Does your name fit you?

I was originally supposed to be named Rafael.

Instead, I was named Mike. I’d much prefer Rafael.

My legal name is a 4th generation name my father, his father, his father had and my oldest now has. It’s a pretty cool name on top of it!

That depends. What would you think an ‘Isabelle’ would be/act like? I always hated my name because I think it sounds like a grandma’s name and I’m only 17. When I was younger, I wanted my parents to call me Sarah because I named all of my dolls Sarah. Not too sure where I got that name from but it was generic and I wanted to ‘fit in’. As I got older, I realized my name had nothing to do with how cool I was. I’ve learned to embrace my name.

@IzzyAndHerBeans I like Isabelle. Very girly. Most women that I have known named Isabelle are gorgeous, inside and out. Fun to be with. They love flowers too…

I hate my name. I wish I had a more normal name.

I’ve never had one name people me call by. I have my legal name, which is fine with me, but my Grandfather renamed me the day I came home from the hospital, my friends renamed me in school, and my nieces and nephews renamed me as a adult. It weirds some people out. I say if you love me I’m fine with whatever.

I do not have much in common with the Roman God of war.
Except for the divine power, of course.

Seems to.

I think so. On one hand, it comes from Latin (my favorite language) and it’s related to words like “dominate”, which make people think of strength and power (that always seemed ironic when I saw myself as small and effeminate still do in some ways). But at the same time, it means “of the Lord”, which is a testament to my Catholic upbringing, though I am not all that much of a believer these days. I wouldn’t change my name, though. I love it :)

I like my name, and I guess it suits me well enough. I wouldn’t change it.

I guess so.

I guess so. When people say it, they are usually refering to me.

I don’t like my name. My dad didn’t even know the meaning of my name, which is arabic… when he named me. I’d very much prefer an everyday name, which would suit me.

The girls at the convenience store last week said they loved their new credit card machine, as they knew my name now. Then they kept repeating it to me. The older one said she loved it. So I am happy this week.

It is very formal and traditional, which I suspect gives me credibility on job applications and in legal paperwork.

I’m fine with it, I guess. My mom wanted to name me Roxane, but my dad won that battle with the name Gisèle. couldn’t he have picked Gabrielle instead

Does it fit me? Well it seems to, since, obviously, I’ve known the name to be mine all my life. But it would have fit me better if it was actually Desdemona.

Originally I was named after a building on 42nd street in NYC. My mother said she picked it because it was something BIG and American and it had the first 3 letters of my biological father’s name. I hated it. It reminded me that I was supposed to have been born a boy (I was to be named after dad) and at the last minute she chose a name with no real meaning. My adopted brother gave me a better name when he returned from a trip to Africa and it suits me fine.

I like my name. I may change my last one again at some point.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard You don’t look like a Raphael, though. :)

Yes. My real name is Jennifer. I could have been a Heather. I prefer Jennifer, although, it is rather common.

If I was a dude, my parents were going to call me Christian.

My parents first named me Jerry on my Birth Certificate. For reasons unknown, my mother at the last minute, scratched out Jerry and wrote in John.

Thanks, mom. You made a great choice in a name for your baby boy.

Nope. My grandmother asked my mom not to name me _____ because my grandfather had had an affair with a woman with that name, so mom chose a derivative that was Really popular when I was a kid (she didn’t know it would be). Had I had the name I was supposed to, my nickname of choice would have been different and more like me.

I do like my name (Madison/Maddie) and I think that it suits me fairly well, but I don’t like that it’s so common. I think I would prefer to be named Madeline, but I would never change it. I own my given name. ;)

@Fly I love Madison. I don’t think it’s that common.

@Adirondackwannabe Thank you very much! It’s actually extremely common among my generation though, due to the movie Splash, which I was also named after (though I like to say that I was ultimately named after James Madison ;) ); it was number one on the top ten most popular girls names for several years in a row and remained on the top ten even longer. I know at least four other Madisons personally (one of whom is in my group of friends which causes countless confusion) and have met countless more. So the popularity of it really sucks, quite honestly, but I like the name nonetheless.

Based on my given name, Anne, from Hebrew, Hannah, meaning “grace” I would say NO!
I am physically clumsy and frequently socially clumsy.

As for personal aesthetics, after I added the “e” so my first name and last each had 4 letters with a matched pair in the center, I liked that. I never thought to capitalize on using my surname-type middle name as an optional nickname, but might have like that.

Ah Fiddle, you just want to be a Ninja Turtle. :-)

In the end yeah

I dunno, I’ve never really liked my name, though. I’ve always wished for a more exotic sounding name.

My names is the first gift my mother ever gave me, as she would say.
I wouldn’t change it. Ash-Leigh is a pretty common name. Although they usually spell it like “Ashley”...

I don’t know if my name fits me but I also don’t know if I would change it (and if so what to).
Guess I’ll keep it : )

@AshLeigh The first gift your mother gave you… that is so sweet.

