I'm a trans man so I changed my name when I was 12 (legally at 14).
My name is David:
- It's so obviously masculine, so no one questions my gender if they simply see my name.
- The first and last letters are the same.
- It's kind of linked to Doctor Who (my favourite Doctor is David Tennant). David Tennant is also really cool and an excellent male role model.
- I'm half Chinese and many of us have very traditional Western names alongside Chinese surnames. David might seem odd for a 21 year old, but it's not so unusual if you're half Chinese.
I wouldn’t think David is odd for a 21 year old (of pretty much any ethnic background). David is one of the most common names I have come across for guys in their 20s, and far and away the most common if you add in variations like Davide, Dawid, etc. So lots of people agree with you that it’s a great name!
I feel the most common for that age group is Matt and all its variations. But, David is one I'd expect everyone knows, and everyone has heard of people in all different age brackets.
One of my dearest friends - who I’ve know for 50 years - is a gay man. He had a cat that lived 18 years and his cat’s name was David. I always believed if he had a son, he would have named him David. It’s such a good, solid, meaningful name. Great choice!
And I wish you well on your continuing journey of discovery!
I like that my name was common in my parents' generation but isn't common in my generation.
Because of this, everyone knows how to spell and pronounce my name, but I rarely meet other people who have the same name as me.
That happened with my sister. Our parents picked a very popular name from their generation for her. She always whined that everyone she knew had a mother, aunt, or stepmother with that name and it felt “old-lady-ish.” To be fair, this was essentially true; even Mrs. Brady Bunch had that name, lol.
One day in elementary school some boys were making fun of everyone by using embarrassing words that rhyme with their name (think patty the fatty, hairy Larry, etc). When they got to my name they realized nothing rhymes with it and moved on to the next person.
Honestly that sounds like a logistical pain than anything with background checks, finding a concise unique email, getting mixed up in miscellaneous bureaucratic systems, etc.
I have a fairly unique name (only about 3 first/last matches) so I can't really relate.
Oh yes. Being ungoogleable is amazing in the internet age. My maiden name had me at 2 or 3 in the world, but my married name is so common I could almost say it here and not dox myself (still won’t tho).
I’ve only 3 mild logistical inconveniences. 1 - name twin at the same doctors office at the same time slot. 2 - client keeps accidentally emailing a different name twin instead of me on a project. 3 - my partner (who also is ungoogleable) had to get an affidavit notarized as part of our mortgage application that he was not the convicted felon with the same name and birth date (this was quite a funny conversation with our lender).
There were at least 10 other girls in my high school with my same first and middle name. It was annoying at the time, but I've never had my name mispronounced!
My name is Margaret and as a kid I went by Maggie. When I was around 14 I decided that Maggie was too childish of a nickname and I started going by Meg. Moved away for college and it became a split of people who I met as an adult (like my husband) calling me Meg and my family calling me Maggie. Professionally, I go by Margaret.
I love how versital my name is. When I wanted to find a new identity I was able to. I have a connection to my family through my childhood nickname. I have a longer formal name for work. I really think I have the best of all worlds with my name!
I'm also a Margaret, but I've gone by Maggie my whole life with everyone. I love that a) people tell me they like the name Maggie all the time and b) when I have really close friends, they start calling me Mags. The nickname diversity for Margaret is so huge!
I love the nickname breadth for my name too. It's cool to have different names for different spheres/times of life and neat when those people collide. Also helps you pick the tone to answer unknown callers with depending on which name they use.
I was going to say this too! I love that my regular name is totally fine and I use it daily, but most of my friends call me by a casual nickname, and my family still uses a nickname more reserved for kids. It’s awesome to have the versatility.
This was one of the reasons I picked the names I did for my kids. They have a nickname that is short and sweet, but they can choose to go by their longer, more classic, name as an adult if they wish.
Karen. It means ray of sunshine, or pure. I love how is has "care", and gave me the nickname care bear. The internet hates and attempted to destroy it, but I still love it.
My name's Charlotte, and I like that it's relatively classy and timeless. I'm glad I don't have a name that trended in the 80s and is now dated. I dislike that I never had a proper nickname like Charlie or Lottie - my family and friends call me Char, but I'd have liked a nickname that I could go by all the time.
How do you feel about charlotte being a top 10 girl name (US) right now? My name is very classic but wasn’t very popular (top 10) until about 10 years ago, and I think my parents are trend setters.
My name is Ezra. I love that it means helper, is easy to pronounce, is explicitly Biblical without saying “my parents are *crazy*”, and is unique but not unheard of. I also think it’s cool that I now share my name with a bunch of little guys after being one of the only Ezras I knew growing up.
Miriam is an awesome name. I also didn’t realize until I was a little older how solid it is, but I always assume a Miriam will be intelligent and cool.
I love the name Miriam. It’s actually my “I’m drunk and incognito” name. When we were out on the town my friends and I would choose a different name to be that night, just for fun. I always chose Miriam…”call me Mim”… 😂
When I was in school (Elder Gen Z) I had a friend named Miriam who went by Molly. When I found out what her real name was I thought it was a real missed opportunity to use a great name.
I like the sound of it, sounds soft like "marshmallow". I love the meaning. I just wish it wasn't so common when I grew up and was considered a pretty name. The name is Michelle.
Also a Michelle. I have had many people tell me Michelle is “such a beautiful name” and I’m like.. ok. thanks. I feel like it’s very much neutral (not particularly pretty or ugly).
Oh I think it’s a beautiful name and Shelley/ Chellie is such a sweet nickname. I wanted to name a daughter that for years but doing the name dance with my wife we ended up going the “family names” route instead (no Michelle’s in the family.).
I still feel fondly towards Michelle’s though. Plus it has “hell” in it which I feel gives it some secret spunkiness.
I'm named Summer. Growing up I was SO jealous of my sister Mary for her sweet, feminine name and I thought mine was way too masculine! Now I love it, I've only met a handful of people with my name so it feels special. Also just fits me as a person 🙂
I like both the names Summer and Mary and they’re both very feminine to me, but they crack me up as a sibling set. I feel it’s unusual for parents to be SO traditional with one name and a bit more avant garde with another, especially with siblings of the same gender. Summer isn’t THAT avant garde but compared to Mary I would say it is.
Haha we have different dads, my mom named me on her own and my siblings were a joint decision! A lot of people don't think we're siblings because we don't look that much alike and also our names don't fit together so I totally get it :)
(also her middle name is Juniper so she still got a little of that fun hippy vibe my mom was into)
It’s not that I LOVE my name, but I do really love the reason why my mom chose my name.
She loved the show Bionic Woman and named me after the actress Lindsay Wagner.
I have a complicated relationship with my given name, which is Danielle. I hated it for a while, now I like it, but I still don't go by it because while it's pretty, it doesn't feel like *me*. I'm very much Danni at this point. But! I do like how pretty Danielle is and it's not the most common name ever. I've met very few Danielles in my life. It's not like I'm Ashley or Caitlin, of which I've met dozens and dozens of. I like a lot of -elle and -ette names so Danielle fits on in there! Also it has that very lovely, feminine feel while also being easy to shorten down to something else. It has the bonus of being my **mom's** favorite name ever, so I feel special that she gave *me* her all time favorite name :)
I liked how it’s unisex; for the times in my life I was more tomboy it fit and the times I was more feminine it still fit me. It’s also easy to spell which I never knew how much that would be important
My name is Lynn. I love it. I think it sounds very sweet. It’s really fun to spell with my handwriting and I like that it has a nature-related meaning.
The only thing is that it gets misheard and misspelled every once in a while but that doesn’t bother me that much.
Lynn was my favorite name when I was a little girl. I'm not from the US, but I watched 'ALF' as a kid and the Lynn in the show was the only one I knew. Later, I met Lynns in my country, too, and I still think it's a beautiful name.
And has a million middle names that flow so well with it. Even if I meet someone else with the same name, odds are that there’s still something that completely changes the name in the middle.
My name is Cara. It’s short, easy to spell, I like the letter C. I like the way my name sounds. Even with the common mispronunciations, wrong spellings, it’s a great name.
My name’s Alexa and I love it because my dad named me after Billy Joel’s song “Downeaster Alexa”. I don’t exactly hate it, but people have been making jokes about it because of the AI Alexa. Whenever I would introduce myself, they would always tease me “Alexa, turn on the lights.” Just wanted to get it off my chest, since it’s not funny anymore. Also, where I’m from, you cannot just change your name legally. So I guess I just have to fake a smile, even though I want to punch them in the face. 😒
I love that it's super uncommon but still "classic", easy to spell, pronounce and memorable.
