Do you think your name helps or hinders you in life?

I don't think my name has had any impact on my life. It hasn't helped or hindered me .

I don't think my name had helped or hindered me.
My first name dates me as being born in the 1980s.
My surname is very unusual - there are about 5,000 people with my surname in the world, 230-ish people with my surname in England.
There are only two people in the world with my first-name/surname combination.

I'd like to think peoples names don't matter, don't help or hinder but they do. Research shows that employers looks more favourably on "white" names than "Black" names on job applications, for example.
I was once doing job shortlisting with someone. We came to an applicant called Kayleigh and the person I was shortlisting with rolled his eyes and said "Here we go, mega-chav incoming" and absolutely didn't read the application in the same way as he'd read others. It really opened my eyes.

Mine definitely dates me. I've grown to dislike it more and more. I may change it at 60 in a few years time.

I have a fairly standard name for my age, top 5 for my year of birth. I do have a few friends and colleagues with the same name and classmates at school but don’t think it’s hindered me in any way.

My name dates me - it was common in the sixties and early seventies - think Jackie, Julie, Debbie. It's definitely not posh. I also have a boring surname, but I was too stubborn to change it when it got married.

On the other hand it’s occasionally nice to be anonymous.

It helps. It’s an old, classic name. Nobody could judge me negatively or not give me a job based on my name. It was quite popular while I was growing up but I didn’t mind that at all. And you don’t get many children with my name now.

@Bluefell in the kindest possible way, if you are on the other side of the counter, you aren't the customers' or clients' peer regardless of your name. It's a non issue.

To be fair the most expensive things I've bought are cars, kitchens and the odd painting. Only once in the £100k league.

I like my name. It's not 'out there' or odd, but it's rare and doesn't date me.

I read once that having a surname which starts with a letter in the first half of the alphabet is a proven advantage in life!

I quite like mine. My surname now is even slightly better than my maiden name, very easy to spell and people get it immediately.

@Bluefell , If you're a Sharon, you probably are a peer. I think it's a pretty name. I was surprised to meet one a couple of decades younger than me.

My name is a bit of a fancy one and it looks weird with my siblings' names.
One parent chose the other names and the other chose mine.
We're something like Jason, Tracey, Darren and Esmaralda.

I think the issue is that it’s immediately clear to the customer that I’m not their peer. I don’t understand their problems or share their experiences, so how can I advise them what they need? The upper class customer will trust that Jocasta has good taste and can recommend something suitable for them, but how could someone like Sharon have any clue about what’s suitable? Nobody says this out loud but I honestly think it’s a factor.

Same as me

Karen is actually a name I really like for females, because I’m a fan of The Carpenters and love Karen Carpenter’s beautiful voice. I like to say that it’s a form of “blasphemy” against Karen Carpenter to hold the name up as an example of an unpleasant kind of woman. (I’m being pretty tongue-in-cheek there, re. Blasphemy, but I do feel sad that a name I like (and the name of someone I’m a fan of) is now associated in so many people’s minds with unpleasantness.)

I wish Karen Carpenter was the first thing people thought of when they heard the name Karen, but no…mind, poor Karen’s been gone for 40 years now, and I suppose a lot of younger people will have no idea who she was.

That’s exactly what my parents did with my name. The name I’ve been known by all my life is actually my ‘middle name’. I like my name, but all through school I had to correct new teachers and ask them to address me by my middle name. I don’t tend to bother if I’m just going for professional appointments and such now.

If I were buying a Bentley and Teejay at HR Owen was more helpful and offered a better deal than Hugo at Jack Barclay I'd give my business to Teejay.

@BridgeOverTheRiverWye no, I wouldn't give it a second thought. Now if they had dirty finger nails.......

@RosesAndHellebores , Also, if I want to buy something very expensive, I couldn't give a hoot about the vendor's name. I would about their knowledge, courtesy and service. Perhaps I'm not super rich enough!

If you went into a 'luxury' shop and the assistant's name was Stormi-Rae or Teejay, might you not do a double-take?

I think it goes a long way in life

I have a classic first name, which I often shorten

@bluefell I think Tracey is a very pretty name and will come back in time. As for Stacey, my antecedents through one grandparent are Russian and the Staceys I know are diminutives of Anastasia.

Also, if I want to buy something very expensive, I couldn't give a hoot about the vendor's name. I would about their knowledge, courtesy and service. Perhaps I'm not super rich enough!

Like I said, Sharon. Or Tracey, Maureen, Stacey. Not posh or even middle class. It makes it very hard for me to sell stuff to wealthy people because it breaks rapport as soon as they find out my name.

I dislike my name. Always have. Makes me cringe.
It’s not that unusual, you would have heard it but probably don’t know or meet many with the name. It has a male variant, my spelling is without an
‘e’ on the end but so many people pronounce it the male way. Pisses me off and I rarely correct it.

I've name changed for this. I was called Wendy for the first 3 days of life. Then mum changed her mind and called me Ruth. No symmetry there!

I'm known as Ruthie, Rue, Rouge and Slate. Love all my nicknames.

Hindrance. Frumpy and dates me to the wrong period, I dropped it in favour of an unrelated nickname a long time ago.

Absolutely love Alex for either sex.

I have an extremely ordinary name. A Sarah, Emma, Lucy sort of name. I have always hated having to go by my name + surname initial (Sarah B, Emma C). I can't phone anyone and say "Hello, it's Lucy here" because there's a silence while they flip through the 7 Lucys it might be. It disadvantages me in that it makes me somewhat unmemorable, which is a disadvantage both at work and socially.

My husband has a traditional but unusual name and he is memorable because of it. A definite advantage (I suppose unless you're a spy or a criminal!)

We gave our children unusual names. I can report that based on my very small sample size, the absolute best name in terms of advantage is a name that is instantly recognisable as a name and consequently easy to spell, say and remember, but is unusual.

One of my kids has a very very unusual name and while she appreciates that it makes her known wherever she goes, she says it can be hard work explaining it. Another one of mine has an easy name with a tricky spelling (actually the correct, traditional spelling, not an Ehmilee or a Heaugaux), and she says it's tiresome explaining spelling and pronunciation to people. 3rd child has a very trad name that no one has ever met one of and he reports it's fab.