The names you've grown up ... Name or shame?

For quite a long period I really didn't like my given name: named after my grandfather (mother's side), I'd really liked if it was the same like his: Walther. (And even today, I'm quite often asked: "Walter with 'h'?" - though that really is an antique form of writing it.)

I don't have a middle name (like most Germans, besides they belong to the nobility). But following the family tradition, I'm baptised 'Walter Maria' .... and really would have liked, if that name had been registered, too!!

I never liked my name, and I have found that many other people don't like theirs either, but it took me a long time to figure out why. I did not choose it. For whatever reason, to honor my dead great grandmother, I was given a name to which I simply do not relate.

Often names have positive or negative connotations. My brother has a very strange name that is not heard often. As a kid, he was teased unmercifully by his peers. Because of this, he often assumed one nickname or another, but the real name always stuck.

When I had a son, because of my brother's experience, I made sure that my son had a completely innocuous name, that did not have any "baggage" along with it.

I don't like my name at all.

As I kid I was never called by it except at school. I was known as "Skip"
or "Skipper", a nickname my father bestowed on me. He was in the
Merchant Marine at the time. I am the third of my name, but ony my
grandfather was known as "George" to family members. My father
was "Junior" or "Juney". You would have to have known my father
to understand why nobody teased him about it.

My middle name gives me the initials GAS. Needless to say I have never
owned a mongrammed shirt.

I like my name but I don't like it shortened, which lots of people do (myself included - to others, I mean!). I spent 40 yrs of my life correcting people then just gave up. I have lots of nicknames relating to it, though, that I don't mind.

I, too, gave my kids names you can't really do that to.

Tip: When someone introduces themself, LISTEN, because that's how they want to be called.

I still get called the diminutive of my name by my extended family - my more immediate family stopped at some point - like when I was in my early 30s.

Same here. My mother's side of the family uses a shortened version of my name to this day but my father's side never did, calling me by my full name.

My name can be altered in many ways and have been throughout my work history. On the job, it's been shortened, shortened even more, dissected, reworked, like Valorie. Val, Lori, Ri, ReeRee. I've heard all kinds of riffs on my name and answer to them all.

As a kid I didn't like my name for that very reason. Nobody can spin a name like a ten year old. But once I got older I learned to appreciate it because although it's classic, it's not a name that you run into every day, which makes it memorable.

BBB
When I was in grammar school I had a friend whose name was Mileta. For some stupid reason I started calling her "meterbox." The other kids picked it up and it stuck with her until she graduated.

BBB

I like my name. I don't like my middle name, it just doesn't sound well. But it's my mother's first name so at least there is some thought there. There are some short versions of my first name that I really don't like but I tell people that.

When my parents moved to Hungary a couple of years ago, my mother started to use her middle name Anna instead of her first name Herta that she always used until then. I still think that's interesting...

My rambling post here - http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3135380#3135380 - also covers this thread, handily enough. I'm the opposite of some on use of full first name.

One of my nephews "lost" his first name completely, when he moved out of his parent's house: it was the same as his father's. :wink: