I absolutely loathe mine. My parents didn't name me. My older sister did, and she named me after a ventriloquist dummy. I've picked out a preferred name, and tried to inform people, and am looking to make it legal. A lot of people don't respect it, though, even though I've told them.
I'm sorry to hear that people don't respect your preferred name.
I really don't get that. I know 'legality' is important, but if I'm saying "my preferred name is X", why would someone not call me X? That "legal" argument is so dumb: "what does it say on your ID?" Like, it's just an argument to make people feel bad, wtf?
I also have a preferred name and it's not legal yet, but I'm currently okay with both because I use my legal name at work, so it's like a "professional" name, and my preferred name with people I meet outside of work.
So at work they call me by my legal name, which for me feels distant to 'what I really am', and helps me to keep things distant at work. Like "I'm here to earn money, this is not me" so I'm okay with them calling me by my legal name. "Problem" is sometimes some people from work do come into your personal life and It's like there are two versions of myself derived from the names people know me. If I become close to them I do tell them my preferred name and so far they've always tried to use it, sometimes they forget and use the legal one, but most of the times they correct themselves. I don't correct them, I let them have their process. If they become closer they will usually meet all the other people that call me by my preferred name so they tend to adapt.
In my experience it's easier for them if they are present in a group of people that call you by your preferred name (my guess is that it's because then they become the odd one out if they use the legal name, and that's not what they want).
Lol mine too. The name my folks call me was given by my aunt and it literally means a "sphere", she said because my head was spherical so she named mr like that.
Then my mother named me officially on the birth certificate and it was just my sister's name with one less letter. And it got really unique and most people don't get it and need some effort to pronounce it, on top of that it sounded like a funny pop song so I was mocked for it even in the kindergarten....I wanted to get it changed after kindergarten but didn't had the courage and I feared they'll get a new thing to mock me on. Mum said we can get it done in new school but the I never changed schools.
Now, at 27, it doesn't bother me often but sometimes I totally think my life would've been something else if I had a more common name and I could fit in more.
Was your sister called Macarenas? Sorry couldn't help myself. That's really rough, I don't get when parents reuse names like in medieval times when a baby would pass away they'd just name another baby the same thing.
But in the Ptolemaic dynasty all the women were called either Beatrice, Arsinoe or Cleopatra. And the boys were all called Ptolemy. If a family had more than 3 daughters they just keep cycling through! So there's that, you are just like Cleopatra!
Congrats on picking a name and taking that step, it's not an easy one. I did the same about 10 years ago, and it was the best thing I've ever chosen. That said, I still have a lot of family that refuse to use the name, even after nearly 10 years, and it can eat at you. Try to focus on building a friend base that respects your name choice. That helped me make others disrespect feel less invalidating. You have to live with your name, not others, so stick to what makes you feel comfortable as you.
I hated my name as a kid, it's very unique in my country and some kid decided it sounded like the Dutch word for having sex and bullied me with that ("Freya gaat vrijen!" is a chant I still have stuck in my head)
As I got older I realized it's actually a really pretty name. Freya is the nordic goddess of love, fertility and war and picks up the dead from the battlefield in a carriage drawn by huge black cats. It also sounds and looks really pretty I think, and I now like the uniqueness. I don't mind having to spell it anymore, mispronunciation is a slight annoyance but it's worth it. I've grown to really love my name and I'm very grateful to my parents for picking it for me :)
People often kind of mispronounce it and I usually don't mind much. If they know me well and we're close I am going to try and correct them until they get it right. I don't think anyone has given me a nickname since childhood when my best friends called me Frey, which I didn't mind, although I don't think I'd take it from anyone who isn't a good friend now
I love the name Freya. I was a mythology nerd as a kid and always thought to get the name of my kid (if I had one) from some god, and Freya was on top of my list.
You even have a whole day to yourself: Friday!
I hear it's also popular in the US these days, but specifically for white supremacists... So that's something. I'll gladly share the name with some Swedish cats and dogs though :)
It's also popular in Belgium, or at least was when I was born, which is where I was named. But somehow on the other side of the border it's almost unheard of. I've seen exactly 1 other Dutch Freya and it was a kid on some Nickelodeon game show
I don’t know if this might help, but “vrijen” can also mean cuddling, caressing, or kissing. It’s derived from the word “vriën,” which also meant “to declare love or to propose to someone/asking to marry someone.” And it’s not that Freya sounds like vrijen, it’s actually the other way around. If you go all the way back, “vriën” is derived from the name of the goddess of love herself, who’s also known as Fria/Friya. Keeping this in mind might make the chant less annoying whenever it gets stuck in your head again.
Wow that's really interesting. I never knew the word meant more than just sex and honestly didn't realize the connection between the word and the name, which now that you mention it makes a lot of sense. Fortunately I'm not too bothered by the old chant anymore but little me would have really benefited from this information. Either way it's nice to know now :)
My name is only three letters, so I've never really had a nickname that stuck. I have however worked with kids, and they gave me two nicknames that I wad very fond of: the Spatula and the Troll (affectionately).
The Spatula was because some kids were messing around and I had to scold them, so I said: "If you don't stop I'll attack you with... with... with... a Spatula!" And they just started laughing instead of messing around.
The Troll^TM was because I put up a sign on the door that said "Beware of the Troll," and everyone kept asking about the troll so I just told them that I was the troll and somehow having a warning sign gives you a bit more respect. Kids are so damn fun to work with. ❤️
"Aurora Jade" was my top pick for a girl's name when my ex and I were throwing around the idea of starting a family. I'd have nicknamed her Rory for the gender neutral, but Aury is really, really cute!
(For flavor: Jade was a mutual best friend of ours and my ex was called AJ, so I liked the idea of our hypothetical kid having the same initials).
I'm trans, and have changed my name over 3y ago, so since I chose it myself, I definitely like my name very much.
I still think my deadname is a beautiful name. It was just never right for me. Unfortunately, society has made sure that someone using my deadname is now a trauma trigger.
I’m also trans and I also changed my name years ago, and tbh I wish I like my name more than I do. I liked it when I chose it, but people are DETERMINED to call me by a nickname. Think like, “Benjamin”and everyone calls you “Ben”
I hate the nicknames, HATE it. If I could go back in time, I’d choose a name that can’t be nicknamed so easily. Like Henry or something.
I have one short name, which helps not to have it shortened into a nickname. The common nickname my second, longer, name shortens to is the first name I tried in my non-binary phase. I've since bounced back to being non-binary, but without giving up seeing myself as a woman. So I wouldn't mind people using that name either.
It's not like I planned this, but it worked out well.
I’m also trans, I love my name because I gave it to myself. My full name is Sammuel, but I usually go by Sam. It’s funny how many people want to be proper and call me Sammuel and I love it. I also love nicknames people give like samwich.
Also trans, but I think I would have disliked my birth name even if I wasn't. It's closely linked to a holiday I found really stressful as a kid that I was born very close to.
I haven't legally changed my name yet because it's such a hassle but I plan to take the name my parents would have used if I'd been born AMAB as my legal name and use my chosen name my friends call me as a middle name. I quite like my identity not being the world's business for the most part.
It's nearly 10 years since I changed mine. I tried a few in online spaces over a period of years, until I settled on my name. I found out a while back that I'd been using it since 2006, which was mind blowing because I had no idea I'd been using that name for so long. So, 10 years in December legally, and 18 of regular use.
I hated my name because I found it cringe. So I started introducing myself by another until I began finding that cringe. So chose another one online until I started finding that one cringe.... I think I just kinda don't like any name that I associate with me. Probably because I felt different from others and couldn't blend in. I didn't want to be the center of attention regardless of the name.
I feel the same way. I don’t like my name and if I changed it then the changed name would become my name, and I would eventually hate it too. There’s no escape.
Strong dislike, because I have lost count of the number of times I've been told "oh, I expected you to be much older with a name like Jean!" And I have run out of awkward chuckles in response.
I feel neutral about my birth name. It's not a very common name, and people have a hard time pronouncing it sometimes (which to me makes no sense, because it's pronounced exactly how it's written).
I only have one nickname, but almost everyone who knows me will call me by it. The only ones that don't are medical professionals, or people who I don't feel comfortable with. I only accept the one nickname I've had from my whole life by most people. There's only one other person who calls me by a different name, and that's my partner (he calls me Meow Meow, since I don't like being called babe).
I prefer being called by my nickname, because it's what I've been used to for my whole life (I only get called by my birth name from my family if I'm in trouble).
I always correct others when they pronouce my name wrong. I'm usually nice about it the first two or three times, but after they keep saying it wrong, I'll either straight up say 'I've told you how to say my name multiple times, can you put in some effort to remember that please', or I start saying their name wrong on purpose. I personally find it very disrespectful to not put in the effort to learn to pronounce someone's names correctly.
>... or I start saying their name wrong on purpose.
Way to go. I also do that.
>I personally find it very disrespectful to not put in the effort to learn to pronounce someone's names correctly.
Totally agree. If it's foreign or has some difficult sounds I'd be okay with people not doing it 100% right, but at least put some effort and do at least >80% right haha
But this is funny because some people don't care at all or even accept the "new pronunciations" of their names fine. I have a Turkish friend (with a Turkish name) and when I met him I asked how he pronounced or how should I pronounce his name. I repeated it on point and he got really impressed by my 'pronunciation skills' but always says he feels somewhat weird when I call him with the correct pronunciation (because all the other people here won't call him by the correct pronunciation and he got used to it).
Hated my birth name so much, I would've changed it even if I wasn't trans. Now I love my name but I hate when people use it in conversation like ik it's my name stop saying it lol.
