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?

My name is Helen and there were 5 of us in our class at school!
I do like the name though.

I gave my own children slightly individual names, nothing wacky or way out, but they rarely come across other people with their names. And they both love their names too. Although they do often have to spell them.

All my siblings have very traditional catholic (nun) names.
I have a 70's disco diva name.although I don't love it, I do feel I dodged a bullet.

I like mine. I've only met one other person called it and I'm 52. I don't think it's dated iyswim.

@BlazingWorld Would love to know what name you were nearly called!

I know a few Lauras in our circle, I must ask if they’re fond or otherwise, of their name.

@ShortColdandGrey would also love to know your fairy inspired names!

I'm not sure about mine. It's very unusual and most people I know or meet won't know anyone else with the same name. I think I'd prefer something a bit more common tbh.

Mine was very unusual and considered posh and weird when I was growing up in the 80s. It now belongs to every other child in the country and can be relied upon to feature in every “overused cliched names you hate” thread within ten posts.

I've always liked my name, regardless of the way it's been vilified in recent years for representing a stereotype.

I like my name now but hated it growing up as there was someone famous with the same name.

It's not a common name, I think I've only ever heard of a handful with the same name and it always gets lovely comments on the baby names thread although I don't think many people end up using it.

It does get misspelled all the time.

I have three siblings and my parents took it in turn to choose our names. So my oldest sister and my brother have names that are classic, not overly common and (to my ears) sound really nice, with good nicknames/shortenings, thanks to my mum.

My second sister and I had our names chosen by my dad. My sister's name is, to be frank, ugly. So is the shortening. She hates it. Mine is also pretty ugly imo though not quite as bad! However it's unusual, and doesn't have an obvious phonetic spelling, so is consistently spelled and pronounced wrong by others. It's also technically a man's name. Cheers dad 🤣

Oh yeah and my full name (well, first and surname together) is exactly the same as a singer who became very famous around the time I was born. So I've had to put up with people singing her biggest hit at me all my life. Luckily she seems to have largely faded into obscurity!

My parents chose well. I like my first name and it suits me. It's conventional but not very common and can't be shortened or rhymed easily. My sisters' names are prettier than mine, and one of them chooses to use a unisex shortened form.

Does it begin with G by any chance?

That was supposed to being a reply to someone which hasn't quoted!

I love my name now, but when I was a child I yearned to be called Elizabeth. It sounded such a pretty name. I would probably have ended up being called Lizzy though, or Beth.

I don't mind it, I've been told it suits me and the spelling is easy and I wasn't one of 4 in a class.
I would have preferred it if my dad didn't name me after a song that remained popular for years, ehich meant people have sung it at me my whole life, but its not the end of the world.

Namechanged to completely out myself..
My name is Leonora. Ive only ever met one other Leonora (spelt thusly) in my life. She was in her 70s and I was the first Leonora she had met!

I didn't love my name as a child, but I didn't detest it either, or get people calling me Nora Batty or anything mean (at least not to my face..!). I did once meet someone who (not knowing my name) said "I have the worst middle name ever, it's such an ugly granny name- Leonora!!!". Tbh, i foubd her candour funny and genuinely wasn't offended.

Mostly people call me Leo though i sometimes wish i had landed on a cooler nickname.

All my siblings have "normal" lovely, classic generation-suited names.. i was the youngest of a bunch so I think my mum thought 'why not!'.

As a adult I really cherish my name and always introduce myself as Leonora and have a handful of friends who now call me my full name, which I really like.

My name has come up a few times on MN baby name threads, usually with one or two 'thats an ugly name' comments but mostly 'its a beautiful/classic name'.

Would love to know peoples genuine opinions of it.

I really like my name and it does help me 'stand out' in my competitive freelance career - i am a voiceover artist and i think my name does suit my voice which is helpful!

Oh and i get some hilarious misspellings of my name (my favourite being Leonard) and people not being able to spell it, but I don't mind.

I was named after a doll my mum had as a child plus it was her middle name. It’s a classically beautiful name that a pp has said she yearned for. I think I’d like to be called Vivienne x

It’s a very classy name. I imagine you to be tall and graceful x

I dont mind my name, it’s a little bit dull, but fine. But I hate it with my surname. Both are short so I’ve only got 3 syllables over both my first and last name. My full name often gets misheard or missed completely when say it.

if I’d been given a longer first name I’d of been happier. It’s particularly annoying as there’s a longer version of my first name!

My name is very very dated, there was always several in my class groups and I spent a lot my childhood disliking it. However it was picked because its a family name and so many in my family share the same name, so as an adult I can appreciate it a bit more. I gave my son a very unusual old irish name and he'll probably hate it as he gets older but I hope that as a man he'll appreciate not being called rio , Riley, Teddy or some made up name.

Thank you @User0000009! I am just above average height and sadly not very graceful.. I'm usually covered in bruises of unknown origin and have a good habit of tripping over in front of people!

@HowDoYouSpellThat Leonora is a beautiful name! You lucked out, happy for you that your mum was brave enough to go with it!
Are your “normally” named siblings jealous that you got such a cool name?! 😉

I’m loving the mix of opinions here. The dads are not coming off well -
We’ve had song names, disco diva names, an old man’s name and named after a dog 😂

@MaliciaKeys Did you go on to use the name for your own DC?

I like my name now but didnt as a child. It's seen as from my era but is also a classic name and even back then wasnt overly popular. It's a long name thats nearly always shortened, which I like too.

I’m one of a million other ‘L’s’ from the 80’s. My brother and sister got much cooler names than me and I always wished I had a cool nickname or something.

Of my 3 DC, one is a top 10 name, one’s top 20 and one is around top 200!

I changed my name when I went to uni. The name I was born with was quite of its ETA but not awful, it just didn't feel very 'me'. My brother got a name quite ahead of its time that is very popular now so will probably 'date' him to the wrong era! As for the name I chose myself, I think teenage me did pretty well with a timeless classic. I'm glad I didn't choose some of the others I was considering as I definitely couldn't have pulled them off!

I don’t like my name at all. There were always at least 2 other girls with my names in my class and even more in the whole school. I think it did change how I name my DC because I’ve gone for more uncommon names for them.