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.

Anonymous wrote:Has your child's name caused problems in their life?

Has having an awkward / ill-fitting / uncool name, or any kind of name that someone in showbiz would feel compelled to change, harmed your child in detectable ways?

A little. We were so worried about avoiding a popular name and wanted to give her something that really made her unique and all that it has accomplished is bewildered looks, repeated asks for spelling and some comments about its antiquity. Wish we had just done Madison or something that everyone knows. So does she.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Names lead to discrimination on every venue in life. You should pick most generic vanilla names to fit well in the society where kids are being raised and will live as an adult.

As someone with an ethnic name, I totally disagree. Gave my kids names from my culture as well. It's important to me. We are going to get discriminated against at times regardless, it's not like a generic name will suddenly turn us white.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My name is pretty ugly and I share it with the heroine of a popular movie, and while this has not caused me "detectable" harm, I think my mom made a mistake. I know kids will find any way to ease other kids, but I was horribly, horribly teased for it a lot and moreover I just really don't like it. A lot of people like how retro it is, but that doesn't do me any good in moments such as my husband trying and utterly failing to say it in a sexy way because it cannot possibly be said in a sexy way (sorry to bring that up when you're naming your kid).

To my mom's credit she gave me a middle name that is pretty cool that I could use as a backup but I could never get it to stick.

Harriet?

Matilda?
Hermione?

Anonymous wrote:Someone in my extended social orbit just named their baby Mckinnley McGovern. Poor kid is a walking law firm.

I know someone that named their kid Hyson Wheat. I always say it reminds me of an agricultural product.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I let my ex pick our third child's name and I hate it and wish I hadn't. It's Isabella. She's one of like, 400 Isabella's in her class. Plus, I don't even like the name.

Ok. But has it actually caused problems for her? Because while I understand you don’t like it, it’s not really in the category OP is talking about, of a name so bad you’d have to change it.

Also, I’m sure it feels like it’s way too common to you, probably because you wanted a less common name than your ex, but statistically it’s not that common, despite being a popular name. There’s a lot of diversity in names now and it’s unlikely your DD will struggle with being one of a bunch of Isabellas. I know kids with even more popular names (Charlotte, Emma, Sophia) and none of them ever complain about this issue.

NP. Agree with you, PP. And I'd point out to the person who disliked Isabella as a name because it seems common -- often, when one picks a baby name, the parents have NO idea that it's going to be common among kids in that cohort. We chose a very traditional, simple (not embarrassing or problematic) name for our DD and we knew no one who had a kid with that name---but then we didn't have exact peers who were also having infant DDs around the same time, either. When DD hit preschool age we found out it was one of the most popular names for her age group but couldn't have know this when we named her. We weren't sitting around consulting "popular infant names being given right now" websites or whatever. So when you realize, your kid's name you thought was at least not super common is indeed the name quite a few of her classmates will have, well, it's not always like you could have known. (In our case the name is DD's great-grandmother's name so we would have used it, no matter what!)

We had the EXACT same experience. Since I have a pretty popular 70's/80's name (think Jennifer) I was trying to avoid this. I wish we had gone ahead and given her the unique middle name we chose as her first. We chose that because I knew someone with the name when I was a kid and I always loved it. It's also the name of a beautiful place we love (although the place is spelled differently). Oh well.

We overcompensated with the second daughter. She has a very classic, serious name that you hear from time to time, but it's not at all popular. She adjusted by giving herself a gender neutral and punchy nickname. Good for her.

Anonymous wrote:My kid doesn’t have a middle name, we barely agreed on a name, and it’s not in our culture to have a middle name, so we didn’t really think about it.

Kid since elementary would have preferred to have a middle name and I wish that we did do it. But it is what it is now. I told them it’s an opportunity to choose their own middle name at some point, if no middle name continues to bother them.

I'm a no-middle-name 52 yo. In fact, I wasn't even named at all for a few weeks because my folks couldn't decide on one!

When I married, I started using my maiden name as my middle name and then (ex)dh's as my last. This was in the late 90's so no real id-I just had it put on my d/l that way. As time went on and stuff is more automated, many forms require a middle name or at least initial. I was glad to have my maiden name in the middle then.

Speed ahead 25 years and moved to another state and had to get a new d/l and they're real id, so my identifying documents didn't match. That was fun So I had to get new SS card to get a new d/l. 5 years later I proceeded to get divorced...at this point I just left my name as is, rather than return to my maiden name, because it really helps to have a middle name on paperwork.

Moral of my story is-you might want to help your kiddo have a legal middle name by adulthood.

I’m in my late 40s and my parents gave me a very ethnic name. Although I was born here I still get asked when did you first come to this country. Of my 3 kids one has a more ethic name. It’s been more difficult for him than his siblings.

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

Perhaps it's a celebrity inspired name like Bear or Otter.

Anonymous wrote:

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!

I am curious about this one!

Hoping for Ibex.

Bear

Names lead to discrimination on every venue in life. You should pick most generic vanilla names to fit well in the society where kids are being raised and will live as an adult.

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I, personally, don’t care for gender neutral names. The one that comes to mind is Taylor.

If you are named Taylor, be prepared for me to call you Tyler 50% of the time.

Thanks! I do the same thing to a friend of my daughters. I don’t know why I confuse them, but I do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Salome.

She wanted you? You and your husband? But really, how uncool.

DH didn't have a preference on the name, which was unfortunate as he couldn't see the problem with MIL's name. I just couldn't unsee it.