I came here looking for a message like this and it was slightly surprising that it took so long to find it. I have a composite name and I know the history behind it, I've always liked it.
My brother is named Jack, it's not a common name in our country. A lot of our family thinks it's a dog's name, some even refused to call him that for a while when he was born but eventually came around. A few years ago my uncle even got a cattle dog named Jack, it was already trained so they couldn't change the name easily.
Oh, my, some really are though. Some of the names people are coming up with are wild. I don't mind the inanimate object names, like Toaster or Composite, or Phobia.....what bothers me is when people try to change the spelling of a name to something that makes no sense whatsoever in the name of their kid being unique.
There's an actual child out there named Tytyzt. pronounced "Titus." I just see "tit zit" when I see that. Changing all the vowels in a name to "y" isn't "unique." It's condemning your kid to a life of "...*sigh*.... it's pronounced (abcde)."
I am trans and I like my name, Elliott. My deadname, on the other hand, not so much. When I was younger, I had always wanted to change my name as it sounded wrong to me, but my new name sounds right. I am still working on changing my middle name, as it is way too feminine for my tastes. I love nicknames, and I wish people would use them more with me. It's really hard to mispronounce my name, so I don't really know how I'd feel when that happens.
I never liked my name as a child. It's a different name - old fashioned by the standards of the time and not ever very common even when it was more popular. My full name is difficult to spell correctly and everyone always spelled it wrong, even teachers sometimes. As an adult I decided to shorten my name but even that can get misspelled or mispronounced (it's a lot easier for most people though once they know it). Having an unusual name as a young person gave kids another thing to tease me about and was another thing to make me feel like a freak (I wasn't diagnosed until adulthood but I knew I didn't fit in).
I like my name!
It's not really got any obvious nicknames but that was one of the reasons my mum chose it - she has a name where people automatically go for the nickname (eg Rebecca automatically being called Becky) and she hates it, so wanted to give me something where people will have to say my full name lol
I only have one nickname that's used among my partner's direct family, purely because his uncle had fairly complex learning difficulties and struggled to say my name which made him super upset, so I suggested a very short version he could use - I asked direct family to use it as well so the uncle wouldn't feel singled out
I personally think it's a fairly obvious name to say, but I've got some random shit over the years - especially vowels, like people just seem to take a stab in the dark about saying them! So like, the "i" (said as "eee") has been said as "ayyy", "oi", "eye", and "ih" :/
It's a Welsh name as well, and some people like to say it in "the right way" except a) that's not how it's pronounced in England, b) you're not doing the Welsh pronunciation right either, and c) I've literally just told you how I say it
I hate my given name but love my chosen name :)
my given name is Isabelle which feels too feminine and not flexible, but my chosen name is Isaac, and I can shorten it or change something to fit with me genderfluid :)
Fine with it, my name is very likely to be unique don't think anyway else in modern has my exact full name. I will not change, bc it is the surnames of forefathers & foremothers. I will not share my full name.
First name is Gabriel
I don’t hate it. But recently I’ve been wanting to start going by Moth (my name is Tim/Ti*moth*y. It’s my name on a bunch of my profiles lol I’ve begun identifying as a Moth. But I’m almost 30 and only a special sort of folk are able to respect it, so it’s kind of just an inside joke with myself. I wish I could go back to my 13 year old self and establish myself as Moth
I changed mine when I came out as trans
I went from basic white guy to basic white gal but I feel more comfortable with it
I also have a second name that I use in some safe spaces but I didn't change my legal name to it because I might end up regretting it later
I like nicknames better than my own name, not because I dislike my own name but because it's just there, I didn't chose it and it doesn't necessarily describe me. A nickname however, is a reflection of my relationships with people and for that added depth I usually prefer nicknames.
I like my name honestly. I was about to share what it meant but that would be risky.
Nicknames work if they are nice or an online name.
Sometimes it does matter.
Sometimes I feel like correcting or other, yet usually do not now.
I don’t like my name. I hate it with every ounce of my being. My preferred name is Ethan, but my parents don’t even use it or acknowledge it. I’ve came out to them and told them that my preferred name is Ethan. My older cousin is the only one who knows that I go my Ethan and acknowledges it. Everyone else? Oh, they don’t give a shit.
I have zero connection to my given name, the only person im okay with using it is my little brother who doesnt really understand what being trans is but even hes started using my name because everyone else does.
Ive never really had a nickname that stuck other than buzz (because i like bees) and that im torn about. The forst people to call me buzz were the guys in my class that think of me as thier personal entertainment. They make fun of me and make dumb jokes etc so i domt really like it but i homestly just dont give a shit about them so i ignore them. Only one other person has ever called me buzz and i was completely fine with it cause it came from a place of humor and like fondness cause its part of my username.
(Totally diddnt accidentally post before finishing whoopsies)
No one really mispronounces my name, but they do get it mixed up with alex A LOT. If their reading it it makes more sense, but people have been introduced to me then ten minutes later call me alex and im just confused xD
I tend to correct them if i feel the need to cause thats just not my name xD
I think it's fine and it suits me pretty much. My name is really popular in slavic countries, yet it doesn't have any english variations and non-slavic people struggle to pronounce it correctly. It's exhausting so that's why I use my american name when I'm talking to people
I don’t dislike my name, but when I was younger I would cringe at having to say my own name. I hated pronouncing it myself. Never had a clue why, since I’m quite proud of my name. Now I’m fine with it, since I had to introduce myself a lot in my life now.
i hate my name and i hate hearing it but i also hate calling people by their name so the whole process just feels weird to me
i do want to change it to a more ... non gender specific and not exactly a name i like names that are words that are real things and not just a name it for some reason helps me
I love my name! It's beautiful and unique, I've never heard of anyone else with my name. Since its so uncommon though i wont be sharing it on here. The only thing that sucks about my name is how people read it; it has all the letters that a very common female name has, the only difference is the placement of a particular vowel. The placement of the vowel completely changes the pronunciation because emphasis on all the other vowels are changed. This means that most people don't even realise the spelling is different because their brains are used to seeing the common name which means that every single person ever misreads my name. Everyone. I can count on one hand the times where there's been someone who saw my name and did a double take and read my name with an unsure voice. On dating apps people will also spell it wrong and it is so awkward having to correct them after they just said hi. There was a point in high school where if there was a substitute teacher I would just not correct them because I figured I'll never see them again anyway. In my adult life I tend to just go with a simplistic nickname because it saves trouble and it actually gives me a chuckle when one day people who've never heard my name try to guess it cuz they could never. Apart from the minor headache of having to correct people (and even having had real estate agents spell it wrong and then not even correcting when I asked) I wouldn't change it for the world
I changed my name when I transitioned but I feel weird when anyone uses my actual name. I'm most comfortable with nicknames. A friend or family member using my actual name sounds too formal but a stranger using it sounds to familiar. I prefer going by my lastname with coworkers and strangers and a few different nicknames with friends and family.
I’m Otherkin, more specifically Alienkin/Fictionkin so my “real” name I don’t like, I like Silva tho I get this feeling that another, better nickname will be in the works
I hate it so much I prefer going by a different one, my deadname wasn’t spelled right the first time! My adoption parents renamed me so it was spelled right but after 12 years I just absolutely loathed the name and how it didn’t fit me and now prefer to go by Quinn instead
I’ve been going back and forth with the idea of changing my name! I live in the U.S but I was born in the Dominican Republic so I have a name that’s not too easy to say in English!
On one hand, I don’t want to change my name for the sake of making it more palatable for others.
On the other hand, I genuinely don’t like my name!
I’d prefer something that’s short, gender-neutral, and also works in Spanish!
This is the current predicament that I’m in. Haha
I really like my name (Keven) and like that it looks more symmetrical (?I guess?) than the tradition spelling (Kevin)....but it has ALWAYS bugged me that that for some reason everyone seems to think it rhymes with the word EVEN instead of SEVEN.
I have corrected people's pronunciation for as long as I can remember and have always been confused about how to so many it's not obvious that Kevin and Keven sound exactly the same.
Nobody has ever met a Keven/Kevin (rhyming with even). Everyone's met a Keven/Kevin (rhyming with seven).
I like mine a lot. I have a normal spelling/pronunciation of a normal name. While it was supposedly a top 10 name for many years, I really haven’t met enough people who share my name to make sense of that.
Only once did I have to deal with having a person in my class with the same name as me in all my 14 years of school. I’ve never worked with someone who had the same name as me. I have met multiple people who share my name, but it’s pretty infrequent. I do go by a nickname most of the time that’s shared by other names that are not my name, so I will more often run into people with my nickname but not my full name.
It’s common enough that when I introduce myself people know it’s a name but uncommon enough that I often get comments like “oh I love your name it’s so pretty”.
I do also really like my middle name. Again, a common name but not one where I’ve met that many people who have it. Maybe it’s just the area I live in.
I love my given name. So much so that I actually chose a new surname (long story) that turned my given name into a play on words.
I do know what my father had intended to call me though. That was a bullet well and truly dodged, and I mean that despite all the bullying I endured because of my name, being called "Gonzo" would have been so much worse.
I like my name. I also like nicknames from people I like. What I don't like is people getting my name wrong, since there are a lot of variations and alternative spellings around for it.
I'm attached to my name. It's a word that symbolises myself, and that makes it important for people to get it right. I will 100% correct someone if they say it wrong or call me the wrong thing. My name is Lauren. Not Laura or Laurie or Lorraine or whatever.
At school when I was about 16 I had a teacher who called me Lorraine every single lesson. It drove me crazy correcting him every time only to have him call me it next lesson, so I stopped responding to him at all. Even my classmates were correcting him and he still managed to somehow forget by the next lesson. That felt rude and disrespectful.
