What about your name?

Mine was a very popular name at the time I was born. It can be fine in that everyone has heard of it (although there are two common spellings - think Jayne or Jane), but it is a bit of a pain to have to still always be the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th person with that name wherever I go. At work I am known by a different shortening from that which my family and friends know me, as there was already someone there with my name when I started. Other places I have to be 'firstname surname'.
I'd prefer my name to one which people comment on / ask you about every single time to have to introduce yourself though. Can't understand why someone would inflict that upon someone they purport to love.

Euthanasia is indeed a very unusual middle name
Bet you love your name now eh ?

My name is well known, but was not widely used for people of my age. Couple euthanasia very unusual middle name and a hard to spell Irish surname, I realky did bit like my name growing up. I wanted to be like my sister who had two other girls with her first name in her class and 8 in her yeargroup!

Oh mogg interesting! I was thinking I’d have a crises of identity if I did that but then realised that’s because I like my name/s and you did not. Glad it worked out.

My given name is ugly on the ear, ugly to write, has no nice diminutives, and is mostly miss-spelled.
It also has some unfortunate rhymes.
I was teased a lot in primary school. Secondary school was more polite but I never grew into it and now I’ve changed it to the simplest girls name there is.

I changed my first name, middle name and surname when I was 41. My original name was very common and boring. Nobody could spell my surname and I got fed up correcting people all the time. I love my new names and making the change has made me very happy. I deliberately gave my children unusual names as I didn’t want them to be one of several in their class.

I’ve never liked my name - sounds dated but not in the traditional sense! Middle name that feels like a token “well she needs to have a middle name”. And phonetically it’s quite harsh too... at least “matches” with siblings who have the same sort of thing.

I have what is always considered here to be a timeless classic pretty strong name. Surprisingly underused which is kind of nice. It doesn’t age or class me.
I also have a middle name which kind of ‘goes’ or ‘flows’ but it really doesn’t matter one whit. I don’t think a single friend of mine knows what my middle name is nor
Me theirs other than the one whose middle name is “pearl’ as she couldn’t resist disclosing !

My name was ahead of it's time. It became popular about 20 years after I had it. I always thought it was a bit theatrical and was embarrassed about it as a teen. My very dominant mum refused to let anybody ever shorten it, including me. I'm glad as an adult because I really dont like the short version and have grown to like my name. It's not particularly well received on here but people always assume I'm younger than I am so that's a bonus.

My name is unusual, which has always been a bit of a pain to be honest. It's a posher sounding version of a more common name (think Clara instead of Claire) and people constantly use the better known one, which is annoying. Even if people do use my actual name they normally spell it wrong. There is a TV presenter with my name but very few others that I've heard of. I've always said that if I have children they'll have normal, recognisable names.

It doesn't go with my sister's name at all. She has a real 70s name. They sound completely random together. Imagine something along the lines of Sharon and Ophelia (not our actual names!).

I think there's a happy medium between unusual and widely used. Lots of nice names from around No. 20 to No. 200.

I have a classic, well known name. There was one other in my year at school. Strangely I didn’t meet any for many years but now I know at least three others, two are older than me, one by about ten years, the other by fifteen or twenty.
I like the way my name looks written down, and it has never been hugely popular, but is still very well known. I have never met a child with the name though, so it must be dated to some degree, rather like Elizabeth, Jane, Sarah, or Anne, all girls in my class at school, but where I have never met a little girl with the name.

I’ve never met someone else with my name, but there would be many in another country. I love that, and I think would feel a little competitive if I met another me! People so struggle to pronounce and spell it on occasion, but it sounds straightforward so it’s generally not an issue.

I have one of those 'fancy for the birth certificate' names which I was then never called and was always called the diminutive. So Elizabeth is my name (not really, but same idea) and I've always been Lizzie.

The thing is, I hate the short version - it's twee and sounds too young and 'girlie' for the person I actually am and the fact that I'm nearly 40. But I just don't identify with the long version either. So it feels like I'm a bit stuck.

There is another shortening which I prefer, i.e. Beth, if I'm using the above example, but it seems too late and a bit silly to suddenly start trying to use that!

Whenever people are planning on doing this on the baby name board and want to tell them not to. Just pick a name and use that!

Funny, I'd have loved to have been called Sarah, or Susan.

Oh and my first name and surname (before I married) alliterated. I didn’t really like that but I can’t say why 🤷‍♀️ But whenever I meet people with alliterated names I dont think it sounds great. Was delighted to change my surname when I married, and made sure not to give my child an alliterated name!

I’m a Sarah, and I HATE my name. There were 7 girls called Sarah in my class at primary school. I wasn’t even the only Sarah W. As I don’t have a middle name, I’ve been stuck with it. But I don’t think I’ve ever come to terms with having such a common name. Even nowadays it isn’t unusual to be in meetings or on calls with 2 or 3 or 4 other people with the same name. Which is often confusing.

My mother’s take on this is “well it was either that or naming you after your grandmother” - her name was Winifred. I’d much rather have been called that.

