has your child's name caused problems in their life?

[Anonymous]

Not really problems but it’s an unfortunate name imo - didn’t envision living in the US. Has 3 spellings: one is very common for black people, one is very similar to an old fashioned English name, and the third one os what my son has. He decided to go by a three letter American nickname early on and I can’t blame him. He bonds really well with older older people thanks to the same nickname, and never anyone by the same name in his grade or even school lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not really problems but it’s an unfortunate name imo - didn’t envision living in the US. Has 3 spellings: one is very common for black people, one is very similar to an old fashioned English name, and the third one os what my son has. He decided to go by a three letter American nickname early on and I can’t blame him. He bonds really well with older older people thanks to the same nickname, and never anyone by the same name in his grade or even school lol

Forgot to add that his middle name is not really a name for the same reason- weren’t planning to live in the US so went with the home country tradition - I will never forget the bewildered look of a person who enrolled him in K!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The names Kristin, Kiersten, and Kirsten come to mind. I have a cousin called Kristin and the other two are coworkers and I can't keep them straight in my head EVER. I don't think Ive once called them by the right version of the name.

I have friends named Kira, Kyla, Kaya, and always have to think hard about the name of whichever one I'm about to see.

K

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Our child’s name is Ulysses (we call him Uly) and you would not believe how many people are totally flummoxed by the name. “You-ee? Julie?” It doesn’t faze me, but we warned that what you think may be a totally normal name might in fact be foreign to the average population.

cmon, you must know that Ulysses is not a common name and the average non-college educated person would not be familiar with it.

I think Ulysses is a pretty familiar name albeit uncommon in the modern era. I’d have no problem with that. Now being told the child’s name was Uly at a noisy playground without context, I’d have no idea what you were trying to say. And I know someone called Yui, so I might guess that.

Ulysses is a name most English-speakers know, but Uly is definitely not. I can't imagine that it would occur to me that it was a nickname for Ulysses - I would be picturing Yuli and would think it was a foreign name I didn't know.

Agreed, I think it's just that the nickname is short and vowel-heavy and not familiar.

If I were a parent to a Ulysses (which I think is a fantastic name) I'd just tell people "His name is Ulysses, Uly for short." Yes, it's a bit more to say, but not overly cumbersome and then people won't get confused. I too might think you’re saying Yuli or even Juli or Ooly. We live in a very international area and I hear names all the time that are new to me.

You’re right, I will probably do that from now on. His teachers have always known immediately what Uly is short for and his friends never have trouble. He’s a little cutie pie and his little friends always say “bye Ulyyyyy” after school, so no harm.

In an urbanized area, Yuli is more common than Uly and maybe even Ulysses nowadays.

All are rare, though.

Wikipedia's list of famous Ulysseses nearly dies off around 1930.

[Anonymous]

I had a friend in college (early 90s) named Brenda Walsh. She said her name—and her life—were perfectly fine until Beverly Hills 90210 came out.

Her freshman year in college was an endless parade of, “Oh, like on 90210?” and “Ohh, sorry Dylan dumped you!” or “Hi, Brenda, where’s Brandon?”

In other words, you can never tell what might make a name problematic. Ask any Karen you know!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I have a double first name that is just uncommon enough that when introduce myself, people sometimes assume I am saying my both first and last names.

I know a kid named Mary Chandler (as her first name.) I immediately thought of her when you said this.

My daughters have a friend named Mary Wright as her first name. Sometimes they just call her Mary, sometimes it's M Dub. I wonder what she'll end up going by later in life (they're in elementary school now).

You all live in the South, don’t you?

[Anonymous]

My name was the most common name given to my gender for over a decade. Every class had at least two of us, and teachers were always wanting to assign one/some of us a nickname because of it. Or they would always use a last initial, or our last name, which I hated. I did hate having the most common name, and wished I had something more unique. But I have come to like the name ok, and it suits me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I think my own name is going to be the next Karen in a few years .

I became sure of this when the entitled and insufferable millennial or Gen Z title character of a popular Netflix series appeared. The negative stereotype for white women of my generation will mirror the criticism of that title character in a few years. As an expat, I already have people mentioning that character when they learn my name, as if that's the quintessential American women now. Maybe I'll have to go by my middle name in 10 years.

Kaitlyn?

nope

Impaired!? #

[Anonymous]

Is this real like ur life is so simple that u can take time to see who's cool or unique names??? What about "individuality???

[Anonymous]

Pride? Loyal? Solid! Vouch for 'em! ??? Life is really short to compete with another.........just saying

[Anonymous]

One of my parents was Cuban and I have an extremely spanish-sounding first and last name. The problem is I never learned Spanish growing up because the non-Cuban parent did most of the child rearing and for whatever reason I never picked up Spanish. Whenever a native speaker learns my name they immediately assume I am fluent and start speaking to me in Spanish and I find it kind of embarrassing because I feel I *should* be fluent with a name like mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIL's name reminded me of luncheon meat. She wanted me to give it to my DD and I put my foot down. Even though nobody in her generation would probably make fun of her name, i wasn't too sure about the 21st century. We went with her very common middle name instead.

Way to stand up to Yologna!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS's name is an animal. So far the worst that has happened is some minor confusion among certain younger kids in daycare/preschool.

He's in ES now and thinks his name rocks. It also suits him perfectly!

Wolf? Tiger? Elephant? Cat? Dog? Iguana? Hamster? Koala?


I am wracking my brain trying to get there... Cheetah? Puma? Cougar? Lion? Mouse? Must be Wolf. Like Wolf Blitzer

Tiger or Phoenix. I know 2 kids with those names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The names Kristin, Kiersten, and Kirsten come to mind. I have a cousin called Kristin and the other two are coworkers and I can't keep them straight in my head EVER. I don't think Ive once called them by the right version of the name.

I’m a Kirsten. It’s been a pain. When I have to give it over the phone I say “I’m going to spell it out, one letter at a time, before saying it” - that’s truly the only way to avoid it being misspelled because people will just spell it how they want once they hear it.

I also have a coworker named Kristen and we spend our days forwarding each other’s intended email back and forth.

My kids have easy, phonetic names.

[Anonymous]

Names don’t “cause problems”. People who use your name to judge and shun you are the problem.