i never thought BLANK until i named my child BLANK

[lizajane]

i never thought little old ladies would actually think i was dumb enough to think that "unique" is a compliment. as in, to schuyler,
"what is your name?"
"schuyler."
"what?"
(me) "his name is schuyler" (sounds like sky-ler)
little old lady, "oh. how unique."

i never thought my mother would think it was actually not only appropriate but CUTE to call my SON (a boy, a future man) "dilly willy." i put an immediate end to that. he is dylan. or sometimes the dyn. but no form of dill, dilly and certainly not dilly willy.

and a final thought- i never thought "liza" was such a freakin' unusual and difficult to pronouce name until i changed my own nickname from liz to liza at age 25. it is liZZZZZZZZa not liSSSSSSSSSSa. liza. like minelli. z sound. like buzz. not like buss. liza. not lisa. not leeza. i am not a talk show host.

[karolyp]

I can totally relate to this thread bc of my own name, Karoly!!!

And if my mom could do it all over again, I'm sure she name me different. But she was trying to make my name match hers (Karroll) and she came up with Karoly (pronounced carol-lee). But needless to say, I have endured a lifetime of comments and mis-pronunciations!!

Let's see, I've been called Carol and Carolyn (where they get the "n" from I have no idea). And I've been told that my name is a nice "word." sigh....

[kboyle]

lol, i LOVE schuyler and no, you're definately not a talk show host, lizzzzzza ;)

one of my best friens likes to call my SON "maxie pad." who calls a little boy that? and she thinks it'sooo cute :( i put a stop to that, no more sanitary pad calling in my house :)

AND my name, Kristine, that starts with a "K" has been called unusual before...not, the spelling, the name itself....where has this lady been? i grew up with about 5 "K/CHristine's" in all my classes growning up.

[JBaxter]

I cant relate. My mother spelled my name Jeana ( said like Gina) I get Jenna Jean Jeanie Je --anna and the spellings are even more butchered. When I asked my mother why she changed the spelling her answer was -- I couldnt make a pretty G.

My 2nd DS ( Connor) was almost William until my XFIL said - just weeks before delivery-- "How's Little Willy doing?" That fixed that.

[bcky2]

omg i have a max too and yep, i also have gotten maxi pad. WTH! i can handle maxi somewhat but not with the word pad after it! but then again look at what i call him, hootie :)

i also had a friend that called him maxi-moo, strange but better then pad ;)

btw kristine i have been meaning to email you and one of these days i will :)

[tarynsmum]

OK, how great is this: my DD is not even 2 months old, and her name is butchered so much it's ridiculous. I grew up with a girl named Taryn, there are actresses named Taryn. I don't think it's all that unusual or *unique*. So far in the past two months I've heard:

"oooh, hat's your little girl's name?"
"Taryn"
"what?"
"Taryn"
(pause)
(me) "Like Karen, with a T"
"oh, is she named after somebody?" ::

she is not. I know no one named Karen

I've also gotten Tar-ryn ('tar' like the word tar, the sticky stuff on the road). She's not an aristocrat, or a soap opera actress. Why in the world would you draw out the 'A'?

I've also gotten flak from my family members because her middle name is Gene: after FIL who died when I was 6 months pregnant. FOr some reason, everyone made a big deal over the "male" spelling, like it would confuse people. I've never heard of a boy named Taryn (I have seen Tarin and Taran for boys, but the 'y' maks it feminine) so I doubt everyone will think she's a boy upon seeing her name.

OK, enough name venting.

~Heather

[TaChapm]

Yesterday I took Jackson to get his hair cut. I made the appt. under Jackson and called him Jackson through out the hair cut. At the end of the appointment I said "Jackson you did such a good job" and the lady said "Is that his last name?". I looked at her and said no and she gave me a funny look like I was crazy to name my son Jackson.

I have had this happen a few times with his name but never thought when I named him Jackson that people would think it was strange. I also HATE it when people try to call him Jack. That is NOT his name so don't call him it. My FIL does this a lot. Ugh!

