No one could pronounce my name, Alicia, correctly until Alicia Keys became famous. My grandparents called me Uh-Lish-Uh my entire life, till the day they died. No amount of "Grandmother, Grandpa, it's Uh-Lee-Sha" did a lick of difference.

Now, my family mostly calls me Sissy, as I am big sister to 21-month-old Julia. She has never heard me called Alicia.

Which suits me just fine. I've always hated the name Alicia. Apparently, my parents were going to name me Jocelyn Elizabeth up until the moment they saw me, at which time they said I didn't look like a Jocelyn. Keeping in mind my Aunt Alice and my parent's friend Lisa, I was named Alicia Christine.

At age 17, I chose to legally change my name. I dropped Christine altogether (I never identified with it, and I'm not christian, so it seemed only fitting), took my father's last name as my middle name, and took on my mother's last name, which she had re-assumed when she and my father divorced.

Long story short, just call me Sissy. I like it better.

I don't really like my first name either. Kerri. Kooky spelling. I have never found any of those cute souvenier stands selling key chains, etc. with my name on it. Plus, during 5th or 6th grade the movie Carrie came out. I kept pleading I had a different spelling. Then the Keri lotion..............I cannot tell you how many versions of 'Keri is so very (fill in the blank) I heard during high school.

Ugh.

Originally Posted by Apple Cheeks:
My first name is not as bad, but I still hate it. Always have, even as a child. My name is Ginny. People mispronounce that a lot, too. It's pronounced like "Jinny" but most people never get it right. They say "Jenny" or "Jeanie" or most often say it like "guinea," which drives me up the effing wall.

Originally Posted by Jadeybaby:
My middle name is Boyd...named after my mum's grandfather's surname. What was she thinking?!! Boyd is a boy's name! People always laugh.

FINE, SO I SCREWED MY DDs!!!!!:p

I named my first one Ginny b/c I wanted to name her after my mother and I thought Virginia would be a rotten thing to do to her. It was a little old fashioned in 1988 and even Mom had enough with the "virgin" crap. Since Mom was often called Ginny I didn't realize people out there would have such a hard time pronouncing it. Honestly, I don't get how folks come up with the "guinea" thing, but I've gotten calls from school to discuss my DD "Jennifer" never "Virginia". I swear some people just don't pay attention.

My youngest DD is Jonnie Lee. Her father's name is John Edward and one day when I was pregnant I looked at his check and saw John E. *******. We thought I was going to have a boy and I didn't want to do the Jr. or II thing so we figured Johnny Lee(a variation of mine) would be nice. When the 7 mth ultrasound showed that the baby had a brain rather than a penis:D we decided to just changed the spelling. I KNEW 2 GIRLS WITH THE NAME JONNIE, OK. Funny thing, a boy named John that she went to daycare with at about 5 told his parents not to call him Johnny anymore b/c that is a "girl's name."

Now my oldest goes by Liona and my youngest is slowly changing to Lee. I really don't mind. I hated my name also so whatever. I do think it is really cool that both of them now sound like they are honoring me with them.:encore:

And just to prove what an absolute A** BioDad was...My oldest sister was given a first name with a capital V and D. Once again, Dad knew what VD was, Mom did not.

I loved mine until britney spears came along - now it's just a stripper name even though i have an extra "t" Of course i love it when peopel tell me i spell my name wrong - no i am sorry there is no "a" and yes i know britney only spells hers with one "t" the funny thing was i was ALMOST "brittney jean" - both grandmothers and mother have the middle name of jean - but ended up with nicole instead.

OPerator...I grew up with a Johnnie Ethel Finkbeiner...what a name! Not seen her in many, many years but her name has always stuck with me. she was named after a family memeber. And my mom has a cousin named Johnnie.

I absolutely love the name Jennifer! And my DD would have been one had another family member not used it, lol.

And speaking of Carrie...my DD's name. She was named after two great grandmothers. But, living where we live Kari seems to be the popular spelling of the name. Never saw it spelled that way until I moved here and DH has a niece with the name/spelling.

I've always been and still am fascinated with names and it's funny how we don't like certain names....I think Alicia is a pretty name by the way. And Caitlin.

I love my name, though here is almost always assumed that I am male and not female (even though, Rene is the male version and an added "e" always makes the name feminine, but whatever...). My middle name is Allison and I love this name as well - it's my mom's name, my grandmother's maiden name, my great-grandfather's last name... but it's ALLison not ALison and a lot of people mix that up.

My last name... oh man - has been butchered beyond belief! It's not even that difficult but it's and SHxxxx name and people always want to add a C or a W or spell it all sorts of different ways. In the Netherlands, when I get a telemarketing call I know immediately because they ask for "MR. SCHxxxx"

My last name is very unique and I have never changed it. Not even with two marriages...

My first name, yes.