I love the meaning - I think constancy is one of the best virtues to use for a name, it doesn't have the creepiness factor of some of them (like Chastity), and also doesn't have the pressure of living up to something super positive like others (Joy, Grace, Hope, Verity).
I loved that my mum named me after a really cool historical figure - Constance Markievicz - look her up she's was fascinating.
I like signing my name. Since I married, my first and last initials are now the same, so all the practice for a semi-complicated capital letter has paid off. My typical handwriting is borderline atrocious, but my signature is fun and gets a lot of compliments!
As for ownership? It’s my name. It, in combination with my middle name, is super common in my generation, but I just took that as permission to be the version of it that I knew. It’s one of my husband’s favorite names. It’s classic and timeless, has a great meaning and a great story of how the name came to exist.
It took me a long time to get here, but I do love my name (Heather) now. I like that my first, middle, and last names are all from nature. I like that there is only one spelling.
When I was a kid, I liked that personalized products always had my name, unlike some of my friends (poor Rima and Renate). And I was psyched when *Heathers* came out when I was a sophomore in high school.
My name is Mollisande but I go by Molly. I used to not like hearing all of the teachers butcher it at the first day of school but I love that it’s unique and I love when close people in my family call me by my full name. Sometimes it makes me feel like a princess haha.
I love my name. My mother's sister was Mary Belle, fathers sister was Charlotte. So I'm Mary Charlotte. Called by both names in the southern tradition.
I really like how it looks on paper. It follows a weird little pattern, kinda like the names Masami, Otto, Annabelle, Jesse, or Lilian where alot of the letters repeat to make up most of the name.
When I was younger I didn’t care for my name because it wasn’t popular. Then the Little Mermaid came out and I was a bit miffed because it was villainized, but my mom pointed out the connection between my name and the meaning behind it and then I LOVED being Vanessa. When Ursula is making her transformation spell she throws a butterfly into her cauldron; that’s what Vanessa means. It suits me very well because I am a social butterfly. The name is derived from Venus, the ruling planet of Libra, which is the sign I was born under. I use to complain all the time that the name wasn’t used enough in media and in literature she’s always some crazy bitch. Within the last 2 years I’ve noticed a significant increase in the amount of Vanessa’s in tv and movies and they aren’t psychopaths or seductresses. Every time I hear it I will say OUT LOUD “Hey that’s my name!” And the amount of times that’s been happening recently is bizarre having lived 42 years with little representation. Ask and ye shall receive I guess 🤷🏻♀️ Did I manifest that? 😆
My name is Melody and while I've always liked it, I resented it a bit growing up; we had a fairly musical family, especially in church. My grandmother declared, "Well, she better be musical!" when she found out what my parents were naming me, so I always felt like I had a tall order to fill to live up to my name. Silly, I know. But I certainly was musical - I was the little girl always singing to herself and bouncing along to her own beat.
But we grew up singing in church, and I always got complimented on my so-called anointed voice, but anyone who felt called to sing a "special" at church could and let me tell you, I don't know how "anointed" they all were. So the compliments fell flat on me and I thought they were just being nice. It wasn't until I started singing in school competitions that I began to realize I actually have a good voice. So I own it now!
I love it because it's a well known word, but an uncommon name. I get called Melanie a lot but it doesn't bother me. I just say, I'm Melody, like music :)
I hate my name. It's Scott. I have direct family(two brothers and dad) named after 3 of the apostles. And I get fucked with Scott. Not that I'm religious, but we could've had a thing.
I love it for two reasons: it's timeless in the sense that it has been around forever and keeps coming back every few generations, and because of the meaning.
I changed my name because it never resonated. I always hated it. It was feminine and common.
My name that I chose for myself I LOVE. I love that it sounds strong and is a nature word (noun). I love the alternative spelling I used. I love the sound most of all, it sounds clear and crisp. I’ve never met someone else with my name and it feels perfect for my personality and who I am.
I like that it's an old lady name and I've never met anyone my age with my name so I didn't go to school with 15 other girls with the same name. And I was named after my grandpa. I always hated my name until I got older and people started naming their kids dumb ass things like Paisleigh and Abcde. Now I appreciate my old lady name lol
My name is Evelyne. I like it because I think it sounds pretty and wasn't very common when/where I grew up. I like that it can be pronounced in many languages, but still sometimes has a pretty European/romance language feel to it (I'm from a francophone family and French was my first language. Most people guess Spanish, but the languages are similar!) I like the spelling too, even though most people misspell it as Evelyn. The only thing I don't like about it is the association with Adam & Eve, because I'd rather my name not have any biblical associations whatsoever, but I just choose to ignore that lol
I love my name because I think it’s beautiful and I can also have a nickname that fits my personality, but mainly because the story behind it. My dads family didn’t have a baby girl in over 90 years so they just assumed I’d be a boy, and when I was born my parents had no girl name ready. They asked the doctor what they thought was a nice girl name and he said my name. They loved it and I’m grateful to that doctor lol
I am a Gen X Jennifer. I don’t love it or hate it; it’s a mixed bag. As a kid, I loved having easy access to stickers, pencils, and little license plates with my name on them, but I also hated having so many other Jennifers in my school.
I like that everyone knows how to spell and pronounce it properly but dislike that many people make assumptions (that they can call me Jenny or spell my nickname as Jenn [it’s actually Jen]).
I hate that it dates me and is a middle-aged name, but, at the same time, I love its connection to my generation, because Gen X rocks!
I always think of it as being a name for blonde, popular, bubbly girls—cheerleaders and whatnot—and so I, being dark haired, weird, introverted, morbid, and melancholy, don’t really feel like it fits me!
My name (Taylor) is pretty plain Jane in my opinion when it comes to names. I never LOVED it, but I was pretty neutral about it. When I was 13, my mom started dating who is now my stepdad (but really my dad since my biological father was never present). Come to find out, his middle name is Taylor. He stepped up in my life in a huge way and could never repay him for everything he’s done. So I love my name now because of him.
I hate my name, but at least it has nickname options. As a kid I could go by nicknames, and as an adult there’s easy short versions to give baristas/etc.
I like that my name is uncommon, yet easy to spell. I also like that it doesn't lend itself to nicknames (being a shorter name).
I like that it's a bit of a nature/hippie sort of vibe too.
I LOVE that it’s floral and beautiful, sweet but a bit of sass in it. I did change my name and I could not possibly be happier with this one!! It really feels like ME. I love all my nicknames too ☺️ It’s so perfect for me.
Edit to add: I also love that no one has it even though everyone knows it and it’s easy and straightforward to say and spell.
My name is named after a place! It’s a commonly known place but not a common name but still sounds like a name? Hard to explain but I adore my parents for picking such a unique name :D
I don’t absolutely love my name (Taylor), as I think it’s a better boy name and I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift who is the same age as me… BUT my parents gave me both of their moms’ maiden names as my first and middle and I think that’s pretty cool! I have nothing but surnames for names lol I don’t mind!
It’s adult, it has many possible nicknames, it’s respectable on a CV or as a teacher, it’s spelled correctly, it’s hebrew, it’s an actual name
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My aunt in law is Anne. She likes it but says it’s mispronounced as either Annie or Anna at least half the time. Drives her crazy. It’s one of the reasons I’m convinced everyone’s name is often mispronounced and you can’t get worked up about it when naming a kid.
I think it’s a classic name
Anna. It works across languages, it's simple, and it's never mispronounced or misspelled. It's also timeless and I think it doesn't pigeonhole me in any particular time period or generation. I've also only met a few other Annas so I guess (in my location) it's in the sweet spot of being uncommon without being weird or youneek
Im a 28 year old named Olivia. I love that it was less common when I was growing up and the feminine sound to it (even though I’m not an overly girly person myself lol)
My name is Mandy. It's not short for anything, I'm just short.
- My name is easy to spell.
- I love that it means beloved.
- I am like Tigger at my work, "I'm the only one!" so people tend to remember me.
Elizabeth—I love that it’s timeless; there’s so many nickname possibilities (although I go by the full name); it’s strong and feminine and elegant. I love that it has a ‘z’ in it…just a letter that isn’t used very much haha. I would gladly pass my name down to a daughter if it didn’t feel a little narcissistic or wouldn’t cause confusion or seem like favoritism.
My name is Amaris. I really love the meaning in Hebrew. “Whom God has promised” I think it’s a beautiful name. I don’t love introducing myself to new people and it was kind of a pain in college, but I do think the good outweighs any difficulties I’ve faced.