Tara
Mommy to Jackson 11-10-02
Tyler William 6-9-05
OMG!!! Baby #3 Due September 5, 2006!

http://b4.lilypie.com/gzWfm8.png

http://b1.lilypie.com/kLMem8.png

http://bd.lilypie.com/UEZ3m8.png

[kboyle]

Heather-in a past post we commented on our middle name Jean/Gene's and I have to add that I was also 6mos pregnant when we chose the middle name for DH's grandmother who died at that time. :) another coincidence!

[Puddy73]

I never thought Finn was a girl's name. Even the nurse at the ped's office thought he was a girl, despite the fact that he was wearing a blue polo shirt and denim overalls. Also, I never thought that my normally sweet mother would blurt out, "Why did you name him THAT?" when I called to tell her the good news.

I haven't had too many weird comments on Annabelle's name, other than our neighbor telling me that Annabelle would be teased at school for having an old-fashioned name.

Oh well, you can't please everyone!

Jennifer
Mommy to Annabelle 9/08/03 & Finn 10/31/05

"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." - Jimmy Buffett

[Queensgirl]

People can be so rude.
When I was a kid my name was considered unusual (not anymore) and people were always butchering it-even to this day. I've been called almost every name that starts with or has a "K" sound. I've always liked my name so it never truly bothered me but I found it odd that people had difficulty pronouncing it. Where I live and work people & children have every name imaginable. Many are foreign names while others are names parents made up to be originaI. Some of the kids I work w/are named after a parents' favorite brand/luxury item (ie, Diamond, Alexus, Remy, etc.).Hey, to each their own. A name is a personal decision & people (especially stangers) should be a little more sensitive when commenting, if they need to comment at all.

-Karina

[bcafe]

My oldest DS is named Ford. I love it. It is my mom's maiden name. He is such a Ford, the moniker fits him perfectly. However, one can guess how many vehicle references we get! Grr...

ps..my oldest is Alexis, hence we get the 'Lexus and Ford' comments..Duh!

[o_mom]

Both of our boys have names that could be surnames. On top of that our last name is one that could be a first name, although unusual. We get all kinds of mislabeled forms and people switching the names, etc, thinking that we put lastname first or something. Never even thought about it until after DS2 was born...

[Jenn98]

I can (unfortunately) relate. This is how it usually goes for me:

Them: "What's her name?"
Me: "Josephine"
Them: blank stare followed by "Is that a family name?" (as if I was forced to name her some *awful* name simply to honor a dead relative!)
Me: "It is now!" That comeback usually stops them dead in their tracks! :)

jenn

ETA: And if one more person comments on how long a name Josephine is for such a little girl I'm gonna puke on their shoes! ;) I don't have a snappy comeback yet for that one. And everyone always wants to know what we might use for her nickname and they are horrified when I say that we might go with Joey - imagine a little girl named Joey. oh. the horror.

[bcky2]

my ds max's middle name is Gene after his great grandfather that died many years ago. we had decided that if it was a boy or girl it would be Gene.

[bcky2]

i love that name and if we were to have had a girl that would have been the name we would have gone with. it is my dh's grandmothers name. so my younger ds has his middle name after her, we just did joseph. we figured that was close to josephine :)

[mom to little e]

LOVE this thread! I completely understand and expect people to say ignorant comments - not that I am a negative person, it just seems as if people never let me down on that one.

There were a lot of reasons and thought that went into our decisions, but when we chose DS and DD's names, I really wanted names that did not have an automatic nickname built in. Like, if I like Matthew and wanted to name a son that, I wouldn't want him to be called "Matt." Hopefully Ean and Mia will stick, although Ean is going to have to deal with the fact that we used an "E" rather than an "I" for his spelling. My OB did say, "oh, so you like short names." Ugh!

I died reading about the "dilly willy!"