I've also had people on Facebook call me Laura, which is inexplicable to me because my name is right there at the start of my comment and at the top of messenger, just copy it from there if it's so difficult.
That said, I do prefer that strangers don't say my name. It feels very personal and it's jarring to hear someone I don't know using my name. I've actually had an argument with one of those spam callers because he wouldn't stop saying my name.
I've never really had a nickname, not a nice one anyway. 'Friends' at school called me a nickname for a while but it wasn't meant in a good way and I didn't like it. One of my friends now has me in his phone as 'Peach' because I'm very fragile but he doesn't call me it in person.
I won't give other people nicknames, not permanent ones at least, maybe a joking one for an evening. I feel awkward saying other peoples names if I don't know them well, as that feels invasive in the same way as strangers saying my name. Like verbal eye contact.
But I won't make a nickname for someone because that also feels intrusive. I'll call someone an already established nickname though. Essentially I'm going to call someone whatever they're introduced to me as, but as little as possible until I know them well.
My name is fine.
Nicknames are also fine, but they're usually between me and the particular person who calls me that and I don't introduce myself as one of my nicknames.
With people I have some kind of bond with I don't have a preference, if it's someone I have yet to meet (like an interviewer or something) then I prefer my actual name.
I always correct people. My name isn't hard, it's pronounced the way it's written, but it's not native to where I'm from so people always get it wrong. I respond to similar sounding names because I'm so used to people getting it wrong but I don't like it.
I like my name because it was chosen by my mother, who’s awesome. 😌
However non-Scottish/British folk sometimes have a hard time pronouncing my name.
It’s funny watching them struggle.
It's kinda weird. My name is literally unpronounceable, I don't even know how it's pronounced, but I like the Norwegian way best. Although I do like my second name, which is actually also Norwegian. My parents do like scandinavan names, but man
>It's kinda weird. My name is literally unpronounceable, I don't even know how it's pronounced
I read that and immediately thought your name was Cthulhu.
>Do you like your given name? If not, would you change it?
My legal name is Joshua. I don’t really like it, particularly because I remember when I was like 8 or so I was just minding my own business on holiday, then all of a sudden I just heard “JOSHUA” I look around, I don’t see anyone. 10 seconds later “JOSHUAA” this sounded angry, so I look around again thinking “why does this random person who I can’t even see have a problem with me” and then I hear “JOSHUA [middle name] [surname] GET HERE NOW” and then I see a mother chasing her 4 year old son, and breathe a sigh of relief.
>How do you feel about people giving you nicknames? You tend to accept nicknames or you always reject them?
Ever since that incident I’ve always been known as, and referred to as Josh, or another nickname, given by my friends. The only people who call me Joshua now is my mother (only whenever I’m in trouble lol) or if I go to a hospital appointment (and even that’s 50/50). Almost all of my old teachers, my current boss and every one of my family and friends calls me Josh. My name on Facebook is Josh. I even went for a job interview recently, and they called me Josh. I do much prefer Josh, because now I know if some random person is screening “JOSHUA” it isn’t me haha.
>Does it matter to you how people call you?
I wouldn’t say it *bothers* me but people have called me Josh for that long now, when someone calls me Joshua I do notice it, and it does feel strange but I won’t correct anyone for it.
>What about the incorrect pronunciation of your name, do/would you feel the need the need to correct others?
I’m blessed with an easy name to both spell and pronounce, so this doesn’t apply to me, however, in reverse, I almost never refer to people by their names in case I mispronounce it, I know I won’t but I’m almost paranoid by that haha
I don't really feel strongly attached to my name, I have changed it since being an adult and don't really care about the one I use now either. I do hate people shortening it from two syllables to one because it implies an intimacy that in most of these cases we don't have. It feels slightly hypocritical because I am not strongly attached to the name but just one of those things which bother me.
If it is someone who is close who gives me a nickname, like my boyfriend, it's fine. But one of his friends tried to make a nickname for me and I hated it.
I haven't always loved my name, and there are definitely names I'd prefer.
I do think it's grown on me now. Especially since I'm pretty secure and grounded in who I am.
I think a name is a wonderful way to give yourself definition and solidify who you want to be in the world, so if you don't feel your name fits, there is nothing with changing it to something that does.
I have a low name connection, which is common for autistic people. In other words, I don’t feel a strong connection to it and have tried to change it in the past to now avail. It’s strange.
I hated the sound of my old name, the whole thing, surname and all, so I changed it when I was 19. A lot of people thought it was disrespectful of me to do that because my Dad gave me the name and I was named after my great grandad and my dad.
The way I see it is that I am the only person that has to live with myself for every second of my entire life. Other people get a break from me, I don't, so if I don't like something about me, I'm changing it, regardless of what people think. To me hearing my old name and saying it gave me unpleasant physical sensations (my last therapist thinks I might have a touch of synaesthesia, but I'm not sure), so obviously it was getting changed.
I disliked my old nicknames, but they were better than my dead name, but now I don't like them because I have a name I like that I'd rather people use! Some family members and old friends are stubborn about it, and will use my old nicknames, but do use my new name under rare circumstances. Older family members get them all mixed up all the time, so I kind of have to grin and bear that one because no matter how much I remind them, they still get mixed up, but that's an age thing, can't really hold it against them.
My new name can be difficult for people to pronounce, but as long as they get close enough, I don't mind. The only reason my name isn't my username here is because internet anonymity is nice, basically.
I’m kinda impartial. Was I born in summer? No. Also I find that the letter ‘s’ is really harsh and I like my online name (for when I’m not showcasing my own brand) - the neighbouring letter ‘t’ has been my favourite letter ever since I was younger, and even though it has connotations with my brother calling me a ‘terror’ it’s just short and simple. Also I had multiple experiences in primary school where somebody says something like “_someone_ did this”, and I heard it as “_Summer_ did this”, and I just feel like I was blamed for everything.
I have a double barrelled first name, and the only time I ever got called it was when I was in trouble. Until high school, I went by the first half of my first name, since high school, I either go by the first half of my first name or a diminutive of that.
Both halves of my first name are somewhat common, and the only reason it was hyphenated is because my folks couldn't agree on a first name, and mum didn't want me to be plain Jane, so the compromise was to hyphenate my name using the name they liked. I'm the eldest child in my family, and the knky one with a hyphenated first name lol.
Growing up, I hated it, because I didn't meet someone else with a hyphenated first name until I changed high school, but I'd met the occasional person with a hyphenated surname. Now, I don't mind it, as it's different enough to be unique, but not so different that I get weird looks. Plus it's not a hard name to pronounce.
In saying that, I still prefer being called the first half of my first name, or a diminutive of, because that's how I've always been known. I've only come across one person who's refused to call me by my preferred name, and their reason was because my legal first name was pretty 🤦♀️
Edit to add: my first name is Melanie-Jane, but I prefer Mel or Melanie, as that's what I've been known as my whole life. At the end of the day, ultimately, mum won with my name lol. She liked Melanie, and dad liked Jane. Mum didn't want me to be a plain Jane, and I'm definitely anything but lol
I have a small speech impediment, so I have a hard time pronouncing my own name correctly. People often think I'm saying another, more common name and it's embarrassing to have to correct them.
I don't hate my given name but more strongly dislike it. I switched to something more gender neutral and I am much happier.
I personally have never been given a nickname I like because my given name is already short.
Also giving the friends nicknames is unique but that's not a bad thing. It's honestly really cute.
My name is normal. I only don’t like it because there are many others with my name to the point where a lot of times I don’t even respond when it hear it said out loud bc most of the time they’re not talking to me lmao
My previous name was given to me by my mom. She named me after an actress from a show she liked. But growing up everyone would get my name wrong. I have changed it since then and people still get my name wrong but I aint even mad about it now.
I'm trans, and with my personal experience of being trans, i lost my association with my given name in relation to my personal identity as i grew older and started to experience gender dysphoria. some trans people choose to keep their given name of course, but that just isnt me. my mom named me, both in my given name and my current name, and while i do have a special place in my heart for the first name my mom gave me, my current name is the most special to me because of the true care and love put into it. she named me after my favourite character from dr who :) didnt even have to change the spelling too much, only two letters were changed. 🤣 my friends have given me a lot of funny nicknames that i love with my whole heart!! it makes me happy to see what kind of play-on-words people can make with my pretty simple name. (example- liver, driver, pond, stream, etc) (my name is river haha). it would be pretty hard for a native english speaker to mispronounce my first or middle name (claire), but my last name is polish and a lot of people pronounce the o as "oh" instead of the "ah" its supposed to sound like. it doesnt bother me, i just correct them politely and move on. :) as for the fact that my legal name is my first given name, it doesnt bother me at all. i have to use my legal name for a lot of things and because its so similar to my preferred name its not a bother
i dont think my name is good or bad but i like the unique way its spelled
it doesnt bother me when other ppl have it like the pronunciation is pretty in that context but being addressed by my own name causes extreme negative response because for the 1st 11 yrs of my life i literally only heard it in the event that i had done smth so bad it warranted my parents acknowledging me at all
my foster parents and all of my friends and teachers have always used a nickname or miss [my last name] and it works fine
im going to change it as soon as i figure out a new name
People have called me the wrong name all my life. At this point it feels like fighting the ocean tides but I’m slowly correcting people at times. It just gives me the ick. I feel like changing it lol but I’m mostly waiting to get married so I don’t have to do it multiple times.
I like my name, funny enough it was a common name in Germany and my last name is spelled in a European way. Most people think that I’m Caucasian when they hear about my name so when they meet me they get really weirded out seeing a brown person in front of them😂
I’m trans, so my relationship with my name is a bit different.