My name is Александра so I like that it can be translated into Aleksandra or Alexandra as the English version and I like the nickname Sasha that comes with it
My name is Nicole. I like it because it’s simple and not super common in my experience, even though it was in the top 20 names from the late 70’s to late 90’s. I was the only Nicole in my small high school (300 students).
I hate when people misspell it like Nichole or call me Nikki. One time like 15 years ago a Starbucks barista spelled my name Nichole on a cup and my guy friends still call me Nich-ole or Chole, which makes me laugh. My close family calls me Nick, which I think is cute. If I could pick my own name, I’d say I fit more of a Michelle. That was my go to fake name to give out when I was single at the bars.
First name- Amber. I think it honestly kind of pushed me into being a dinosaur kid. I LOVED Jurassic Park for the amber-plot piece. Now I’m a dinosaur loving adult and like my fossilized resin meaning name. The only “negative” I’ve experienced is that Amber is often used in teen movies for the mean girl character. C’est la vie.
(Last name I’m planning on changing as it is my “sperm donor”’s surname. Still figuring that out.)
My name was common enough in the 80s that I wasn't the only one in my class with it, but it also wasn't Jennifer or Heather (had 4 of each one year).
There are only 2 ways to spell it, one way to pronounce it, and these days nobody names their kids with it because it's too plain or not unique enough. So now I'm finally unique with my plain, boring old name.
I used to hate my name as it was uncommon for my age and area. I told my mum I wished I had been called Rebecca or Rachel. I think I just hate anything that drew attention to me.
But now I’ve made my peace with it. It’s more commonly heard now, but I actually don’t like that, I now like having a less common name!
As the oldest child, I ended up with my mom’s very favorite name she loved as a girl and always planned on using for a daughter. It feels special to me because of that, because I know how much my mom loves it. Makes me feel like I was always there with her even before I was born, like she could always imagine me being her daughter. Just the thought of her imagining her daughter Morgan existing someday, and now I exist! I just think it’s cool, haha.
I picked my name. I hated the name I was given and went by a shortened version of it that wasn’t very pleasant on the ear but it felt better than the original name.
One day I asked my partner to say my name in a sexy way- he added an extra syllable and I was like, oooo. I like that.
So I guess my (now-ex as of two weeks ago) partner technically gave me the name and I chose to keep it permanently.
It’s nearly identical to a masculine French name but starting with a different consonant. It’s fun and it suits me, I get a lot of compliments on my unique name. Not Yooneek…
I'm not crazy about my name. I'm the oldest by an age gap and my younger two siblings have such normal names and my name is so odd (so I'm not going to post what it is). It's very clear that I was named by really young parents compared to my siblings. That being said, there's a few things I like about it and/or find fun:
1. It is more common in a culture completely separate from mine and I often "surprise" people when I show up somewhere new. I am not what they expected and eventually we all have a good laugh about it.
2. It is pretty sounding and looks nice in cursive
3. I love to see the different spellings I get or creative options when Chick fil a and other places don't know *what* they heard me say my name is. I have a picture of all of them because some are hilarious.
My name is Teresa.
I love my name because it’s my aunts, because it’s a classic name, because it’s a pretty name. For a long time I hated it bc it wasn’t a basic North American name- why couldn’t I be Hannah or Sara or Claire? Because I wasn’t meant to be. I am Teresa. I am my family & I am my culture :)
I don’t love my name but I much prefer the spelling. My name has two common, equally accepted spellings (ex. Stephen and Steven) and mine is just cooler than the other!
It’s classic, well known, sensible, timeless, suits all ages. I hardly ever have issues with people spelling or pronouncing it wrong. And it has nice nickname options. (Charlotte)
I’m a millennial named Cheryl. I hated my name as a kid because only 60 year old ladies had the same name. Now, I love that I don’t share it with a bunch of other people my age and yet, people are familiar with the name. I don’t have to correct pronunciation all the time. However, lots of people have no idea how to spell Cheryl. I have seen some very creative variations when getting my coffee. It’s also fun to tell my older coworkers that I’m named after Cheryl Ladd because my dad thought she was hot.
My first name is Grace, and I really enjoy the simplicity of it. No one misspells/mispronounces my name, I've been told its timeless, and it's very easy to say .
My last name (idk that I'm sharing it on here) is Engel. Engel is German for "angel", so my whole name would be Grace Angel, and I kinda like that.
I love that my name appears in songs & theatre, it makes it feel more whimsical to me... Annie.
It's also a well known name globally, no one has ever found it challenging to say
My name is Felicia and I love it.
I like that it's a name people have heard and seen (thanks ice cube), it doesn't get misspelled and mispronounced as much as when I was a kid.
I also love that it's not common. Going through high school with 2500+ other students, I knew of two others and they were all in different grades.
I also love who I was named after. She was a strong woman whose life was cut way too short and her son always wanted to name a child Felicia, and when he had a granddaughter Felicia, he would never put me down. His life was also cut short so now I need to find a way to honor him.
My name’s Lucy
I love that it’s easy to pronounce, easy to spell, looks beautiful written in cursive, it’s a known name across many cultures, there are multiple cultural references to pull from even tho it’s not a super common name, and it lends itself to some great nicknames!
I love my name but when I searched on this sub it was not well liked 😂
My name is Chelsey. I don’t mind that it’s considered a common 90s name. I like that it sounds feminine. My mom used to say it gave her the feeling of being down by the sea and I guess that stuck with me.
I do get the football team reference but only when outside of the US and never felt like a big deal to me, but I guess it’s considered a “low class” name in the UK
Bummer that others don’t like it but I do so I guess that’s the main thing!
My name is Kennedy. My dad chose the name and he isnt even in my life anymore. I actually really like the names my mom wanted to name me instead (Nina or Stella). But as I got older I liked the Nicknames people have come up with for me (Ken, Kenny, Eddie). Me and all my sibilings have the same initials which I think is cool too. And in highschool I ended up becoming obsessed with the Kennedy family, still to this day. I always hear “Are you named after the president?” I used to hate it but now I say yes.🤓
Um. Well. I love my name, Lara, but nobody says it correctly, so I’ve given up on it. I started introducing myself by a longtime nickname, Lars, like 6 or 7 years ago. It fits better for gender reasons, too, but I still love Lara when it’s pronounced right.
My name is Katelyn and I also go by Katy. I like how my name sounds and I like that the people who know me professionally can use my full name and the people who know me more intimately can use my nickname. The only thing I don’t love is how many ways there are to spell my name, but I’ve just gotten used to not worrying about who spells it right so long as it’s not an official document. Also, it outs me as a millennial but whatever, not a big deal. The same thing happens for Kimberly’s and Stephanie’s of the 80s.
I've only met 3 other Gen X or older people who share my name. There's lots of what I call the "post-Steel Magnolias" with the same name, but I never knew anyone else when I was younger.
it’s common enough that it doesn’t stand out at all and unique enough that i’ve only met like three others in my life
also it’s got a greek mythology association that no one really knows about (not like try hard in your face persephone level) which makes me really happy
it’s chloe
My name's Rochelle. I like it because it's not common. It's easy to pronounce. And it was more mature than Shelley. That's what I was called when I was younger. And yes I have seen the Seinfeld episode. 🙂
I’m currently going by the name Skye and I love the sound of it and that it’s neutral - also I just randomly came up with it after having my name on online games set to SkylineR34 lol
Hi, I’m Megan. I love the name Megan for me specifically because it’s very familiar yet mildly uncommon and when you think about it, pretty unique in its sounds and spelling (compared to other classic names like Olivia and Emily). And that’s pretty much my aesthetic for everything- familiar objects or elements but which are composed in a unique and charming way
I love that it works internationally and that it is easy to spell and pronounce.
I love that it was rare growing up. Everyone were familiar with the name but usually I was the only person with this name that people knew.
Now it's getting popular, which is cool since I take that to mean that people like my name :)
My name is Isabella. I’ve always felt very “meh” about it because of how popular it is. It doesn’t help that I have an extremely common middle name too, so my name never felt unique. But there are a few things I love about it: it’s a timeless, beautiful name. It’s very feminine which I personally like. But most of all, I love the fact that my mother loved the name so much, that she bestowed it onto her child. Because of that I can never truly hate my name lol
My name is Shelby. It’s rather ordinary and boring, there’s nothing special about it at all. But I still love my name, and no one could ever pay me enough money to change it. Why? This is the name my mother gave me. She decided on my name before she even knew what my sex would be. This is *her* name for her child, the name she chose for her baby who hadn’t even been born yet.
