Does anyone else not like their name?

[thetruthshallsetyoufreebutfirstitwillpissyouoff]

I mean your own name. Putting this in the baby name topic as not sure where else it would go. But I'm starting to come to the realisation that I don't really like my name - it's not hugely common but not 'out there' so nothing objectively wrong with it, but it feels quite jarring to me when someone calls me it. I'm not going to change it - I'm late 30's, two kids, career, friends, family so it would just confuse things. Anyone else? How do you get over it?

Me too @thetruthshallsetyoufreebutfirstitwillpissyouoff

My name is uncommon and very posh. Inappropriate for a child but I grew into it. The comments when I was much younger were as hurtful as they were tiresome. "How do you say that?, "very unusual", "where's it from?" It's a Scottish name.

How I wished I'd been called Susan.

Paradoxically my daughter was given a simple, classic name and disliked it when she was younger, wishing her name were more unusual.

Perhaps the grass is greener.

In Starbucks I always say my name is Anna - I cannot face the spelling or mispronounciation and it gives me a zing of rebellion, aged 65

I want to know what all these names are!!!

Used to hate my name and now I just dislike it. I hate that it can’t be shortened. It’s a normal name that doesn’t really show my age.

We knew a couple who deliberately chose names from the Top 10 for all their children. I don't mean that they chose names that they liked, aware that they were very popular and thus would be in the Top 10 - I mean they looked at what the Top 10 names were and then restricted their options to those.

It actually seems cruel to me, to deliberately choose an unremarkable name - for the sole purpose of making your child run of the mill.

Hate my name. The full name sounds pretentious and I can’t remember the last time I was called it. Had the piss taken relentlessly at school by all the normal Emmas and Sarahs. The common shortening is more often used for a man so I’m constantly mistaken for one before people meet me. There are other shortened versions which I prefer, but at almost 50, it feels too late to change.

I always wanted to be Amy.

My name is very common but I love it. The popularity of it never bothered me. After all, it’s popular because it’s such a nice name. I do wish I’d been given a middle name though.

That’s pretty much my parents!😀 Their main ambition for us was to be unremarkable. When I won a scholarship to university that got a few lines in the local paper my mother in particular was absolutely mortified that it might look as if we were ‘getting above ourselves’. They nearly lost their minds when DH and I gave DH an unusual name.

Yes, I wonder what tiny proportion of women with that name weren't given it because of the song! Even older given the nature of the song: about a bitter romantic break-up.

The woman about whom the song was written didn't even have that name herself - it was her first and middle name smashed together.

Lol I AM called Susan and I've never, ever liked it and I'm 71 now so I'm not going to change it! It would never have occurred to me way back in the 60s etc that an ordinary person like me would do something as exotic as changing their name! Although I did hanker for a while after the name Rose.
Anyway I still don't like it or even identify with it, if someone uses my name I feel weird and like that person doesn't exist.

Hate mine too. It was exceptionally popular at the time and I don’t like my second name enough to use that either.

Wow. I totally get not wanting your child to become some arrogant brat who looks down on everybody else; but why on earth you would actively want them to not achieve things that would make them stand out and be admired for their skill and efforts?

That's so sad to think that, each time you worked hard and accomplished something to be proud of, you'd feel your parent was sitting on your shoulder whispering that you really aren't anything special at all. Was/is your DM quite an 'average' and unremarkable person herself, and she was jealous of the idea that her DC might amount to anything more than that?

I hate my full name, I go by a shortened version of it but whenever I have to use the full version I always get comments about how unusual it is. I longed to be a generic Emma or Michelle when I was at school. I wish I'd officially changed my name when I moved away for university but like the OP I feel it's probably too late now so I'll just have to make my peace with it. I'm making sure I get cremated when my time comes so there will be no headstone with it on though.

I hated my name, I did a deed poll name change in my 20s and went with the name that suited me better

My name is boring and dated and was boring and dated over sixty years ago when I was given it. It was also my mother’s name. My parents (who I did love dearly!) had no imagination or creativity. They often said they couldn’t be bothered to give me or my siblings middle names 😂. We did have quite an unusual surname so maybe they just wanted something boring to go with it. I wanted to be called Roxanne after the wife of Alexander the Great. A Persian princess. Later there was the Police song I suppose.

I have never liked my name - Naomi.

It's got three different pronunciations (Nay- OH- me / Nigh-OH-me / Naya-me) and my parents use the least common one, which means hardly anyone calls me my "real" pronunciation. When I use my real one (Naya-me), people generally don't pick it up and often don't recognise it, or find it really hard to pronounce for some reason (why? It's straightforward I think?) and I feel a bit precious correcting people on what I guess is a subtle difference. As a result, I now default introduce myself using one of the common pronunciations (Nay-OH-me) and this is what most people know me as. This is a bit rubbish, as its like living under an alias I don't much like, but also means I feel very disconnected to my "real" name as hardly anyone uses it.

It's also constantly misspelled. People panic about all the vowels or something and start randomly inserting 'i's and adding 'e's.

Can absolutely never get an off the shelf mug/keyring/pencilled with my name on it either, to my perpetual childhood disappointment in service stations and at beach resorts.

It's also got very a dreary biblical/hebrew etymology.

I live in London and people often assume before they meet me that I am Black or Jewish (I am neither), which isn't a big deal but is annoying to have the "Oh! I was expecting..." conversation again.

It is more widely used now, but when I was given it in the mid 70s it was very unusual in the semi-rual home counties I grew up in, so I always felt as though my name was weird in a class if Sarahs, Claires, Emmas etc.

Phew! That was quite cathartic actually!

My name is Debra. Hated it, no one else had it I got teased. Debra the zebra when we were little and dizzy Debbie when I was older ( later diagnosed autistic, my social skills weren’t great)

I wanted to be called Kelly, Laura or Rachel.

still don’t like it now tend to go by Deb but it’s not a pretty name. I’d prefer Chloe, Elisha, Sophia which ate lovely names but not 80’s names.

I really dislike my name too, it’s an old lady’s name. Every tv show that has a character with my name is old and whiny. But I’m 52 so have learned to just inwardly cringe and put up with it.

I always give a fake name in Starbucks too because people usually can't understand what I'm saying or how to spell it.

I enjoy choosing a different lovely name each time.

I love the idea of choosing who you want to be each time!

But it's also sad when any parents give their children a name that will constantly have to be spelled (sometimes multiple times) - as that's kind of the central reason why we have names in the first place. Otherwise, we might as well just each be assigned a serial number at birth and be done with it.

I get it if there are different cultures/countries/languages involved - but surely it's a basic that you choose a name that will be easily understood and able to be remembered and pronounced in the country where the child is likely to grow up?

I don't care if people spell my name wrong because I don't like it!

Mine is as dull as they come. I wish I'd chosen a new one when I retired and moved to the countryside, but with all the house move stuff, I didn't think of it.

Is it Claire by any chance? There were six Claires (and four Sarahs) in my class at secondary school!

I think if you change your name to something very similar that would be easy to adapt to so rather than go from Karen to Isobel for example, Carrie would be a great alternative to Karen.

I don’t hate my name but I have definitely never liked it. It’s dated. I never knew anyone else at school with the name which made me feel odd and unpopular. I wanted to be Debbie or Lesley. But my brother has a far worse name. His has given him a real disadvantage in life and he detests it. It is truly awful. (Suits him)

I hate my unusual name. I always have.