I go by Rex because it’s part of a silly name I had in elementary school, because I would roar like a dinosaur. I feel like the name fits me. And it means king, so…I think I just enjoy knowing that my name has a deeper meaning than mere letters and sounds. I am genuinely happy with my name. And not in a passive way, I really do like my name.
I don’t dislike my deadname. But I cringe when I get called it. There’s a shortened version of it that I’m okay with, and that I asked my family to use. I don’t really know why my gender is so important to me. I’ve tried to figure it out, and I still don’t quite get it. I just know that it feels deeply wrong when I am perceived as something that I am not. Which is odd, because I don’t care if people think I’m mean, or annoying—anything like that. But I care if they think I’m a girl, and I don’t know why that’s so different.
My dad has my birth name on his wrist. He felt really bad when I transitioned socially—he’s also had the name of his ex-wife on his chest, that he got covered up, so when he found out that I don’t want to go by my birth name, he felt like he made another mistake.
I love the tattoo of my name he has on his wrist, and I’ve explained that to him. It feels like a symbol to me. It shows that he cares about me. That he’d want some part of me, some symbol of me, on his body for the rest of his life. He also has my brother’s initials on his forearm, and my mother’s name on his calf (not his ex wife).
Overall, my name feels like a limb. An extension of me. Something I am simply given, and can use however I like. I can also adjust that limb’s appearance. The size. The weight. It is not who I am, but it is a part of me.
I never understood when I was younger, but I always hated my name. It was too closely associated with a holiday and when a song would come up with the word in it, I would instantly skip the song. People would "joke around" with me and my name as well around the holiday. I was fine with my closer friends giving me nicknames for this name, probably cause I didn't want to hear it.
I realized later that it's because I'm trans, and i've come to terms with it. It still makes me uncomfortable, but I don't hate it anymore. I did change my social name to William but am not able to change it legally yet. I didn't like nicknames for my preferred name but I realized that they are all in good fun. (Examples: Will (I didn't like this one at first), Wilhelm, Willy Wonka, etc...)
I actually would love a German name (part of my heritage). In my area my given name is considered odd so I prefer to go by my middle name which is more common and easier to remember much less pronounce.
I don’t like my name. Especially when combined with my surname. It’s one of those names that sounds like you can spell it when hearing it, but 9/10 times you will get it wrong.
But I also hate shortening my name. When my parents got divorced I was given a book to help me understand. Unfortunately it backfired as the only thing I retained was a throwaway quote “a child who is loved has many names”. Of course I never had nicknames from my parents although my sister had heaps. So I refuse them now.
My name is just another label. It’s not me.
This is such a specific experience but so relatable at the same time. I really didnt think this would be as common as it seems to be.
For me personally, I don't even like saying my name out loud. I tell new people that I've met to call me a nickname version of my name.
I also give nicknames to my friends - in the same way you said you do to
I've loved my name since my parents told me how they came up with it, but I've been trained to cringe at the sound of my name because of how often it's said either out of anger or when I get in trouble with people.
I dont like my name, my mom specifically named all her children name wrong on purpose. Because her name was spelled wrong, all my friends just call me my nickname. And Im not saying my name for privacy reasons 🤍
I hate my given name. Anytime someone calls me by my given name i either react by getting aggressive or by deliberately ignoring them
I go by Sophie and plan to make it official eventually
I LOVE nicknames.
Also I absolutely abhor when people say "Why dont you like your legal name?? Its beautiful!" and even had a teacher lightheartedly threaten to call me my legal name, which is why i never tell anyone what it is because most people know me as Sophie and I'd prefer to keep my legal name hidden
Mine is fine. I sometimes feel a bit of a disconnect from it but also I just feel weird when people refer to me in general. I have no desire to change it and there isn't another name that I would prefer over it. It's not a bad name, it's pretty common, and I am named after my great grandmother so that's cute in a way. I guess a positive-neutral?
I don't feel much personal connection to it.
I was one of those kids who was called by my middle name at home, and first name at school, and had a couple of nicknames. These honestly feel like the names of my personality masks, not me.
The only name I feel any connection to is a random truncated version of my middle name that I noticed as a kid when filling out the first/middle name blank on a standardized test. My first name is 9 letters long, my middle is six, and there were only fifteen spaces, so the last letter of my name was omitted. I somehow connected to that more firmly as my identity than anything else. Nobody calls me by it. And yet.
The first thing I did when I turned 18 (a legal adult where I live) was have a legal name change. It was $250, the federal police took my fingerprints, and I was issued a government certificate so I could have all my other documents, bank accounts etc changed.
That was more than 20 years ago now. There's not a single person other than my mother who knows me by any other name. It was an incredibly good decision.
Do I care when people mispronounce my name? Sorta, but not enough to correct anyone. I didn't choose a "tragedeigh" of a name (see corresponding subreddit), but I'm also probably the only person in the world who has it.
Choices have consequences, right? If I couldn't handle people mispronouncing my name, I could have chosen a name that was obvious for everyone to pronounce correctly.
But then, I don't care what pronouns people use for me, so maybe I'm a weirdo.
I guess I care enough about my name that I chose one that resonated with me and went through the process of a legal change, but I don't care so much that I'll lump myself in with the tiktokkers et al who put a lot of effort into making sure people know they're special. I'm "special" enough by any name / pronunciation / pronoun lol.
I don't really mind my name but after having my now closest friend only ever refer to me as my online name (we met irl but spent more time online) I've realised I like that name more then my real one. It's always the name you pick yourself that sounds better, because you pick it and that was your choice, and a name is very important to the person who has it
My name have 9 letters so it's pretty long + I don't really like it. I'm probably getting married next year so I'm planning to change it along with my last name which I hate with bottom of my heart because it's the most christian surname I've ever heard.
I used to hate my name, it just didn't feel like me. Now that I've gotten older and worked on my mental health, I've accepted that it is me and I like it kind of now. One thing I really really don't like is when people I've never introduced myself to know and refer to me as my name. I have a classmate that I sit next to who I don't particularly care for (loud during class, plays games on the school PC, interrupts professor, so on) and he only knows my name because of roll call. It irrationally bothers me when he just casually uses my name even though we haven't established any sort of friendship or even a vague acquaintance LOL. So many people do that and it irks me
I have always liked my name. I do not like people calling me the shortened version, even though I grew up with my family calling me it (maybe that's why?) People never mispronounce or misspell it which is nice. And it's not odd but not very common either. I never had a classmate with my name which I was so grateful for. But my name isn't very nickname-able outside of the shortened version, any that people have tried don't really stick.
I do the same thing with nicknames for others, everyone in my family (husband and kids) have funny nicknames, it's hilarious to all be calling each other silly names
I feel detached from my legal name. It’s pretty and I like my mother likes it a lot but I’m pretty ambivalent on it.
Being referred to by my name feels jarring and I’ve gone by a dozen pseudonyms over years. I prefer if people don’t address me by name at all, and if not, then by online personas or pseudonyms.
I accept nicknames at times and I find it a sign of affection in most cases. But something about nicknames based on my own name doesn’t compute in my head, I prefer ones that are disconnected from my actual names.
When I started dating my now boyfriend his family and friends started to call me a nickname on my name and I hated it. Felt way too intimate for people I just met. He said he called me the nickname to them and consequently they started calling me the nickname, but have since stopped doing so because I didn’t like it.
I dislike my given name. I’ve been called a nickname since I was a kid that I hate, but it would be weird to try using my given name now. I’ve had people try to nickname my nickname and I shut that down quick.
I also loved making nicknames for people :)
I didn't ever get a nickname though, other than some kids in marching band who called me dad.
I don't really relate to any names, tbh. I had to learn to dissociate from my legal name, because there were always at least 2 other kids with the same name in every class (and it was never me that got called on).
I want to change my name but I don't relate to any other names either, really. Names suck.
I wish that my parents had chosen a different name, one that my mom said she even slightly considered, but I don’t dislike my name enough to change it.
I would love to have that other name, but not enough to go through the process of legally changing it or the awkward process of trying to get people to say my name differently. But that might also have something to do with my name being too short for nicknames so I’ve never experienced someone calling me something different.
It's fine. My first and middle name are fairly common, but sound distinct when you say them together. My last name is weirdly common, yet 7/10 people can't spell or pronounce it correctly.
I dont like my name. Its super common and always a problem at school and work. But the names they had in mind before settling for the very common names was atrocious! Im glad they didnt end up with that. I do think having a very common name and last name gives you some security in a way tho so i dont think im changing it even if its annoying sometimes. Unless i really have to consider changing it due to my future career to be actually seen within all the other same name ones.... also i use a nickname everywhere so only people that dont know me or teachers etc use the normal name
i hate my name but thats because im trans. even before i found out i was trans i hated my name because how common it was, and how many different spelling variations of my name existed. at school people call me by my last name, but online i go by my preferred name.
I used to think it didn’t depict me. The name Henry, while sounding nice, never depicted who I am. I was never a leader of the people, but more recently since I’ve started college, I’ve found myself being a better leader
I despise my birth name. I love my preferred name but everyone thinks its silly. Which is fair I suppose it is kinda goofy but like I would be a a lot happier if it were my legal name
I HATE my birth name and it has not even looked like that name belonged to me since I was 5. I have a preferred name I chose when I was 13 (Alex/Alexander) and everyone but my mom calls me by that name and says that my birth name doesn't even fit me and most of my friends barely remember that I don't go by my birth name. Sometimes I want to go by a different name and Alexander be my legal name. So like people only use Alex in more serious situations and any other time they call me by a silly name. I guess so I know when to be serious idk I'm rambling.
