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Original poster

Do you think people can ‘look like’ their names?

26 replies

Userwhatevernumber · 14/10/2019 22:54

And if so, do you or your dc look like your names?

This evening my DS (6) started an after school activity, and the leader constantly kept calling him by the wrong name, even after DS and me and even others around kept correcting her. To make it more odd The name she kept calling him was not even remotely similar at all to his name!

My DS has a name which is similar to Ryan (don’t want to say to be too outing) but she kept calling him Milo!
At the end of the session she came up to me and was like Oh (wrong name) did really well today didn’t he, see you next week (wrong name)!

I corrected her and asked her why she kept thinking his name was that other name, and she said, oh, he doesn’t look like a Ryan, he just looks like a Milo. And that was that

When I told DH this evening though, he seemed to agree and said that some names have certain ‘faces’ attached to them and can be strange when that’s not the ‘face’ the person has. He gave the example, that Lee’s have light hair - I reminded him that the two Lees we know both have dark hair ...he gave another example that Ellie’s have short dark hair, dark eyes, - I reminded him that just because his sister is called Ellie and looks like that there are thousands of Ellie’s who don’t! I work with a woman who has the same name as me, and we are totally completely different in looks - like even different ethnicities!

So is this actually a thing? Or is my DH as barking mad as the lady at the club today?

OP posts:

AliciaMayEmorysOutfit · 14/10/2019 22:57

Ooooh, totally. They can also look like occupations.

Sandra is a secretary/ admin assistant with short blonde hair. Her bark is worse than her bite but she more or less runs the office.

AliciaMayEmorysOutfit · 14/10/2019 22:59

Claires are short and prim, usually dark haired. Can be bitchy.

Lauras are slim and blonde, and the type of person you want to hate because they’re too perfect, but they’re too nice for you to sustain hatred.

Daves. Well, Dave’s a Dave and he popped out of the womb cracking jokes and with stubble.

Clankboing · 14/10/2019 23:00

Goodness yes. I know two people who I wish would swap to each others name. Andrew looks like Nathan and vice versa.

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Families

Clankboing · 14/10/2019 23:03

Max is always cheeky, with dark hair and shiny eyes. Janets are always lovely mums. Mike is always sensible and normal, kind and polite. Steve is always one of the lads, friendly.

KurriKurri · 14/10/2019 23:08

I've had this recently - for background I have had to see a surgery nurse daily for the last year+ - so all the nurses know me by my first name.
One nurse recently said to me 'I don;t think you look like a 'my name' at all, and when I saw your middle name 'Marie' I thought you look much more like a Marie so I think of you as that'
Then I said 'actually my middle name is pronounced the old fashioned way Mah-rie, after my grandma'
And she got very excited and said 'that's even better, that is completely you, I'm going to call you Mah-rie now if you don't mind'

I said I didn't mind what she called me, so go for it

So apparently I am misnamed and look like a Mahrie

KurriKurri · 14/10/2019 23:09

Now I think of it - my next door neighbour has started calling me by the wrong name although I've known him and he's used my correct name for four years. He's started using my full name rather than the short version of it which I have always used.
he's generally quite odd though

MotherForkinShirtBalls · 14/10/2019 23:16

I worked with a guy for years who was a Mark. His parents were utterly misguided calling him Peter.

Ludways · 14/10/2019 23:25

Both mine and my sisters names have been mentioned on here and the descriptions are nothing remotely like us, lol.

EmmiJay · 14/10/2019 23:34

The name I have suits my personality but the name my DM wanted to give me suits my overall look. Its so weird. I didn't understand when new parents said "Oh she looks like a Rose not an Anne" until I had my DD and one name in particular fit her perfectly. Couldnt imagine her with any other name.

LooksLikeImStuckHere · 14/10/2019 23:42

People have often said that I should have been called a different name. It’s always the same one they suggest though which is a bit random. I don’t know quite what they expect me to do with that information.

In relation to your DS though, when you have loads of names to learn, your brain can make the weirdest connections. I once had two boys in my class who couldn’t have looked more different. One very dark curly hair, brown eyes and the other very, very blonde and blue eyes, pale skin. Always swapped their names around (names also totally different, no similarities) and I think it’s because they were both (to me) more unusual names. My brain just couldn’t get them right and it was frustrating because I am usually really good with names. It wasn’t personal, it’s just sometimes hard to learn that many names!

