I had a fourth grade teacher whose name was Mrs. Ed Ek. Always admired that. Thought that was fairly easy to spell.

It's funny you should bring this up, Sheila. I was just thinking the same thing yesterday. I suspect other people's names influence us more than we'd like to admit.

Many years ago on the GP we were discussing names, and Suzanne ventured that we were named that because it was a popular name at that time. I am the only person I know, or have ever known personally with that name. Lots of Susans, but not Suzanne. I have four grandmothers going back as many generations with that name, or variations of it. But two of them were Susannahs. I also had a grandmother named Sydney and that is what my mother almost named me. I didn't think it particularly pretty when I was a child, but really like it now.

My first name (not Agnes, for heavens sake!) is a popular name now, but it was unheard of when I was coming up. I hated being the only one with such a weird name. I wanted to be a Barbara, Helen or even a Mary.

My father named me. He had boarded with a family that had a lovely little girl with that name. He wanted a daughter just like her. A few years ago, I saw an obituary of an elderly woman from that same little town with THE NAME. She was the right age. I will always wonder if that was her. She is the only one I have ever known about until about the last decade or so.

Forget that last decade bit....the name has been popular for about 30 years. Too popular if you ask me. People even give the name to their pets!

Well you aren't going to run into my name very often,at least with a D in it. It's a mix of my two grandmother's names..Martha and Ada.
I have always loved the named Johannah and if we had had a daughter,that would have been her name. I use it a lot if I have to register on a site. When I hear the name Sheila I always think of someone very sophisticated and classy. What I have a hard time picturing are people in their 80s or 90s with names like Candy,Barbie etc.

Did you ever think about going to a doctor named Barbie? Or maybe a lawyer who calls herself Candy? Would it influence your vote if they were running for office?

We had a man that was fairly prominent in the community. His name was Peter P. Pringle. I could not look at his name without wondering what the other P. stood for.

Marda, I'm glad you think the way you do but I fear I don't live up to it. I am definitely not sophisticated or classy, although I have been called a class act"

Now, Marda...I think of that as sophisticated and classy. Perhaps a shade aloof, but most definitely sophisticated.

My father's name was Boyce and if I'd been the hoped-for son I'd have that name which I'd have liked, even for a girl. I was named Joyce... a name not too common or too rare...suits me.

My Mom's name was Auselle, among a bevy of siblings given fairly popular names of Mae, Sara, Frances, Gladys, Robert. Where that name came from was never known...their Mom and Dad died before the kids were old enough to be curious about the name Auselle. I've never run across it in all my reading of novels from that period...really curious about it. I'd have loved that name for myself too.

Our only son was naturally the "third" after his father and grandfather...plus the names had run through the family for generations. He's always been called "Jay" though for his first initial and uses it alone. I'm glad we didn't break the tradition, and he has a little girl named Jae so I guess he liked his name.

My member name here -josh- combines first two initials of my names..and is an old nickname so worked out well when I had to reregister at GW. There are several others now but we rarely post on same forums. As you can tell...I'm not very imaginative coming up with new names...my cat was called CAT and my parrot Bird...LOL josh

My real first name is now pretty common, but when I was a kid no one else had it & no one could pronounce it. The first day of school with a new teacher, I'd sit there waiting for the roll to be called and my name to be mangled. At that time I would have given anything to be one of the 4 or 5 Linda's that were in my class.

Now that I live in the south it's just one weird name after another: Nona, Grady Ruth, Wincie, Lorene, Charla & Boots are the ones that spring immediately to mind.

Andie, I knew a Nona when I was young...she was Welsh.

May name, Lilo, is actuallu a combination of Lieselotte, a farily common name of my generation in Germany, and it generally was condensed into LiLo, there were several in my school.
My middle name is Sophie, and my married name starts with a "D".. no problem until I had a job requring my putting initials on stuff crossing my desk, and (in the 70's) it ended up LSD - whereupon Managment asked me nicely to eliminate my middle initial in all my offcial correspondence.
Funny thing is that many outside vendors though Lilo was a Hawaiian male - it always surprised them to find out it was a German female.
And I really didn't like any of it, when I was five I wanted to be "Graciella".

