changed it to an uncommon name which suited me better

My children have uncommon names but unusual is always a bridge to far

I have an unusual (outside top 1000) name and I love it! I was always the only one at school and at work so never had to add my surname initials or other adjective and n order to be identified.

It's unusual in the sense of not being used widely, but it's a classic easy to pronounce name. I really like it.

As a result we've tried to give our children similar classic but not popular names.

Oh god, I would have loved to be Sarah E, or Nicola J at school. I'm an 80s baby with a name that is fairly popular now but not at all then. I have never met anyone with the same name as me

Although in the last few years I have heard parents calling to their child. I always look about because the only time I heard my name for 30+ years was when someone was talking to me

And first and middle name flow nicely together. Siblings all names fit around each other and again all unusual

I was the only one with my name in the whole of infant and juniors and when I went up to senior school there was one other girl with the same name. I was in year 10 by this point and her in year 7.
My name can be shortened but I don't like it to be shortened.
I often am known for first and middle name rather than just my first name to some people.

My name (which isn't my username) is well known in a couple of European countries but not in the UK. I have never met another one in the UK. I've always loved my name and sought out similar names for my children (established traditional names that were outside the top 1000). It has an obvious shortening but I'm not someone who likes shortenings so I always insisted my name was used in full- everyone has done that. So it is possible to avoid abbreviations.

I think the take away from this is that unusual names don’t thank you for them.
I changed my unusual surname to ‘common as muck’ when I got married, and enjoy the simplicity.
My first name’s common too, but I go by: ShorteningSurname. It works well and feels like me.

I like my name. I didn’t as a child because it is fairly unusual but not strangely so. People often mistake it for another name with a similar pronunciation. It’s a name that was invented for a character in a classic novel.

My name is really common and I hate it. It wasn’t particularly a problem until I grew up and moved away from the poverty stricken circumstances of my youth. Then I found I was often judged by my name and clothes. Boyfriends’ parents thought I must be trashy. Employers thought I couldn’t possibly be educated and wouldn’t present the right image to clients. I learned to dress better but couldn’t change my name because it would upset my family. I still long for a classless name like Elizabeth or Joanna.

I never met anyone else with my name until I was in my late 20s and I always liked that. The only minor "problem" is pronunciation, but I'm used to it by now. I also liked the reason behind my names, which gave them a bit of extra oomph.

I have a very typical 1980s first and middle name, a lot of my friends share the same middle name but I can't remember too many people with the same first name. There was maybe 2/3 of us in my secondary school year.