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!

Badger?

Anonymous wrote:

Our kids attend a very diverse HS and each year, at graduation, I am awed by one teacher who flies, properly and respectfully through them. Turns out, when they come to pick up their grad ceremony tickets, he asks for it sloooowly, makes phonetic notes for himself, and even records the ones he struggles with if he's not already had them for the core subject he teaches. To see kids who've had their names butchered for years....have it spoken like it should be for their moment of glory is

Our kid's university did this at commencement. REALLY well done.

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!

Tiger.
I know a boy with the actual first name of Tiger.

I have a Margot who sometimes is called marGOT or Margaret, but she doesn't seem to care and just corrects people (early elementary, so still time for her to hate it).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers especially need to get it together when it comes to names. I teach high school, and recently wrote down a kids name in front of her - common enough name, unique spelling. Her face absolutely lit up "you spelled it right!! Teachers NEVER spell it right!" It's not that hard to learn a name and spell it correctly. I also always ask if I'm pronouncing it right, and write it down phonetically until I remember it correctly. Basic human respect.

Our kids attend a very diverse HS and each year, at graduation, I am awed by one teacher who flies, properly and respectfully through them. Turns out, when they come to pick up their grad ceremony tickets, he asks for it sloooowly, makes phonetic notes for himself, and even records the ones he struggles with if he's not already had them for the core subject he teaches. To see kids who've had their names butchered for years....have it spoken like it should be for their moment of glory is

DP. Love hearing this. Our DD just graduated from college, and we all decided that the MVP of the day was the Dean, whose job it was to say the name of every one of the graduates as they crossed the stage to get their diplomas. There are a lot of diverse names. DD told us later that the Dean not only asks students to send him their pronunciations, he also asks them to send in audio or video recordings via email so he gets names correct.

Side note, but I was so tickled that our DD, who like me, has four names (first, two middle, last) specifically asked them to use her WHOLE name. They had her listed as Firstname OneMiddleName Lastname, which commonly occurs on forms etc and doesn't bother any of us at all, but it touched me that she spotted that in advance and wanted her full name said as she crossed the stage. Grad mom tears popped into my eyes....maybe that was just the sun, but I don't think so....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a very common name spelled slightly uniquely. It’s nothing but an annoyance. My kids have traditional but not super popular names with one established spelling.

+1, a name with one standard spelling and pronunciation was a criteria for us. I have a name with five or six common spellings and pronunciations, and especially as it’s become more popular to use non-English spellings/pronunciations in the US, it gets confusing.

DP. My friend who is from the US (and not even remotely Latino!) and her Spanish husband (as in, from Barcelona) intentionally chose names that would work in both Spanish and English pretty fluidly. Think, Gabriel for a boy.

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!)

Anonymous wrote:I have a very common name spelled slightly uniquely. It’s nothing but an annoyance. My kids have traditional but not super popular names with one established spelling.

+1, a name with one standard spelling and pronunciation was a criteria for us. I have a name with five or six common spellings and pronunciations, and especially as it’s become more popular to use non-English spellings/pronunciations in the US, it gets confusing.

Think of all the Elvises born in the 40s.

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.

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's since passed so I guess it's okay to say it was this one.

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.

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!

Wolf?

I am a female middle name user (since the day I was born). It was always a little annoying in school. Mary Doe? I go by Jane my middle name.

But then I got married, and took my husbands last name. And then I got divorced, and went back to my birth/maiden name even though my divorce was 15 years ago, my legal name, and the name people knew me by during my marriage (and I occasionally get mail to) are:

Mary Doe
Jane Smith

And we are the same people! I swear!

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!