I spent ages deliberating whether my DD should have the name we picked out for her. Just wasn’t sure it suited her. Now she’s older, it couldn’t have been anything else!

gnushoes · 14/10/2019 23:58

Yes. And personality too. That's why I'm baffled by the baby name threads when parents want to formalise the name months before they meet their child.

Milomonster · 15/10/2019 08:07

In my culture, we believe the name you have can affect your personality. Some parents will change the name of their child to a better suiting one if they think their current one has negative effects.

DisappointingBanana · 15/10/2019 08:56

When I was on a school trip abroad (in the 80s) a girl in the year below that I never knew before kept calling me "Lorraine" even though my real name is nothing like that and she knew this. I just look like so much like a Lorraine, apparently. She referred to me as "that Lorraine lassie" to others!

ShinyGiratina · 15/10/2019 12:25

It happens more with "fashion names" that are popular with a particular demographic/ age group. Or particularly unusual names where you will only ever know few people of that name so the original person will set the tone of the name.

I find I'm nowhere near as trendy as my namesakes. Most are much more into blonde hair, make-up and trendy clothes than me. My more tradtional middle name probably would have suited me better

I'm another who finds it odd when a baby who hasn't even been born yet is set up with the formal name and to be known as nickname. Different names suit different people. My youngest has a longer name which he is usually known as, but at school he's increasingly known as the obvious short version, but his nickname at home is a different version created by his then 2yo big brother's attempts at saying it, but it really suits him, and the nicknames have evolved with him. The oldest is just his name!

motorcyclenumptiness · 15/10/2019 12:43

I would say yes - but I'm basing that largely on my knowledge of the Mr Men books

neddle · 16/10/2019 08:15

Totally agree.
I’m a guide leader and there were two new girls who started together with the wrong names. They’re Maisie and Jessica and they look (to me) the wrong way round.

I also struggled at the beginning with Jade and Fern because they’re both ‘green’ names.

Zaphodsotherhead · 16/10/2019 10:44

I'll never forget the first time I saw 'Swing Out Sister' and I thought that the lead singer looked like she should be called Corinne, and she is. I also know one other Corinne, who looks like her name.

All the Claires I know have a similarity to them too.

PrincessHoneysuckle · 16/10/2019 10:50

I'm a Sarah I'd be interested to see what you think I look like

ImportantWater · 16/10/2019 10:58

I have that exactly. If someone gets my name wrong, they always call me Rachel. I'm not saying I am always called Rachel, but the few times that someone does get my name wrong - always different people - it is always Rachel. And this has happened on the phone as well so it can't be what I look like, it must be more an expectation around my age, my job, my voice...I don't know. My name, by the way, is nothing like Rachel, apart from being two syllables.

ItProtectsMyHead · 16/10/2019 16:10

When I was in hospital last week having DD, I guessed that one of the midwives was a Rebecca and it turned out she was. She just seemed like a Rebecca to me (I had some minor complications and she was being very kind and reassuring at the time so maybe those are traits I associate with Rebeccas)

HeronLanyon · 16/10/2019 16:14

When people call me by the wrong name it is always the same wrong name - not really like my name at all I find that fascinating. And annoying. Love my name. Don’t like the wrong one. Luckily doesn’t happen often.

KurriKurri · 16/10/2019 18:02

There's a woman at the SW group I go to who always calls me by the wrong name. Weirdly the wrong name she calls me is my sister's name - although she has never met my sister and I've never told her what my sister is called. I just answer to it now - too much effort to keep correcting her when she will call me 'Kurri'sSister' immediately after the correction anyway

Fabrichearts · 16/10/2019 18:05

I can spot a Brenda a mile off

HiiiPaigehere · 16/10/2019 18:07

Natalie's in films are always prostitutes or bitches. That's what I've noticed.

icebearforpresident · 16/10/2019 18:09

I get this, I once had a client at work I was convinced was called Douglas, couldn’t get his actual name (William) into my head to save myself. Despite him telling me, more than once, to call him William I just couldn’t do it because I would have called Douglas.

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