Maryann

Ean 11/03
Mia 01/06

[Queensgirl]

I think those are great names. A little girl I know was named after the car ("Alexus"- same spelling). Actually, car manufacturers come up with great names when it comes to naming models- Sephia, Solara, Avalon, Celica, Camry, Amanti. Original but not over the top. My husband loves Sephia and Solara as girls names. When I visited Ireland 16 yrs. ago there was a Nissan model being advertised that had my name- Karina. Go figure.

[morgan47]

Responses to naming my son Aidan:

From my 16-year-old nephew (not said directly to me): He's going to get beaten up at school.

From my dad: I've never heard of that name (not a bad comment, just demonstrates the generation gap).

Unfortunately, with Aidan becoming ever more popular, there will probably be a zillion other kids with that name when my DS starts school (that will be a lot of kids to get beaten up!). I even saw it spelled Ayden for a girl (kinda cool, I think).

[jasabo]

Yikes - add me to the "rude" list then. I have a friend with a son named Dillon and I've called him Dilly Willy a few times. Many people do. I never really thought of it as being inappropriate. Maybe someone can clue me in on that.

Likewise, I've commented on peoples' names being "unique" before too. I never felt any hostility from people when I've said it, but maybe they were just being polite to me. I'm certainly not being mean when I say it. If anything, I mean it as a compliment. Maybe the little old lady meant it as a compliment too. I guess maybe if you hear it too often, you get tired of it...??? I know people aren't being rude when they say "Oh, twins! Double trouble!!" but it does get on my nerves after the millionth time in a week.

Lisa - mom to 2 1/2 yr old twin boys

[tarynsmum]

Wow, that's really crazy.

~Heather

[elliput]

I guess having a Scotch/Irish lineage the name Moira was always very easy to pronounce for me, but for some reason almost everybody that we run into just cannot pronounce it properly. Mora, Moria, Moya. ARG! At least the guy at BD's Mongolian BBQ said "Oh, like the actress Moira Kelly!" I nearly lept over the counter and kissed him!

[elliput]

I love the name Josephine - it was always my make-believe name when I was a kid.

[lizajane]

oh no, it isn't "inappropriate" i just think it is REEEEEEEEEALLY goofy-sounding. i mean, talk about getting beaten up at school... dilly willy??? ok, not trying to say you are wrong to call your friend's child something silly. but, well, i think it is dumb. and makes my kid sound dumb. is that ok to say? i don't mean to sound ugly.

and the unique thing... it isn't, "WOW!!! how unique!!" it is, "oh. (pause pause pause) how (pause) unique." (insert ugly frowny type face here.)

i love unique names. (clearly.) and i will tell someone with a unique name that i love unique names. but i will not say it with my nose in the air and a look in my eye that signifies that i think the name is truly ridiculous and not actually unique.

[s7714]

People often mispronounce my older DD's name. It's Annalia, pronounced Anna-lee-a. I thought it was a pretty straightforward name. Since she was born though a lot of people see it and pronounce it as An-all-ya. Guess maybe I should have gone for an appropriately placed accent mark somewhere, but that probably would have thrown even more people off!

(And FWIW, I've known several Schuylers in my life! ;) )

ETA: My pet peeve as far as my own name and DH's, is that I generally go by Jenn and his name is Ben. I can't tell you how many times I hear little giggles from people when we're introduced, like being "Ben & Jenn" is something funny. Yeah it rhymes--who cares? But my all time favorite has to be when people say "oh, Ben & Jenn...like Ben & Jerry!" Um, NO, no similarity at all there folks!

Jennifer
Mommy to
DD 3/03
DD 6/05

Calling fellow BBB SoCal moms...we'd love to meet you!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/babybargainssocal/

[mommy_someday]

Moira Kelly is exactly who I think of everytime I see your DD's name! How funny! :)

[Jenn98]

I really liked the name Corrina and wanted it for DD, but DH thought it was too similar to his name. I've never known anyone named that. Maybe my next DD will get it!

jenn

[lmintzer]

Tara--I get the opposite with my DS. He's Jack -- and just Jack. But I always get, "Oh, is it short for Jackson or John?"

