<p>My immigrant in laws picked out very American sounding first names for their children, but their surname is very ethnic. My wife was thrilled to be able to change it to something easy to pronounce and spell after we got married.</p>
<p>mythmom…the Tommy/Timmy/Tammy family is too much. I doubt that I’m the only mom who regularly calls my kids by the other one’s name. (H was frustrated w/ D2 a while back and called her, “Hershey”…the dog’s name)…oops.</p>
<p>H has a sister who married a guy named Jim. Two kids…Kimberly (Kim) and Timothy (Tim). She signs stuff “Anna and the 'ims”. Arg.</p>
<p>My name is one of those ordinary late 50’s/early 60’s names (there were always several of us in classes in school). My dad’s name was Oscar. Everyone would always say, “Oh, I had a pet dog-fish-cat-etc. named Oscar. But he died.” I think he wanted to be conventional.</p>
<p>My choice of kids names is that I always wanted them to be able to buy personalized license plates for their bikes—normal names, spelled “conventionally.”</p>
<p>I always felt like I should have been named Stephanie. Or Vanessa. Most days these days I feel like a Mabel, but I’m working on that.</p>
<p>“Mabel” … oh gosh! I actually know a young woman who named her two children Mabel and Otto (these kids are approaching middle school age now, wonder how they are handling that??)</p>
<p>astrophysicsmom: You’re too funny to be a Mabel. I LOL when I read the Hershey comment. It took me yeaars to get Timmy and Tommy straight, but now Tommy is S’s best friend so it became easier. Mature young man now goes by Tom.</p>
<p>Re: Vanessa. She was Virginia Woolf’s sister and she became Vanessa Bell. Her daughter was Angelica, which became D’s middle name for this girl, the herb, its euphony. (She has a very short first name.) D’s friend, Stephanie, is known far and wide by Stevie. Turns heads when girl shows up.</p>
<p>As a poet, I love, love, love names. This thread is like reading a menu and never tasting the food because I can’t hear the name in question. Oh, well, imagination. I’m probably wrong about all my guesses.</p>
<p>orchestramom: That prompts thoughts about celebrities’ kids’ names.</p>
<p>Julia Roberts: Hazel and Phineas. (newest Henry).
Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck: Violet.</p>
<p>Not getting into the weird ones.</p>
<p>I am an Ann. </p>
<p>I HATED it when I was younger, especially after I learned that my mother had wanted to name me Elizabeth. All my friends had cute nicknames; I could have been Beth, Betsy, Liz, etc. But, Ann: it’s hard to shorten!</p>
<p>Now I’m fine with it, but still think Elizabeth would be good, though I would use the long version!</p>
<p>Max Payne…as in maximum pain disguised by the veil of an ordinary names spelling…heavy duty</p>
<p>On second thought, I also really like Susanna, Grace, and Adriana… slightly more unique than the ones I mentioned earlier.</p>
<p>Last names in my family are a different story. My grandfather had his name changed from a very common Scandinavian surname (it ends in -son) to something he’d made up because he wanted a more interesting name. Two years ago he and my father had a messy falling-out, and as a result, my father changed his/our last name to his mother’s maiden name, another very common Scandinavian name (it also ends in -son). As a result, I’m not terribly attached to my last name, though it does sound much better (and infinitely less contrived) than my grandfather’s invention and alliterates nicely with my first name.</p>
<p>My mother uses her maiden name on its own or followed by my father’s name (but no hyphen). She has only ever used my father’s last name when preceded by her own. I haven’t decided what my opinion of this is, but if I ever find a guy who’s fool enough to marry me, I’ll probably change mine unless his is something really atrocious.</p>
<p>If you hadn’t guessed already, my family is crazy. :D</p>
<p>“Now I’m fine with it, but still think Elizabeth would be good, though I would use the long version!”</p>
<p>One of my kids is Elizabeth. I actually named her after my favorite doll growing up and always wanted her to be called Elizabeth (before she was born). Once she WAS born, I started creating nicknames, some utterly ridiculous (Little Bit, Snippet). My FIL used to call her Lizzie (which I loathe) and sing to her “are you busy Lizzie” and we would fight over that. I missed it when he died and so did she. Anyhoo, as a little person she insisted on being called Elizabeth only, but as a tween she decided on Liz. Now she is using her whole name with middle initial for her writing. I often snicker. Both girls curse me for taking their Dad’s last name because they like mine better. So do I.</p>
<p>I’ve always wanted a family name as a my given name…and in fact, did this to my kids. Both have family names as their middle given names. One of my faves is Madison which was a grandmother’s maiden name and an uncle’s given name (Madison Taylor…sounds positively presidential…lol!) So either that, or give me a boy’s name. I’d love to be a girl named Stevie or Michael.</p>
<p>My surname has become a first name. Surly people taking last names for lists always snarl, I said you last name." When I was a kid it was a kid it was still a last name. </p>
