What do you think of your own parents' taste?

[essmtee.livejournal.com]

How does everyone feel about the names they were given? If you don't like your name would you ever seriously consider changing it? And finally, of course, what would you change it too.

I'm Sheila Marie. When I was a child I used to think I had a really weird name because I'd never known any other Sheila's. When I got into high school there were a few others but it's never been terribly common. Probably around the same time I thought my name was weird I use to really like the name Dianna. If I was given the choice to change my name as a child maybe I would have gone with that. I have no desire to change my name now though. I guess I wouldn't feel like myself if I did. It would be nice to have a somewhat less common middle name but at least it's not something horrid that I'm embarrassed to tell anyone.

Comments

[bohemianvegan.livejournal.com]

I am Christine Ellen. My mother and father were looking at a booklet of baby names and they saw my name on the page at the same time and said it out loud together. "Ellen" is my mother and great-grandmother's name.
I think my name is good. I found that my name ranked #41 in 1980 when I was born, but I haven't seen too many Christines.

[fangirlism]

I've been stuck with my name for so long, I wouldn't change it. And I like it! (That, and any names I like are more along the lines of names I'd name my kids, versus names I'd want to change myself.) When I was younger I wanted to be Veronica or Victoria because the names "sounded cool" in my 10/11/12-year-old mind, but I hate them now.

My name's Erika Megan (b. 1986), BTW.

Edit: Since people are talking about siblings, I'll mention mine too. The second oldest is Leah Catherine (b. 1989) and I love my sister's name way more than my own. XD The youngest is Kayla Marie (b. 1992) which is way too common and cliché, despite us probably meeting one or two more Kayla/Caylas in my sister's whole lifetime. I've probably met more Erika/Ericas XD

[tryyingtoevolve.livejournal.com]

My brother is Michael Paul (b. 1984) and I LOVE his name. I adore the name Michael, and Paul is after both of my uncles (it's my dad's brother's first name and my mom's brother's middle name).

My name is Lindsay Rebecca (b. 1987) and while I grew up feeling alternatively negative and indifferent toward my name, I sort of like it now. Most people call me Linds and my brother calls me Lin, and both names fit me well, I think. The only things I'd change are (a) I'd spell Rebecca as Rebekah (the actual spelling) and (b) I would prefer to have a family name as a middle name. I like Margaret, after my grandmother. Lindsay Rebecca sounds better, I think, but I would love to share a name with my grandma. Instead, I plan on giving that name to my daughter, and calling her Meg.

[sevensevenfour.livejournal.com]

My name is Lindsey Renee'. When I was younger, I hated it. I didn't feel like it fit me at all. When I was very young, I wanted to change my name to Samantha because it was the name of my great aunt's dog and I had never heard it before. I thought it was so cool. Then, when I was a little older, every time that I'd play dolls with my sister, I'd tell her that my name was Taran. I have no clue where I came up with that name or why I liked it, but I was obsessed with it. Now, however, my name was really grown on me. It is definitely the name I think fits me. However, I can still see how it didn't fit me as a child.

My sister's name is Jessica Lea. I really don't like the name Jessica, but at the time she was born ('82) it was super popular...so I guess they weren't the only people who liked it. Haha. I do think it fits her, though. I've always thought she was a Jessica.

[fangirlism]

My mother's middle name is Margaret, which is why I found it pretty cool when I learned Megan (my middle name) is a nn for Margaret in Wales.

[home-to-me.livejournal.com]

My name is Margaret Mary, after my mother. My dad asked when I was born if they could call me Lillian and my mom said "if we have another girl..." They didn't. Strangely, my first niece's name ended up being Lilliana (picked by her mother, so it was weird because she didn't know). I would have preferred to be Lillian. *shrugs*

I go by Sidny, and have since I was fifteen (so, like nine years now). I wish I'd spelled it differently when i started using it, but I definitely feel like it fits me. People say I look like a Sidny/Sydney/whatever, as opposed to a Margaret. I'd legally change my name, for sure, but keep Margaret as well. I was thinking Sidny Margaret Mary would be okay.

[illy-borgia.livejournal.com]

I was named after my mother and my grand mother in that order so I eneded up being: Monica ELoisa. I used to hate my name when I was younger now I love it =D. My mom wanted to call me Kimberly D: So I am glad she was knocked out and my father named me. Though I do like to play around and change my name with people I don't know... I do it all the time.

My older brother is named after my father, Edgar Omar jr. but we never call him Edgar so I have never truly seen him as one. I always call him 'bro' or 'E

[seksimaggie.livejournal.com]

Maggie is such an old lady name, I used to hate it so much. But now, at 19, I'm quite an old-lady-type, I think, so maybe that's why I don't hate it anymore, or maybe I'm just used to it. I do like the fact that it's not common in my age group, yet it's a real name. I remember in school, someone would say "Brittany" or "Ashley" and half the girls in the hall way would turn around, and that never happened to me.