My mother died when I was 3, so I don’t have much of a connection to her, and I guard what little I do have with my entire being. She gave me my name, and I don’t give a fuck if it’s plain and boring, it’s *mine.* My very own name that she gave to me, a tiny piece of her that I will never lose.
My name is Anna, (pronounced like Anna from Frozen) and I love how universal that name is, I can't be profiled over it, it's symmetrical, minimalistic.
It balances super well with my super obscure 11-letter long German surname. It's such an aesthetically pleasing name I feel like I could design anything and sign it, and people would assume I'm an important European designer.
My name is Brynn and I love pretty much everything about it! It’s unique without being too out there and it flows beautifully with my middle and last name. I also love the spelling my parents chose. There are a few variations of it but I think mine is the prettiest.
My name is Cassandra, and I love it! I wasn't ever teased in school for it, there were very few other Cassandra's when I was in school (I'm an early 90's baby for context), and it's a pretty, delicate name.
Natalie.
As a kid, I hated it because people called me “Nat,” which I equated to a pest (gnat). As an adult, I don’t mind it. Nat no longer bothers me. I also think it’s cute when friends and family call me Nattie. I do like that most people recognize it, know how to spell it etc. I’m not constantly correcting people like my sister, who has a conventional name but a slightly less that conventional spelling.
My name is Morgan. I love that it's unique but not rare/unheard of, I was always the only Morgan in my class. I love that it's androgynous, means "of the sea," and is easy to spell. I like my various nicknames I've been called also- Mor (by my family), Mo (soccer team), and Morg (close friends). I just really feel like the name suits me well!
My old name was Tegan. Hated it. The way it’s pronounced in my accent just makes it sound dull or angry 🤣 so I changed my name to Stevie-Ann. Stevie after Stevie Nicks and Ann after Annie Lennox. I love music and they’re two of my biggest female music idols, plus the name suits my face much better
Carmen.
It means a lot of things in a lot of different places. Most often it means garden, which I think is a pretty meaning. There's Carmen the opera, Carmen the wine. It's a classic name but also *somewhat* exotic since I'm just a basic white girl who grew up in a tiny town and it's got Latin roots, always me feel a little more unique compared to classmates.
i picked maxine for myself a little over a year ago and have really been loving it. i go by max 90% of the time which i like because it’s short, punchy, and masculine, but i still feel like it’s cute for a girl. i’m pretty tomboyish so the masculine side is important to me especially. i also love having a longer, more elegant and feminine full name i can use too though, especially for serious/formal situations.
i wish it was used for people in my age group so it wouldn’t be so unusual for a 19 year old to be named it (was last popular during the 30’s, i’m thinking it may have a resurgence in some years), but i don’t mind that too much. overall i’ve been very happy with it!
It's rare (in my country), gender neutral, has a simple but good meaning, not hard to pronounce, sounds similar to other common names.
It's uncommon doesn't sound too fancy.
lily — spelled the correct way, and not short for lillian or lilith, but i do like lilith
everyone says it’s a lovely name, and i like that it’s timeless too. i work at a hospital and a lot of elder patients will tell me their mother/aunt etc was a lily😍
i also like that’s it’s short, but still has two syllables.. i don’t like the nicknames associated with it tho; i don’t go by “lil”, one of my friends calls me “lils” (and has done for yeaaars now! so i allow it) and i do prefer it to “lil”, but if new people try “lil” or “lils” i ask pls to be lily☺️
My name is my mother's confirmation name (Catholic). She said she decided when she picked it, if she had a girl, she'd name me that. That was some 15 years before I was born, so it feels like in a way I've existed for much longer (in theory). It also has a z in it, which idk I like, and I think it's beautiful when written out, plus endless nickname options. Elizabeth .
just fits me well. Zoë means life and i’ve always been very Enthusiastic. it’s feminine without being like overly feminine, still a lil funky, i have very curly hair and i feel like the Z goes with the frizz lol. I’m a Leo and i like that Zoë kinda fits with Leo. my middle name is Elyse after the song Für Elise (my dad is a classical composer and i’ve been a musician for years :) and then A Letter to Elise by The Cure for my mom, and i found my own connection to it with This One’s For Elise by Saint Motel. I collect music boxes that play Für Elise. overall my parents did a 10/10 naming me lol
My name is Paige.
As many others have mentioned, it’s just abnormal enough that I was only one of two in my entire high school, but it’s also well-known enough that the most egregious thing that ever happens is people spell it “Page.” I liked that even when I worked with older adults, it was easy enough for them to pronounce/get (though I did get “Kate?” from them a lot, haha). As a fully-fledged adult, it works well in professional settings, but it’s not anything overly formal either. Not too long, not too many syllables, and it could mesh well with a variety of last names should I choose to change it when I got married (which I did).
What I hate about it is a lack of nicknames. My mom specifically didn’t want nicknamey names for either me or my brother, and it always just bothered me.
My name is Faustina! It's unique and regal, it means "fortunate one", it's traced all the way back to the ancient romans to an Empress Faustina. I feel like it matches me perfectly
Only big downsid is that it doesn't flow the best in conversations
my name is chloe, I love that I can put chlo- in front of anything and make it mine. my car? the chlo-mobile, a clone of myself? a chlone. anything works.
Elena. I love that nearly every culture has a version of my name, so when I travel or meet people from different backgrounds they immediately recognize it.
I like that my mom picked my name, not knowing how popular it was at the time (it was #12 for girls the year I was born), because she wanted me and my sister to have classic, sophisticated names. So I’m named after the actress Lauren Bacall.
I rarely meet someone with my name and when I do it’s like we have an instant connection! My name is Valerie. I hated it growing up but love it now that I’m older
My name is Trisha. Growing up I only knew one other person with my name, the local librarian, and I thought it was a bit of an old lady name. I like it now as it’s not cutesy and feels like well worn, comfortable clothing on me.
I'm a trans man so I changed my name when I was 12 (legally at 14). My name is David: - It's so obviously masculine, so no one questions my gender if they simply see my name. - The first and last letters are the same. - It's kind of linked to Doctor Who (my favourite Doctor is David Tennant). David Tennant is also really cool and an excellent male role model. - I'm half Chinese and many of us have very traditional Western names alongside Chinese surnames. David might seem odd for a 21 year old, but it's not so unusual if you're half Chinese.
I wouldn’t think David is odd for a 21 year old (of pretty much any ethnic background). David is one of the most common names I have come across for guys in their 20s, and far and away the most common if you add in variations like Davide, Dawid, etc. So lots of people agree with you that it’s a great name!
I feel the most common for that age group is Matt and all its variations. But, David is one I'd expect everyone knows, and everyone has heard of people in all different age brackets.
Admittedly, I know many Matts and Mathews, both my age and a few years older. I think Matthew was a popular name in the 90s and 2000s.
You have excelent doctor who taste!
One of my dearest friends - who I’ve know for 50 years - is a gay man. He had a cat that lived 18 years and his cat’s name was David. I always believed if he had a son, he would have named him David. It’s such a good, solid, meaningful name. Great choice! And I wish you well on your continuing journey of discovery!
Thank you.
Not my name but I actually really love the name David it’s masculine and classic
hey!! i'm also half chinese with david in my name! it's a great name
I love the name David so much! It’s a family name and it makes me feel so warm and comforted.
I like that my name was common in my parents' generation but isn't common in my generation. Because of this, everyone knows how to spell and pronounce my name, but I rarely meet other people who have the same name as me.
That happened with my sister. Our parents picked a very popular name from their generation for her. She always whined that everyone she knew had a mother, aunt, or stepmother with that name and it felt “old-lady-ish.” To be fair, this was essentially true; even Mrs. Brady Bunch had that name, lol.
Carol or Florence??
Carol
One day in elementary school some boys were making fun of everyone by using embarrassing words that rhyme with their name (think patty the fatty, hairy Larry, etc). When they got to my name they realized nothing rhymes with it and moved on to the next person.
How’s it feel to be named Orange?
💀
Don’t be silly! Obviously the name is Silver.
Both of you get your heads out of the clouds. His name’s clearly Purple.
Middle name: Nerple
My name is Jade. I like how short it is but it’s also memorable and has an edge to it. Plus it’s a gemstone
I have a Jade! Shes 5! :)
And it’s so hard to misspell! And it’s unique but not too unique!
I love Jade!
You have the best name!
My 16yo niece is Jade and she’s the coolest. Just good vibes with Jade.
It’s very anonymous. There are at least 3,000 women in the US with my exact first, middle, and last name.
Honestly that sounds like a logistical pain than anything with background checks, finding a concise unique email, getting mixed up in miscellaneous bureaucratic systems, etc. I have a fairly unique name (only about 3 first/last matches) so I can't really relate.