I'm named for my aunt Maribelle, though my spelling is Maribel and my version is not pronounced with a long a. I've met only one other Maribel in my life and she was a cardiologist I saw once (she was Hispanic and that's a more common name south of the border). I've also only met one other Pidge in my life--that handle came from my father who raised homing pigeons.
I love both my names and I love that they are unique.
I get class lists with enough Jennifers, Marykates, Breannas and Jessicas to make my head swim. So to me, unusual names or names with a history are a distinct pleasure.

If you know me at all, you can very easily see I am a girl, so I have always hated Robin . I'd have given a gazillion dollars to be Rebecca, Katherine or some other ultrafem name. Although, if I'd turned to out to be a boy, Shawn Glenn. Shawn? It's just as 50-50! Guess my parents didn't care if what I was, just happy to have me. My baby sis's name is Susanne and my friend across the way is Suzanne... maybe it's a southern thing? My middle name is Leigh and Bobbie Leigh just couldn't possibly be more southern!

I think Robin is a more a feminine sounding name than it is masculine. The English robin, for instance, is a petite, clever and friendly bird ~ even a cheeky litle thing sometimes ~ and it's regarded with great affection in the British Isles.

Robin, if you were met your English feathered namesake you'd be charmed.

I am the oldest Linda I know.....well but for one friend who is 3 months older.
I was the only Linda in my class until I got to college. Linda was an "exotic" name.....
But then everyone started naming their girls Linda. Would be rather like being named Brittany in 1960!
I was alomst Lydia, buy my mother thought that grandmother was a crabby woman, so Linda was a cop out foir what I really was to be named.
There was a neighbor girl years ago named "Patti"...not "Patty" not Patricia....but just Patti.
She is now an MD....I'll bet she now goes by "Pat".
It has been said that in naming a pet, yell the name out the back door and in naming a child, think about going to a Dr. or a Lawyer with that name....or voting for a president with that name.
Linda C

Pity the child named Bambi.
I know a young woman by that name and she is a lawyer.

Oh, but it's so easy to change a name. Why keep one you'd consider a liability if you wouldn't think twice about dying your hair, inflating your bossom, or suctioning off fat thighs?

Probably because your parents named you & presumably would be upset if you changed your name.

LOL I am sure you are right, Andie. But the distaff routinely change their surnames upon marriage, and I'd rather keep my maiden name than my Christian name. I have an uncommon and rather peculiar middle name, and I've come right out and asked my mother on occasion......."what were you even thinking?"

Never really thought about being anything but what i was named Kathleen, but mostly go by Kathy or Kath, only heard Kathleen when my Mom or Dad were mad, was kinda glad of the alternative, Grandmother and Aunt were Eleanore and Mom was Mildred, had a Aunt Florence in there too, Dad was and is Henry and his Mom was Estelle so think im glad they named me Kathleen. But I do appreciate the unique names some of you have like Lilo, Marda, Maribel. I just named my kids what i liked and they are Joshua and Megan.

I like my first name Rebecca but when I married a man named Terrible that took a lot of getting used to. When I had a son my darn husband wanted to name him Ivan but both my MIL and I explained firmly that that was not going to happen, We vetoed Bruno also. I think all children should be given a first and middle name and at least one should be conventional so that as a person grows up if they do not like one name they can go by the other with no fuss.

It's those nicknames that sound cute in childhood, but can get really irritating when the kid gets older. I knew a guy in college whose real first name was Jay, but was known as Buzzy, a nick name left over from childhood but followed him, at least through 4 years of college. Now he goes by Jay, but whenever I see him, which admittedly is at odd intervals now, Buzzy is still the name I think of him as & it's almost impossible for me to think of him as Jay.

We also had friends who named their first son Newton, a family name, which quickly evolved into calling the kid Fig. That was twenty odd years ago & guess what he's still called?

I'm with Andie on the weird nicknames. I have a friend who dated a man in college named Jynx. He is now a very well known art historian and he goes by his given name (Charles), but to me he will always be Jynx.

Judy

I don't think the "younger set" is as much into strange nick names as those 50 and beyond.
I know a TeeDee, a Sunshine, Duke (named Arnold)
Three (named Fredrick III)..I know a Helen Hays (not an actress) Windy, Muffy (Martha) and more strange ones I am sure.
The thing is, after a bit, you stop thinking of a name as anything but what you call that person. I thought some of those names were the oddest thing....but now I am totally used to them....and I don't even think it's strange anymore to call Three or another son of a junior known as Trey...it's just their name.
Linda C

I'd prefer most of those names to the ones given the ones to children of film or music stars. How would you like to have been given the name of one of Frank Zappa's kids? Dweezil or Moon Unit! "Normal" names don't seem to be the norm for children of high-profile parents.