I would prefer to have Maggie short for Margaret instead of Meaghan, even though my mom had her reasons in choosing my name, it's such a long silly story and it's not really worth it, plus I love the name Margaret. The only other name I'd like to have is Mary Jane, because my grandmothers are Mary and Jane and my mom almost named me that but thought the drug reference was too much, but I just think it's gorgeous.

[illy-borgia.livejournal.com]

wow that was weird... anyhow...

'Eguita' so I don't know, never truly see him like Edgar. My younger brother is named after GENERATIONS in our family and his name is Eduardo Emiro, but we never c all him that either, he is mostly called 'Eddy' to us. Lastly thwe little sister is named Irene Mariam, after my mother's grandmother, Maria Irene, My mom didn't want to give her the name Maria because she'd be among the zillion Marias out there so she opted for Irene and Mariam just sounded prettier. I call her too many things though... Nene, Nena, Riny, Renee...

[jordle.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of my name at all, but I'd never change it because I think that would be disrespectful to my parents. They chose it and they gave me life, plus it's who I am whether I like it or not.

[farting-nora.livejournal.com]

I wish my parents knew how to spell. They got a bit kre8ive with my first name and spelled it Jaymi.

[taraemily.livejournal.com]

I'm Tara Emily and I love it, I love how it flows and I think it suits me. I've always really liked my name, my mum has good taste. My brother is Rowan Matthew and again I love it.

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

I love my name-- Meredith Catherine. My first name is after a friend of my mother's. I like that it's unusual without being weird. My middle name is my mother's first name, as well as my great-grandmother's name, and speaks of my heritage. People sometimes have difficulty with my name, but not very often. I did get a lot of crap for it when I was living in France.


I like my brother names, but neither are quite my style. The younger of my brothers (I'm the baby) is Jeremy Christopher. Jeremy is nice, but I used to prefer Jeremiah, until I met one I didn't like. My mother has actually told me she wishes she'd named him Jeremiah. Jeremy isn't quite as uncommon as my name, but uncommon enough that there weren't many others when we were growing up. My dad calls him bullfrog, which I think is adorable and I've started calling him this lately. I like Christopher so much that if my daughter had been a boy it would have been her middle name. I wouldn't use it as a first name because of it being my brother's middle name and I've dated two Christophers.


My eldest brother's name is Darrell Maurice and I just honestly can't say what I think of it. We never called him this growing up so Darrell just feels weird in my mouth. He went by D.J. until college and now goes by Darrell-- I think this was more of a professional move, but he never really liked D.J. and now only my parents and my brother, my husband, and I call him this-- his wife's family gets a huge kick out of hearing us call him D.J. He is named after my father, which is another reason I'm not too hot on the name-- I'm not too close to my father; my parents divorced when I was an infant and it was weird having a brother named after an absent father. I hope he doesn't carry it on with his sons. And I've always thought Maurice was a weird name. My mom was going to name him Christopher, but my dad changed his mind after he was born.

[jintana.livejournal.com]

I hated my birth name and I did change it.

[zante.livejournal.com]

Thats so creepy! My big sister is Leah Catherine! (b1983)I love her name more than mine too! lol! (I'm Sarah Amy - b 1985)

[zante.livejournal.com]

I am Sarah Amy (b1985) My sister is Leah Catherine(b1983) and my brother is Daniel Lawrence (which I absolutely fucking love!) (b1981).

I don't like Sarah, as it is so terribly popular, and so not unique so mostly I go by "Sera". I'd change my name, but only swap so its Amy Sarah.

My parents names are Susan Elizabeth and Lex Allan (I LOVE Lex with a passion!)

[fangirlism]

Whoa that is totally creepy! Cool, but creepy. XD

[waitingonsunday.livejournal.com]

I'm Stephanie Marie. I like the Marie part, but I'm not a big fan of Stephanie. I became reconciled to it over the last decade or so, since most people have come to call me Steph.

I'd never consider changing it, mostly because that's how everyone knows me and I have a feeling most of them would continue to call me that. Seven years ago, I moved pretty far away from home, to a town where no one knew me. If I were to do something like that again (not likely), that's the only situation in which I can see myself changing my name.

I have so many favorites, it would be hard to choose a new one. When I was little, I wanted my name to be Victoria. In high school, Sara. I still love both of those names, but they're not me. Right now, I'd probably go with Nola for a first name and keep the Marie for the middle.

[th3-unicorn.livejournal.com]

I'm Jessica, and I love my first name. My parents did a very good job with giving me a name that fits both my cultures (american and italian).
Also, it enhanced my "foreign" side, having always lived in Italy, where the name has been used only for the last 2-3 decades and not frequently, and I liked that.

