I'm a Jennifer - like the millions of other Jennifers born at the same time. My mom SWEARS she only knew 2 other Jennifers when she named me and she thought it was the most beautiful, unusual name. My middle name is Louise, I'm not wild about it but it's my dad's mom's name (she died when he was a little boy), so I totally get honoring her. Plus, Jennifer Louise does flow together nicely.

I still wish my name was a little more unusual - it's a very fine line though, I wouldn't want anything too out there or made up sounding.

Liz is fine- I never went by Elizabeth. I don't mind it. My maiden name - well... it is uncommon and Swedish and kids thought it was fun to change it slightly and call me "Bird****" oh so clever.
Now I have a simple last name but people still can't pronounce it.

to the earlier poster- I think the name Cerridwen is beautiful!

i know this is kind of mean- but sometimes i'll go to our hospitals website and check out the newborns and play the "guess the teenaged parents" based on the crazy names they give their babies. It's kind of hard to play this game now that I live in hippieville though. lol.

My first name is very unique. In fact no one in the world has it. Unless they have been named after me. I always got compliments on my name. "It is so pretty" . My name is a family name. My mom orginally wanted to included my dad's middle name in my name. After some time, she included more. I am actually named after my great grandad also. When I have a daughter or granddaughter, I will pass this name on. Growing up, it would have been nice to have a middle name to fall back on. My middle name is Love. Thanks mom! Its cool now but growing up, I stood out. Unique first name and middle name Love. I do have a nickname though...

I loathe my birth name to the point that I don't even consider it my "real" name. My "real" name is one that I chose for myself, and though that's not legally my name yet, I use it for most situations and some day hope to get it legalized.
I adore my last name, though, and if I ever get married I'll probably keep it.

i hated my first name Jima, when i was a kid.. no one pronounced it right.. they pronounced it like IWO Jima... but its just jim with an a at the end.. kinda like gemma.. but i love it now, as i have only met one other person with the same spelling..it's unique...it's actually a nick name that stuck.. i was born JIMI... but mom started calling me jima when i was 18 months old.. registered me in school as jima... had my DL, marriage, all sorts with jima... you should have seen the trouble i had getting a passport with a diff first name on my birth cert than on my ID lol... but it all came out in the end

I love my name.

It's common, to be sure, a lot more common nowadays than when I was younger, and even more common outside of the US.

But, I'm not of the descent that most people with this name have so that makes it unique for me.

My last name... I like my last name even more than my first. In fact, I like my name so much that I won't be changing it when I get married. (Much to my future husband's chagrin. I think he's just jealous of my awesome last name ) I almost always get comments or joshed about my last name, and I love it. It's a good conversation starter.

Lots of great names here!

My first name, Jade used to be quite unusal when I was born (20 years ago...) but now it's pretty common and I'm not keen on it. It could be worse though and I'd hate an old-fashioned name or a really common one.

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.

I was Christened Jade Marie because at the time kids needed a "Christian" name to be Christened but Jade Boyd is on my birth certificate.

I love my name. But when I was a girl I tried spelling it Laurie, I thought it looked prettier on paper, then I was told my daddy named me Lori... UM, my daddy died when I was five, and he's still my favorite person of all time... NNNOOOO changing it now! (I LOVE AND MISS YOU DADDY!) *SO YOU KNOw, i'm now 39!

I used to hate my name "Tammara". When I was younger I used to be called "Tammie" by my parents, friends, school etc.

I ended up having to switch to "Tammara" (but I used only one "M") when I started college as there were 3 other "Tammies" in my class (differen't spelling, Tami, Tammy, Tamee). But it was still confusing.

My friend "Tammy" introduced me to my current husband and at that time he would call me "Tamara" to tell the difference between us.

When he noticed that my birth certificate said "Tammara" (with two m's) he asked me to use that as it was such a pretty and unique spelling.

So now I use Tammara - and I love it. It's sophisticated and kind of exotic

I HATE my name. Both first and last.

My last name is one of those long, twisty names that when people look at it they always do that double take and insist on asking me how to pronounce it. I can't stand it when I go to the grocery store (or anywhere else), and the clerk looks at my receipt and I see "the look." It's the look of someone who is stumped on how to pronounce my name, but is going to insist on trying anyway. And, 99.9% of the time they are wrong. (I've met maybe 10 people in my whole life who were able to ponounce it correctly without me having to tell them how first.) I've had clerks stubbornly hold back giving me my receipt and pester me to pronounce my name for them to satisfy their own curiosity. Honestly: just give me my frickin receipt so I can go!

I guess some people don't see what the big deal is about having to pronounce your last name for people a few times a week, but after 30-some-odd years it's a rather old game for me and one I find annoying most of the time.


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.


I've thought often and hard about changing my name, first and last, legally. But for various reasons, I probably won't ever do that. It doesn't stop me from wishing I could marry some guy with a simple last name, like Jones or Smith, though!


And because I feel like my whole name is so effed up, I've begged my brother and SIL not to name their first kid anything weird or unusual. Just give the kid a normal first name!! It's bad enough that (s)he will get stuck with our twisty last name, but don't burden him/her with some crazy first name too.

I LOVE my name. Its very unique. Normally folks do it get wrong, but I will correct them until they get it right.

I hated my name growing up! Tina and with the surname, ugh...so bland and plain sounding...sounded so dumb. I have since had my name changed legally to Cristina and I also changed my middle name...love them both. I don't even want to say what my middle name was, yuck! Another one syllable name like the surname. I went with Cristina because I figured there would be people who would refuse to call me anything but Tina, and some who would just forget. Not easy going from one name to another and expect family to remember or accept. My parents were probably not pleased at the time but have since accepted the change so...seemed like all my siblings got the decent names and I was stuck with the icky one.

Someone mentioned something about always spelling their name for others...I always have to but I wouldn't change it. I am always asked is it with a C or a K and I say "C without the h" and you would not believe the confused looks I get. And then they spell it with the h anyway, lol. But now days with so many trying to be unique with the spellings of names, it seems you have to spell the most common names.

I don't dislike my first name, but I don't love it either. It's Shannon. which I find common and kind of bland. However, much to my parents' dismay everyone calls me Shan, which I prefer anyways. I do love my middle name though, which is Troy. I love the fact that I've never met another woman with the name Troy. I get some weird looks when I have to present my drivers licence but I've grown to love it. Plus I have to admit that I like the way Shannon Troy sounds.

Now my last name is another story. It is a verry comon last name. I've met several Shannon Samel ast name as myself. when I went to set up my cable service last year there were over 250 people with the first intial S and my last name. I guess I'm not as unique as I'd like to think

I have two terrible options : Rebecca or Becky. Both common...and I hate both. My middle name is "Jeanne" which just...well...I also dislike.

Although, it's better than the alternative. My mom was GOING to name me "O'Malley". ><

We made sure that all three of our girls could use their middle names if they hated their first names.
Shannon Elizabeth - Shannon, Shan, Liz, Beth, Lizzie, Lizbeth, Elizabeth
Lain Victoria - Lain, Vicky, Victoria
Sarah Katherine - Sarah, Kat, Kate, Kathy, Katerine

We wanted to give them some variety, since we're one of dozens of "Becky and Joe"s out there. ><

I like my name. It is Jacy. A lot of people think it is J.C. and short for something. I tell people that it is just like Tracy except with a J instead of a Tr but they still don't get it. When I was born it was spelled Jaci but my parents changed it because everyone pronounced it Jackie. I believe my parents got it from the early 70s movie The Last Picture Show.