I was thinking about names the other day, because it is something I tend to think about every so often. I went to school with twin girls named Misty and Summer.
Their last name? Weathers. True Story. Names are fun.
Shakespeare, through the voice of Juliet, asked us to consider: "What's in a name?" Well, what is?
How many of you were named for other people, specifically, family members?
Does being named after a beloved relative heap unfair pressure on you to be a certain way--act a certain way--love certain things--just because the person you're named after did?
What about those of you who were named for favorite actors or actresses, literary characters or anything that your parents thought was cool at the time?
Do you love your name? Does it suit you? Would you change it if you could? To what?
Do you ever think you might be a different person if you were named something else?
Do you know the origin of your name? How did you come to be a Gabe or a Mason or a Ronique or a Lyanni, Anshruta or a Trey?
For example, my name is Cassandra, which comes from Greek Tragedy, Agamemmnon by Aeschylus, but my mother and father didn't know that. So, I have no idea really, where they got it from, but I often wonder if I would be a completely different person if my name was something simple like Lisa or Diane or something like that. My personality seems suitable for my name, but what if it weren't my name, ya know?
When other people shorten your name does it make you angry? What about when people mispronounce it?
There are a lot of questions here--make sure you hit all of them.
I do not know what/whom I was named for. So no I feel no pressure nor act a certain way. But I do love my name and believe that it does suit me. If I could change my name I wouldn't. Not unless I could restart from birth with the new name. But if that were possible I would rename myself Luke. Luke was what my dad wanted me to be named. He got it from Cool Hand Luke. But I do not believe that this would change me overall. And again no I do not know where my name came from and why it was picked. Finally it's hard t shorten Jake since it is already extremely short and it is also a difficult name to mispronounce if you primarily speak English.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I like my name because it's simple and straight to the point. I don't find myself to e a very complex person, or someone who feels the need to act a certain way because of my name, so I don't think there would be a change in personality if it were to be changed. Although I always wanted a more unique name and not one that thousands of other girls had, I know that my mom and dad had it picked out for years. I've previously mentioned that I have three older brother, and their names all start with an "s." Scott, Sam, Stu, and then me, Sarah. I was destined to have an "s" name so I am absolutely thrilled it's not Sophia, no offense to the Sophia's out there. And I am especially grateful that it's not Samantha because that could be shortened to Sam, which my older brother would most definitely taunt me for or say that I copied him. Yeah, I've put some thought into it. But my mom told me that she picked my name from the Bible, and that it meant princess. I now know that almost every girl has had their parents call them that, but when I was younger I thought it was special for me so it meant more. Obviously I've come to the realization that lots of parents call their daughter "princess," but I still love to hear my parents call me that because I can tell when they sincerely mean it. My name isn't really meant to be shortened but I don't mind when people call me "sar" since that's the only reasonable way to shorten it. And pronouncing it can only really have to ways, either with the first "a" the way you'd say air, or the way you'd say bat. Either way is fine with me, but I do kind of mind when people spell my name without an "h." I know it's just a one letter difference, but it's not how you spell my name. Simple. It really bothers me when I even say it has an "h" and people still don't write it at the end. But other than that, I don't have any complaints towards my name.
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t named after a family member, but I could only imagine the pressure kids have to live up to the expectations of their past relatives. I also wasn’t named after anyone famous or literary characters because my parents didn’t care about that. I love my name and I think that it suits me because even though it is common, no one else in my family has it, so it’s special to me. When I was little, I wanted to change my name to Victoria because that's what my mom wanted to call me. Furthermore, I thought it sounded prettier than my name, but now I love my name. I don’t think that I would be different if I was named something else because my life isn’t based off my name. My name is Greek and means “victory of the people”. My parents didn’t know this when they chose my name, they just thought it sounded nice. My parents picked my name because my mom wanted to name me Victoria, and my dad wanted Sarah, so they compromised on Nicole. When other people shorten my name it doesn’t make me angry because my parents don’t even call me Nicole. My mom calls me Nic and my dad calls me Nikki. People don’t normally mispronounce my name because it is VERY common, but some people like to spell it with a h, but that doesn’t bother me.
ReplyDeleteI don't think my name is anything special. I'm not named after anyone and my parents never looked into the meaning of it. I'm one of like five Giannas that go to Oakcrest. The only thing I really know is that my dad wanted to name me Gina but my mom thought that sounded annoying and old, so they fought for a while until they settled on Gianna. My middle name on the other hand runs in the family but is also the most common middle name in all of america, Marie. I'm pretty happy with my name, I think it's kinda sassy and has some attitude like me. I genuinely couldn't see myself having another name but maybe that's because i've never known any different.