And everyone is always trying to shorten my other son, Joshua's name to Josh. I don't usually make a big deal out of it, but I always introduce him as Joshua. I never call him Josh. Sometimes Joshie or a lot of other silly little nicknames but never Josh.

[Melanie]

>Responses to naming my son Aidan:
>
>From my dad: I've never heard of that name (not a bad comment,
>just demonstrates the generation gap).

That's funny. We have a relative named "aiden" and when he was born, my grandmother-in-law (in her 80's) called to tell us the news. However she couldn't remember the name, only that she'd never heard it before. LOL. I thought it was going to be something really off the wall, not 'Aiden.'

[DDowning]

Talk about a name getting butchered, try Deidra. How many of you here have always put in an extra "r" and end it with an "e" instead of an "a"? I also get its spelled with the i in front of the e. Okay, its DEE-dra, not DIE-dra.

And don't even get me started on the meaning behind my name being based on some old irish legend about some girl who committed suicide because some king forced her to marry him after the king had her lover killed. Isn't that a pleasant thought!

[shilo]

love the topic.

ok, so i've been called more wrong names since birth than right, so i can totally relate. it really doesn't bother me most of the time. really bothers my DH tho, that half of his family still calls me loren 10 years after they first met me and after he's corrected them too many times to count :).

i get lorin/loren, loreeen, lorraine, lor-eye-nn, lori-anne, etc. it has only been since the lord of the rings movies came out that occasionally people get it right now (my mom was reading the books while she was preggo - lorien is the forrest of the elves). it's just like it is spelled Lori-en.

even tho i am pretty laid back about it, i think that's why i'm drawn to such a classic/simple names like DS's.

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How luck I am that you chose me.

[jasabo]

Oh good - glad you don't think it's innappropriate. I was a little worried that I'd been breaking some unwritten protocol - I've been known to do that.

I agree with you about being beaten up in school with "dilly willy" and I'd NEVER in a million years call my friend's son that when he's older. But at age 2, kids haven't really started that horribly mean phase that I'm so dreading. You have every right to think it sounds dumb and to prefer that people not say it to your kiddo. Heck, he's your kid.

I call my kids Monkey Doodles, Shmooky Wooky Pants and Sir Pees-A-Lot...and you thought Dilly Willy sounds dumb... ;)

As for the snooty frowny face, that would irk me too.

Lisa - mom to 2 1/2 yr old twin boys

[Dcclerk]

I'm guilty here. ;) I promise I pronounce it right, but I never do get the spelling right. Ironic, coming from "Kerry" rather than "Carrie", isn't it!

[lkarp]

I can also totally relate to this! We named DD Mila (Mee-lah) which is a pretty common name in the Philippines. This is what happened at our last pediatric visit.

I say to receptionist,"We're here for an appointment for Mila Karp."
Receptionist shuffles through papers, and then says "Oh, My-lah?"
"Um, no, actually it is Mila... long E."
"Oh"

We've gotten the "Oh" comment so many times with the long pause after and confused look on face reaction. Sigh...

Leah

[jhaud]

i'm loving this topic too! obviously with jennifer and being born in the 70's my first name has never been an issue. my maiden name is ellnor... i've been called eleanor, and ellen many times (why when jennifer is not a surname i've ever seen) i also always had to correct pronounciations of my last name (like L-nor)

now my dd is genevieve. my mil can't say or spell it and calls her jenny which she called me until dd was born, now i don't know whether she ever says my name, but i'm sure i'm either jennifer, jenn, or bill's wife! i wish she would at least spell it with a g. and we do have numerous nicknames for dd, but the one i use on notes, postcards, etc is gigi - i didn't think it was difficult to spell. (of course at 19 mo, my mom just realized it was gigi, not gege) quite often when i tell people her name and they repeat it, it is genevie. i know it's not a common name, but i thought more people would have been familiar with it.

with #2 i keep threatening guinevere as my girl choice just to mess with people and a boy would likely be william (but i dread "little bill" from my inlaws) that we would call will.

