What Would You have Named Yourself...?

Oh! I LIKE Verity!

I am a 3rd, named after my father and grandfather, and I'm very proud to carry their names. I wouldn't want to change mine at all. If I had to choose one, I'd probably choose to be named after one of our great presidents, so Abraham, Franklin, or something like that.

But when I was a kid, I was jealous of a kid named Al Lee, because his name was so short. When we would practice our cursive handwriting by writing our names over and over, he'd always be done first!

I did not like my name at all when I was a kid. All my friends had "cutesie" names like Kayla, kelsie, Mandi, so I felt my name was "old" and boring. Even though my name is spelled the simple way, people ALWAYS spell it with an "a" like Rachael. Now as an adult I like it because it is simple, a common name but not used very much at all. My best friend calls me Rach but that's it as far as nicknames.

My 7 year old daughters name is Brookelynn. It's pronounced more like Brooke-Lynn rather than Brooklyn but we didn't want to hyphenate it. My intentions were to call her Brooke for short but this kid loves her name and asks to be called Brookelynn only. She's never had issues spelling it either. For sports she goes by "BT" because her name doesn't fit on anything but it's cool because that was always her Dad's nickname growing up in sports and throughout school.

I really don't know what other name I would have named myself but I always loved Brooke...obviously.

This is such a great thread! I grew to dislike my given name when I was in school because it was so common. At one point there were five people named Linda in my class. Now, I find my name very dated. I don't like that either! (I really think my spirit animal must be a pea**** - lol).

I do like the meaning of my name (loosely translated as 'pretty' - again, the pea**** thing) but that's probably my name's only redeeming quality.

Interesting factoid - if people mistakenly call me by the wrong name, all too often they say Diane, which is actually my second name. Don't know what that means but I do find it weird.

Never considered using that name though, nor do I fantasize about another!

This was a fun thread--fun to consider your question, and also fun to read through all the comments.

I think names are really important. I always loved my middle name. On my papers all through middle school, I would write out all three names. When I got married, I considered keeping my maiden name, because I had established myself professionally with my maiden name, and because I felt such love for my father and my family of birth. However, it was really uncommon to keep your maiden name then--and people would have taken it as a statement I did not mean to make. I was kind of sad that in changing my name legally, the govt required me to just have 3 names (at least it seemed that way), so to keep my maiden name as my middle name, I had to drop my beloved "special identity" middle name.

My first name I liked OK. I don't actually think about it much--it is like it is an invisible name, or a label. I have been called "mom" for so many years, that I think I have forgotten to think about my first name much. Reading this thread, I thought I would like to make that a part of my meditation--returning meaning to my own given name.

That said, I had a lot of fun thinking about a new name. I finally chose "Cressida Grace." And then I would probably go by "Cress" as a nickname. As a creative writer, symbolism is very important to me. I really love any images of the earth, especially water and trees. Cressida made me think of both water and plants. Also, the name Grace is who I intend to be--someone who is gracious in every way. I do like having a playful and *****y self though, so I would definitely want to go by "Cress" to my friends, but have Cressida to be more formal or lovely when the situation called for it (like if I ever publish something I've written).

That seems like way too much thought about it! But there you have it! Thanks for this fun little game.

I love my given name and wouldn't change it. Jacqueline. Although, when in school I started going by Jackie because the other kids would call me Jack-o-lantern. lol My grandmothers middle name was Belle. We gave my daughter the same middle name. She gave her daughter the same, as have may other relatives.

My given, legal name is Julia. I always thought it was too stuffy, so I've always gone by Julie instead. I'm totally happy with it.

When I started at this job about five years ago, the HR lady called me Julia (since that was what was on my resume, of course) and I didn't correct her since I wanted to stick to being formal and consistent. So now I'm STILL "Julia" at work and "Julie" everywhere else, which is a bit confusing.

I kinda wish I had a super-cool middle name, like "Danger" or "Deathbringer" or somesuch. That's the sort of thing my dad would totally pull! I think I'd do that if I got to rename myself.

When we named our son (which was a process with lists and scores and formulas in Excel, I **** you not), I joked with my husband that we needed to give him a name like "Paladin" or "Falconer." Ya know, not a name, but a DESTINY. Hubs was not on-board ;)