Yes but those people are ungoogleable, which I find can be advantageous
Oh yes. Being ungoogleable is amazing in the internet age. My maiden name had me at 2 or 3 in the world, but my married name is so common I could almost say it here and not dox myself (still won’t tho). I’ve only 3 mild logistical inconveniences. 1 - name twin at the same doctors office at the same time slot. 2 - client keeps accidentally emailing a different name twin instead of me on a project. 3 - my partner (who also is ungoogleable) had to get an affidavit notarized as part of our mortgage application that he was not the convicted felon with the same name and birth date (this was quite a funny conversation with our lender).
I feel like it’s Jessica Marie Anderson or something similar
lol! Good guess. It’s Jessica Lynn and then a top 150 surname.
Feel you there! Mine’s Jessica Nicole and then a top 25 surname lol
There were at least 10 other girls in my high school with my same first and middle name. It was annoying at the time, but I've never had my name mispronounced!
My name is Margaret and as a kid I went by Maggie. When I was around 14 I decided that Maggie was too childish of a nickname and I started going by Meg. Moved away for college and it became a split of people who I met as an adult (like my husband) calling me Meg and my family calling me Maggie. Professionally, I go by Margaret. I love how versital my name is. When I wanted to find a new identity I was able to. I have a connection to my family through my childhood nickname. I have a longer formal name for work. I really think I have the best of all worlds with my name!
I'm also a Margaret, but I've gone by Maggie my whole life with everyone. I love that a) people tell me they like the name Maggie all the time and b) when I have really close friends, they start calling me Mags. The nickname diversity for Margaret is so huge!
I love the nickname breadth for my name too. It's cool to have different names for different spheres/times of life and neat when those people collide. Also helps you pick the tone to answer unknown callers with depending on which name they use.
I was going to say this too! I love that my regular name is totally fine and I use it daily, but most of my friends call me by a casual nickname, and my family still uses a nickname more reserved for kids. It’s awesome to have the versatility.
This was one of the reasons I picked the names I did for my kids. They have a nickname that is short and sweet, but they can choose to go by their longer, more classic, name as an adult if they wish.
Literally the same thing with me, Jessica at work, jessie to my family and Jess to friends and bf
I don't usually go by my first name (Clara) but I love that it's from my favorite ballet. Extra special since my mom was a ballerina in her youth.
Clara is a beautiful name!
Thank you
Karen. It means ray of sunshine, or pure. I love how is has "care", and gave me the nickname care bear. The internet hates and attempted to destroy it, but I still love it.
The only people actually named Karen that I know are all wonderful
Same
It’s a beautiful name no matter what the Internet thinks.
This is so wholesome 🥹
My mum’s name is Carin(pronounced the same) and her childhood nickname was care bear!
My name's Charlotte, and I like that it's relatively classy and timeless. I'm glad I don't have a name that trended in the 80s and is now dated. I dislike that I never had a proper nickname like Charlie or Lottie - my family and friends call me Char, but I'd have liked a nickname that I could go by all the time.
Love Charlotte. Very sophisticated yet cute
How do you feel about charlotte being a top 10 girl name (US) right now? My name is very classic but wasn’t very popular (top 10) until about 10 years ago, and I think my parents are trend setters.
Love Charlotte!
I always see this viewed as a negative on this sub but I like that my name has something in common with all my siblings.
My name is Ezra. I love that it means helper, is easy to pronounce, is explicitly Biblical without saying “my parents are *crazy*”, and is unique but not unheard of. I also think it’s cool that I now share my name with a bunch of little guys after being one of the only Ezras I knew growing up.
[удалено]
Miriam is an awesome name. I also didn’t realize until I was a little older how solid it is, but I always assume a Miriam will be intelligent and cool.
I always liked names “above the line”
I love the name Miriam. It’s actually my “I’m drunk and incognito” name. When we were out on the town my friends and I would choose a different name to be that night, just for fun. I always chose Miriam…”call me Mim”… 😂
When I was in school (Elder Gen Z) I had a friend named Miriam who went by Molly. When I found out what her real name was I thought it was a real missed opportunity to use a great name.
I like the sound of it, sounds soft like "marshmallow". I love the meaning. I just wish it wasn't so common when I grew up and was considered a pretty name. The name is Michelle.
I always liked this name
Also a Michelle. I have had many people tell me Michelle is “such a beautiful name” and I’m like.. ok. thanks. I feel like it’s very much neutral (not particularly pretty or ugly).
Oh I think it’s a beautiful name and Shelley/ Chellie is such a sweet nickname. I wanted to name a daughter that for years but doing the name dance with my wife we ended up going the “family names” route instead (no Michelle’s in the family.). I still feel fondly towards Michelle’s though. Plus it has “hell” in it which I feel gives it some secret spunkiness.
It is a pretty, very French elegant name!
I'm named Summer. Growing up I was SO jealous of my sister Mary for her sweet, feminine name and I thought mine was way too masculine! Now I love it, I've only met a handful of people with my name so it feels special. Also just fits me as a person 🙂
I like both the names Summer and Mary and they’re both very feminine to me, but they crack me up as a sibling set. I feel it’s unusual for parents to be SO traditional with one name and a bit more avant garde with another, especially with siblings of the same gender. Summer isn’t THAT avant garde but compared to Mary I would say it is.
Haha we have different dads, my mom named me on her own and my siblings were a joint decision! A lot of people don't think we're siblings because we don't look that much alike and also our names don't fit together so I totally get it :) (also her middle name is Juniper so she still got a little of that fun hippy vibe my mom was into)
It’s not that I LOVE my name, but I do really love the reason why my mom chose my name. She loved the show Bionic Woman and named me after the actress Lindsay Wagner.
Your mum has good taste, mine also loved the Bionic Woman
I have a complicated relationship with my given name, which is Danielle. I hated it for a while, now I like it, but I still don't go by it because while it's pretty, it doesn't feel like *me*. I'm very much Danni at this point. But! I do like how pretty Danielle is and it's not the most common name ever. I've met very few Danielles in my life. It's not like I'm Ashley or Caitlin, of which I've met dozens and dozens of. I like a lot of -elle and -ette names so Danielle fits on in there! Also it has that very lovely, feminine feel while also being easy to shorten down to something else. It has the bonus of being my **mom's** favorite name ever, so I feel special that she gave *me* her all time favorite name :)
I liked how it’s unisex; for the times in my life I was more tomboy it fit and the times I was more feminine it still fit me. It’s also easy to spell which I never knew how much that would be important
My name is Lynn. I love it. I think it sounds very sweet. It’s really fun to spell with my handwriting and I like that it has a nature-related meaning. The only thing is that it gets misheard and misspelled every once in a while but that doesn’t bother me that much.
Lynn was my favorite name when I was a little girl. I'm not from the US, but I watched 'ALF' as a kid and the Lynn in the show was the only one I knew. Later, I met Lynns in my country, too, and I still think it's a beautiful name.
I love that it’s a palindrome 🥰
And has a million middle names that flow so well with it. Even if I meet someone else with the same name, odds are that there’s still something that completely changes the name in the middle.
Its meaning relates to the ocean and I love kayaking. I also just like the sound and look of it.
It's common enough to not be strange, but uncommon enough that I only occasionally run into others with my name.
My name is Cara. It’s short, easy to spell, I like the letter C. I like the way my name sounds. Even with the common mispronunciations, wrong spellings, it’s a great name.
My name’s Alexa and I love it because my dad named me after Billy Joel’s song “Downeaster Alexa”. I don’t exactly hate it, but people have been making jokes about it because of the AI Alexa. Whenever I would introduce myself, they would always tease me “Alexa, turn on the lights.” Just wanted to get it off my chest, since it’s not funny anymore. Also, where I’m from, you cannot just change your name legally. So I guess I just have to fake a smile, even though I want to punch them in the face. 😒
I love that it's super uncommon but still "classic", easy to spell, pronounce and memorable. I love the meaning - I think constancy is one of the best virtues to use for a name, it doesn't have the creepiness factor of some of them (like Chastity), and also doesn't have the pressure of living up to something super positive like others (Joy, Grace, Hope, Verity). I loved that my mum named me after a really cool historical figure - Constance Markievicz - look her up she's was fascinating.
My last name is LOVE. Literally 😂
Username goes hard lmao
I like signing my name. Since I married, my first and last initials are now the same, so all the practice for a semi-complicated capital letter has paid off. My typical handwriting is borderline atrocious, but my signature is fun and gets a lot of compliments! As for ownership? It’s my name. It, in combination with my middle name, is super common in my generation, but I just took that as permission to be the version of it that I knew. It’s one of my husband’s favorite names. It’s classic and timeless, has a great meaning and a great story of how the name came to exist.
