Do you dislike your first name, or do you regret the name you chose for your child?
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Anonymous
| I love my name and my siblings names too. My parents did well. |
Anonymous
Never knew a Valerie close to my age. I have always hated my name, even as a child: Kimberly. I go by Kim and people often ask how to spell that… WTH? And there were 4 Kims in my grade at school, so I was known for years as “Kim T.” Named after Kim Novak. Just totally unappealing to me. |
Anonymous
Recently I was listening to a podcast with a host named Mallory who mentioned in passing that she hated her name and that made me sad because she seems like a good and interesting person and I don't want her to have this negative feeling about something so personal. But I think a lot of people wind up hating their names and I'm not sure what the key is. The majority of names are fine. Obviously when I gave my DD her name I really hoped she would never hate it. So I just wonder how you avoid a person hating their name. Is it about picking the right name or just avoiding certain types of names or is it really about raising them to love their name through positive reinforcement or something. I think some people wind up hating their names for random reasons you couldn't predict like getting teased for some random reason or developing some negative association with their name for a totally unforeseen reason. |
Anonymous
| I love my kid’s name, but it is constantly misspelled and mispronounced, and I can’t let it go. I wish I had chosen another name. Younger child has a more common name, but people know how to spell it and pronounce it. Much better. |
Anonymous
| Happy with my name and my daughter's(Sarah) but for some weird reason I always wanted to call her Sammy Joe when she was a baby (and I'm not southern...) I'll also note that she couldn't pronounce her R's until she went through speech therapy so she did not like her name as a child because she had a tough time saying it. |
Anonymous
| Hated my name growing up. I wanted a common name, not a weird old lady name. Then in my late teens I started to love it. Now old lady names are trendy so I see it more often than ever before in my lifetime. |
Anonymous
| Just don't completely butcher the spelling of common names.The other day I was talking a mom (for my job) and I mispronounced both of the kids' names. Aadonn and Lehiamm. It was Aiden and Liam. |
Anonymous
I’d rather not have the name Shirley and changing it now would be hard for me to adjust to also. |
Anonymous
What? I'm a Gen-Xer, and I don't think those are particularly common Gen-X names. Most Gen-Xers were born in the 70s. The top girls names of the 70s were: Jennifer Amy Melissa Michelle Kimberly Lisa Angela Heather Stephanie Nicole Jessica Elizabeth Rebecca |
Anonymous
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I am ambivalent about my name in terms of the way it looks and sounds. It's fine, whatever.
But I think it really suits me and so I'm kind of fond of it. It's a name that used to be masculine, had become gender neutral by the time my parents gave it to me, and is pretty solidly feminine now. It's simple--easy to spell and pronounce--but is not commonly used, and so I never knew another person with my name until I went to college and in a 30+ year career, I've never had a colleague with my name. None of my kids' friends' parents have ever had my name. In every social circle I've ever been in, I'm the only person with my name. I honestly love that. When I named my own kids, I tried hard to find a similar type of name--well-known but not well used. I succeeded with DC2, but wildly missed with DC1, whose name became very popular over the course of his childhood. But no regrets--I still love both of their names. DC2's name in particular is terrific and suits them perfectly. |
Anonymous
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I don’t hate my name but not once have I thought I like it or love it. It’s just… fine. I rarely meet someone with the same name, though I share it with one of the main characters in Sex & the City.
I love the name I gave one of my kids, and like the other name but don’t love it. I liked it though and my husband really liked it. I think it suits them, though they tell me they think it’s a name for little kids and not for grown ups. Which is wild because I (personally) know more grown ups with the name! I think it was #100 or so their birth year. Naming kids is hard! |
Anonymous
Are you me?!? This is EXACTLY what I would say about my name. It has zero personality, no nickname options, and I'm guessing it peaked in popularity in the 50s... I was born in the 70s. My middle name is better, and I would have preferred being called that. |
Anonymous
| I don’t love mine, which is plain, was outdated even when I was born, and doesn’t lend itself to nicknames. It also has absolutely no family connection or religious significance. Basically my parents picked up a baby name book, skimmed through 1000s of possibilities and chose that one. My last name was also very staid and serious, so it just was a leaden lump of a name. |
Anonymous
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I don’t love my name. I was born in 1980 and the name is gender neutral, which was not a thing back then. I hated that no one could tell from my name that I was a girl. It was also not classic and was more “trendy” although not very popular.
I did a 180 with my kids - they have classic, traditional names with obvious gender identification. They have never complained about their names (they are teens) so I assume they like them. I still love the names and wouldn’t change a thing. I would never in a million years give my child one of the trendy, made up (IMO) names parents are using these days, like Paisley or Beauden. I can’t even say it with a straight face. |
Anonymous
I'm with you! Valerie is a Boomer name. |