However, I totally dislike my middle names, Ann Arline.
Ann is what all women on my mom's side have as a middle name, and Arline was my maternal grandmother's name who had passed away I don't if it's because I dislike those names, but now I'm strongly against naming kids after family members.

Names should be a personal thing. We're already stuck with last names to "carry", no need to have more!

[googlebee-ohmi.livejournal.com]

My name is Lauren Marie Juliana. (b. 1987)
I was actually never going to be Lauren. I was going to be Rebekah Juliana Lynn until literally two days before I was born and my parents were watching Casablanca. It is my parents favorite movie and they got to talking about Humphrey Bogart and then my dad literally was like, we are going to name her Lauren if it is a girl. (for those who don't know Lauren Bacall was married to Humphrey Bogart). So therefore my name was changed... I wish they had stuck to the original.

my older sister (b. 1981)is Kelly Catherine Marie
my little sister (b. 1990) is Kristen Terese Michele
and my little brother (b. 1993) is Jonathan Joseph Edward

my sisters daughters are named (b. 2000) Caitlin Abigail and (b. 2008) Elizabeth Marie.

I do not think our names are terrible... I just wish that they had to stuck to the name they wanted to call me in the first place.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I'm Jerika Layne. I don't really love my name; I would prefer Layne without the Y, but I was named after a family friend. Jerika is hard to deal with, because I love having such an uncommon name, but sometimes I do find it embarrassing the number of times people pronounce it wrong.

No, I don't have a nickname. No, my parents did not name me Jerika so that they could call me Erika (which somebody asked my parents once). I'm also not too too convinced that Jerika is going to age well, but it works well for me now. It's different, I think that it's kind of fun, and I love that I don't have the same name as everybody else.

Even if I did hate it, I don't think that I could ever see myself changing it. I mean, it's who I am. That's what everybody knows me as. It's what my parents chose to name me.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

Oh, Lex is awesome. I can only think of Lex Luthor, so it makes me love it even more.

[sageharper.livejournal.com]

I've never liked it. There's nothing inherently wrong with the name; it just doesn't suit me, holds no sentimentality, and I feel far more comfortable and 'me' being called something else.
Which is nothing against my parents, we don't really have compatable styles, anyway. So it was luck of the draw; none of the other options really do it for me either.

It took a long time, but I've come to really appreciate my middle name [Clair]. My father chose it after my elder cousin Claire (who we've ended up closest to). But he changed the spelling to make 'unique' and 'not French'; then ended up with something even I couldn't spell, and is techically a French word.
It's so well intentioned yet ridiculous I couldn't pass it up.

They did a better job with my brother. Richard was their mutual all time fave name; it suits him really well, and for his peer group is unusual without being ostentatious. Their other choice was Matthew, which isn't so insipiring. His middle name was my pick, so I can't complain.

Odds are I will end up changing my name. I've considered it for years and feel confident in my choice, so really it's more a case of biding my time with the legality.
To an extent I have changed it already; as my friends know me as Sage anyway. And the other name I'd take has the same root as my given name, so that'll help.

[charlotteattack.livejournal.com]

My name is Charlotte Irene. My mom chose less common names for my older sister and I (Claire and Charlotte) and my dad chose more popular names for my younger sister and brother (Natalie and Zachary). My dad liked Claire and Charlotte because of songs - "Planet Claire" by B-52's and "Charlotte Sometimes" by The Cure. All of our middle names are family names (Margaret, Irene, Anne and Simon).

I used to hate "Charlotte" when I was young because it was so long, and people never understood what I was saying when I told them my name, ha!

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

My name is Alison Sandra, my sister's name is Sarah Louise. Our middle names are after our grandmothers. Nothing too exciting, but I love both of our names. I think my parents did a really good job naming us. My sister sometimes doesn't like how common her name is, but at least it's a really nice name. I always liked that Alison was common enough so that I heard it sometimes, but never so common that I was always bumping into other Alisons.

If we were boys, we would have been Alexander Andre and Paul Mark (or Alexander Mark and Paul Andre, I can't remember). I don't really like Paul, and Alexander is kind of boring, but they're pretty nice names.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

You guys have really nice names... I love Charlotte Irene!

[singhappy02.livejournal.com]

I'm Kristin Nicole (b. 1986) and I've gone back and forth between whether I'm indifferent or negative towards it. I've gone by "Krissie" for the past 10ish years, which started as a nickname because my Riding Trainer had another student that she hated named Kristin and couldn't make herself call me the same name as the monster child. So thus I was Krissie. Now that I'm older and I'm attempting to enter the professional world I'm going by Kristin again...but half the free world knows me as Krissie so we'll see.

