Initials - how important are they?

[Michellephant]

Hello everyone,

I've touched on this before re: initials but I just want to get everyone's opinion in one place.

I plan on giving my girl a middle name that begins with a vowel. This means her initials spell out a word which is pretty inoffensive - R.I.M.
I don't even plan on using her middle name all the time, it is just a name that means something to me so I want to use it. I have also thought about giving her two middle names which would make her R.I.C.M.

I have been very secretive about the name to people who ask me because someone always has an opinion. At work someone mentioned they had a relative with the first name I intend on using though so I told them that it was the name I intend on using. They call their "R", "R J" so they asked about the middle name. When I told them they liked the names together but then when I said the surname beginning with "M" he pulled his face and said "rim".... and clearly didn't like it.

Now I don't know really if it is an issue or not? I can't imagine primary school children finding anything particularly offensive about it and I don't really expect her to be talking that much about her initials anyway at school? Maybe high school might think of "rim job" but I still don't think many would even think of that?!

What do you think? Are these initials a problem?

I'd change it, unless you want her to go through her education as RIMmer (which could even start - albeit innocently - in primary, if kids still watch Red Dwarf). It's a very common euphemism now, so she'd be very lucky to avoid it!

Can the name also be written with a Y or an E at the beginning, by any chance? (I really hope so, as the initials REM would be a wonderful gift to bestow upon a child .)

Fraid I thought of rimming too. I'd add the second middle name.

I also come from a profession where initials are used all the time, so I'm more sensitive about them than average.

I would avoid RIM, yes, but RICM or RCIM would be unremarkable.

I would avoid rim but with another middle name I cant see there would be a problem.

On another note....a friend of mine has the initials :

F U C-K

First, middle and double barreled surname. She is mortified on a daily basis.

Yes think very carefully! My poor DD is an ARS !

LOL at FU C-K - I bet she hates "initialling" documents..

My mum was PIS until she married my dad. She hated it so much (lots of mocking at school apparently) she refused to give me and my brother middle names.

We decided not to give my son the initials LSD!
However my initials are RED and before I was married were REF. It's never been a problem. Oh and I never use them, just use RD for initialling things.

We avoided Sofie Imogen, which we loved, as it would have spelled SIN. On the plus side, my cousin was EEK which she thought was fab as a kid

See initials only matter if they're hilarious.

RIM is not that bad. You have to think of rim jobs to make it bad. Simon Henry Ignatius Thomson or Carole Una Natalie Thomson are just a terrible idea.

DH's surname is such that it combines with the first initial to make a whole range of brilliant words. DS2 has a great initial Surname combo.

unless you are spelling out T.W.A.T or A.R.S.E I think you are overthinking.

My son's initials are LAD !

My initials are nob, it has never been an issue

My initials are SHIT.

S H I T.

No one teased me but plenty noticed it.

I would use another middle name for RIM, I think.

Lots of email addresses at universities and in workplaces seem to be variations on [email protected] or [email protected]. (I'm actually praying that your surname isn't Morgan because that would make things even worse.)

Kids are bored and chat, we all knew each others middle names/initials at school.

It's definitely the rude ones that are a problem, I know people with the initials KID and LAD and everyone just thinks that's sweet, if they notice at all.

I wanted DD to have an M middle name so her initials would be MMMM. I was vetoed.

Still if you leave her middle name out her initials are still MMM which I like.

My initial are RPM - great!

if not obsolete

My mind made the association, sorry.

And, tbh, I did think about initials when naming my dc.

I had to travel on the bus with a shoe bag with F.O. embroidered on it. For years. Made me hyper cautious on the initial front for the DCs.

My Dad, God rest his soul had a secretary in his office with the initials VD, poor girl had to initial as well and not sign.

DS2 has the initials ACE (chosen deliberately) - which has proved a rich source of user names for me: acehouse, acemoney etc etc. He isn't a baby anymore though , so perhaps time to update my mn name

I think the initials RIM are very likely to be picked up on. If you like another name enough to add a second mn then I would strongly suggest that you use it.

before I married my initials were VD, I was teased terribly in my teen years and had no middle name. My Mum realised when I was 5 and came home from school with a clay pot and my initials stamped underneath. At work memos were sent round with initials much to my embarrassment

I know of someone with intitlals AIDS