If you could have picked your own name, what would it be?

SuZir

Well-Known Member
I think I'm glad our government sticks its nose to peoples private business and has decided that everyone should have a proper name. And clear female names can not be given to males and other way around (there are some quite common unisex names and some newer names are also allowed to both genders.) And names are to be spelled in the way that makes sense (of course we have much less difference between spelling and pronouncing anyway) and they should be make some kind of sense in reference of some of our local languages. Meaning new names should either be meaningful words that have meaning that is appropriate for a name or they are new versions of more traditional names or other groups of sounds that sound like a name. Or if the family is from somewhere else they can of course give a name that makes sense in their culture.

Some may consider it limits freedom of parents but in other hand it protects rights of the child. And it is not like there is not enough names to choose from. Even the most popular first name is given to only about 1,5 % of any age group. And for example my name (and it recognize as modern, nicknameish, but still traditional name) has ever been given for less than 200 people.

My hubby has a traditional name that has a character not existing for example in English in it. That has been bit of drag at times because he works in international workplace. So our kids got names that are traditional both in our own language, known if less traditional (or spelled and pronounced slightly differently) also other big local language and also international. Of course people in one big language started to use common nickname of other one's name as obscene or tauntword, and for some reason people in certain countries decided to start to use other one's, very old and traditional male name, mostly as girl's name. Well, you can't win every time! ;)

But neither has complained or wished to start using either their middle names (both have three names and we made sure that one of those were so absolutely common no one could say anything about them.) Of course 99,9% of time they are called by their nicknames.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
A very popular name in the Hispanic community where I live is ABCDE. It is pronounced like abcity.

Oh I had one of those! It was the mother actually (a young mother) but her name was Abcde. She pronounced it "Absidee". Wow.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Wow. And I thought the head start names were strange. None were that bizarre. Not one. Some of those names you guys mentioned are abusive and sick.
I remember long ago some parents tried to name their kid Adolph Hitler and it went to court but I don't recall anything else about it and it was ages ago.
 

pasajes4

Well-Known Member
Eye-la.....One of the families that own the King ranch always names one girl of each generation Ila. I went to college with our generations Ila. I fell in love with the name. She hated it and wanted to be called Kim.
 

nlj

Well-Known Member
Of course 99,9% of time they are called by their nicknames.
So true.
I was called by a nickname until I escaped school, as were most of my friends and my children and their friends, so maybe given names don't matter so much!
Maybe we should start a new thread about nicknames.
 

nerfherder

Active Member
and Jews don't name after the living.

Ashkenazic Jews don't. Sephardic Jews do. :)

(For those who don't know: Ashkenazim are eastern/northern European. Sephardim are from around the Mediterranean and points south. A's are more likely to speak or have family who speak Yiddish; S's are more likely to have a family language of Ladino. The Sephardic food traditions are more based in the Mediterranean diet and are very different from what the Western World considers "Jewish Style" -and they have much more varied and tasty choices for Passover. Google "kitniyot" if you're curious about that difference.)
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I worked in a prison for 24 years. You just wouldn't believe some of the crazy names I've seen over the years!
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
I like my first name, but don't admit to having a middle one. I use my maiden name as a middle one. My mom is the opposite...she hates her first name and is still ticked off at Medicare for insisting she use the name that's on her birth certificate. Miss KT was unhappy with me for giving her two middle names, after both her grandmothers.

While substitute teaching I see many different and interesting names. I wish people would spell names so that they can be pronounced. Many times I just count heads instead of calling roll because I can't even imagine how to say some of the names. I remember meeting a Phnix and Cxm. Phnix I could figure out.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
My mom is the opposite...she hates her first name

Mine did too. Her first name was Emma and she never used it! I love the name Emma. If I'd had a daughter, that would have been her name. :) But Mom hated it. I'll never forget that the minister at the funeral didn't know her well enough to know that she always used her middle name and kept calling her Emma. I half expected her to get up and smack him. lol
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
My mom had a very ugly first name. She hated it and used a shorter version which is almost exclusively a mans name. Very rare name and never popular.

The only person who had a decent name in my foo was sister. Her name is very pretty. The rest of us....no.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
I recently ran across an attorney who uses her first initial and middle name.

V. Gina.

I just have to question her choice to use that combination.
 

svengandhi

Well-Known Member
Nerfherder -

You are 100% correct. Sephardim do name after the living. Ironically, although I have lived in the NY area my entire life, I know relatively few Sephardim. Sometimes, I think H, an Irish Catholic, would've been happier if I had been S. For years, he persisted in telling a Sephardic friend of his that our oldest son was Hebrew named after the friend. He is NOT. Why would I name my child after a living person whom I didn't even know? He also told his cousin that our son was English named after HIM, and again this was not so, even though it was the same name. Oldest boy was named after both of my grandfathers but the English name I chose is a saint name which is very commonly used in the American Jewish community because I didn't like the Hebrew name in English.

On the topic of unusual names, a friend of mine became a teacher in the 60's to avoid the draft. He had a student in his class named "Pajama," pronounced Pah-jah-may. When my friend asked the mom the origin of the name, she told him that she had seen the name in a catalog next to a picture of a pretty woman wearing a cute nightshirt! He also had a student named "Female," pronounced Feh-mah-lee!
 
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