Jff - Los Angeles,CA

My name makes most people sing one of two songs to me. Eek.

Then, if you add in my middle name, it sounds very southern... S. Lynn.

I try to not think about it too much, as my parents loved my name & it was the 70's.

My daughter is Payton, after Walter Payton. I wanted her name to be Roxanne & she recently told me I could change it. But, she is Payton through & through.

My son was HARD to name. Boys are hard to name. You have to find a name that will "fit" when they are 45. So, his name is Reid. He was going to be named Ryne, but my Dad could not pronounce it. In the end, he is Reid... through & through.

I love names, love hearing them & then learning about the person to see how their name "fits".

Although I HATED that nobody could pronounce my name correctly when I was a child (I was EXTREMELY shy and was mortified when I had to correct someone), and most people still mispronounce it, I liked having a unique name and was glad I wasn't the 3rd or 4th "Lisa" or "Kathy" in class (no offense to any of the above). I think I had 2 teachers who pronounced it correctly on their first try.

I knew that I would give my children unique names when the time came. My sons have unusual names, but they are not too odd, so you don't hear them and go, "Eww...that's weird." It's more like, "What is it again? Oh, that's cool. I've never heard that name before." Plus, they have meaning to us; one has his great-grandmother's maiden name, the other is named after a town in Ireland near my family's homestead. They love their names, their meaning, and don't mind having to repeat them a couple times for people.

My son's name is Sam. I had a dream that I was pregnant again. It was going to be a girl. We loved the name Ella. So in my dream people would ask me if I had any children. As a doting mom, I was like yesss. I have two kids, a boy and a girl. Their names are Sam and Ella. I thought about it and it sounded so familiar. That's when I realized it sounded like salmonella. Needless to say I woke up and told my husband that Ella was out if we ever had a daughter. Our daughters name is Nora

When I was younger, I didn't like that my name was spelled differently, I could never find a keychain that said "R.", only "Robin". Of course I was always asked "so where is batman?". Ha ha ha, yuck it up, idiot.... Now, I like that my name is unique, and really, you don't see Robin all that often, let alone R.. But during my life, I've actually knows a few other R.'s, and I've noticed there is another R. that posts here.

My sons are Jared and Andrew. My daughters are Charis and Hannah. Charis is pronounced with a hard "Ch" - a "K" sound. So it is like Karen with an S instead of N. It is greek and means grace. Cathryn Zeta Jones named her daughter Charis also. At times I've regretted her name, since no one can pronounce it correctly. But I love the uniqueness of it, and it suits her so well. Even the meaning. She has had 3 life threatening medical events in her life and pulled through. When she was in High School, she went by her middle name, Alicia. But in college reverted back to Charis. Now she LOVES her name and gets compliments on it often. She loves running in to other Charis' - which she has several times.

Hannah is such a beautiful sounding name,. I fell in love with it, and it fits my Hannah. When she was 2, she used to tell people that her name was a palendrome. Yep, at TWO! She also would tell them that her middle name was Banana. LOL!

My name is L. - I was born in 77 named after guess who? Yep, Princess L.. Thanks mom and dad, really appreciated that. I ALWAYS hated my name. I wanted a name like Debbie or Nikki or something else "cute" sounding. In 3rd grade I tried to make everyone call me Diana...it didn't work. My parents wanted us all to have biblical names. (My brothers are Joshua and Adam).
I wanted my kids to have nice normal but not super boring names. They're Chloe, Kaitlyn and Tyler.
Funny Question!
PS I always wanted a nice normal last name. I didn't like my maiden name so much, I love my married last name. It is one of those very simple names like walker or anderson...lol

My married name is funny--A. Rae Dubbe' (pronounced doo-bay). We get a lot of interesting pronunciations of our last name, my favorite by far was when a salesman on the phone asked if he could speak with Mr. "Daboobie". Most of my friends call me "A. Doobie", even my 2 year old calls me that sometimes! My husband is Chase and ever since we first started dating 7 years ago, everyone has referred to us as "Chabby" I love it! My kids have pretty traditional names, Cooper and Nora. Their names fit them perfectly so far :)

I've always hated my name and got teased ALL through school - Lesley the lesbian. It started in the 3rd grade so imagine my poor mother when I came home from school in 1989 and asked her what a lesbian was?!? LOL

I also don't like my name because it's also a man's name. So I gave my daughters VERY feminine names.