<p>All you Ann’s (and Ann who wanted an “e”, Anne Shirley, or Anne of Green Gables always insisted that the “e” made her name much more distinguished. The actress who played her in the '30’s b & w version took that as her stage name. My mom loved the books so much she took “Anne” as her middle name. So her name was Dorothy Anne. No wonder she preferred pretty fictions to reality.</p>
<p>I hate my first name, but I also can’t imagine myself announcing to the world one day that I’d like to go by something else, so I just settled for picking my confirmation name, Francis–although now that I’m somewhat of a “fallen Catholic” I don’t even really get to use that. It’s probably for the best, because I’m not really tough enough to pull off Frank or Franky, but I can easily pull off my name as it is. I guess that’s what kids are for, giving the names you wish your parents had given you.</p>
<p>My first name is one of those could-be-either-sex names … although it is used more often for females NOW than it was when I was young. My middle name is one that can be for either sex, with a single letter variation depending on whether it’s male or female … not that most people understand the difference (certainly, KIDS didn’t). If I wasn’t embarrassed enough, when sixth grade came, some of my wonderful classmates shortened my first name into an especially embarrassing homosexual slur. Just what a girl who really wishes the guys would pay attention to her needs to hear! Can you tell that I wasn’t particularly thrilled with my name when I was younger?</p>
<p>At this point in my life, I don’t really care one way or the other. But if I could go back in time & choose my name at birth, it would be “Maria.” It’s a name that seems nice (and is female-only!). Then again … H didn’t like the name when we were picking out baby names. Maybe he wouldn’t have liked me so much?! Guess I will go back to being resigned to the name I have.</p>
<p>Camelia - My maiden name was a fairly common Swedish name (though not too common in the US). It is a soldier name, though - assigned to the family a few generations ago when a soldier-relative who was the son of Johann needed a less common name than Johannsson to distinguish him from the other “Johnsons” in his unit. Makes genealogy tough, as it connects to no one.</p>
<p>Agnes shows up in our family, too. I do not care for the Swedish pronunciation of it. (The G acts more like a Y.) I think if that were my name, I’d be inclined to change it to something like Anya.</p>
<p>My concern with a hyphenated or combined name was what to do with the kids. And what do they do when they marry? I like the family all being the same.</p>
<p>Kelsmom–I’m pretty certain we have the same first name.</p>
<p>Ahh, but are you a female or a male? :)</p>
<p>I actually liked my kids" hyphenated name, and because my name is short, it worked. I never considered changing my name. (Since I ended up having two marriages, kids with second, professional degree with first, I am particularly grateful I made this decision. Since I wasn’t yet married when I had my daughter, (my choice) the hospital put her name on B.C., but I changed it to hyphenated version out of respect for her father. (We married while I was pregnant with son at H’s insistance.) I never worried about the future; I felt confident it would take care of itself. Kids did not like hyphenated name so they kept mine. (It is a nicer name and they are very close to my father’s family.) Had to change birth certificate again. My husband is very laid back and jokes that he is his own kids’ stepfather. However, since I have the job with benefits and he has a business this state of affairs has simplified many insurance situations.</p>
<p>In response to the “Timmy/Tammy/Tommy” family and the “Jim/Tim/Kim” family…</p>
<p>WHY would you do something like that? It’s not cute, or funny. Its confusing to everyone, all the time. </p>
<p>We have friends who named their two children Mitchell and Michelle. We know another family with two boys a year apart, their names are Shane and Shawn. WHY WHY WHY? </p>
<p>If the whole point of a name is to be able to identify someone, why do people name their kids Firstname Lastname Junior, or III ? My husband is Name III. His credit report is constantly getting confused with his father’s. When the family is together, we constantly have to clarify which Name we are referring to. Again, if the whole point of a name is to IDENTIFY SOMEONE, don’t give them the same name or almost the same name as someone else in the house!</p>
<p>(And don’t get me started on George Forman…)</p>
<p>OK, I’m off my soapbox now and I feel better.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>??? Is this a suggestion for a name or will I show my cultural ignorance by not knowing what this means? (Admit to being culturally lame, although I figured out without being told that Victoire was Bill and Fleur’s kid. 3 years of high school French finally came in handy!)</p>
<p>Like Mythmom, I love names and stories about names. I remember how my Mom proudly told of times she dissuaded a relative away from a name that would be trouble in the U.S. One cousin wanted to call her son “Halfin” which had a happy connotation in Yiddish, but my Mom roared with laughter, “Half In? You want to call him Half In?” and that ended that.</p>