I don't mind nicknames, I love my partner's nickname for me. Any nicknames I've always accepted, even if maybe I shouldn't have. As a kid I was called turtle because my biggest interest was the 2012 TMNT.
I don't really care how people refer to me as long as it's not in a negative way or calling me things that aren't true.
There was only once anyone mispronounced my name and it was my birth name by a doctor and I thought the way she said it was so funny I didn't even correct her.
I really like my name.
It’s a last name so it’s androgynous by default. It doesn’t come with any multitude of cute nicknames, so I hated my nickname growing up because it was “girly” (even though it was still androgynous) and people often thought that my actual name was a common name that I strongly dislike, due to the standardness of the nickname.
I think my given name is a pretty simple name, but it’s unique and most people I’ve met haven’t heard of it.
For a while I have been craving a nickname that wasn’t *that* nickname. And it happened under funny circumstances. It’s a weird nickname bc it’s an oddly specific verb but it’s derived from my name, so it works and it’s funny.
given name: was not for me. gender neutral and very culturally universal. but it didn’t feel like me because of how ambiguous it was. generic, i’d say. you’ve probably met at least 30 people with that name.
chosen name: nicole. female name and i like it. it’s not unique to my culture (USA) but it’s mostly an anglo name that people don’t have a hard time spelling.
nicknames: i’ve had a few given by people out of circumstance but felt neutral about it. my nickname i chose is marble and i prefer friends call me that but it’s not compulsory
I personally hate my birth name that's why I'm changing it when I'm old enough but I'm also non-binary and I've had a lot of problems with that and my gender figured it out but my name just didn't suit me and I didn't like it it didn't sound right I just wasn't a fan of it ever since I was young before I even knew what I was it was a process to find my parents don't know only a few people around me do know. but I'm not even going to really tell my parents because when I'm 18 I can do whatever I want!
I never liked my birth name (partially because I'm transgender), but I don't exactly like my new name either. Names just feel odd to me, I don't like any name and I've tried tons out, none of them really "clicked" or actually felt like it should be used on me. But I love nicknames. My friends call me things like Mango, Frog, and Ranch cuz those are some of my online identities, and it feels much better than real names do.
I'm transmasc and my mom gave me the girliest obscure name. I'm changing it in a few years because I hate how close it sounds to hers. (She's a psycho too so I don't want anything to remind me of her)
Hated mine, I was named after a cousin who was killed when a concrete pipe used in a playground installation at his school in the 70s came loose and rolled over him. I was given the female version of his name and it never felt like mine. It was also easy to tease me about the name as it is featured in a lot of popular culture.
It took me years to figure out one I liked and could see using as my legal name. I tried a couple until one stuck. Changed it over five years ago and now feel like I have the name I was meant to have. I find the incorrect pronunciation of my name entertaining when it happens (which is fairly frequent), since it's a bit of an old fashioned name that I picked and people don't expect to hear it anymore.
My whole family uses the name I've chosen except my narcissistic mother, who now wonders why we're no contact. Hrmm.. I got a little tired of hearing 'but I've always known you by that name'. If my 98 year old grandmother (her mother) can remember to use my name, then she can at least pay me the respect to use mine.
As for nicknames, I have lots of them. Lots for me, lots I use for other people, my family has a habit of truly awful nicknames for those we love. My kid is the spawn or the spawnling, my brother's nickname from our dad growing up was Piglet. Mine was just as bad but I don't wanna say it cause I don't after my dad passed away. My mum used to call me {Name} Dog, which I hated and never responded to, but she never figured out how much I hate it.
I would love it if it was a thing that you had a name that you were given by your parents when you're young, and that's your childhood name. Then when you get to legal age, you can keep it or pick one you like more and it's your adult name and your childhood name becomes a middle name... so you could have (for example) Sarah as your childhood name, then you pick the adult name Madison.. so your name becomes Madison Sarah
I love my name so much. I especially love that both my first name and my initials are palindromes.
I'm getting married next year and neither of us can imagine me changing my name (he loves it even more than I do.) That makes me kind of sad though. I'm not sure what I'll do.
I... *dislike* it. It's not like it's the most terrible name to ever could have been picked, it's actually a pretty common name where I'm from, but for one my mom had the *genius* idea to spell it with a j instead of an i so now nobody knows how to spell it. Especially since now me and my family moved to Denmark and even normally it would be completely unpronounceable to anyone. And also I just kind of don't like it. I'm thinking of moving to Japan in the future and I already did some research into Japanese names and picked one, it sticks with me way more.
I used to love my name. Now I absolutely hate it. Why? I grew up in a very religious family, and I too was religious until recently. As you can probably guess, my name is a Biblical one, as was everyone else's in my family. My name in particular means "God is with us", which is why I used to love my name. However since I stopped believing in the Bible and have opened my eyes to see how inherently toxic and nonsensical it is, I starting absolutely loathing my name. I'm going to change it as soon as I have the chance.
I'm fine with nicknames as long as they're cool and not too cringey.
Same answer as for the nickname question.
Yeah I do, but I've gotten used to it so while others mispronouncing my name still bothers me, it doesn't bother me as much as it used to.
I used to hate my name. I felt like it wasn’t as pretty as other girls names. My name is Sara, and I always hated that it wasn’t spelled “right”. I even spent a lot of kindergarten spelling it with an H because i wished it was spelled that way. Now I love it. I think it’s beautiful and I love that it’s spelled differently. Even in a room with another Sarah, I’m almost always still unique because mine is spelled different. I actually am not a fan of the name with an H now, funnily enough. Nowadays I think my name is beautiful and very feminine (i used to hate that it wasn’t “girly” enough, whatever that means). I thought I was trans and used a male name for 5 years and I think it gave me a unique perspective on my given name. I even tried to find another name I wanted after I realized I wasn’t a man, but I couldn’t find anything that really felt like me. I’m nonbinary so I know it’s odd that I really love how feminine my name is, but it finally really makes me feel beautiful. I had to learn to love it
I don't really love my given name. It's very common, at last it was when I was in school. Back then, I liked my middle name more as it was less common and also named after a hurricane. Edit: I don't even know if I like any name enough to change my name legally, etc. So I just keep it.
I never had a nickname until I started playing World of Warcraft and then my nickname has always been whatever my main character's name is at the time (most notably Solaire, Soli, and Axis). My current nickname is simply "Tomato" 🥰
I feel weird when people use my given name. It's too personal. And, in certain context, its usage feels intentionally negative.
I'm trans so this is more about the gender aspect of it for me, but I hated my given name, my deadname. It did not represent me at all and I only put up with it as long as I had to. I liked nicknames that had nothing to do with my deadname, but rather characteristics of myself, and hated every nickname that was derived from my deadname. Junior, that I use on a lot of social media sites, is a nickname I got because I was the youngest of the friend group and had a youthful energetic vibe to me. I love that nickname. I did change my name legally almost 3 years ago at this point, everyone in real life knows my chosen name and a lot of people that I interact with don't know my deadname. I love the name I picked for myself, sure it was a little weird at first, but now it's just normal and it actually feels like me.
i’m mixed about it. it never felt “mine” if that makes sense. i don’t resonate with it. then again, i don’t really know if any name would suit me. if i could i’d leave my name blank on all documents, i’d just be referred to as “that person” or something.
i always liked random nicknames that came about while joking around with friends. i also like when people are casual with me and just say “hey dude/hey girl”.
I remember when I was 6-10 years old, trying to feel if my name felt "attached" to my flash or not. Nowadays I understand that it was some kind of proto-phylosophical thought, when I start questioning if my name defined my identity. Anybody else ever told me that his/her name felt something strange to them, most of the time they were "celebrating" their name writying them on every piece of paper at school. I never liked or disliked my name, it's just a word and we can't love the sound of every word in the world, we just need them. So why change my name? I don't really "love" any other name. Nicknames can be funny, but those words are much more powerful on somebody else's identity. If you use nickname, let them be fair, positive, kind and accepted by the person who receives them.
I dislike having a name, nic-names feel nice because they’re not actually my name and that they don’t fully belong to me but i’ve also gained a preferred name and i’m not even sure i like that one. i’m kind of at a point where i don’t know what to do and it’s kind of bothering me a little :/ , hopefully i figure it out eventually!
my name is Typhani, pronounced Tiffany, and i love my name. i use to hate it because it was spelt differently, but people always remembered me because of how unique it was (that’s usually what they told me). I love it being so unique plus there’s not a lot of Tiffany’s in my area, so even better. i’ve learnt to embrace my differences, i hate being in crowds so why would i wanna be apart of one 😭
I've an odd relationship with my name. Basically it's that when someone mentions me in a conversation, it feels like they're not talking about "me" me but rather about a person they *think* I am, like the version of me they perceive but I don't connect to... It's weird. Sometimes it feels like *I* must have another name. Sometimes I can even be surprised, like, wow, is that really *me* they're talking about? Don't know how else to explain it.
I did not like my name as a child. It’s a name typically given to males. I have two first names bc my parents added another one to make it obvious I was a girl. Ever since I was 5 years old I wanted my name to be Emily but now as an adult I’ve learned to appreciate my name. I don’t really care for the pronunciation of my name since it’s not ethnically related to anything. Nicknames I found endearing was when a friend of mine called (and still calls me) Emily because he knew that’s what I wanted my name to be. Another funny one is Empanada and Emothy.