Plain ole Ellen here. I was pretty much in my own "ellenment" in school, as I was the one and only. I never took to my name and always wondered if my life would be different if I had a different name!

Maybe, maybe not.

My mother-in-law just happens to share my name. Or vice versa.

Our DD is Cora, after her late grandmother. She's gotten lots of compliments on her name so far....

.

I always hated my name but never could think of a better one. I would not change it and as an adult I actually get compliments on it (never could figure out why, but it sounds prettier with my middle name and married last name I think).

My dad picked it since the agreement had been that he would name the girls, and of course, I'm named after M. Gaynor. No, my legs aren't nearly as hot. It is much more special to me now since I lost my dad in May.

We picked names for our kids that meant something to us but we wanted to avoid the top names. My oldest, Devin, is named after Devin Townsend, a progressive metal musician. Our middle, Gareth, is named after Sir Gareth of Orkney. (My husband and I love literature and history.) Our youngest, Brendan, is named after St. Brendan, but more specifically from Frederich Buechner's novel.

We did make sure the initials were not set up for a nasty/easy nick name (like Alex Seth Shewan or something). I didn't really get teased because of my name, but we figured if kids can't tease you over your name they'll think of something else. Ah well.

We like names and naming and while we're not disappointed to have three boys and not be planning on more children, I think my husband and I both secretly wanted to use our girl name, too. =)

Not for me but for my Daughters. First is Karlee Mei (like may). She has a great grandma Mei and a great great grandma Mae. And she was born in May. I could't figure out a middle name that I liked and MY grandpa asked when she would be born. When I said May he said to call her may. And then with 2 "grandmas" with the name that was neat too. I liked the unique spelling and it's only a middle name but people still so not know how to pronounce it. For that reason I kind of regret the spelling but it is a middle name so oh well. =0(

Next is Daphnee. We did the double "e" cuz big sis has the double "e" and I thought it was cute. Her middle name is Jacqueline after my paternal grandmother. At that point my Grandma had about 30 great grandkids (25 grandkids) and NO ONE had used her name. And it is such a pretty name. So we used it. Only we didn't really say it much to her. One day Karlee was talking about being Karlee Mei. Daphnee was like "whats MY middle name??" So we told her Jacqueline. She knew a boy named Jack (Jackson) and she heard Jaq (Jack) and she did NOT want to be a boy. So she refuses the Jacqueline for now (she is 3). But her and sis knew she needed a middle name so she settled on NOVEMBER (cause she is born on NOV. Hey sis is Mei born in May so why not?) So if you ask her her name she will tell you with an over abundance of enthusiasim DAPHNEE NOVEMBER!!! At least she owns it and has no fear. But I have the fear that people think I have given my kid a weird name so I have to explain.

Why would you name your kid something without considering they would be teased for it!!! Lord, I really need to find that post.

I digress...

I was named after both my grandmothers and I was teased in kindergarten because part of it was Helen and they latched onto the hell.

They changed my name in kindergarten and all was fine except it isn't legal and to legally change my name is a nightmare. So I just go with J. now, nice and easy, except when idiots spell it Joe. What the heck, do I look like a guy?

All my kids have nice normal names.

My middle name is also a boys name and I was always so embarrassed about it growing up. And now I have 2 girls and their names are more commonly used for boys! Go figure ;D

Well my name is boring.
Susan.
whoop-de-doo.
I have NEVER EVER, felt in sync with my name. It is just so plain and... boring.
I meanwhile, have always been an edger. Edgy.
Off on my own drum beat and went through many phases and had a motley crew of friends and interests.

Oh well.
My kids do not have plain names.

I have never liked my name.
I don't even feel it is me nor do I connect with it.
Well, my parents liked it.

UGH and I just HATE... when people called me "Suz..." or "Suzy..." ICK ICK ICK! I hated... those shortened versions.
A guy I met once and was a total idiot jerk.. used to call me "Suz."
HATED it.

I don't like my name and wished my whole life to be a Cathy or a Christine, an Anna or an Emily. There were so many, but no one was named Marjorie, or worse shortened to Marge.

I named all my children very traditional, solid feminine or masculine names. In fact the boys were both named after the grandfathers, my dad and hubby's dad. THe girls were on the top 5 list for that year they were born.