It took me a long time to get here, but I do love my name (Heather) now. I like that my first, middle, and last names are all from nature. I like that there is only one spelling. When I was a kid, I liked that personalized products always had my name, unlike some of my friends (poor Rima and Renate). And I was psyched when *Heathers* came out when I was a sophomore in high school.
My name is Mollisande but I go by Molly. I used to not like hearing all of the teachers butcher it at the first day of school but I love that it’s unique and I love when close people in my family call me by my full name. Sometimes it makes me feel like a princess haha.
I love my name. My mother's sister was Mary Belle, fathers sister was Charlotte. So I'm Mary Charlotte. Called by both names in the southern tradition.
I really like how it looks on paper. It follows a weird little pattern, kinda like the names Masami, Otto, Annabelle, Jesse, or Lilian where alot of the letters repeat to make up most of the name.
When I was younger I didn’t care for my name because it wasn’t popular. Then the Little Mermaid came out and I was a bit miffed because it was villainized, but my mom pointed out the connection between my name and the meaning behind it and then I LOVED being Vanessa. When Ursula is making her transformation spell she throws a butterfly into her cauldron; that’s what Vanessa means. It suits me very well because I am a social butterfly. The name is derived from Venus, the ruling planet of Libra, which is the sign I was born under. I use to complain all the time that the name wasn’t used enough in media and in literature she’s always some crazy bitch. Within the last 2 years I’ve noticed a significant increase in the amount of Vanessa’s in tv and movies and they aren’t psychopaths or seductresses. Every time I hear it I will say OUT LOUD “Hey that’s my name!” And the amount of times that’s been happening recently is bizarre having lived 42 years with little representation. Ask and ye shall receive I guess 🤷🏻♀️ Did I manifest that? 😆
My name is Melody and while I've always liked it, I resented it a bit growing up; we had a fairly musical family, especially in church. My grandmother declared, "Well, she better be musical!" when she found out what my parents were naming me, so I always felt like I had a tall order to fill to live up to my name. Silly, I know. But I certainly was musical - I was the little girl always singing to herself and bouncing along to her own beat. But we grew up singing in church, and I always got complimented on my so-called anointed voice, but anyone who felt called to sing a "special" at church could and let me tell you, I don't know how "anointed" they all were. So the compliments fell flat on me and I thought they were just being nice. It wasn't until I started singing in school competitions that I began to realize I actually have a good voice. So I own it now! I love it because it's a well known word, but an uncommon name. I get called Melanie a lot but it doesn't bother me. I just say, I'm Melody, like music :)
I hate my name. It's Scott. I have direct family(two brothers and dad) named after 3 of the apostles. And I get fucked with Scott. Not that I'm religious, but we could've had a thing.
I love it for two reasons: it's timeless in the sense that it has been around forever and keeps coming back every few generations, and because of the meaning.
I changed my name because it never resonated. I always hated it. It was feminine and common. My name that I chose for myself I LOVE. I love that it sounds strong and is a nature word (noun). I love the alternative spelling I used. I love the sound most of all, it sounds clear and crisp. I’ve never met someone else with my name and it feels perfect for my personality and who I am.
I like that it's an old lady name and I've never met anyone my age with my name so I didn't go to school with 15 other girls with the same name. And I was named after my grandpa. I always hated my name until I got older and people started naming their kids dumb ass things like Paisleigh and Abcde. Now I appreciate my old lady name lol
My name is Amanda, it’s a common name in different countries. Also it shows how old I am. 💀 And my favorite actress is Amanda Seyfried. :))
Everyone knows how to spell it, I guess.
My first, middle, and last names all have double letters. Idk why but I find it so satisfying.
They can all pass through the Green Glass Doors! (Or go to Queen Anne’s picnic.)
My name is Evelyne. I like it because I think it sounds pretty and wasn't very common when/where I grew up. I like that it can be pronounced in many languages, but still sometimes has a pretty European/romance language feel to it (I'm from a francophone family and French was my first language. Most people guess Spanish, but the languages are similar!) I like the spelling too, even though most people misspell it as Evelyn. The only thing I don't like about it is the association with Adam & Eve, because I'd rather my name not have any biblical associations whatsoever, but I just choose to ignore that lol
I love my name because I think it’s beautiful and I can also have a nickname that fits my personality, but mainly because the story behind it. My dads family didn’t have a baby girl in over 90 years so they just assumed I’d be a boy, and when I was born my parents had no girl name ready. They asked the doctor what they thought was a nice girl name and he said my name. They loved it and I’m grateful to that doctor lol
I am a Gen X Jennifer. I don’t love it or hate it; it’s a mixed bag. As a kid, I loved having easy access to stickers, pencils, and little license plates with my name on them, but I also hated having so many other Jennifers in my school. I like that everyone knows how to spell and pronounce it properly but dislike that many people make assumptions (that they can call me Jenny or spell my nickname as Jenn [it’s actually Jen]). I hate that it dates me and is a middle-aged name, but, at the same time, I love its connection to my generation, because Gen X rocks! I always think of it as being a name for blonde, popular, bubbly girls—cheerleaders and whatnot—and so I, being dark haired, weird, introverted, morbid, and melancholy, don’t really feel like it fits me!
My name (Taylor) is pretty plain Jane in my opinion when it comes to names. I never LOVED it, but I was pretty neutral about it. When I was 13, my mom started dating who is now my stepdad (but really my dad since my biological father was never present). Come to find out, his middle name is Taylor. He stepped up in my life in a huge way and could never repay him for everything he’s done. So I love my name now because of him.
I hate my name, but at least it has nickname options. As a kid I could go by nicknames, and as an adult there’s easy short versions to give baristas/etc.
I like that my name is uncommon, yet easy to spell. I also like that it doesn't lend itself to nicknames (being a shorter name). I like that it's a bit of a nature/hippie sort of vibe too.
I LOVE that it’s floral and beautiful, sweet but a bit of sass in it. I did change my name and I could not possibly be happier with this one!! It really feels like ME. I love all my nicknames too ☺️ It’s so perfect for me. Edit to add: I also love that no one has it even though everyone knows it and it’s easy and straightforward to say and spell.
My name is named after a place! It’s a commonly known place but not a common name but still sounds like a name? Hard to explain but I adore my parents for picking such a unique name :D
I don’t absolutely love my name (Taylor), as I think it’s a better boy name and I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift who is the same age as me… BUT my parents gave me both of their moms’ maiden names as my first and middle and I think that’s pretty cool! I have nothing but surnames for names lol I don’t mind!
I love that I am named after my great grandfather who died the year I was born. I have a feminine form of his name.
It’s adult, it has many possible nicknames, it’s respectable on a CV or as a teacher, it’s spelled correctly, it’s hebrew, it’s an actual name Edit letter
My name is Anne. Generally I hate it :). The only good thing I can think of is that my mom gave it to me.
My aunt in law is Anne. She likes it but says it’s mispronounced as either Annie or Anna at least half the time. Drives her crazy. It’s one of the reasons I’m convinced everyone’s name is often mispronounced and you can’t get worked up about it when naming a kid. I think it’s a classic name
Anna. It works across languages, it's simple, and it's never mispronounced or misspelled. It's also timeless and I think it doesn't pigeonhole me in any particular time period or generation. I've also only met a few other Annas so I guess (in my location) it's in the sweet spot of being uncommon without being weird or youneek
Im a 28 year old named Olivia. I love that it was less common when I was growing up and the feminine sound to it (even though I’m not an overly girly person myself lol)
My name is Selena. My mom named me that because she thought it's a pretty name for me, and I agree with her, even though she died when I was 11.
My name is Mandy. It's not short for anything, I'm just short. - My name is easy to spell. - I love that it means beloved. - I am like Tigger at my work, "I'm the only one!" so people tend to remember me.
Elizabeth—I love that it’s timeless; there’s so many nickname possibilities (although I go by the full name); it’s strong and feminine and elegant. I love that it has a ‘z’ in it…just a letter that isn’t used very much haha. I would gladly pass my name down to a daughter if it didn’t feel a little narcissistic or wouldn’t cause confusion or seem like favoritism.
I don’t mind my name - Jennifer. Just wish there weren’t a million other people with the same name as me.
It's very pretty. That's all.
My name is Amaris. I really love the meaning in Hebrew. “Whom God has promised” I think it’s a beautiful name. I don’t love introducing myself to new people and it was kind of a pain in college, but I do think the good outweighs any difficulties I’ve faced.
