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...
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 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".
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.
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.
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.