My siblings (get ready, most of you will probably hate the matchy-ness of our first names)

Kelsey Elizabeth (b. 1990)
Cara Danielle (b. 1994)
Claire Suzanne (b. 2003)

It's hell when one of our parents tries to call us by the correct name, all the "K" sounds get jumbled. I'm called the wrong name the least often simply b/c I was the only one for 4 years, and I've not been living at home for the past 4 years.

[sunleap.livejournal.com]

I have a cousin named Michael Paul! He was born in 1980. He gets called MP a lot because his dad's name is Micheal too.

[xdontxyouxwish.livejournal.com]

first, let me tell you that my parents are crazy immigrants that are very proud to be living in the united states. my dad immigrated from italy when he was little and my mom immigrated from vietnam during the war.

with that being said, i was named after the 4th president of the united states, james madison. yes, that's right, i'm madison isabelle (b. 1984. i hate my name the majority of the time because i feel like i'm the oldest maddie that anyone knows. i still hate it and i wished it reflects more of my vietnamese heritage because that's the side i most identify with.

my baby brother was suppose to be jefferson and my baby sister was suppose to be kennedy (see... crazy) but i think something kicked my parent's asses and so they ended up being brandon kyle and grace marie.

i love both their names, especially my brother's mainly because i named him.

[kilobites.livejournal.com]

I'm Natasha Cecelia. Natasha was the only first name my parents could decide on, even though I'm not Russian in the least bit (pretty much completely German, and a little Irish and French). Cecelia was a special name for my mom because her best friend throughout her childhood was named Cecelia. Every baby name book said it was spelled Cecilia but my parents liked it better this way, and so do I.

I really like my first and middle names, I hate my last name, but that's not really their fault. My mom kept her last name when my parents got married so I used to wish I had that name instead of my father's name, but either way, both those names suck.

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

i think my parents did a decent job.
noah alexander (1983)
hana jane (1987) - hana =/= hannah

[emtotherescuee.livejournal.com]

What was your birth name, and what did you change it to?

[karatelunch.livejournal.com]

I'm Antonina Marie (1989). Marie was my grandmother, Antonina was my grandfather's mother, and I'm called Nina. I love my name.

[karatelunch.livejournal.com]

and: my siblings!
Carissa Louise, 1991 (Louise is a family name)
Gabriel Morse, 1993 (both are family names)

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

I'm Catherine Cory and I love my name. I go by Cathy, and I like that, too, whenever I think of Cathy Earnshaw as opposed to Chatty Cathy.

I think if I could change anything about my name I would go by Kate rather than Cathy, or else I'd make it so I was the only one in my family. (I have an aunt, great aunt and cousin also named Catherine, so I go, in my family, by "Little Cathy" which I'm not so fond of. But it beats "Big Aunt Cathy.")

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and I was born in 1981. My sister (1987) is Kristen Elizabeth.

[cherryboomstick.livejournal.com]

My name is Ashley Rae and I dislike it because I've known over 10 other Ashley Raes and even more Ashleys... I'd really like to change it... probably to Lene because I love Scandinavian names and I've also heard it's derived from "Charlotte" or "Charlene", which my grandmother wanted my mother to name me because my great grandmother's legal name was "Charlie" (though she always called herself Rita... her middle name) and she was murdered in 1979.

I'd like to change my middle name too but I'm not sure to what yet. Catrin has been growing on me lately, but we'll see if that love lasts. ;)

[girlsteve.livejournal.com]

I'm Steve Jacqueline, born 1986, and a girl. Suffice to say, I hated it when I was little - I really wanted to be called Lisa, for some reason. Now, in spite of the confusion it continues to cause, I wouldn't change it for the world. Especially when I consider that my Mother had Storm, Friday, Angel and September on her list :D

My Brother's name is Che Joseph, after Che Guevara and my grandfather. I don't know how I feel about the political connotations (we grew up in kind of a socialist house, can you tell?) but until I was old enough for that to make me feel uncomfortable, I always thought it sounded nice...

[silentyrs.livejournal.com]

My parents liked alliteration. My name is Karen Denise. Kelly Jayne is my sister and Christoper Carl is my brother. We were all born in the early 1980's. I've always liked my name and the only time I wanted to change it was when I was 10. For some reason, the name Violet seemed cooler to me as a ten year old (Violet was my mom's pick for my name. Dad won out.)

I also have 3 half siblings born in the 1970's:
Billy
Hilary &
Kimberly

[christies-world.livejournal.com]

I'm Christine Elise but everyone calls me Christie (b. 1988)
and my sister is Katina Elizabeth (b. 1986)

My little brother is Michael George (b. 1996) and his initials are MGM haha.

I especially like my older sister's name, she was named after our great-grandmother (it's Greek).