[mariza]

Jen,
Tell them it's a lot of name for a lot of personality. Then tell them to buzz off :)

[aliceinwonderland]

Everybody (understandibly) thinks Erik was named after me. This was actually *not* our express intention, it's just that DH shot down all my boy names (Oscar, Luka, Matteo, etc.). We both loved "William", but neither one of us are of British/Irish heritage. The name we were settled on for most of the pregnancy "Jon" (pronounced with a soft "j", like "yawn" is), I decided was too short for my taste, so Erik it was. We were limited in that I wanted a name that my very old, non-English speaking grandparents can easily say and write(so, "Charlie", another all-time favorite, was also out).

Now I am kind of glad people assume that, and I proudly say, yes, he is named after me (LOL). Kind of self serving as he has my last name (as well as DH's) too, but ah well. We briefly considered naming him after DH (as I really like his name), but being named after your mother is just way cooler, no? ;)


My DH's former boss had *both* his children named after himself...Insists it was his wife's idea. Suuuure. ;)

[mariza]

This may not seem bad to many of you, but it irritates me to no end. When people ask me what DD's name is I tell them "Grace", I love Grace for it's beautiful classic simplicity, but without fail people immediately say "Hi Gracie" grrrr, I don't get it, it actually takes more effort to say Gracie than Grace!
Don't get me wrong, I've been know to call her Gracie (well actually Gracie-Grace or Gracie-Girl) but to me it's a term of affection that is reserved for me and DH to use, is that wrong of me?

[BeachBaby]

Oh, gosh, my husband, daughter, and I all have problems with our names!

Simone has been called "Simon" and "Simone-y" by two different peds in the same practice. They were reading her chart as they walked in and both said, "Hi, Simon/Simone-y." Simon I can SORT OF understand, but Simone-y? And we get the unique thing, too. When I called work to tell my boss that I had the baby, she asked what we named her. I told her and she first asked me to repeat it. Then she just said, "oh. Okay." LOL.

My name is Megan and I was at an interview once where the interviewer told me I pronounced my name wrong. It is pronounced "Meg-an" and he told me I "should" be "Mee-gan". Oh, okay, thanks for letting me know.

My husband's name is Michael and people are always shortening it to Mike for him. He will introduce himself as Michael and then they will call him Mike.

[mariza]

I can relate to your DH, people always want to shorten my name. When I introduce myself as Izabela they ask me what I like to be called. Ummmm, how about Izabela? Don't even get me started on the spelling, I don't mind the comments on the unique spelling, but it's when people see it spelled and then ask me how to pronounce it that gets me! Why is perfectly normal for Elizabeth to be spelled with a "Z", but not Izabela? I had a friend in High School that had the same issue with her spelling of EliSabeth.

[dotgirl]

Ye gods and little fishies, I could go on for hours about names and the stupid comments related to them.

Our daughter is named "Brittany". In addition to the fact that people ask if she's named after Britney Spears (no!), and people misspell her name, half the time they call her "Whitney".

And DS is named "Riley", which would seem innocuous enough, but I've had more than one person tell me that ending a male name in the "ee" sound was "girly". Uh. Ok. Also, people try to call him "Rye". Which, I'm sorry, just doesn't sound good. (We sometimes call him Riley-kins, but usually we just call him "little guy".)

However, to be fair, neither are as bad as the nonsense surrounding my name - Penny. People assume it's short for "Penelope" (it's not!) and just call me that. Or when I introduce myself, they say, "Patty?" "No, Penny" "Oh, Jenny!" "No, *Penny*", "Oh! Pammy". *stab stab*

[starrynight]

Having an Eliza that is almost always called "Liza" anyway I hear you!! Down here everyone wants to pronounce it E-Lisa or Elissa (Alyssa) and I am constantly correcting people. It's not a hard to pronounce name!

[saschalicks]

I LOVE this topic.

OK my whole life I've had to repeat my name a gaggillion (sp?) times, as well as 75% of people spell it wrong. It's Candice with and "i" not an "a".

