Unique Names Story - Have You Read This?

Meh, I could write an article just like that about how much I hate my common name.

How someone would say my name and then have to ask "which one" because there were so many other kids with my boring ass name. Talk about feeling like your name doesn't matter.

I've always yearned for a unique name.

My name is unusual and have never come across someone with the same name. Mine is easy to pronounce based on its spelling, but because it involves what is commonly a boy name, it causes problems. People try to pronounce it in all kinds of ways, I think to make it more feminine. Most people don't have trouble with it once I've said it, but I do get a lot of "mind if I call you...". I don't care if people shorten it to the boy part, but I don't like being called the feminine part.

Fyi, I am a child of the sixties who got that parent combo name.

Hmmm. I get why that would be frustrating, but the impact she describes on her personal identity feels like she gave it an awful lot of weight, perhaps more than it deserves. My name is Jennifer, easily one of the most common names in our country, EVER, and I'm still asked all the damn time how to spell it. It's annoying, but I can't see it affecting my deep psyche. That seems a little "snowflakeish" I guess.

And I HATED being "Jennifer [Last Initial]." I always wanted a name that didn't have to have a "qualifier" because there were 10 others named the same. So to some degree, it's a grass as always greener thing. And again, having a generic name did not trickle down to my personal identity.

For the record, I knew how to pronounce her name correctly the first time, without having ever heard of the famous person she named.

My initial thought was Alessia looks like a beautiful name, I pronounced it Elisa. However I think the case is similar to this woman in my yoga class. The teacher asked everyone to introduce ourselves and a woman with an accent said Lisabeth and the teacher said Elizabeth and the woman got an annoyed look on her face and repeated her pronunciation of what is Elizabeth in American english. I thought to myself, look I get it sounds prettier in her language, but nobody here is going to remember that, so she might has well save herself the headache it's giving her and go by Elizabeth here.

When I travel abroad I introduce myself with the spanish version of Ana. Because foreigners saying American Anna sounds horrible. Spanish Ana is super pretty but it doesn't roll off my tongue thus I've never introduced myself as it here. Plus it almost feels like I'm creating a fake name when I use that because it's not me. lol

I've noticed lately that when I say my name here people think they hear Hannah, so I've actually been thinking about how I can better enunciate my name better to people. I know it's a weird thing to think about at my age, but it's a repeat problem so clearly I'm not saying my own name right. lol

I have a unique name (JoEllen). I dreaded the first day of school (or even having a substitute teacher). The poor teacher would be calling roll and inevitably they would come to my name and there would be silence as they tried to figure out the pronunciation. I never was able to find personalized items with my name on it unless it was custom ordered. Even today when I go to a restaurant and they ask for a name to put on the waitlist I give them my husbands name or my daughters name.
I will answer to any of several not so close variations of my name-- Jolene, Sue Ellen, Joel Lynn, etc. I automatically spell my name out as I realize it is difficult and unusual.

When I had kids I gave them pretty common/easy to pronounce or recognize names on purpose. My youngest does not like her name . Why? It is too common! Haha! I say name your child whatever you want. They will be stronger for it!

I had all kinds of rules between me and dh about baby names. I was so frustrated with people always getting our last name wrong, having to spell it for everyone and then awards would have it spelled wrong. Granted, I grew up with a normal easy last name, so that probably played a big part in my reaction when going to a much more longer and complicated last name. My first name is easy, but not all that common. I think I've met 3 or 4 ladies with my first name my entire life.

Some of my crazy rules:
5 letters or less (because of the long last name)
2 syllables or less
Couldn't be shortened to a nickname, I wanted them called what they were named
Easy spelling

I got my wish on all of those. My first son has a easy but unique name and he loves it, my middle son has a popular name with no complaints, my youngest son has a common name but not real popular for this time period and it suits him perfectly. They all complain about the last name It's often misspelled on awards, trophy's and the like. I double checked with the school several times to make sure my oldest diploma was going to have the correct spelling. (Yes, I'm slightly embarrassed about that, but darn it, I wanted it to be right).