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t named after any specific person in my family, even though I am literally ALWAYSSSS told by my family members that I “act just like my grandma Kat.” And while she was pretty damn savvv, i guess they’d thought i wouldn’t act like her enough to be named after her. Either that orrrr… my parents just weren’t with it. My mom told me she thought about naming me Brooklyn because that’s where I was born, and she thought about naming me Kayla. I feel like I look like neither of those people. My name ended up being Dajiyah because they found it in an islam book. Dajiyah just means already. Deja vu means already seen. My middle name is Karimah and that means generous; giving, noble. I feel like my name does hold a lot of weight with who I am and I do love it. I do love my name, Dajiyah Karimah. Already generous. Already noble. I try to be these things to people and they don’t even know that it is literally in my name. It goes with me and who I am. When people mispronounce my name like wayyy worse than dajheeyah or da-jiya it kind of irritates me because there’s not that many ways to shorten it. It doesn’t bother me when people say Daj because mostly the people I mess with heavy call me that.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ronique it was supposed to be Autumn but my mom didn’t want to have the letter “a” in my name. So they decided they wanted something unique and my dad’s name is Ronald so they came up with Ronique. I’ve learned to love my name but when I was younger I thought it was “ghetto” which I totally disagree with now because it’s actually so beautiful. I feel like I wouldn’t fit the name Autumn. Ronique definitely suits me. I feel like it sounds sophisticated yet sassy in a way. I love when people call me nicknames or shorten my name it’s really cute in my opinion, but when people mispronounce my name I get so aggravated. When somebody adds an “a” to the end of my name it offends me especially because they see a name that is hard to pronounce they think it’s a “ghetto black name” that has automatically has an “a” at the end.
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ReplyDeleteMy parents told me I was named after the princess in Braveheart. My dad wanted to make my first name Skylar but my parents agreed on naming me Maryn Skylar. I love my name!! I think my name suits me really well. I’m so glad I don’t have a simple name because my personality isn’t just simple. I like being different and having a very unique name. The Latin meaning of my name Maryn means of the sea or ocean. I embrace this because my favorite place on earth is to be in the ocean surfing. The English origin of my middle name Skylar means love and beauty, eternal life, strength and water giver. I wouldn’t want my name to be anything else. I don’t really believe that if I had another name then I would have a different personality because my personality was shaped from my environments and people in my whole life. But since my name fits me so well, I think it shows how unique my personality is. You can’t make too many nicknames with my name but I do enjoy the nicknames I get. My mom calls me Marzapan. My friends often call me Mare. Some people call me Skylar. Then I have some funny nicknames with certain people. One thing that pisses me off so much is when people pronounce my name wrong. Like it’s not a big deal the first time or second. But man, some people can really murder my name. It can be funny but man there's this one sub at Oakcrest that pronounces my name wrong every time. I had her three times in one week so she obviously knew me, but everytime she would call for attendance, it was something completely different than MARYN. Then she would follow up, “Oh my Gosh! I Always say your name wrong!” and I’m like yeah.. Its like Aron but with an M in the beginning. She never got it. Growing up kids would constantly say my name wrong. My name ended up being Maryin or Marilyn. I don’t get too frustrated miss-pronunciation unless it’s over and over. My name is not hard to say at all. But, I’m very happy with my name and if I have kids I want to make sure they have unique names like me.
