Your name

[Bobje]

Do you like it?
Or do you curse your parent’s choices and think what the hell were they thinking?
Do you think your name dates you - perhaps you’re a Patricia from the 50s, or a 60s Susan, 70s Sharon or an 80s Louise?
Did your name influence your choice/s for your own child/ren?

I think my name is pretty neutral, probably considered a classic. I don’t mind it, and I know a lot of the shortened version amongst the school mums in my locality.
If I could choose a name for myself now, I like to think I could pull off something like Genevieve 🤣
What would you choose?

Mine is along the lines of 80s Louise. There were always multiple in my class, and now you can age me within a decade.

It’s fine. I wish my parents had been a bit more interesting, but that’s not really their style!

I think my name is very 'of the era' when I was born. It's old fashioned but not in a particularly classic way, but it's not terrible either. I never really thought about it, but I feel fairly neutral about it actually. I'd much prefer a more classic, timeless name. My dc have names like that and I'm happy with the choices we made for them. I'm definitely not a new age or very modern not really a name sort of name person.

No, I’ve never liked it. There are three possible endings to it and it’s usually the wrong one that people choose. My maiden name always had to be spelled out and my married name does. It’s not unusual at all, but there’s and extra letter that you don’t hear and most miss out.

To throw the spanner in the works - if you’re not an only, do you think your siblings got a better deal than you?!

I really like my name - I like how it looks and sounds. It's a classic but was very popular in the 80s. When it pops up on name threads now some posters think it's dated and boring but most love it.

I dated a guy with a very distinctive name. It didn't sound rude or embarrasing, jusg unusual and a particular "style". He hated it as a teenager but had got used to it as an adult. When his best friend had kids he argued strenuously for very middle of the road names.

My partner has a Celtic name which English speakers sometime struggle with and rarely get right first time. It's definitely influencing my preference for names for our unborn child but not do far that I'll only have a Ben Dan Sam Tom Ali George name.

Mine is a classic that wasn’t popular when I was a child; I only met one other growing up. It became much more common about 20 years later and I now come across many more younger women using ‘my’ name !

Mine is the beigest possible, as well as an extremely common, name for my generation in my home country -- there were five of us in a class of 30 ish throughout primary school, so it took me well into adulthood and living abroad to start responding to my name if someone called it.

My parents chose it for precisely that reason, their most ingrained horror being the fear of in any way standing out from the crowd, or it being thought you thought you were in any way special. My siblings got exactly the same type of name. Generic, very, very overused, the obvious choices of two shy, socially anxious people whose primary decision-making criterion, whether it's wallpaper, a new sofa, a coat, or naming their children is 'Will it let me blend into the crowd so that no one will notice me?'

I've always hated it, though partly because it's difficult to say with my surname -- the stresses fall the 'wrong' way, and it's hard to say clearly. My siblings also hate theirs.

Oh, and it's the name all novelists from my home country give to sidekick bitpart characters in generic chicklit/genre fiction. It basically signals 'Nothing to see here -- you can assume this character isn't going to emerge as the secret villain, she's just stuck in the background because it would look weird if my heroine didn't have a lodger/colleague/sister/ omeone she occasionally goes for a drink with.

Siblings got family names I did not and I am not the youngest. My Mother was convinced I was a boy and had no alternative girl's name prepared. I was born and cue a mad scramble for a name due to needing to be Christened quickly as strict Catholic and the belief in original sin.

I never felt like it fit me and I think that because not a lot of thought went into my name my parents used other nicknames for me. From around 5 I tried out various names at home just writing them down. As I got older friends shortened my name into several different and unusual ones and in the end I changed it by deed poll with the full support of my parents. My parents and siblings took a few months to call me by the new name as they would occasionally forget and immediately correct themselves.

My dad picked my name and the middle names and I used to hate it as a child. I was so embarrassed by my middle names but I love them now. I think my dad actually wanted a fairy but got me instead 😂

Hate my name. Shortened version of a popular 70s name. Constantly get miss-spelled & assumed that my "real" name is the longer version. Awful middle name too so no chance of using that instead.

Sibling definitely got the better name but also has to deal with miss-spelling.

Are they Tinkerbell Titania?

I don't like mine. I was named after a dog, who didn't have a human name. My siblings have nice normal 80s names so who knows why I got this one!

Pretty close and my maiden name was part of the theme haha

I love my name, it's timeless, classic, has 2-3 shortened versions. I have known a couple of people with it, it's a very well known name but not that common.