JoElla is another common mispronunciation of my name. Your cousin and her sister have my sympathies! That would be tough!

My name is fairly unique. I married a man with a last name that is mispronounced more often than not. (And my street name and city are both hard to spell...I've got to spell everything when to give my name and address.)

My great-grandma always called me be-yanka. I have fond memories of her mispronunciations. It really doesn't bother me AT ALL if someone says my name wrong. I don't correct people unless they specifically ask how to say it. (It did come back to bite me when the pre-school teachers taught my oldest to say his last name wrong.)

That said, because I felt like I missed out on the personalized items when I was a kid, I gave my two boys very common names...like top 10...and I love buying them personalized things.

I thought I had an easy name, and it's not terribly common so that I've only known 2 other Hollys in person. It's unique enough that when I hear someone being called "Holly" I have a weird reaction, like "hey, that's my name, you can't have it." Which I know is ridiculous, but I feel weirdly possessive of it.

As a kid, it was hard but not impossible to find souvenirs with my name, so it was always like a treasure hunt to see if they had it among the many Heathers. Spelling was never an issue when I was younger, but by mid-90's I started either being asked "With a Y or with an I?" or just having my name written Hollie or Holli without asking. I don't really care, doesn't bother me at all.

For maybe the last ten years, I've had a problem with people hearing Polly or Paulie when I say my name. That irritates me. I try really hard to enunciate (like you, annabella ) so I'm practically huffing out the H. They still hear Polly. And I don't get it, because I think Holly is a lot more common than Polly or Paulie. I've started to develop a complex about it. I don't like to give my name at businesses anymore and I have a little bit of anxiety when I have to. I just realized that it's really only in customer situations where this happens. In social settings, no one has ever thought I was saying anything but Holly. Hmmm.

Last names, I'm not even going to get into that on this thread.

FTR, I pronounced Alessia correctly right away. I hadn't heard it before, but I think it's a beautiful name.

I laugh at the no nickname rule - my husband had the same rule with out kids. He hated how his name's nickname and didn't want our kids' names shortened. The funny thing is now my daughter goes by her initials - because of course she really wanted a nickname!

I was a teenager in the 80's. I think it just hadn't made it to my part of the country yet. I had an abundance of Amys, Jennifers, and Heathers. And it seemed like everyone's middle name was either Lynn or Michelle.

I'm a Jennifer born in the early '70's, so I have the market on common names cornered. That said, I STILL have to spell it constantly, and I automatically spell my last name, even though it is a common English word spelled correctly. Granted, no one mispronounces either, but I think people just don't care enough to get names right. While I was never unhappy with how common my name was (hello to the other 20% of my sorority named Jennifer), I did make an effort to get a name at the lower end of the Top 100 Popular Girl Names when I got the chance to name a child. I wanted easy to pronounce and spell (whoops - no one spells it right), but unique enough that there wasn't a match in every group.

My name is common enough that everyone knows it, but I rarely run into another person in real life with the same name.

Both my kids have ethnic names with DD's being the one that no one has ever heard of outside the Greek community. When she was young I would just matter-of-factly explain it was her grandmother's name and correct their pronounciation. As DD got older she followed my lead and doesn't expect anyone new in her life to automatically know it. It has never been a big deal for her and I know she loves the uniqueness of her name. The Micaela/Mikayla/Makaela/McKayla and Caitlin/Kaitlyn/Katelyn's in her class all love her name, too. 

DS struggled a bit with his name a couple of years ago and even approached me about legally changing it. There were a few other things going on at the time which factored into his request and in the end he didn't make a change. He is 18 now and hasn't brought up it up again.

Unique pronunciations of common names or creative spellings are something parents should avoid IMHO.

I want to hear everyone's names, now!!

My name is Andrea and I swear to you, everyone calls me Angela, regardless of whether it is I who says it or someone else. I'm just at the point now when I say, "please call me Angie." I also get Adrienne a lot. I mean fewer people call me Andrea than Angela or Adrienne. It's just funny now.