My first name was named after my grandma on my moms side of the family. Unfortunately, she died when I was very young so I have very few memories of her. From what I heard she was a very kind women, but her and my mom had a complicated relationship. My grandma went through many mental breakdowns, when my mom was younger, causing her to kinda step up and grow up at a younger age. Although this was tough on my mom, she still was very close with her mother and loved her very much. Sometimes it feels like she kinda uses her relationship with her mom to make me feel guilty. She will sometimes say things like “I’d never treat my mom like that,” “I always listened to my mom,” or if I am busy or have an attitude “I wish I had one more moment to spend with my mom, you take me for granted.” She often compares us to her past relationship with her mom and when she starts crying she makes me feel like crap. Sorry for getting a bit off topic, back to the name question. From the few memories of my grandma, some of the things she liked rubbed off on me. For instance, she used to love cheese and crackers and feed them to me sometimes and now it is one of my favorite snacks. She also was a dancer so my mom put me through dance, I liked it as a kid, but as I grew up I realized it was not my thing. I do love my name and wouldn’t change it for the world. It is a pretty unique name and I think it sounds pretty and suits me. I think I would be the same person, regardless of my name. I don’t know how things would be different about me, just because of my name. I feel like I would still be the same person. It doesn’t make me angry when people shorten my name. Most of my friends call me Ev and my younger cousins call me Evey and I don’t mind. People rarely mispronounce it, as it is pretty easy to say, but it wouldn’t get me mad, I would just correct it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, there aren’t any Christophers in my family. It’s safe to say that I wasn’t given my first name because of a close friend or grandfather, but it didn’t exactly pop out of nowhere. My family’s Orthodox Christian roots were the main influence in the naming process, choosing what I would understand to be one of the most meaningful names in our religion: Christopher. This name derives from Ancient Greek meaning “Christ-Bearer”, and my baptismal name is Christoforos (Χριστοφορος). I find my name very interesting and special, even though it is very common. More so than others, I feel that it’s my responsibility to live up to the name in the eyes of the Greek community, since many who share the same name see a strong importance in being as “Christ-like” as possible. I wouldn’t change my name, just as a Muslim named Muhammad wouldn’t care to be called otherwise. I definitely see myself being a different person had I been given a name other than my own, because I strongly believe that the most trivial of decisions made in life can have a great impact on a person’s destiny.
ReplyDeleteI don’t believe that there’s that much in a name because it doesn’t really matter to me what a name means. Obviously, some names are prettier or more likeable than others, and that’s different for everyone, but the meaning isn’t that meaningful to me. Since I was the first generation in my family to be born in America, my name isn’t named after other people since it’s the first english one. Andy is based on the Scottish variation of the name Andrew. Andrew is derived from the Greek name Andreas which means manlike or brave. I don’t know where my parents got my name from and it’s not really possible to shorten it because it’s already short. And I don’t think anyone can mispronounce Andy. I don’t really LOVE my name, it’s seems okay to me. I’m not completely sure if it suits me. What I don’t like is my last name because Nguyen is the most common name in Vietnam and there are so many people with it and I don’t like it. It seems ugly to me and it’s hard to pronounce so it’s annoying. I would probably change my last name but I don’t know to what.
ReplyDeleteI believe each name has a story. It doesn’t matter if it’s like a sentence or a whole history of how your name came to be. Some names are also associated with stereotypes. I was supposed to be named Catherine after my grandmother, however, instead of being joyful, she yelled at my parents for choosing to give their daughter such a terrible name, so I was named Paulina last minute. It’s not a very common name, even in Poland, but my parents really liked how it sounded. I don’t feel that I have to act a certain way because of my name. I can simply be me. I like my name and I feel like it suits me, but when I was younger I was heads over heels with the name Lola. I look back now and realize that I was in love with a stripper name. If I was named anything else, I feel like I would be a different person because I probably wouldn’t have had the same experiences. I’m not sure of the exact origin of my name since its been used throughout history, but it probably came from the male name Paul. I don’t mind when people shorten my name to Paul or Paul-Paul, but I honestly when someone asks me if I want to be called Lina.. My first name is pretty easy to say so it’s rare to find someone mispronouncing it. They might call me Pauline or Paula, but like I said earlier, that doesn’t really bother me.
ReplyDeleteI overall appreciate my name. I enjoy having a name that is not as common as Brianna, Sarah or Gianna because there is a lot of those. I also enjoy the numerous nicknames I am given like Ris, Rissa, Rissy and even Maris because apparently the "a" is too difficult to add to Maris. I don't like when my name is misspelled because I find it easy to spell it how you pronounce it. Usually, my name is spelled with two r's and one s or two r's and two s's. My middle name has more meaning than my first name. Rose was my grandma's middle name and it was a favored flower of my mom because my grandpa had a beautiful rose garden. Marissa has a Hebrew origin and in Latin means "of the sea." In the bible, Marissa is referred to as "little Mary" or wished-for child. Marissa was chosen by my parents because it was different and since both my parent's names and siblings names start with an M then I had to keep that tradition and have a name start with M. I wouldn't change my name to something else because it suits me in a way of not being similar to others and the "of the sea" meaning describes me as beautiful and mysterious as the sea.