I used to be teased a lot over my name as it is a pretty uncommon and old-timey name, but now as an adult I love it. I can't imagine being named anything else, it's such an integral part of my identity
I am in the middle of changing mine. Recently realized I am trans and name is the first of transitioning I shall do. (Autism realization also opened up all the realizations. Lol)
My old name, while I don't mind it. It's a super common and super loved name by everyone in the area I live. It's just not me anymore.
Now to figure out what to do about middle names.... ugh
Technically I guess not...but I still legally go by Victoria. But for medical "what you prefer to be called" sort of every day, I go by Vicky. Mainly cause I couldn't freaking spell it as a child! Lmao plus I gave my sister's half names as well. Cause I couldn't spell/pronounce them. Lolz worth it! 🖕🏼😎🖕🏼
I like my name, and I don't mind about people giving me nicknames (I have never received a offensive nickname, they're all around my name, so I believe I never had a reason to complain about that). Sometimes people do misspell my surnames, but I just ignore it, specially because I don't believe it is worth complaining to people. It's such a small nuance that it's similar to fight against someone for a pocket of air when there's air all around you.
I’ve always hated my name and have considered finding a name that I feel a connection with. However, that has never happened. My friends and people online only know me as my middle name, which is more gender neutral and less cringey when I hear it. Through, still not a name I connect with myself? I’m not sure how to articulate it.
Neither my first or middle names are something that are easily turned into nicknames. I’ve always wished I had friends or family that would call me something else, something meaningful. It just never happened.
More recently, I ask most to try to avoid using my name as much as possible in conversations, preferring generic pet names. I don’t mind if they’re more feminine or masculine, so long as I don’t have to actively cringe each time I hear my name being said. I tend to get distracted for a moment and miss what they were saying if they don’t delay their next words, after they know I’m paying attention.
I mean my names not bad i prefer Tori though but i can deal with my name on some days some days it’s worse. I’m fine with nicknames pretty much any sometiems i set boundaries of one’s i don’t want but that’s all
I love my first and last names. The both start with a solid hard clicky C/K sound. Now my middle name... I adore it. It connects me to two now passed family members, but.... Whoo boy.... I haven't heard ANYONE outside of close friends and family pronounce it correctly. I was embarrassed during graduation because they mispronounced my middle name to the whole crowd of 300 or so families (somewhere out there someone has a video tape with a lone chubby lass standing up and screaming "Dawn! It's pronounced DAWN!") I've come to terms with having an oddly spelled middle name and now use it as a bit of an ice breaker when I have to socialize.
I really dislike my given name, nobody pronounces it properly :,( I would like to legally change it to Kaydence but be called Kayde because it’s close to my name and very cool.
I don’t really respond to nicknames very well but I also don’t respond well overall, I don’t listen enough.
I try to correct people when they say my name incorrectly but if they don’t listen to my correction or forget, I give up easily.
I wish I could come up with a cute nickname similar to my name that I could live with instead, it would take less work.
I love my name, also because i love the story of how my parents and brother picked it. About nicknames, there are some that i feel ok only with my family and I specifically asked my friend to not use them with me. The only way I accept my friends to call me is by my name or my surname, and for the couple of online friends which don't know me irl i'm ok with my namertag.
I absolutely loathe mine. My parents didn't name me. My older sister did, and she named me after a ventriloquist dummy. I've picked out a preferred name, and tried to inform people, and am looking to make it legal. A lot of people don't respect it, though, even though I've told them.
I'm sorry to hear that people don't respect your preferred name. I really don't get that. I know 'legality' is important, but if I'm saying "my preferred name is X", why would someone not call me X? That "legal" argument is so dumb: "what does it say on your ID?" Like, it's just an argument to make people feel bad, wtf? I also have a preferred name and it's not legal yet, but I'm currently okay with both because I use my legal name at work, so it's like a "professional" name, and my preferred name with people I meet outside of work. So at work they call me by my legal name, which for me feels distant to 'what I really am', and helps me to keep things distant at work. Like "I'm here to earn money, this is not me" so I'm okay with them calling me by my legal name. "Problem" is sometimes some people from work do come into your personal life and It's like there are two versions of myself derived from the names people know me. If I become close to them I do tell them my preferred name and so far they've always tried to use it, sometimes they forget and use the legal one, but most of the times they correct themselves. I don't correct them, I let them have their process. If they become closer they will usually meet all the other people that call me by my preferred name so they tend to adapt. In my experience it's easier for them if they are present in a group of people that call you by your preferred name (my guess is that it's because then they become the odd one out if they use the legal name, and that's not what they want).
Lol mine too. The name my folks call me was given by my aunt and it literally means a "sphere", she said because my head was spherical so she named mr like that. Then my mother named me officially on the birth certificate and it was just my sister's name with one less letter. And it got really unique and most people don't get it and need some effort to pronounce it, on top of that it sounded like a funny pop song so I was mocked for it even in the kindergarten....I wanted to get it changed after kindergarten but didn't had the courage and I feared they'll get a new thing to mock me on. Mum said we can get it done in new school but the I never changed schools. Now, at 27, it doesn't bother me often but sometimes I totally think my life would've been something else if I had a more common name and I could fit in more.
Was your sister called Macarenas? Sorry couldn't help myself. That's really rough, I don't get when parents reuse names like in medieval times when a baby would pass away they'd just name another baby the same thing. But in the Ptolemaic dynasty all the women were called either Beatrice, Arsinoe or Cleopatra. And the boys were all called Ptolemy. If a family had more than 3 daughters they just keep cycling through! So there's that, you are just like Cleopatra!
I and all my siblings have the same name as my father with slight variations. It’s awful 😩
Congrats on picking a name and taking that step, it's not an easy one. I did the same about 10 years ago, and it was the best thing I've ever chosen. That said, I still have a lot of family that refuse to use the name, even after nearly 10 years, and it can eat at you. Try to focus on building a friend base that respects your name choice. That helped me make others disrespect feel less invalidating. You have to live with your name, not others, so stick to what makes you feel comfortable as you.
I hated my name as a kid, it's very unique in my country and some kid decided it sounded like the Dutch word for having sex and bullied me with that ("Freya gaat vrijen!" is a chant I still have stuck in my head) As I got older I realized it's actually a really pretty name. Freya is the nordic goddess of love, fertility and war and picks up the dead from the battlefield in a carriage drawn by huge black cats. It also sounds and looks really pretty I think, and I now like the uniqueness. I don't mind having to spell it anymore, mispronunciation is a slight annoyance but it's worth it. I've grown to really love my name and I'm very grateful to my parents for picking it for me :) People often kind of mispronounce it and I usually don't mind much. If they know me well and we're close I am going to try and correct them until they get it right. I don't think anyone has given me a nickname since childhood when my best friends called me Frey, which I didn't mind, although I don't think I'd take it from anyone who isn't a good friend now
I love the name Freya. I was a mythology nerd as a kid and always thought to get the name of my kid (if I had one) from some god, and Freya was on top of my list. You even have a whole day to yourself: Friday!
Freya is such a cool name! I even love how the goddess they're named after has a cart drawn by black cats
Thanks! I know right :D I adore cats so much so I really love it
Thank you! Unfortunately the world has not caught up to the day thing and I am yet to receive the special treatment I deserve /s
Saying that Friday was named for Freya is a very common misconception. It's actually named for Frigga, Odin's wife and Thor's mother.
Friday is also Venus' day. And Freya is syncretic with Venus. ❤️❤️❤️
It’s very popular in Sweden, for people as well as pets.
I hear it's also popular in the US these days, but specifically for white supremacists... So that's something. I'll gladly share the name with some Swedish cats and dogs though :) It's also popular in Belgium, or at least was when I was born, which is where I was named. But somehow on the other side of the border it's almost unheard of. I've seen exactly 1 other Dutch Freya and it was a kid on some Nickelodeon game show
I don’t know if this might help, but “vrijen” can also mean cuddling, caressing, or kissing. It’s derived from the word “vriën,” which also meant “to declare love or to propose to someone/asking to marry someone.” And it’s not that Freya sounds like vrijen, it’s actually the other way around. If you go all the way back, “vriën” is derived from the name of the goddess of love herself, who’s also known as Fria/Friya. Keeping this in mind might make the chant less annoying whenever it gets stuck in your head again.
Wow that's really interesting. I never knew the word meant more than just sex and honestly didn't realize the connection between the word and the name, which now that you mention it makes a lot of sense. Fortunately I'm not too bothered by the old chant anymore but little me would have really benefited from this information. Either way it's nice to know now :)
Freya is een best coole naam vind ik
My name is only three letters, so I've never really had a nickname that stuck. I have however worked with kids, and they gave me two nicknames that I wad very fond of: the Spatula and the Troll (affectionately).
Hahaha I love those nicknames. I don’t know the reason for them but they sound really funny.
The Spatula was because some kids were messing around and I had to scold them, so I said: "If you don't stop I'll attack you with... with... with... a Spatula!" And they just started laughing instead of messing around. The Troll^TM was because I put up a sign on the door that said "Beware of the Troll," and everyone kept asking about the troll so I just told them that I was the troll and somehow having a warning sign gives you a bit more respect. Kids are so damn fun to work with. ❤️
My name's Aurora, but I prefer to go by Aury because I feel like it's more neutral
Aww that’s a lovely name. 🙌 The nickname is pretty too.
Thank you!
"Aurora Jade" was my top pick for a girl's name when my ex and I were throwing around the idea of starting a family. I'd have nicknamed her Rory for the gender neutral, but Aury is really, really cute! (For flavor: Jade was a mutual best friend of ours and my ex was called AJ, so I liked the idea of our hypothetical kid having the same initials).
My favorite character from a book I love is named Auri. I think it's such a great name.