Yes, I like my name. It's one everyone will have heard of, but it's not of the Deborah/Louise type commonly used variety.

there's currently a name people seem to think is just a version of it, but I don't feel that way.

People often abbreviate it, but the abbreviation isn't a name. My parents hated it & my Dad would tell my friends it's xyz not x😫

I wouldn't change it. I don't have anything else I like more to deal with all the hassle

my middle name is a very generic middle name but it's my mums name. It's just happened to become the most common middle name for babies of my generation!!

plus that would require a decision & I have more than enough decisions to make 🤪

one of my Mums friends changed her name & it seemed utterly ridiculous to me. (Rachel to Helen, both perfectly fine)

still, each to their own, but honestly in your mid forties??

I love it. It's a timeless classic. And a massive escape from the name I was going to get, before my parents had a rethink, which came out of nowhere in the 70s as a female form of a boys name, reached peak popularity in the 90s, and has been plummeting down the charts ever since, in addition to which sounds awful in our local accent.

If I had to change it I would go for Laura.

My sisters both have good names also but middle sister's name was pretty unusual in this country in the 70s and 80s, so she never got anything with her name on, it's top-20 territory now though.

I like my name. It’s very classic, clearly a girls name without being frilly or fussy, can’t be misspelled, it doesn’t ‘date’ me (iyswim) and I think it’s quite pretty too.
My siblings all have names that are of a similar ilk. I think my parents did so, so well naming us.. for all their other flaws thereafter 🤣

I didn't like my name growing up. I found it quite harsh, in comparison to my sister's name which sounds feminine and is used by many English-speakers. My name is more often heard in Latin American countries (my parents are Latin Americans) and usually mispronounced by English-speakers.

However, over the years, I've become more connected with my heritage and speak more of my first language and truly love my name. I am happy to correct English-speakers so it's pronounced as it should then to accept an incorrect pronunciation.

I'm fairly indifferent to my name. I don't love it or hate it, but it doesn't cause me any resentment or embarrassment. It's a very normal name and I had previously thought 'timeless' but it's definitely dropped in popularity in the past 15-20 years.

I have three siblings and of the four of us, my Mum chose three names and my Dad chose one. My two DBs have similar style names to me - very classic, timeless names. My Dad's choice (DSis) was definitely a different style. It was quite an unusual name at the time and I never met another one. But it's become quite fashionable in recent years so now I know a few under the age of 10.

Growing up, I was quite pleased that I didn't have the 'unusual' name, but in a way I'm now slightly envious because mine is starting to sound slightly dated and my sister's sounds really fresh and lovely!

Mine is a classic, but boring and overused. My parents were between an unusual name (for the UK, not France, where we have relatives) and a common name, do they went for the popular name as they were worried I might be teased at school for the more unusual name.

I wish they'd gone for the other name. As it is I'm nearly always referred to as the short version of my name, not massively unusual but not so commonplace. So much so that I've considered changing my name to the shirt version by deed poll. I may still do that. My parents are no longer around to be offended, which would have been a consideration before.

I love my name. Unusual but not hard, iyswim. Always got told it's a beautiful name growing up. Then a pop star came along with it and for a while I got, oh as in xyz.

Have met a few as an adult. I was keen to give DC similar style of name and so far they are happy with theirs though in the generation below them it's become popular enough that we meet weuns with it, often shortened though which DC hates and would never use.

It's a part of my identity having this kind of name and I'm grateful.

I have a old lady name which I hated when I was younger as all i wanted to be was an ordinary Sarah or Rebecca but I like it now I'm older and it is just coming back into fashion. I've met a few others with the same name around my age and they all said the same. Its only 3 letters so can't really be shortened to anything.

I've got a nice normal name. It took me a while to grow into it, but I'm happy. Just God forbid anyone tries to shorten it!

I like my name. It was unusual when I was born in 1969 but more common now. I wouldn't change it. I was never keen on my maiden name although I'd never tell my Irish Dad that as he's very proud of it. I'm divorced now but have kept my married name as it's been my name for 23 years now and I share it with my son.

My name is fine, it’s not a very common or a crazy name. I was the only one of my name at school (both primary and secondary) didn’t know any of my name at college but I think there were 2 I heard of at university.

I heard a lady shouting my name the other day but she was shouting her young granddaughter, who was around 3/4 so maybe it’s making a come back!