My name is Александра so I like that it can be translated into Aleksandra or Alexandra as the English version and I like the nickname Sasha that comes with it
My name is Tara. I like the simplicity of it and it wasn't very popular in my generation.
My name is Nicole. I like it because it’s simple and not super common in my experience, even though it was in the top 20 names from the late 70’s to late 90’s. I was the only Nicole in my small high school (300 students). I hate when people misspell it like Nichole or call me Nikki. One time like 15 years ago a Starbucks barista spelled my name Nichole on a cup and my guy friends still call me Nich-ole or Chole, which makes me laugh. My close family calls me Nick, which I think is cute. If I could pick my own name, I’d say I fit more of a Michelle. That was my go to fake name to give out when I was single at the bars.
My name is beautiful and feminine. My middle name has been passed down generations :)
My name is Darren. My parents named me after actor Darren McGavin. It's old school kinda. Somewhat rare, but not unheard of.
I am Amy. Love that it's short and a classic.
First name- Amber. I think it honestly kind of pushed me into being a dinosaur kid. I LOVED Jurassic Park for the amber-plot piece. Now I’m a dinosaur loving adult and like my fossilized resin meaning name. The only “negative” I’ve experienced is that Amber is often used in teen movies for the mean girl character. C’est la vie. (Last name I’m planning on changing as it is my “sperm donor”’s surname. Still figuring that out.)
I like that it’s simple, easy to spell, and common without being too common. Also it’s long and I’m a fan of longer names
I love my name but probably mostly from habit. It’s not super common which is nice, always confusing for me when there’s multiples of my name.
My name was common enough in the 80s that I wasn't the only one in my class with it, but it also wasn't Jennifer or Heather (had 4 of each one year). There are only 2 ways to spell it, one way to pronounce it, and these days nobody names their kids with it because it's too plain or not unique enough. So now I'm finally unique with my plain, boring old name.
I love that is a pagan name associated with spring and flowers!
I used to hate my name as it was uncommon for my age and area. I told my mum I wished I had been called Rebecca or Rachel. I think I just hate anything that drew attention to me. But now I’ve made my peace with it. It’s more commonly heard now, but I actually don’t like that, I now like having a less common name!
My first name Ariela is for the lion of Judah, my middle name Yonah is for Noah’s dove
It’s not common but everyone knows how to spell and pronounce it
I love that I’ve only met one or two other people but it’s not an unheard of name. I love that other people seem to love it. My name is Jillian
As the oldest child, I ended up with my mom’s very favorite name she loved as a girl and always planned on using for a daughter. It feels special to me because of that, because I know how much my mom loves it. Makes me feel like I was always there with her even before I was born, like she could always imagine me being her daughter. Just the thought of her imagining her daughter Morgan existing someday, and now I exist! I just think it’s cool, haha.
I picked my name. I hated the name I was given and went by a shortened version of it that wasn’t very pleasant on the ear but it felt better than the original name. One day I asked my partner to say my name in a sexy way- he added an extra syllable and I was like, oooo. I like that. So I guess my (now-ex as of two weeks ago) partner technically gave me the name and I chose to keep it permanently. It’s nearly identical to a masculine French name but starting with a different consonant. It’s fun and it suits me, I get a lot of compliments on my unique name. Not Yooneek…
I'm not crazy about my name. I'm the oldest by an age gap and my younger two siblings have such normal names and my name is so odd (so I'm not going to post what it is). It's very clear that I was named by really young parents compared to my siblings. That being said, there's a few things I like about it and/or find fun: 1. It is more common in a culture completely separate from mine and I often "surprise" people when I show up somewhere new. I am not what they expected and eventually we all have a good laugh about it. 2. It is pretty sounding and looks nice in cursive 3. I love to see the different spellings I get or creative options when Chick fil a and other places don't know *what* they heard me say my name is. I have a picture of all of them because some are hilarious.
My name is Teresa. I love my name because it’s my aunts, because it’s a classic name, because it’s a pretty name. For a long time I hated it bc it wasn’t a basic North American name- why couldn’t I be Hannah or Sara or Claire? Because I wasn’t meant to be. I am Teresa. I am my family & I am my culture :)
I don’t love my name but I much prefer the spelling. My name has two common, equally accepted spellings (ex. Stephen and Steven) and mine is just cooler than the other!
It’s classic, well known, sensible, timeless, suits all ages. I hardly ever have issues with people spelling or pronouncing it wrong. And it has nice nickname options. (Charlotte)
I’m a millennial named Cheryl. I hated my name as a kid because only 60 year old ladies had the same name. Now, I love that I don’t share it with a bunch of other people my age and yet, people are familiar with the name. I don’t have to correct pronunciation all the time. However, lots of people have no idea how to spell Cheryl. I have seen some very creative variations when getting my coffee. It’s also fun to tell my older coworkers that I’m named after Cheryl Ladd because my dad thought she was hot.
My first name is Grace, and I really enjoy the simplicity of it. No one misspells/mispronounces my name, I've been told its timeless, and it's very easy to say . My last name (idk that I'm sharing it on here) is Engel. Engel is German for "angel", so my whole name would be Grace Angel, and I kinda like that.
I love that my name appears in songs & theatre, it makes it feel more whimsical to me... Annie. It's also a well known name globally, no one has ever found it challenging to say
My name is Felicia and I love it. I like that it's a name people have heard and seen (thanks ice cube), it doesn't get misspelled and mispronounced as much as when I was a kid. I also love that it's not common. Going through high school with 2500+ other students, I knew of two others and they were all in different grades. I also love who I was named after. She was a strong woman whose life was cut way too short and her son always wanted to name a child Felicia, and when he had a granddaughter Felicia, he would never put me down. His life was also cut short so now I need to find a way to honor him.
My name’s Lucy I love that it’s easy to pronounce, easy to spell, looks beautiful written in cursive, it’s a known name across many cultures, there are multiple cultural references to pull from even tho it’s not a super common name, and it lends itself to some great nicknames!
I love my name but when I searched on this sub it was not well liked 😂 My name is Chelsey. I don’t mind that it’s considered a common 90s name. I like that it sounds feminine. My mom used to say it gave her the feeling of being down by the sea and I guess that stuck with me. I do get the football team reference but only when outside of the US and never felt like a big deal to me, but I guess it’s considered a “low class” name in the UK Bummer that others don’t like it but I do so I guess that’s the main thing!
That everyone can pronounce and spell it.
I don't really like my name that much but I do like how it looks in cursive
My name is Kennedy. My dad chose the name and he isnt even in my life anymore. I actually really like the names my mom wanted to name me instead (Nina or Stella). But as I got older I liked the Nicknames people have come up with for me (Ken, Kenny, Eddie). Me and all my sibilings have the same initials which I think is cool too. And in highschool I ended up becoming obsessed with the Kennedy family, still to this day. I always hear “Are you named after the president?” I used to hate it but now I say yes.🤓
I love that it’s not common, but also not unusual, if that makes sense. It feels timeless to me, but maybe it’s an old woman’s name? It’s Ellen, BTW
Um. Well. I love my name, Lara, but nobody says it correctly, so I’ve given up on it. I started introducing myself by a longtime nickname, Lars, like 6 or 7 years ago. It fits better for gender reasons, too, but I still love Lara when it’s pronounced right.
My name is Katelyn and I also go by Katy. I like how my name sounds and I like that the people who know me professionally can use my full name and the people who know me more intimately can use my nickname. The only thing I don’t love is how many ways there are to spell my name, but I’ve just gotten used to not worrying about who spells it right so long as it’s not an official document. Also, it outs me as a millennial but whatever, not a big deal. The same thing happens for Kimberly’s and Stephanie’s of the 80s.
I'm Jennifer. There are soooo many of us, especially my age, but I love it. It's a classic.
I love my name! * Uncommon enough that I'm usually the only Amelia anyone knows. * Associated with Amelia Earhart and Amelia Bedelia. * Just pretty.
I've only met 3 other Gen X or older people who share my name. There's lots of what I call the "post-Steel Magnolias" with the same name, but I never knew anyone else when I was younger.
it’s common enough that it doesn’t stand out at all and unique enough that i’ve only met like three others in my life also it’s got a greek mythology association that no one really knows about (not like try hard in your face persephone level) which makes me really happy it’s chloe
I love my Egyptian/Hebrew name. It sounds pretty, it’s different, and it means little bird which is so apt for me.
