Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t love my first name because everyone knows I’m a Gen xer. Wish I had a more classic name, but it’s not like I’m changing it or anything.

A common Gen-X’s name would be like Valerie, Deborah or even Jackie.

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

I'm with you!
Valerie is a Boomer name.

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.

I don’t love mine, which is plain, was outdated even when I was born, and doesn’t lend itself to nicknames.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Anonymous wrote:I don't like my first name, plain and outdated even when I was a kid

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.

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!

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t love my first name because everyone knows I’m a Gen xer. Wish I had a more classic name, but it’s not like I’m changing it or anything.

A common Gen-X’s name would be like Valerie, Deborah or even Jackie.

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 wrote:I have a friend who got divorced over a fight that started over their child’s name. The girl ended up with Catherine, which was way too plain for one parent. I think that the other parent wanted Paige. They only had one child. The father said that he hated being Tom since it was so common.

I’d rather not have the name Shirley and changing it now would be hard for me to adjust to also.

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.

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.

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.

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t love my first name because everyone knows I’m a Gen xer. Wish I had a more classic name, but it’s not like I’m changing it or anything.

A common Gen-X’s name would be like Valerie, Deborah or even Jackie.

The most common Gen-X name is Jennifer.

Or how about Meredith or Heather??

I loved Meredith and Heather (born in 1977 so those were the names of everyone’s cool older sisters) but DH wouldn’t have it. There was a brief week during my pregnancy when I lobbied hard for Mallory. No luck. I ended up with a Samantha, which was as far as I could push him with 80s and 90s names.

Meredith, Mallory and Samantha are all really GREAT names! Heather is okay (I grew up with a lot of Heathers).

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t love my first name because everyone knows I’m a Gen xer. Wish I had a more classic name, but it’s not like I’m changing it or anything.

A common Gen-X’s name would be like Valerie, Deborah or even Jackie.

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.

I love my name and my siblings names too. My parents did well.