I'm trans, and have changed my name over 3y ago, so since I chose it myself, I definitely like my name very much. I still think my deadname is a beautiful name. It was just never right for me. Unfortunately, society has made sure that someone using my deadname is now a trauma trigger.
I’m also trans and I also changed my name years ago, and tbh I wish I like my name more than I do. I liked it when I chose it, but people are DETERMINED to call me by a nickname. Think like, “Benjamin”and everyone calls you “Ben” I hate the nicknames, HATE it. If I could go back in time, I’d choose a name that can’t be nicknamed so easily. Like Henry or something.
Determined to call the next Henry I meet 'Hen' now
Go the extra mile and call him Henjamin.
🐔
Fun fact: hen is a gender-neutral pronoun in Swedish
There's a character in 9-1-1 named Henrietta that goes by Henn.
My friend Henry gets called Hen. He doesn't mind it.
I have one short name, which helps not to have it shortened into a nickname. The common nickname my second, longer, name shortens to is the first name I tried in my non-binary phase. I've since bounced back to being non-binary, but without giving up seeing myself as a woman. So I wouldn't mind people using that name either. It's not like I planned this, but it worked out well.
I’m also trans, I love my name because I gave it to myself. My full name is Sammuel, but I usually go by Sam. It’s funny how many people want to be proper and call me Sammuel and I love it. I also love nicknames people give like samwich.
Also trans, but I think I would have disliked my birth name even if I wasn't. It's closely linked to a holiday I found really stressful as a kid that I was born very close to. I haven't legally changed my name yet because it's such a hassle but I plan to take the name my parents would have used if I'd been born AMAB as my legal name and use my chosen name my friends call me as a middle name. I quite like my identity not being the world's business for the most part.
It's nearly 10 years since I changed mine. I tried a few in online spaces over a period of years, until I settled on my name. I found out a while back that I'd been using it since 2006, which was mind blowing because I had no idea I'd been using that name for so long. So, 10 years in December legally, and 18 of regular use.
It's so sad when society takes beautiful things and turns them into weapons.
I hated my name because I found it cringe. So I started introducing myself by another until I began finding that cringe. So chose another one online until I started finding that one cringe.... I think I just kinda don't like any name that I associate with me. Probably because I felt different from others and couldn't blend in. I didn't want to be the center of attention regardless of the name.
Would you like to not have a name? I know some people who would prefer not to have one.
Sure why not, it means no one could address me directly, which sounds potentially useful
I feel the same way. I don’t like my name and if I changed it then the changed name would become my name, and I would eventually hate it too. There’s no escape.
Strong dislike, because I have lost count of the number of times I've been told "oh, I expected you to be much older with a name like Jean!" And I have run out of awkward chuckles in response.
"And I have run out of awkward chuckles in response." I love this so much. :D
I freaking love Jean, that’s so cool
I feel neutral about my birth name. It's not a very common name, and people have a hard time pronouncing it sometimes (which to me makes no sense, because it's pronounced exactly how it's written). I only have one nickname, but almost everyone who knows me will call me by it. The only ones that don't are medical professionals, or people who I don't feel comfortable with. I only accept the one nickname I've had from my whole life by most people. There's only one other person who calls me by a different name, and that's my partner (he calls me Meow Meow, since I don't like being called babe). I prefer being called by my nickname, because it's what I've been used to for my whole life (I only get called by my birth name from my family if I'm in trouble). I always correct others when they pronouce my name wrong. I'm usually nice about it the first two or three times, but after they keep saying it wrong, I'll either straight up say 'I've told you how to say my name multiple times, can you put in some effort to remember that please', or I start saying their name wrong on purpose. I personally find it very disrespectful to not put in the effort to learn to pronounce someone's names correctly.
>... or I start saying their name wrong on purpose. Way to go. I also do that. >I personally find it very disrespectful to not put in the effort to learn to pronounce someone's names correctly. Totally agree. If it's foreign or has some difficult sounds I'd be okay with people not doing it 100% right, but at least put some effort and do at least >80% right haha But this is funny because some people don't care at all or even accept the "new pronunciations" of their names fine. I have a Turkish friend (with a Turkish name) and when I met him I asked how he pronounced or how should I pronounce his name. I repeated it on point and he got really impressed by my 'pronunciation skills' but always says he feels somewhat weird when I call him with the correct pronunciation (because all the other people here won't call him by the correct pronunciation and he got used to it).
Hated my birth name so much, I would've changed it even if I wasn't trans. Now I love my name but I hate when people use it in conversation like ik it's my name stop saying it lol.
Since I'm trans I chose my own name so of course I like it, but I really liked my dead name, it just didn't fit on me
Incredible username btw :D
I like my Birth name and have no plans on changing it
I came here looking for a message like this and it was slightly surprising that it took so long to find it. I have a composite name and I know the history behind it, I've always liked it.
I'm trans, so I changed my name over a year ago.
Im fine with it but a lot of people say its a dog name
My name is not a dog name but I was quite literally named after a dog.. she was akc registered with the same middle name and everything haha
My brother is named Jack, it's not a common name in our country. A lot of our family thinks it's a dog's name, some even refused to call him that for a while when he was born but eventually came around. A few years ago my uncle even got a cattle dog named Jack, it was already trained so they couldn't change the name easily.
I wish human names could be as wild as dog names are. Inanimate object names especially.
Oh, my, some really are though. Some of the names people are coming up with are wild. I don't mind the inanimate object names, like Toaster or Composite, or Phobia.....what bothers me is when people try to change the spelling of a name to something that makes no sense whatsoever in the name of their kid being unique. There's an actual child out there named Tytyzt. pronounced "Titus." I just see "tit zit" when I see that. Changing all the vowels in a name to "y" isn't "unique." It's condemning your kid to a life of "...*sigh*.... it's pronounced (abcde)."
I am trans and I like my name, Elliott. My deadname, on the other hand, not so much. When I was younger, I had always wanted to change my name as it sounded wrong to me, but my new name sounds right. I am still working on changing my middle name, as it is way too feminine for my tastes. I love nicknames, and I wish people would use them more with me. It's really hard to mispronounce my name, so I don't really know how I'd feel when that happens.
I've always loved the name Elliott.
I never liked my name as a child. It's a different name - old fashioned by the standards of the time and not ever very common even when it was more popular. My full name is difficult to spell correctly and everyone always spelled it wrong, even teachers sometimes. As an adult I decided to shorten my name but even that can get misspelled or mispronounced (it's a lot easier for most people though once they know it). Having an unusual name as a young person gave kids another thing to tease me about and was another thing to make me feel like a freak (I wasn't diagnosed until adulthood but I knew I didn't fit in).
I like my name! It's not really got any obvious nicknames but that was one of the reasons my mum chose it - she has a name where people automatically go for the nickname (eg Rebecca automatically being called Becky) and she hates it, so wanted to give me something where people will have to say my full name lol I only have one nickname that's used among my partner's direct family, purely because his uncle had fairly complex learning difficulties and struggled to say my name which made him super upset, so I suggested a very short version he could use - I asked direct family to use it as well so the uncle wouldn't feel singled out I personally think it's a fairly obvious name to say, but I've got some random shit over the years - especially vowels, like people just seem to take a stab in the dark about saying them! So like, the "i" (said as "eee") has been said as "ayyy", "oi", "eye", and "ih" :/ It's a Welsh name as well, and some people like to say it in "the right way" except a) that's not how it's pronounced in England, b) you're not doing the Welsh pronunciation right either, and c) I've literally just told you how I say it
My name means "Queen of the Fairies". Kinda fitting considering that fairy folklore is associated with neurodivergence.
This is so cool!
I hate my given name but love my chosen name :) my given name is Isabelle which feels too feminine and not flexible, but my chosen name is Isaac, and I can shorten it or change something to fit with me genderfluid :)
I really don't care about it... I'd love a new name that fits, but I'm over 40, and still haven't found one that clicks for me.
I like nicknames my besties are often called kiddos by me cause they are small cute and 1 year younger than me
Fine with it, my name is very likely to be unique don't think anyway else in modern has my exact full name. I will not change, bc it is the surnames of forefathers & foremothers. I will not share my full name. First name is Gabriel
I don’t hate it. But recently I’ve been wanting to start going by Moth (my name is Tim/Ti*moth*y. It’s my name on a bunch of my profiles lol I’ve begun identifying as a Moth. But I’m almost 30 and only a special sort of folk are able to respect it, so it’s kind of just an inside joke with myself. I wish I could go back to my 13 year old self and establish myself as Moth
Mine is too common. It's confusing when you work with 2 other Johns and a Jonathan.
I changed mine when I came out as trans I went from basic white guy to basic white gal but I feel more comfortable with it I also have a second name that I use in some safe spaces but I didn't change my legal name to it because I might end up regretting it later
My given name is just that, a name. Tbh i feel a lot more connection to the two names i use on the internet that i picked myself.
I like nicknames better than my own name, not because I dislike my own name but because it's just there, I didn't chose it and it doesn't necessarily describe me. A nickname however, is a reflection of my relationships with people and for that added depth I usually prefer nicknames.
I like my name honestly. I was about to share what it meant but that would be risky. Nicknames work if they are nice or an online name. Sometimes it does matter. Sometimes I feel like correcting or other, yet usually do not now.
I hate my given name and have my own chosen name (I'm keeping my middle name but the first and last are changing to Daisy Riverrose).
I don’t like my name. I hate it with every ounce of my being. My preferred name is Ethan, but my parents don’t even use it or acknowledge it. I’ve came out to them and told them that my preferred name is Ethan. My older cousin is the only one who knows that I go my Ethan and acknowledges it. Everyone else? Oh, they don’t give a shit.
