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?

DP definitely feels like he drew the short straw and even in his 40's he hates it. Although he owns it so to speak. In almost 20 years I've never heard anyone take the piss out of his name.

My sibling has no real opinion on their name. It was the difference between him being Joseph James or James Joseph (not actual names but of that ilk). The names were so inoffensive it didn't matter which one I picked and it was always a toss up between order of first name / middle name

Elizabeth here. I love it, though it is shortened to Liz or Lizzy usually.

I also love the name Rachel, but I forgot about that when I had my daughters.

I used to like my name. But now it's being used as a slur against middle-aged womenlike me. So now, not so much.

That is such a lovely name too. It's such a shame for the ones out there 💕

They did, but not by much, and I named them all, so it’s my fault.

My name doesn’t really date me; I’ve never met another one, even though it’s not particularly rare and you definitely would have heard of it. I’m not a fan though. I wanted to be called Francesca when I was a teen. It seemed very sophisticated to a younger me.

”I also love the name Rachel, but I forgot about that when I had my daughters”

That made me lol because it reminded me of my friend, who, growing up called ALL of his toys ‘Ben’. When he had his first son, he was named < Not Ben > 🤣
… but he eventually got his wish, and his last born was Ben 😁

I changed mine as an adult. It's not even that I hated the name, just have never liked it but more than anything I've just never felt it's very me, I always dreading hearing it and felt a bit like ' oh, thats me isn't it' with a bit of a sort of disdain and discomfort when people (eg at hospital appointments or the school register) call it out. My middle name is also my Mother's name and we have always had a fractious relationship and limited contact so I very much wanted it gone. Not out of any spite as I do wish my mum well ultimately even if I have no desire for a relationship at all but I certainly don't want any part of her attached to me now I'm old enough to have the choice. Dad was an absent father from practically birth and I barely know him so didn't want his surname either, so everything got changed.

I expect it would surprise people because the name's nothing to write home about and isn't one anything super odd, no odd spellings. A bit old fashioned perhaps and not an overly popular or common choice on the name lists but reasonably unassuming. I've changed it to something equally unassuming and am much happier.

I hate my first name. It's a name that was incredibly popular in the 1940s and 1950s and then tailed off. I was born in the 1980s. When I was growing up the only other people I knew with my name were other people's mothers. It's also an incredibly harsh two syllable sounding name. I now go by my second name which I'm a bit meh about, but it doesn't have the dating issue which my first name does.

I have a typical 70s name (famous song) and was one of 5 in my class of 30 but has an unusual spelling, so I spend my life spelling it. I’ve always disliked my name, but as I get older it bothers me less. My brother has a really nice name, traditional Irish, I definitely feel like I got shafted 😂

I like my name. It was very popular when I was born but is still used now, there's one in DS's Yr1 class.
We've chosen similar kind of names for our children, popular but not trendy.
I wanted to be called Jasmine or Stephanie when I was a child.

I love my long name but hate my shortened name. Everyone knows me as my shortened name and so won’t call me the long version now. I’m happy enough with my name, but wish I didn’t have one of those names that people automatically shorten.

I like my name. It's rare but not weird iyswim. It comes up on MN quite frequently actually and the comments tend to find it "twee" 😅. There's a few celebrities with my name but I've never met another person in real life with it. I hated that growing up and part of the reason why after I chose DD's name (just flicking through a baby name website by chance) and then later found out it was the most common name for girls, I still kept it.

Double barrelled hatred here

Gorgeous name

My name gives my age away when applying for jobs. Not good at 60.
Other than that I don't mind it.

Penelope here 🤓. Need I say more - grew up with Penelope Pitstop and Thunderbirds Lady Penelope jokes...Penny didn't fare much better tbh!

I like my name, there were one or two others in my school but none in my class so middle ground.
It is datable though so you would think woman in 40s/ 50s if you heard it!
My brother and sister also have popular baby names from the 70s.
As does my husband.
When we had DC I wanted a " timeless" name that was not so easily dated. However a few years later the names become very popular- still at least people will assume they are younger than they are!
Very hard to pick a truly timeless name at birth of a baby as you don't know how the popularity of names will evolve.
3 of my DC like their names and 1 of them doesn't.

I hate my name. It's not dated but not seen as a classic either. I'm either seen as the singer who had big boobs or the popular teenage witch from the 90's

Don’t mind it. It was quite unusual when I was born in the early 70s and then exploded in the 80s so there are loads around who are 10-15 years younger (although mine is a relatively uncommon spelling). Coincidentally my son’s name was really unusual when he was born in the early 00s and is now in the top 10.

My full name has never been common but also doesn't seem to have waxed and waned in popularity so there are always a few of us around of different age groups. It's not me though except on official documents - I always go by a diminutive which I quite like.

I don’t like mine, I’ve never felt it suited me and I don’t like the way it sounds. I go by the shortened version which isn’t much better.
There were so many lovely family names which could’ve been used but they chose to saddle me with this, and it’s not even like I have a nice middle name as an alternative, that’s also typical of the time and is worse than my first.

I was born in 1969 and my best friend at school had the same name as me and there were several others in our year.

Our parents chose names that were popular at the times we were born so that we wouldn’t stand out. I just find that really sad, but very typical of our parents’ attitude to life. Drift into the background and hope no one notices you.

I don't mind my name but it definitely dates me in that I've only ever come across it with women of a similar/slightly older age. My sisters name is also aging but she has a less popular spelling than the norm. As kids I was able to have all sorts of items with my name on, her, not so much!

I hate mine. It's a typical sixties name and there were four of us named it in our class alone. I've never liked it.

I bet we have the same name. I was going to write the same! I'm in my forties and I keep meeting people who are in their early sixties with that name.

I always wanted to be called Olivia.

I hate my name, always have done.
I find it dull and uninspiring. When younger I always wanted to be a Paula or a Kelly as they were the cool girls names. Lorraine just doesn't have the same ring 😂