I think we all get hung up on names. I see nothing wrong with the name Apple. It is simply an identifier to seperate individuals. I don't care what someone's name is as long as they answer to it when I need to speak with them, and I guarantee their odd names are better than some things I have called people under my breath.

Weebus, it's not what you think of someone's name, it's what that indiviual thinks of their own name.

There are a lot of interesting names in my family mostly from German backround. My Grandmothers were Alma and Lena and my mom was Velma. Aunts were Dora, Roberta, Margaret, Marlas and Ruth. Don't know where Donald came from.

There were a couple of young ladys named Marita and Sarmita that lived a block from us in the fiftys. Obviously Russian which would have led to an interesting life at the time. I was too young to realize the implications and just thought they were nice friends of my older sisters.

There are many reasons for names, to honor a relative or cary on a tradition or just because it sounds interesting. Your name is your most prized possesion and cannot be taken away.

I was just responding to the last few posts of the thread...

My name is fine, just doesn't fit me.

I like my name, Paula. Growing up, I was the only one in school, etc. It's more common now, but not really used that often.

There is a teacher at the 2 year college in North Platte whose first name is Hannalore, not even sure that is spelled correctly. Perhaps a German name?

Yes, Hannalore is a German Name, just as my name Liese+Lotte, it's a combination, Hanna+Laura. The Germans are pretty big on combinations, don't know why.
One of my sisters was named Ingeborg, very popular then, after she came to the US she has morphed into Cristina - I don't blame her, do you?

I think Ingeborg is lovely!..
I know a "Joann", spelled Joan and a "LuRay" spelled Loire and a "Tee-Air" spelled Tiare and a "Katy" spelled Caity and a "Tom" spelled Thom and a "Juanita" spelled Wanita..
It's the traditional sounding names with the odd spelling that get to me.
Linda C

Actually me too. It leaves the door open to misprounce them. That doesn't bother me, but when the recipient of the misprounciation gets peeved, it isn't called for. My step daughter doesn't like it when her name is misprounced, but it is a "made-up" name and it is not pronounced in any language as it is spelt. So the poor woman goes through her whole life correcting people who try. That has to be tedious.

While looking for a customers house today I drove down Marda lane. Immediately thought about this thread.

My sister and I have almost the same name! Same parents, too. No middle names but two first names. Kinda like Jo Marie and Jo Anne but we both go by just the first name. Of course, the little sister got a nick name!

Something we have not mentioned, but naming also includes how the first name harmonizes with the family name.
As Shadowgarden mentioned, when you last name is Terrible, it's sadistic to choose the first name Ivan.
I have heard of a Crystal Chan Delear, and Joann, when she volunteered at a charity mailing, came across Harry and Rosie Bottom. At my job I found a Billy B. Best - well he did the best he could and was a high-ranking officer in the US Army.

I was thinking about an aunt yesterday and thought about the names of her generation that you seldom, if ever hear anymore.

Lucile, Gladys, and Miriam used to be common. Why do names fall out of favor?

And then some of the male names that were family names, like Hiram, Hector and Henry.

PB, I know what you mean. I had a great aunts named Ethel, Lucille & Mildred, and where are those names today? Maybe thankfully they've been removed to the cosmic trash heap.

On the male side in that generation were Willard, Clifford, Harold & Lloyd. Somehow the men's names don't seem as bad as the women's names.

Andie, I had a gr.gr.grandmother by the name of Sabrina. That one has come back in style. Then there was the one named Obedience. Somehow, I don't think that one will ever be resurrected.

As one who has a "lovely" name [now more common, but then unusual], I can tell you that long before I was school age, I detested it. Weekly, my parents went to DC's huge Farmer's Market where they sold vegs & flowers from their garden, so that literally dozens of times every week, adults would tell me, "Oh, what a lovely name! Don't you just love that name!" Being a properly raised young'un, I'd always say yes and thank you, but my mental comment would be similar to a cat spitting hairballs. I've since discovered that an apparent side-benefit of maturing to grey hair is that upon being introduced to someone, I rarely hear "Oh, what a lovely name!" T.G.