So when we decided on Jonah I thought great an easy name. Nope people leave the "h" off at that end, which I kinda' understand.

But Eli (pronounced ee-lie) got quite a flurry of discussion from my family. My dad said it was a nickname not a real name. He insisted until I gave birth that his name should be either Elijah or Elias. I said that if I was going to call him Eli then I'm going to name him Eli. My brother said to me I kid you not "with Jonah that's too Jewish". Um we are Jewish. Just weird to say. The other thing is that we decided to name him Eli Payton. So everyone assumes we are Manning brothers fans. Nope. We liked the name Eli and Payton is after a completely different football player which is dilineated by the spelling. It's after Walter Payton, not Peyton Manning.

Anyway, good topic!

[mclianne]

DD's name is Karis, rhymes with Paris...

Mother- Are you going to shorten it? Will her nickname be Carrie?

Me- Umm, no... We weren't planning on shortening her name. We don't think Karis is that long of a name, and calling her "Carrie doesn't shorten it, it just changes it to a whole other name...

[Jenn98]

Love the name Guinevere! :)

[MonicaH]

Well, when my daughter was about 6 days old I realized that we had condemned her to a lifetime of having to spell her name and correct pronunciation. Her name is Louisa. A lot of people want to call her Louise. But there is one acquaintance who was calling her Lou-iss-a and after I pointedly corrected her ("Oh, LOUISA is doing fine thanks") she stopped calling her by name at all. What do I expect, I guess, we do live in St. Louis... shouldn't it sound like that?

Monica

[denna]

Sorry comp froze didn't realize it posted so many times....

[denna]

I, like many pp can also TOTALLY relate. My name is Redenna (Rah-dee-nah). I constantly get ppl saying (Rah-den-nah) or Regina, or Redonna (dont ask me). Rarely is it pronounced correctly same w/ my nickname Denna. Then I constantly get ppl telling me that my name is spelled wrong, or suggestions on how to spell it their way. It is sooo frustrating and annoying. Like 'how can you tell me, MY name is spelt wrong!'. Grr!!! See totally know how you feel :). And I have gotten the unique comments plenty of times, too.

Hang in there girl, and ignore the comments. Way to go crushing the nilly willy nickname (couldve been embarassing for him). And your names are great names I love how you spelt schulyer, and dylan is a name i wanted for my son, but one of my DHs co-workers and a mutual friend's name is Dylan so we chose Jordan.

:) Denna

[denna]

<MULTIPLE POSTS>

[denna]

I, like many pp can also TOTALLY relate. My name is Redenna (Rah-dee-nah). I constantly get ppl saying (Rah-den-nah) or Regina, or Redonna (dont ask me). Rarely is it pronounced correctly same w/ my nickname Denna. Then I constantly get ppl telling me that my name is spelled wrong, or suggestions on how to spell it their way. It is sooo frustrating and annoying. Like 'how can you tell me, MY name is spelt wrong!'. Grr!!! See totally know how you feel :). And I have gotten the unique comments plenty of times, too.

Hang in there girl, and ignore the comments. Way to go crushing the nilly willy nickname (couldve been embarassing for him). And your names are great names I love how you spelt schulyer, and dylan is a name i wanted for my son, but one of my DHs co-workers and a mutual friend's name is Dylan so we chose Jordan.

:) Denna

[tarynsmum]

I love the name Finn. Too bad we have a one-syllable last name or it would be on our boy list (for waaaay down the road!)

~Heather

[tarynsmum]

I love the name Finn. Too bad we have a one-syllable last name or it would be on our boy list (for waaaay down the road!)

P.S. I've never heard of Finn as a girl's name. I think whoever said that was nuts.

~Heather

[tarynsmum]

That's the first time I've ever heard the name Lorien, and honestly, I absolutely love it! I think your name is absolutely gorgeous! Don't be upset a few years from now when we're expecting our second girl and that's one of our names. :)

~Heather