People who use names that bear no relation to the name their parents chose for them

[Quizeerascal]

It seems that people spend a lot of time trying to come up with the perfect name for their baby which makes total sense. But then there's a fair few adults (or teenagers or children) who go by a name that bears no relation to the name their parents spent ages choosing for them. Like you could spend so long picking a name and your child could throw a complete curveball.

I knew someone who went by a shortened version of her surname (e.g her surname was Miller and she went by Milly) even after she was married and took her husbands name to the point where people just assumed Milly was her real name. I also knew a girl who went by her middle name but then shortened it to an unusual shortening although I think her parents insisted on calling her by her 'original' first name. I also knew a guy called something ordinary like Gary or Martin but went by Rosco, again to the point where people believed this was his real name.

Any other interesting name-changers, how would you feel if your child changed their name?

I wouldn't give a monkey.

People have different ideas of a perfect name. And not everone suits their given name.

I tried to give DS something versatile, but who knows? He may change it.

I think a lot of the -Mae trend of names will be dropping the - and changing the e to a y as soon as they're old enough.

I was a single parent, gave DD 3 names.

Changed all of them and double barrelled our surname with her never involved Dad - after she has been in touch with him and he dumped her after is wife had a DD.

It hurts!!! It's also a very pretentious name...

That does sound painful Random

I think you're right TheLightSide, a lot of teens/adults do seem to drop -Jane etc so the -Maes probably will too

Would be fine if my daughter wanted to change her name. I hate mine so I would understand.

My parents named me Muhammad eurgh, I changed it (and my middle and surname) a few years ago.

I like my sons name, I won’t be upset etc if he chooses to change it when he’s older. But it probably would take some time to get used to a different name.

I knew a Gertrude (born in the 80's) who went by Trudie; a Burcu (bud-ger) who renamed herself "Becca"; a Bec-Wan who renamed herself Rebecca; and a Winnie, who named herself Cassidy.

I knew a Sharon who renamed herself Sharn pronounced Sian.

My sister has a completely different first name on her birth certificate to the name she has been called all of her life. I have no clue why our mum did that and we could never get to the bottom of it. Also, her birth certificate name is very run of the mill but the name we know her by is not.

Think: birth certificate name Alice
Name she has been called since birth: Magdalena

I knew a Karen who pronounced her name Kahn, just to stand out amongst all the other teenage Karens at the time.

I only found out that my old friend's husband was actually called Andrew on the day of their wedding. Everybody, even his mum, called him by a completely different name.

I changed my middle name. I still have the same initial but I changed it because I was named after a family member that has been very horrible to my family. My parents said they don’t blame me for changing it. I just didn’t want to be “linked” to that person.

I know a few people who do the diminutive of the surname thing but in those cases if happened very organically. I think they both have very common first names and at school or university or in a sports club they were called by their full name to differentiate and it became just their surname and then became a diminutive like Milly.

The scenario above wouldn’t particularly bother me. Presumably they’d still be their actual name to their family.

My dad was named Frederick John Albert, but for some reason his parents called him Jack.

@ritascornershop Jack is a nickname for John

Sometimes it's not planned, we call DD a completely different name to what's on her BC.

@YesIReallyDoLikeRootBeer - but it seemed weird as John was the middle name so why not the nickname for Fredererick? It always felt like he had four names (outside the family he was called Fred).

My dd 3 renamed herself.. She refuses to be called the name we call her even at nursery or Dr's etc.
It's a completely different name to what we had named her and I'm hoping it's a phase.. A year long phase...