My last name, no.

I also have a middle name that I dislike and another middle name that I do like so I am going to legally change my name and use my favourite middle name as my surname after dropping my present surname and the middle name I dislike.

my name is growing on me. when i was little i didn't like it, but not many people have my name.
my middle name is very original--Marie.

My mother called me by 2 names all my life - Christine and Christiana. I ABSOLUTELY HATE the name CHRISTINE!!! She said I was named after my grandmother (who was Christiana), but for some reason I ended up with Christine on my birth certificate - yet, she called me Christiana all my life. I'm getting it altered legally. I don't mind Chris or Tiana as nicknames, but I despise Chrissy. My surname has always been hard for people to pronounce and I used to hate it aswell, but it's grown on me now.

I think the names we're given can really affect us as we grow (more than people know). Just liking your name makes you so much more confident. Even if a first or second name is plain, how they sound together can make all the difference (i.e Sarah Jessica Parker or Sarah Michelle Gellar). That's why celebs take stage names, or elongate/shorten their names (Jennifer Hewitt sounds plain, but Jennifer LOVE Hewitt has that added something.

Ashley here. One year in my high school science class, 5 out of 25 students were named Ashley. I'll never forget the day a girl wrote one Ashley's name on the board correctly, yet spelled mine Ashely. *sigh*

My middle name is really common too. It sounds pretty together, but sometimes I wish I had a different name.

I'm Shari...and I love my name. I think it fits me well. When I was a kid I didn't really like it though. Mostly because I wanted pencils with my name on them. All my cousins and siblings got them! ...Grandma would buy me sparkley pencils and write my name on them with a marker. hahaha She understood.

I like that it's sorta uniquely spelled. Sherry---that's so boring.

My brother and sister basically have the same name... Michael and Michelle.

I'm Michele...with one L. I love my name, especially the spelling. I get really excited when I meet other Michele's (with one L). My parents kind of named me after the Beatles song, but also there was a girl in my mom's class all throughout school that was named Michelle. She always remembered that the girl was a sweet person who was always wicked nice to everyone. That stuck with my mom for all those years and was one of the reasons why she liked Michele.

My middle name is after my grandmother so I love it because of that. My last name is hilarious and everyone says that it's one of the best "teacher names".

Love my name, but the spelling has always been an issue - Laurie (not Lori, Laura, Lauri, Lorie, etc.)

In fact, growing up - Laurie was more common as a BOYS name (think Little Women - Louisa May Alcott)

My name is Lizabeth - I like my name, but 95% of the people I meet will call me "Elizabeth" - in fact, since everyone just calls me Liz anyway, I'm pretty sure some of my co-workers still think that my name is Elizabeth.

My legal name is Nicole, but in the 70's my mom got into numerology and decided that names spelled with 7 letters was luckier than names spelled with 6 letters. She told me to start spelling my name NicKole, and my sister to spell her name Michelle with one L. So I've spelled my name Nickole since I was about 10 years old (and it was no easy feat when I was in the military).

Imagine my surprise when my mom gave me a birthday card a few years ago with my legal spelling on it! When I mentioned it, my mom was surprised that I was still using the old spelling. Even now she sometimes asks me how I spell my name!

My mom was going to name me Colette and my sister's name was supposed to be Simone. I'm not sure what happened, but we often call each other by those names.

I love my married last name and have told my husband that if we ever split up, I'm keeping it. It's French, and it just flows with Nickole. I get a lot of compliments on my name. I love Colette, but I am Nickole.

My middle name is Christiane--I also needed the Christian name to be christened. It's a pretty name but it's usually mis-pronounced.

Some of you have gorgeous names!

I like my first name - Nicole - but i hate that everyone wnats to spell it NICHOLE. I absolutely hate that. there is someone at work that does it constantly when she writes me emails.

I hate my middle name - Jean - it is after my grandmother which i do not mind but my family used to say "Nicky Jean" all the time. How country is that???????? Oh i hated it!

I do not even want to discuss last names. Of, course i like mine now, i am glad i took my hubby's name.

I love my name...it's Tanee. I used to hate it when I was younger :)

Amanda here! I hate my name. I was born in 1985 with everyone else named Amanda. My dad named me after Amanda Blake from Gunsmoke. It just seems so plain and almost everyone knows an Amanda. It wouldn't be so bad if my older sister didn't have a cool name, Winter.

I love my maiden name, because it was exotic. My married name is very plain. I should have kept my maiden name in my name somehow, but I didn't think of it then.

Jacy is so pretty!

I'm not thrilled with my first name--Stacee. It's kind of a bimbo name--apologies to the other Stac(y, ie, i, ey)s out there.
My middle name is pretty cool, though. It's Ethna, an Irish name given to the first daughter in each generation in my mother's family. I gave it to my daughter as a middle name as well.