I have an unusual name, I’m white British as are both my parents and my name is Turkish. My df just really liked it. I was born in the 70’s and the nurse actually said to my mum “you can’t call her that it’s wicked” lol
I love my name even though I always have to tell people how to pronounce and spell it. My middle name is a common 70’s middle name that goes with every other name out there lol.

I’ve got a very common name for my age group - I’ve always been one of two or three with that name at school/work. Mine is a less common spelling though (think Sarah/Sara) so I’m forever correcting people. I could never find a magnet or notebook with the correct spelling on it. I also hated that my name had no shortened version, whereas my siblings had a choice. Therefore I picked a name for my child which has multiple shortenings, only one spelling and is fairly unusual!

I had a very unusual first name (late 80s, actually named after my mother and grandmother for whom it was practically unheard of at the time they were named) that has now been in the top 5 for years. Due to my age it was unusual until I was about 15 so I only ever knew 1 person in my whole time at school and 1 at work with the same name. This just goes to show you can’t tell what will become popular in future.

My name alliterates with my surname as does my brother’s - never bothered us at all, we thought it was quite cool, again I never get why people think this is an issue.

My parents chose names that are easily pronounceable in most languages for all three of us which I appreciated. We had a very unusual Eastern European surname so I appreciated they chose first names which sounded British as a contrast, but could also travel.

I feel neutral about my middle name and don’t understand why people agonise over them so much when you basically never use them after the day you tell your relatives your new baby’s name or on forms. I think the only problem is if you name them after an elderly relative and the name is very untrendy when they’re in school, but on the other hand learning to deal with that might be good for building resilience.

Mine doesn’t shorten easily but you could if you really wanted. I prefer the full version and like my name very much.

I never knew anyone with the same name as me until I was a late teen (apart from someone who had it as a middle name), it is timeless and I love it now, different shortenings, the one I hated is now a very popular name/shortened version!!
XH also had a name that was classic but not really used back then, it's also now a very popular name.
We chose a classic, yet virtually unknown name for DD, or so we thought!! She isn't the only one ....

I have a perfectly normal, not overly common name. Always hated it though because it was one of the ways I was bullied at school. Also the 1 other girl in my year at secondary with my name was a bitch. I wanted to go by my middle name but my DM refused to use it as it would be too confusing (my aunts name).
Sadly I saddled my DD's with names that are commonly misspelled. Didnt realise that would be the case while I was pregnant! Hope they'll still like their names though. They do at the moment but they're only 5 and 2....

I really like my name. It's half English, half Welsh, grew up in England with a Welsh name. I think it's pretty but not frilly and I like not being one of many with my name.

It's actually very easy to say, short and contains sounds which exist in the English language. Part of it spells a common English word, and it's pronounced the same way as the English word. That's the part of it which people always get wrong

I'd say 70% of people I know pronounce it wrong. The 30% who get it right are close friends and family. I've stopped telling people the English version of my name as too many people say 'oh great, that's much better, I'll call you that instead'. I used to correct pronunciation, but when I was 5 a teacher told me I was rude to correct adults who mispronounced my name so I find correcting people quite hard to do. I usually give up after 3 attempts!

I'm in my early 30s and have only met one other person with my name and that was in Wales (I think I was 27) Tbh I was a bit gutted to meet another one, although it was quite nice in a way.

I've had some rude comments about my name over the years. One was at school 'if your parents loved you they'd have given you a better name' (the person had a name I've never seen suggested here, whereas I've seen mine a few times, win). Another was at work 'when you have children, don't give them a ghastly name like your parents gave you' and my inlaws, who find explaining my name awkward 'you mustn't do what your parents did to you and give your poor children a Welsh name, it's very irresponsible'

Most comments are lovely though 'oh what a pretty name's and it's a great ice breaker. I'm olive skinned with dark hair so do get a few surprised faces when I explain my name is Welsh, most people think it will be something far more exotic and interesting

I wouldn't change it for the world, and I hope DH will agree to Welsh names for our kids. I certainly wouldn't pick a common name for them, ideally I'd pick a name I'd never met someone with.

No siblings and no middle name. A classic name but spelt differently so always have to spell it although only called it by a small handful of people now and the common diminutive version is a bit nothingy! It's Ok and I cant say I have ever thought that I dislike it but oh how desperate was I for a middle name as a child. Literally the only person in the family without one.

I don’t mind it. It’s a very 1980s name and there were loads of us in school. I don’t dislike it but it is quite a bland blah name and I wish my parents had chosen something a bit more interesting. Not necessarily unusual, just less bland and run of the mill.

I didn't like my name growing up as there was always another one in my class and in secondary school there were five of us in one class at one point. (Common 80's name).

I now like it, although it's not used nowadays.

My children have extremely unusual names as I didn't want them to be one of many in their class. DS1 has a name that is now in the top 100, but there are only 3 of them in his school but I think it's highly unlikely the others will come across someone with their name.