To hate constantly having to explain my name?

[lsfhs]

I have a welsh name. (I don’t live in wales and never have.) No one can say it or spell it. Plus, my parents called me my middle name but gave me a first name that is different (and horrible.)

I can’t change it but I hate it. I really don’t think it’s an exaggeration to sa my life would be different if I’d been given a nice ordinary name!

Another angle is that a very distinctive name can be a pain because you are easy to google.

Well, that one can go either way - I find it an active advantage, especially professionally. I was once sent on a course at work at maximising your web presence and we were all made to Google ourselves and the person taking it pointed out that I had a bit of an advantage as the first two pages of results were all me! But that's a good thing in some jobs (including mine), less so if you have a penchant for getting arrested - and no one knows which a baby will be when they name them!

If you are a freelancer like my ex-colleague's brother, a quick google brought up a pile of information. Nothing sinister but not necessarily things you'd want random strangers to know.

I understand. Exactly the same for me. Family always intended to use my unusual second name. You do get a tad bored of explaining it for the zillionth time 🙄. My latest exasperation is having cheques made to my middle name and the bank, that I’ve been with for 40 years, refusing to cash it!🤨

OP change it if you don't like it. Is there something vaguely similar you could use? As in same initial or similar length of name? E.g. Anne-Marie instead of Angharad, Marianne instead of Morwenna. A shame there isn't an English version to switch to like Laura instead of Lowri, or Mary instead of Mari, but that doesn't mean you can't change it.

What would you like to have been called?

Unfortunately there's no way of knowing whether someone will grow up to like their name or not.

I also have a Welsh name, born and raised in England to an English father and a native Welsh speaking Mother. Most people get it wrong initially, most then get it right but a sizable minority, usually work colleagues and teachers get it wrong for ever more. It only has two syllables and IMO should be easy - both syllables have sounds which exist in English, but one of those syllables has two possible sounds in English and people generally go with the wrong one. It's a bit annoying but doesn't bother me much. It does bother me when people are rude, I had to stop telling people 'it's Welsh for X name' as so many would say 'that's better, I'll call you X instead' (no you bloody well won't). Most people aren't rude though and I get a lot of compliments on my name, and it's a real ice breaker. I like that it reflects my heritage and wouldn't have wanted a more popular name.

However, I don't think I would like it if I didn't have Welsh ancestry and had to explain that no I'm not Welsh, no I don't speak Welsh, no my family aren't from Wales. I can see how that got old very quickly for you OP.

Just change it to Sophie, or Charlotte, or Sarah or whatever you prefer. People will quickly get used to it.

My children feel your pain. Im an American living in the American South but both sets of my Grandparents were Welsh. The 2 kids that have or will have the most problems are Rhys and Gwynna add on to the very,very German surname......Yeah those 2 have issues.

My mum is Welsh and I was given a variation on a popular girl's name ( I'm glad she didn't go for one of the less common names with a really Welsh name ) which has certainly become more popular in the last 10 or so years. I always have to spell it out to people but I have to do that with my surname as well as that's more unusual. If you really dislike your name so much there's nothing stopping you from changing it!

My mum changed the name she was know by at 50. It won’t be as hard as you think.

I have a long Welsh name that is constantly mispronounced.. Or pronounced correctly by people who then expect me to be able to speak Welsh, and I hated it for years. However, it has really grown on me recently (I'm old enough to have adult children) and I'm actually quite glad to not have a run of the mill name. I must admit that I gave my own children very short and easy to spell names though!!

There's a thread on here about Myfanwy being pronounced so that it sounds like Tiffany. Once seen impossible to forget .

I have a name I don't like, which is not uncommon in England for women around my age, but is spelled in the way very rarely used in England and much more commonly used in France. There is nothing French about my family.

When I remarried, I adopted my maiden name as a middle name and my husband's last name as my last name, as I wanted to keep my own last name (which is common in Wales, incidentally). I had to do a deed poll for this. I don't like my first name and I don't like it being spelled wrong by others, who usually write down the wrong first letter just as I'm telling them how to spell it. Reading this thread has made me wish I'd had the nerve to change the whole lot at once, but I have no idea what first name I would pick for myself!

I know many older people that use different names to ones they were given. A friend of mine also changed his name in his 50s as he'd always hated it. Told everyone the new name and that was that. Took a few weeks to get used to it and many slip ups but now 2 years later it's just his name.

Just change it...

Ive never liked my birth name first name... Easy to spell, but I loathe it....

Only a couple of people call me it... Most other people have called me a competely different name for years....

I just don't identify as a person with this name.... Not intentionally...!

This is really depressing in terms if suggesting expectant parents name their children only very standard names and non from their culture. I have a name from the country I grew up in and no longer live. It's not said how it's written but I love it. People make and effort and it's interesting.

Conversely my dad has a very English name. Currently on the rise for boys. Always suggested on name boards. He loathes it and always had.

So who is to say if you give your child a really standard name they'll be forever grateful. I think easier middle name In case they hate it is probably safest.

I digress OP change the damn name. You're never too old and life is too short.

This should be a warning to all those parents on here who love to give their children 'unusual' (made up) names that they will have to spell out every single time for the whole of their lives.

Late last year, I asked the company PA to book some flights for me and my team. 2 of us had different names, that we are known by, to our legal names. All our work stuff, email phone number etc is in our known name.

It's not that unusual

It's not just the unusual names though. My daughter is Eleanor, traditional name, even on the top 10 list at one stage. You wouldn't believe how many different spelling combinations people come up with, and they are rarely correct. I had wanted to call her Elinor, but thought she'd spend her life correcting people, I should have just gone with it!
I have a really common name, with a far less common pronunciation, it changed to the common pronunciation in infant school, because I refused to correct people, so my mum gave up.

How do you pronounce Heulwen?
Is it Welsh for Helen?

Heulwen is sunshine same roots as the Greek Helen

I mean heulwen is literally sunshine too in welsh. As well as Heulwen the name.

@Draculahhh .I am married to a German with a difficult name.(even to the Germans) .Also with an Umlaut Ö sound. Have to spell it /pronounce it all the time .My maiden name is an unusual Irish name which nobody outside Ireland gets.My kids have simple short first names which they love.Makes it easier for them.

Do people feel the same about Irish names or is it just Welsh ones?

@Sleepycat91 my maiden name is Dutch and I hated it growing up but now I’m married and I have a typical English surname I actually miss it .

There's a big difference between calling a child a completely made up name, or something like Chair and giving your child a Welsh, or any other cultural name.

I'd rather have a Welsh name like Tesni, Alys or Eira than a random made up name.

I intend to give all my DC Welsh names, I wouldn't do that if I hadn't had a positive experience of having a Welsh name in England. It's not a given that someone with a Welsh name won't like it. It's also not a given that someone called Emma or Charlotte will like their name - some may well wish they had a more unusual name.

Lots of people in the UK don't have Emily and Thomas type names. I know people with Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Italian, German, Ghanaian, Nigerian and Japanese names.

However, I would caution anyone from using a name from outside their culture as it's very easy to get them wrong. I know someone whose parents gave them what they thought was a Welsh name they heard in Wales, but is actually the Welsh word for wheel!

I have a friend Buddug, pronounced Bithig

With the dd pronounced as in that, not in thin. It’s the Welsh form of Boudicca, and could be considered the Welsh form of Victoria as the word buddugol in Welsh means victorious.

@lsfhs my mum changed her name in her late 50s. Even my brother uses the right name now although it took a while (he's always called her by her name, not mum). It is possible!