To resent my parents choice of name for me?

[Blaengwnfi]

This is a rant - apologies.

I’ve always hated my name.

No one can pronounce it. Not even my father or siblings. It was always read out incorrectly at school and the other kids would laugh at me. It gives me major anxiety having to introduce myself.

I use my middle name professionally but it doesn’t feel like “my” name. I feel so angry with my parents sometimes for burdening me with this name.

Parents - please think before giving your kid a weird or “unique” name! It could really mess them up…

@Etak123 , Jack is used as a diminutive of John, but it's from James/Jacob originally.
The french for James and Jacob is Jacques. James is derived from Jacob

@Blaengwnfi
Just out if interest are you from a Blaengwynfi? My mum was born there, I used to go and stay with my great aunt and uncle or cousins in the summer! Have some great memories of there! I love Welsh names. X

@Etak123 interesting. The Welsh version of John, Sion, is pronounced like Sean.

It’s amazing how many names come from the same one

Jack is a synonym of John (also the pet name of John) and “rarely also an anglicized form of French Jacques”

Jack
Etymology
From Middle English Jankin, a popular pet form of John; rarely also an anglicized form of French Jacques (equivalent of Jacob and James). It can be also used as nickname for Jacob. Though the name was originally a pet form, it has become more of an independent name. Equivalent to John + -kin.

en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Jack#Danish

That’s cool 😎 I just knew a bit because I know people who are related with a few of those names but I just looked up the rest x

You don't have to make a drama out of it, just change it.

I'm a teacher and have great sympathy for you. I've already had a new pupil this year who has a traditional Irish name and I felt certain in how to say it until she told me it was pronounced in a totally different way 🤔. I've had to write down the phonetics to get it right. Why parents do this, I have no idea but she'll have this for the rest of her life.

It's not pronounced exactly the same. The ô isn't an 'au' or 'aw' sound.

I can't explain it clearly @KimberleyClark and @Etak123 , but if you consider the name Siôr, it is pronounced like Shore with a rhotic r. Siôn is the same, but it's pronounced Shone rounding the same as Shore but not Shown.

sounding not rounding

My name dates me to a decade. The only recent uses of it are Julian Clary’s dog and an awful song.

There are plenty of classic names that are not common, eg Edmund, Geoffrey, Cecily, Joanna. They simply aren’t in fashion right now. I feel sorry for the Jaydens and Kaydens who’ve got names that are going to date very badly.

I have a difficult (outside Ireland) Gaelic name thanks to my Irish mammy and it always gets shortened to 'Gee'. Uncle Manus visited one year and came to the pub with me and my friends. Irish readers will understand why he pissed himself laughing every time someone said my name!

FWIW, I bet your name is actually really nice. I know that makes no difference when you hate it yourself but please remember that children can be cruel little buggers and the adults that they grew into probably wouldn't dream of laughing at someone like they did back then. I doubt they'd find it funny at all.

There is something I'd like to know actually, how do you pronounce the name Eleri? I've seen it written so many time and always think it looks like a lovely name but I've no idea how you actually say it.

I bloody love a 'name guess' they are right up there with CF threads for me and you are straight out of the trap with a blinding Rumpelstiltskin - inspired.

Eleri - ell-air-ee, emphasis on the second syllable.

@RobertaFirmino , El-ERR-y

The only recent uses of it are Julian Clary’s dog

@thegreylady Fanny?

@Blaengwnfi I changed my name, unfortunately I gave myself a somewhat awkward surname because I used my middle name as my surname. So if people see it on a list they often call out for 'Clare Susie' (for instance) rather than 'Susie Clare.' Or I even had a receptionist think I was so insane I must be getting my own name wrong. I also shortened my first name to what I use informally, rather than the full when-you're-being-told-off-at-school name.

You could have a think of names you might like. It'd feel like yours because you would be choosing it.