President Obama's mother's name is Stanley after her father. I believe when she was younger she went by Stanley and I think now she goes by her middle name, Ann. I'm sure that was hard growing up with that name! :-)

I guess I should say in her adult life she went by Ann as she has passed away.

I like my name. I'm sort of named after my grandmother who was Martha. My mother wanted something similar but not the same. Sometimes I wish she'd spelled it Marta because that's how most people spell it anyway and it's closer to being Martha.

I've always liked having a different name that no one else had. Then, I had an intern assigned to our office and her name was M.. Geez! I hated it. She was the opposite of me personality wise which made it worse. Made me wonder how those with common names felt when someone had the same name and was a loser. This M. wasn't a loser but she was a bubble head.

I adopted my daughter and so she came with a name that she wanted to keep. She was 7. I would have liked to have named her but don't know what it would've been. It would've been a stronger name than the one she has now which is Destini. I haven't allowed myself to think too much about it.

My name is M.. I went through a stage in middle school when I didn't like it simply because the only other "Morgans" were all boys and I was self conscience about having a "boy's" name. Now there are lots of girls with my name. My middle name is Rebekah. I love my name because to me, it is unique. I especially love the spelling my parents chose.

We named our daughter Eowyn Elysabeth simply because it was the only name that fit her. Our son has a more traditional name, Benjamin, but his middle name is awesome (IMO) Asher which means "happy, blessed, and fortunate" - gotta love that! I was picky about the meanings of their names...ie I wouldn't name my girl "Marie" because it means "bitter sea". Eowyn means "horse-joy" and Elysabeth means "Consecrated To God". Benjamin means "Son Of My Right Hand" and I already said what Asher means. I have to be honest, we are huge Tolkien fans and I love the strength that the character "Eowyn" has, and wanted my girl to have the same. ("I am no man!!" Yeah, I want to cheer every time I hear/read that line! lol)

Well my moms last was Broach until she got married. She said that people wouldnt eat her baked goods because they thought they had roaches in it.

SUCKY huh?

My name is ok. I was teased all growing up...but not for my name. Though my maiden name earned me a few stupid jokes.
I am who I am so I wouldn't change it.
I gave my kids names that are not common, but not made up and not too out there-OLD names. And they both have two middle names.
Their names are brimming w/ meaning and significance to us.

Our most beloved and missed family dog was named Penny. Not exactly what you want to hear-but we like it. :)

Hate my name. Always wanted to be Emily. Even told people that was my name, when I moved to a new city. So everyone called me that. Only at my workplace did I have to go by my real name - J.. Ewwww.

My name, S., was VERY different when I was a kid and I loved it. The occasional time I met someone with the same name, I was really excited, but always loved when people would comment on how different my name was. It's so much more common now, but the spelling is still fairly uncommon. My middle name is also incredibly uncommon, it's Cariad (it's Welsh and requires a certain kind of rolling of the R and means love), and I always thought it was cool to have such an unusual but meaningful (I am Welsh) name. I was teased a bit about my first name - Sha Na Na all the time - the band was big when I was a kid. I also didn't like that I could never find any cool trinkets with my name on them - no bike license plate, no key chains, etc.

We named our son Kieran to honor our Celtic heritage. The meaning of it is kind of funny and we didn't pick it based on the meaning, but once we learned the meaning we had a little laugh. It means, small, dark one. It's funny in its meaning because we are both very white and very tall;)

Jennifer. Nicknames: Jenn, Jenny, J.
I don't mind my name. It's traditional, was trendy in the late 70's-80's. Most of the Jennifer's I have met have the same middle name as well, which is L.. My classmates used to call me Jenny Craig.I was also teased about my last name. Pronounced one way it sounds like a 4 letter word, pronounced the right way it rhymes with a stererotypical word.
Besides that all being annoying, I really don't care. I have found if you try hard enough you can make fun of every single name out there. Now I am actually called by my last name (once people learn how to pronounce it). I sometimes forget to listen for my first name.
I named my daughter Roxy-Jo. I didn't think it was too teriibly out there, but not that common either. I love it, it suits her. I got tons of negative feedback while I was pregnant about the name. I just told them to kick rocks. =P
I wanted to add in an interesting fact. As a teen I loved Anne Rice's novels....well her real name is Howard Allen Frances O'Brien. Her mom decided to name her after her father. After I learned that I sort of just realized I could have been named WAY worse.
Thats my story. =)