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ReplyDeleteI like my name, particularly because it was given to me by my grandma (from my mom’s side). My name in Arabic actually means morning rain, and it matches my grandma and my mom’s name, which is Nadia. I can’t see myself called any other name, it is a part of who I am. I would not change my name at all. But what is annoying is when people try to translate my name to Spanish, it means nothing and she/he swims, but I mostly called nothing. It is VERY ANNOYING AND I HATE IT, PLEASE STOP. I get made fun of a lot because of it ( I got used to it now), but because my grandma gave it to me and because I love its meaning, I would never change my name. A name change would not make me a different person. I am still who I am, but I think my name is just a part of the package. I Do not mind when other people shorten my name or call me by my nickname, I actually like being called by my nickname because only 2 people actually can pronounce my name properly. The other thing that gets me annoyed, is when people call me something completely different. For example, Nadia, where is the i in my name. That is the most annoying one I can think of right now, but it just makes me think that the person reading my name is stupid.
ReplyDeleteNaldy is a common name in my family, my grandma, my aunt and sister are all named Naldy. Because my older sisters name started with an N my mom thought her first choice Alexandra wouldn’t do the tradition any justice. No one in my family is named Natalia so I’m not 100% sure on where my mom came up with the idea. She genuinely liked the name Alexandra but she wanted to make my name start with an N so she decided to put it as my middle name. Natalia is a really easy name (in my opinion) to say but a lot of people always resort to pronouncing it as Natalie. Which confuses me because there is definitely not an e at the end of it. I use to get so mad at my mom because those keychains always had NataliE and not NataliA. My dad once got me this paper that hung over my bed which told me the meaning of my name. The paper said “To be born on Christmas Day (Birthday of the lord), Natalia is a gift that has the purpose of making everyone around her happy.” Reading this at 7 years old obviously made me intrigued so I googled it to deep search dive and the name is usually given to girls whose birthday is close to Christmas…...mine is in June. When people call me Natalia I feel like I’m being scorned at. I like hearing Nat better or Naty which is what some of my friends call me because I’m not a serious person at all so hearing Natalia makes me want to throw up. I remember once when I went to starbucks I told them my name was Natalia and the guy spelled my name as “Italy” I was so confused I was like what the heck that’s not even CLOSE.
ReplyDeleteNames are interesting: some have a history behind them while others may be completely ordinary. Speaking realistically, I’m most likely the only Anshruta in New Jersey, and, possibly, in the East Coast. I wasn’t named after an ancestor, nor was I named after a celebrity or literary character. In fact, I do not know the origin of my name. My mom told me that she and her sister had been discussing girl names until my aunt had thought of the name Anshruta (my dad insisted that my name begin with an ‘A’ since my brother’s name began with ‘A’). Nevertheless, I love my name, believe it suits me, and I would never change it. My mom also told me that my name means immortal, though I’m not sure where she derived the meaning from. Meanwhile, my last name is simply my dad’s first name. I do not believe that names shape who we are, but that we shape our names, so no matter the names I could have had, they would not change who I am. It doesn’t make me that angry if people shorten my name, but I prefer that they don’t. Mispronunciations are no stranger to me, but they also do not enrage me. I understand if people may find my name intimidating, as it’s not the most common name; however, it does make me a bit annoyed when people do not attempt to try to pronounce my name and they choose to add other letters that are not included in my name. I remember a substitute teacher once called me Anshala, and another called me Ashunta. One of my teachers in 6th grade even managed to only point to me for half of the year, when she finally learned to say my name.
ReplyDeleteMy name is a pretty common name and I've talked to my mom before about why i was named Kyle and she told me that it was just a really popular name at the time. One that she had always seen in stores on those cheesy customized keychains and cups with popular names on them, and she said it was really the only name that both her and my dad could agree on. So yeah no one else in my family is named Kyle, and honestly I'm glad about that. For the most part I like my name, and feel like it really fits me and don’t know if I would be the same person without it. Also its great because you can’t really shorten it since it's already 4 letters, except when my parents and close family used to call me ky when I was little but that's the only thing I can think of to shorten it.
ReplyDeleteI am not named after anyone in my family. I have no idea why my parents picked Hayden. Honestly they probably were just looking at names and liked it. Although I have a couple friends named Hayden, it's not a very common name. I don't feel pressured at all to be like someone else because of my name. I like my name and I wouldn't change it if given the opportunity. I've gotten so used to it and it would be weird getting called something else. I don't think my name has had that big of an effect on me, so I would've became the same person no matter what my name was. My name is derived from an Irish word meaning armour, but I guarantee my parents had no idea of that. Some people call me Hayd or misspell my name, but it doesn't bother me at all. I like my name and think it suits me well.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I never really asked my parents where they got my name from or if they didn’t get it from anywhere how they thought of it. Whenever I search it up on urban dictionary it usually comes up as a name for a girl. To this day, I still don’t know why they named me “Zian.” I love my name. I think it’s something really unique and very rare. I believe that it suits me perfectly. The only problem with it being so unique is that some people don’t know how to pronounce it. I think it’s so simple when looking at it and I kind of get annoyed whenever people pronounce it incorrectly. The usual explanation is to pronounce the word “Ian” but with a z. If I were given the chance to change it, I wouldn’t take that chance. Being different from most people is what I like about it. Having the generic names like Michael, James, Jason, etc. doesn’t really sound cool like mine so I’d rather keep the name I have now. If I had a different name, I don’t think I’d be a different person but I believe that people would look at me a different way someway somehow. There isn’t really an origin for my name. When people wanna shorten my name they usually call me “Z.” I guess you can say that’s my nickname. I think the only reason why some people call me “Z” is because they have a hard time pronouncing my name.