I picked my own name and legally changed my first name as an adult. I think it fits me very well.

@chyna, I like your name, it is unique and pretty. @tinyfaery, yours is one of my very favorite girl names!

I used to dislike my name but nowadays I like it fine. It isn’t too common and it sounds nice enough. I think it suits me too.

@tinyfaery your name suits you.

I’ve always been pretty content with my name, which is Hannah. I loved having a palindrome name as a kid, made it easy to spell and made me feel super cool. lol.

My name is so perfect that any of you could look at me and instantly know it.

MIlo here; My name is perfect, unlike that dopey cat Henry who is living with Gail’s nephew down the road. Talk about a lack of imagination.

I love the name Gisèle.

Lets see, bland, uninspired, common. I would say yes, for sure.

I’ve got a weird family name that usually results in interesting mispronunciations. I like it fine but I settled into the short version my friends use. I like that quite a lot.

Oh my mom wanted to name be Socorro. So I am relieved that didn’t happen. I wasn’t crazy about my name. But I didn’t feel like anyone else but me so I felt it fit.

@EnchantingEla hah. She’s been saying it all my life!

My name is Lon. I never liked it. It sounds dull and it means lazy in Chinese. I once asked my Mom why she named me that and she said that she couldn’t remember. I would have liked a more common name such as Jon, Ron or Tom. Other names that I like are Leo, Leonardo and Alonzo.

I disliked it when I was a kid, but I like it a lot now. I like that it’s not a common name and that my nickname is not gender-specific (my parents did that on purpose). I also like that my name’s meaning (brave) got me thinking seriously at a young age about what kind of person I wanted to be. Additionally, I enjoy that I happen to have disliked almost everyone else I meet with my name – I find this odd, and I like things that are odd.

I didn’t like it growing up but it’s grown on me I guess. My name is Shauna.

@marinelife Is it a difficult process to change one’s first name? I always wondered about that.

My given name sounds oddly formal. I can’t relate to it at all since I don’t have a dignified bone in my body. I always went by its common nickname which is short and plebeian, a much better fit.

When I was ordained, I got to choose a new name. I combed through thousands of Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese names that have been in use in our tradition for centuries, looking for one that resonated for me. The one I settled on is Japanese, and used to have a lovely meaning: it referred to the old practice of wandering through the mountains on pilgrimage. In modern Japanese, it’s meaning has become far more prosaic: it means “picnic”. I kind of like that.

@thorninmud: “Never go down to the end of the town, if you don’t go down with me.”

@Plucky; My youngest step-son changed his first name from Peter to Max; the only problem is that those of us who have known him for his first 35 years call him Petermax.

@gailcalled Yep, that’s the one.

I would have preferred my middle name be my first name; I even went by Renee for a while in high school. I’ve talked to my SO about changing my name entirely when we get married so that I’d have a hyphenated first name and a hyphenated last name, but my parents would hate it…

I’ve always loved my name, Deborah. But I’m really picky on the spelling. Growing up kids called me de-bra. Hated that. I have to keep from sounding offended when someone spells my name that way. And I’ve hated Debbie. I don’t let anyone call me that.

Now, Bianelle is a pretty French name. I would’t mind that. (Bee-an-elle).

Giselle suits you. It’s pretty.

My first name is very ordinary, my surname is rare and no one has ever been able to spell it but I wouldn’t change either. It is my grandfather’s name.

@thorninmud Have you ever read any of Taneda Santoka’s poems? He was the ultimate wanderer.

My name is Rowan and I don’t really like it much (but oh boy, am I glad that Mr Bean wasn’t around when I was at school, otherwise sharing a name with Rowan Atkinson would have been another thing for the other kids to bully me for). It was an unusual name at the time, but my parents were like that. I’m lucky I didn’t end up being called Moonbeam or something.

HEY! @Bent there’s nothing wrong with Moonbeam. I was going to name my son Moonbeam but I lost the bet.

My mom wanted to name me Tamar, which is a name that goes back in my mother’s side of the family but my father refused to have me named after a hooker in the bible.
I would have loved Tamar as a name.

My real name has been made fun off, joked around with, and so horribly destroyed when pronounced that many decide to just shorten it. But when shortened and said with the right emphasis it means asshole in another language. I think it is beyond fun that my name can be misconstrude so many way but many fall in love with it when it’s said, for it is unique, beautiful, intriquing and powerful. I love how my first name flows with my middle and last. It makes me feel very unique and individual. My name is me.

I chose my name myself, so yes I think it fits me a lot better than my original one.

@anartist Tamar is also the name of a river in England. Tam or Tame is an old English word for river, so there are a lot of rivers here with similar names, including Thames.

@flutherother That’s new to me. I have a thing for Ryokan, another wanderer/poet.

Thanks for the link. I like that sort of stuff.