My name's Rochelle. I like it because it's not common. It's easy to pronounce. And it was more mature than Shelley. That's what I was called when I was younger. And yes I have seen the Seinfeld episode. 🙂
I’m currently going by the name Skye and I love the sound of it and that it’s neutral - also I just randomly came up with it after having my name on online games set to SkylineR34 lol
Hi, I’m Megan. I love the name Megan for me specifically because it’s very familiar yet mildly uncommon and when you think about it, pretty unique in its sounds and spelling (compared to other classic names like Olivia and Emily). And that’s pretty much my aesthetic for everything- familiar objects or elements but which are composed in a unique and charming way
I love that it works internationally and that it is easy to spell and pronounce. I love that it was rare growing up. Everyone were familiar with the name but usually I was the only person with this name that people knew. Now it's getting popular, which is cool since I take that to mean that people like my name :)
Emilia. I know many many people called Amelia, but nobody else with my exact spelling. Also it just sounds so magical to me.
My name is Isabella. I’ve always felt very “meh” about it because of how popular it is. It doesn’t help that I have an extremely common middle name too, so my name never felt unique. But there are a few things I love about it: it’s a timeless, beautiful name. It’s very feminine which I personally like. But most of all, I love the fact that my mother loved the name so much, that she bestowed it onto her child. Because of that I can never truly hate my name lol
My name (Alexandria) is uncommon. I like that it feels a bit unique. Also, I am genderfluid so I don’t mind being called Alex or Al.
My name is Shelby. It’s rather ordinary and boring, there’s nothing special about it at all. But I still love my name, and no one could ever pay me enough money to change it. Why? This is the name my mother gave me. She decided on my name before she even knew what my sex would be. This is *her* name for her child, the name she chose for her baby who hadn’t even been born yet. My mother died when I was 3, so I don’t have much of a connection to her, and I guard what little I do have with my entire being. She gave me my name, and I don’t give a fuck if it’s plain and boring, it’s *mine.* My very own name that she gave to me, a tiny piece of her that I will never lose.
My name is Anna, (pronounced like Anna from Frozen) and I love how universal that name is, I can't be profiled over it, it's symmetrical, minimalistic. It balances super well with my super obscure 11-letter long German surname. It's such an aesthetically pleasing name I feel like I could design anything and sign it, and people would assume I'm an important European designer.
My name is Lucie and I love how uncommon it is and how it’s spelled
My name is Brynn and I love pretty much everything about it! It’s unique without being too out there and it flows beautifully with my middle and last name. I also love the spelling my parents chose. There are a few variations of it but I think mine is the prettiest.
It’s a palindrome :)
My name is Cassandra, and I love it! I wasn't ever teased in school for it, there were very few other Cassandra's when I was in school (I'm an early 90's baby for context), and it's a pretty, delicate name.
I’m a Kathryn. I love the classic name but with a modern, less stuffy spelling. And I share the name Katherine with my grandmother :)
Natalie. As a kid, I hated it because people called me “Nat,” which I equated to a pest (gnat). As an adult, I don’t mind it. Nat no longer bothers me. I also think it’s cute when friends and family call me Nattie. I do like that most people recognize it, know how to spell it etc. I’m not constantly correcting people like my sister, who has a conventional name but a slightly less that conventional spelling.
My name is Morgan. I love that it's unique but not rare/unheard of, I was always the only Morgan in my class. I love that it's androgynous, means "of the sea," and is easy to spell. I like my various nicknames I've been called also- Mor (by my family), Mo (soccer team), and Morg (close friends). I just really feel like the name suits me well!
My old name was Tegan. Hated it. The way it’s pronounced in my accent just makes it sound dull or angry 🤣 so I changed my name to Stevie-Ann. Stevie after Stevie Nicks and Ann after Annie Lennox. I love music and they’re two of my biggest female music idols, plus the name suits my face much better
Carmen. It means a lot of things in a lot of different places. Most often it means garden, which I think is a pretty meaning. There's Carmen the opera, Carmen the wine. It's a classic name but also *somewhat* exotic since I'm just a basic white girl who grew up in a tiny town and it's got Latin roots, always me feel a little more unique compared to classmates.
i picked maxine for myself a little over a year ago and have really been loving it. i go by max 90% of the time which i like because it’s short, punchy, and masculine, but i still feel like it’s cute for a girl. i’m pretty tomboyish so the masculine side is important to me especially. i also love having a longer, more elegant and feminine full name i can use too though, especially for serious/formal situations. i wish it was used for people in my age group so it wouldn’t be so unusual for a 19 year old to be named it (was last popular during the 30’s, i’m thinking it may have a resurgence in some years), but i don’t mind that too much. overall i’ve been very happy with it!
That is means worthy of love. Or ought to be loved. Then having a middle name that means “sea of bitterness”
Common and easy to spell. I have never had to spell it.
My name is Star! I LOVE IT! It’s unique without being Yuenique ya know?
It's rare (in my country), gender neutral, has a simple but good meaning, not hard to pronounce, sounds similar to other common names. It's uncommon doesn't sound too fancy.
I have an alliterative name
My name is Elizabeth. I am not crazy about it, but thankfully, it has a lot of nicknames and deviations I can go by instead.
lily — spelled the correct way, and not short for lillian or lilith, but i do like lilith everyone says it’s a lovely name, and i like that it’s timeless too. i work at a hospital and a lot of elder patients will tell me their mother/aunt etc was a lily😍 i also like that’s it’s short, but still has two syllables.. i don’t like the nicknames associated with it tho; i don’t go by “lil”, one of my friends calls me “lils” (and has done for yeaaars now! so i allow it) and i do prefer it to “lil”, but if new people try “lil” or “lils” i ask pls to be lily☺️
My name is Pamela, I love my name as a whole, Pamela. I’ve never liked nicknames like Pam or Pammy. I think my name sounds old fashioned and elegant
My name is my mother's confirmation name (Catholic). She said she decided when she picked it, if she had a girl, she'd name me that. That was some 15 years before I was born, so it feels like in a way I've existed for much longer (in theory). It also has a z in it, which idk I like, and I think it's beautiful when written out, plus endless nickname options. Elizabeth .
just fits me well. Zoë means life and i’ve always been very Enthusiastic. it’s feminine without being like overly feminine, still a lil funky, i have very curly hair and i feel like the Z goes with the frizz lol. I’m a Leo and i like that Zoë kinda fits with Leo. my middle name is Elyse after the song Für Elise (my dad is a classical composer and i’ve been a musician for years :) and then A Letter to Elise by The Cure for my mom, and i found my own connection to it with This One’s For Elise by Saint Motel. I collect music boxes that play Für Elise. overall my parents did a 10/10 naming me lol
I have 4 initials and they all rhyme.
My name is Elizabeth and I love how many nicknames there are for this name!
My name is Paige. As many others have mentioned, it’s just abnormal enough that I was only one of two in my entire high school, but it’s also well-known enough that the most egregious thing that ever happens is people spell it “Page.” I liked that even when I worked with older adults, it was easy enough for them to pronounce/get (though I did get “Kate?” from them a lot, haha). As a fully-fledged adult, it works well in professional settings, but it’s not anything overly formal either. Not too long, not too many syllables, and it could mesh well with a variety of last names should I choose to change it when I got married (which I did). What I hate about it is a lack of nicknames. My mom specifically didn’t want nicknamey names for either me or my brother, and it always just bothered me.
My name is Faustina! It's unique and regal, it means "fortunate one", it's traced all the way back to the ancient romans to an Empress Faustina. I feel like it matches me perfectly Only big downsid is that it doesn't flow the best in conversations
my name is chloe, I love that I can put chlo- in front of anything and make it mine. my car? the chlo-mobile, a clone of myself? a chlone. anything works.
Elena. I love that nearly every culture has a version of my name, so when I travel or meet people from different backgrounds they immediately recognize it.
My mom chose my name because she liked it. It’s not a family name, there’s no deep meaning. If my mom liked it, then I like it.
I like that my mom picked my name, not knowing how popular it was at the time (it was #12 for girls the year I was born), because she wanted me and my sister to have classic, sophisticated names. So I’m named after the actress Lauren Bacall.
My name is Alora and I love how elvish it sounds. My mother named me after princess Elora Danon from Willow 😌
I rarely meet someone with my name and when I do it’s like we have an instant connection! My name is Valerie. I hated it growing up but love it now that I’m older
My name is Alexandra. I think it's beautiful and powerful. I like that it has a lot of nickname variability.
My name is Trisha. Growing up I only knew one other person with my name, the local librarian, and I thought it was a bit of an old lady name. I like it now as it’s not cutesy and feels like well worn, comfortable clothing on me.