Joanna

[adamant-turtle.livejournal.com]

When I was born, my parents decided to name me Joanna Barbara, because they wanted names that were spelled and pronounced the same way in both English and Polish -- and there are only a handful of female names where you can do that.

I've never been crazy about the Barbara (even more so, because I went to Catholic school K-8, and had a nun named Sister Barbara, LOL!) but I never minded the Joanna. It was actually pretty common during my childhood, as I grew up in a Polish community (there were three Joannas in my grade alone, and a fourth a year younger...)

As I've gotten older, I've met a few other Joannas, but it doesn't seem all that common among the general (non-Polish) population. And in today's world of Jaydens and Ashleighs, I can't say I've heard anyone name their baby this at all.

For some inane reason, people have this need to get into all sorts of wacky variations. I'm a journalist, and I can't tell you how many press releases and things I get, addressed to "JoAnn" or "Johanna." If I actually HAD that H in my name, I'm telling you, no one would ever put it in :-/

The other thing I'm not all that crazy about is the nickname "Jo," which people seem to want to use automatically, and always reminds me of either Jo March from "Little Women" or Jo Polniaczek from "The Facts of Life." (Maybe that's why I grew up so tomboyish? LOL)

Anyways...any thoughts? (If you hate the name Joanna, go ahead and say so...I won't go and stalk your LJ or anything...)

Comments

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

I like Joanna, but I like it with the H. My only issue with the name is the various spellings of it. Unfortunately, that's something we do tend to run into (It's one of the things I really dislike about Kate and Kate's one of my favorite names).

[krosp.livejournal.com]

I would think Kate is a fairly standard name to spell. Most names have some kind of a variation, but at least Kate has one spelling that reaaally stands out as the obvious one - very few people would presume it was spelled otherwise. Unlike my name (Claire) which is very often spelled Clare or Clair....