ReplyDeleteI have a love hate relationship with my name. I’m glad I have a nickname, which pretty much everyone calls me now. I kind of hate “Isabel” because it always reminds me of an old lady name, but then again sometimes I’m grateful that I have a unique name. It’s easier to just say “Izzy” than “Isabel” because people always end up calling me “Isabella” or they spell it wrong. For that reason, sometimes I just wish I had a simpler name. My first and last name is probably the only visible “evidence” of my Mexican background, it’s actually kind of common in Mexico, my father chose my name. My mother wanted to name me “Miranda” and I can’t even imagine myself with that name. Maybe, I’d be a whole different person if I had a different name, everyone says I look like a Izzy, so maybe for that reason I should be more appreciative. One of my biggest pet peeves though is when people call me “Isabella” especially when I’ve corrected them more than once.
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t named after anyone in my family or an actress or even an actor. My name is taken from the Qur’an which is our holy book for Islam, it’s like the bible and it means “to harvest ” in Arabic. I like my name but I like the meaning of my name way more than I like my name itself. I think my name suits me very well and the only reason why I wouldn’t change my name is because I really like what it means, whenever I think of it I become motivated because it makes me feel like I’m gonna harvest good things at the end. I think that names don’t change who we are (most of the time not always) because it depends on our personalities.
ReplyDeleteI am named after my dad, and my sister is named after Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind. But originally, my name was either going to be Tristan, because my mom liked how he was a knight at the round table, or it was gonna be Maximus, because my dad wanted it to be from the world’s strongest man at the time. My parents agreed to just name me after my dad. Shawn McCourt, a super Irish name, it means a gift from God in Ireland. I kind of wished I was named after my mom’s side of the family, the Papolas, as I like Italian names more. If I was named after my great grandfather, that would’ve been pretty cool. Gino Papola was a WW2 captain, he graduated Temple, he was one of the world’s best doctors, he was knighted, and he was friends with Mother Teresa. I would’ve liked to have those shoes to fill since my part of the family didn’t get anything from the will and we are pretty much seen as poor farmers by the rest of my rich doctor family members who all live in Philly and Brigantine. On the other hand, the McCourt family has always been located in Egg Harbor and is mostly hillbillies. My cousins/neighbors are clammers/farmers, and my great uncle or something ran for president for the republican party because he was a long time president of the farming committee or something like that, and apparently, he was knighted by the clammers or something like that. So either one of my family names would’ve been cool. But the most annoying thing about my name is people spelling it like Sean, Shaun, or Shane.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am aware, my name doesn’t have any special meaning in my family. I don’t know of anyone in my family with my name, however my middle name, Arnett, comes from my dad. Which is pretty cool, because I don’t many people with his name either, making my name kind of unique. Not it’s not as unique as some of the names out there, as there are others with the same name I have, but I still love my name regardless. Although originally I thought I was named after Trey Songz, but no, it’s just a cool name which happened to be given to me. I can’t imagine myself with any other name, because it’s just… my name, you know? How could I change it, it’s part of who I am, and it will always be a part of who I am. Now, I would not think I would not be a completely different person if I had a different name, but something would be different, something which to be honest, I can’t tell you because I don’t know. Maybe my behaviour would be different, maybe my personality would be different, or maybe I would be motivated to act like people who share my name. I looked up the origin of my name, and in French, it is derived from the word, “tres”, or three. Trey is also a playing card or die with three spots, so being either a playing card with three spots or the number three is actually alright with me. Especially since my favourite number is three. Also another thing good about my name is that you can’t really shorten or mispronounce my name. I mean sure, you could shorten it to Tre or something, but that wouldn’t really bother me because it’s silly. So in conclusion, I love my name and I wouldn’t change it to anything else.
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