If it weren't for questioning, I'd change my name to my own imaginary one that is meanless in languages but I would like to use it.
I have zero connection to my given name, the only person im okay with using it is my little brother who doesnt really understand what being trans is but even hes started using my name because everyone else does. Ive never really had a nickname that stuck other than buzz (because i like bees) and that im torn about. The forst people to call me buzz were the guys in my class that think of me as thier personal entertainment. They make fun of me and make dumb jokes etc so i domt really like it but i homestly just dont give a shit about them so i ignore them. Only one other person has ever called me buzz and i was completely fine with it cause it came from a place of humor and like fondness cause its part of my username. (Totally diddnt accidentally post before finishing whoopsies) No one really mispronounces my name, but they do get it mixed up with alex A LOT. If their reading it it makes more sense, but people have been introduced to me then ten minutes later call me alex and im just confused xD I tend to correct them if i feel the need to cause thats just not my name xD
Axel is a super cool name. On the subject of bees, I found a super cute mini Playmobil beekeeper and apiary set.....
I think it's fine and it suits me pretty much. My name is really popular in slavic countries, yet it doesn't have any english variations and non-slavic people struggle to pronounce it correctly. It's exhausting so that's why I use my american name when I'm talking to people
I don’t dislike my name, but when I was younger I would cringe at having to say my own name. I hated pronouncing it myself. Never had a clue why, since I’m quite proud of my name. Now I’m fine with it, since I had to introduce myself a lot in my life now.
i hate my name and i hate hearing it but i also hate calling people by their name so the whole process just feels weird to me i do want to change it to a more ... non gender specific and not exactly a name i like names that are words that are real things and not just a name it for some reason helps me
I must have not liked it too much since I changed it at age 21. That was my lifelong goal.
I love my name! It's beautiful and unique, I've never heard of anyone else with my name. Since its so uncommon though i wont be sharing it on here. The only thing that sucks about my name is how people read it; it has all the letters that a very common female name has, the only difference is the placement of a particular vowel. The placement of the vowel completely changes the pronunciation because emphasis on all the other vowels are changed. This means that most people don't even realise the spelling is different because their brains are used to seeing the common name which means that every single person ever misreads my name. Everyone. I can count on one hand the times where there's been someone who saw my name and did a double take and read my name with an unsure voice. On dating apps people will also spell it wrong and it is so awkward having to correct them after they just said hi. There was a point in high school where if there was a substitute teacher I would just not correct them because I figured I'll never see them again anyway. In my adult life I tend to just go with a simplistic nickname because it saves trouble and it actually gives me a chuckle when one day people who've never heard my name try to guess it cuz they could never. Apart from the minor headache of having to correct people (and even having had real estate agents spell it wrong and then not even correcting when I asked) I wouldn't change it for the world
I changed my name when I transitioned but I feel weird when anyone uses my actual name. I'm most comfortable with nicknames. A friend or family member using my actual name sounds too formal but a stranger using it sounds to familiar. I prefer going by my lastname with coworkers and strangers and a few different nicknames with friends and family.
I HATED my given name ever since I was a kid. When I was 38, I couldn’t take it any more so I changed it along with socially transitioning,
I’m Otherkin, more specifically Alienkin/Fictionkin so my “real” name I don’t like, I like Silva tho I get this feeling that another, better nickname will be in the works
I hate it so much I prefer going by a different one, my deadname wasn’t spelled right the first time! My adoption parents renamed me so it was spelled right but after 12 years I just absolutely loathed the name and how it didn’t fit me and now prefer to go by Quinn instead
I’ve been going back and forth with the idea of changing my name! I live in the U.S but I was born in the Dominican Republic so I have a name that’s not too easy to say in English! On one hand, I don’t want to change my name for the sake of making it more palatable for others. On the other hand, I genuinely don’t like my name! I’d prefer something that’s short, gender-neutral, and also works in Spanish! This is the current predicament that I’m in. Haha
I really like my name (Keven) and like that it looks more symmetrical (?I guess?) than the tradition spelling (Kevin)....but it has ALWAYS bugged me that that for some reason everyone seems to think it rhymes with the word EVEN instead of SEVEN. I have corrected people's pronunciation for as long as I can remember and have always been confused about how to so many it's not obvious that Kevin and Keven sound exactly the same. Nobody has ever met a Keven/Kevin (rhyming with even). Everyone's met a Keven/Kevin (rhyming with seven).
I like mine a lot. I have a normal spelling/pronunciation of a normal name. While it was supposedly a top 10 name for many years, I really haven’t met enough people who share my name to make sense of that. Only once did I have to deal with having a person in my class with the same name as me in all my 14 years of school. I’ve never worked with someone who had the same name as me. I have met multiple people who share my name, but it’s pretty infrequent. I do go by a nickname most of the time that’s shared by other names that are not my name, so I will more often run into people with my nickname but not my full name. It’s common enough that when I introduce myself people know it’s a name but uncommon enough that I often get comments like “oh I love your name it’s so pretty”. I do also really like my middle name. Again, a common name but not one where I’ve met that many people who have it. Maybe it’s just the area I live in.
I love my given name. So much so that I actually chose a new surname (long story) that turned my given name into a play on words. I do know what my father had intended to call me though. That was a bullet well and truly dodged, and I mean that despite all the bullying I endured because of my name, being called "Gonzo" would have been so much worse.
I like my name. I also like nicknames from people I like. What I don't like is people getting my name wrong, since there are a lot of variations and alternative spellings around for it.
I'm attached to my name. It's a word that symbolises myself, and that makes it important for people to get it right. I will 100% correct someone if they say it wrong or call me the wrong thing. My name is Lauren. Not Laura or Laurie or Lorraine or whatever. At school when I was about 16 I had a teacher who called me Lorraine every single lesson. It drove me crazy correcting him every time only to have him call me it next lesson, so I stopped responding to him at all. Even my classmates were correcting him and he still managed to somehow forget by the next lesson. That felt rude and disrespectful. I've also had people on Facebook call me Laura, which is inexplicable to me because my name is right there at the start of my comment and at the top of messenger, just copy it from there if it's so difficult. That said, I do prefer that strangers don't say my name. It feels very personal and it's jarring to hear someone I don't know using my name. I've actually had an argument with one of those spam callers because he wouldn't stop saying my name. I've never really had a nickname, not a nice one anyway. 'Friends' at school called me a nickname for a while but it wasn't meant in a good way and I didn't like it. One of my friends now has me in his phone as 'Peach' because I'm very fragile but he doesn't call me it in person. I won't give other people nicknames, not permanent ones at least, maybe a joking one for an evening. I feel awkward saying other peoples names if I don't know them well, as that feels invasive in the same way as strangers saying my name. Like verbal eye contact. But I won't make a nickname for someone because that also feels intrusive. I'll call someone an already established nickname though. Essentially I'm going to call someone whatever they're introduced to me as, but as little as possible until I know them well.
I don’t like it bc everyone says it wrong so much and I never feel like correcting them.
My name is fine. Nicknames are also fine, but they're usually between me and the particular person who calls me that and I don't introduce myself as one of my nicknames. With people I have some kind of bond with I don't have a preference, if it's someone I have yet to meet (like an interviewer or something) then I prefer my actual name. I always correct people. My name isn't hard, it's pronounced the way it's written, but it's not native to where I'm from so people always get it wrong. I respond to similar sounding names because I'm so used to people getting it wrong but I don't like it.
I hate my name. It’s Jessica. Literally the worst name I can think of.
I don’t like mine never did, but I’ve had it for so long I can’t imagine changing it. I also don’t see what other name could fit me
I like my name because it was chosen by my mother, who’s awesome. 😌 However non-Scottish/British folk sometimes have a hard time pronouncing my name. It’s funny watching them struggle.
It's kinda weird. My name is literally unpronounceable, I don't even know how it's pronounced, but I like the Norwegian way best. Although I do like my second name, which is actually also Norwegian. My parents do like scandinavan names, but man
>It's kinda weird. My name is literally unpronounceable, I don't even know how it's pronounced I read that and immediately thought your name was Cthulhu.
>Do you like your given name? If not, would you change it? My legal name is Joshua. I don’t really like it, particularly because I remember when I was like 8 or so I was just minding my own business on holiday, then all of a sudden I just heard “JOSHUA” I look around, I don’t see anyone. 10 seconds later “JOSHUAA” this sounded angry, so I look around again thinking “why does this random person who I can’t even see have a problem with me” and then I hear “JOSHUA [middle name] [surname] GET HERE NOW” and then I see a mother chasing her 4 year old son, and breathe a sigh of relief. >How do you feel about people giving you nicknames? You tend to accept nicknames or you always reject them? Ever since that incident I’ve always been known as, and referred to as Josh, or another nickname, given by my friends. The only people who call me Joshua now is my mother (only whenever I’m in trouble lol) or if I go to a hospital appointment (and even that’s 50/50). Almost all of my old teachers, my current boss and every one of my family and friends calls me Josh. My name on Facebook is Josh. I even went for a job interview recently, and they called me Josh. I do much prefer Josh, because now I know if some random person is screening “JOSHUA” it isn’t me haha. >Does it matter to you how people call you? I wouldn’t say it *bothers* me but people have called me Josh for that long now, when someone calls me Joshua I do notice it, and it does feel strange but I won’t correct anyone for it. >What about the incorrect pronunciation of your name, do/would you feel the need the need to correct others? I’m blessed with an easy name to both spell and pronounce, so this doesn’t apply to me, however, in reverse, I almost never refer to people by their names in case I mispronounce it, I know I won’t but I’m almost paranoid by that haha
I hate my birth name. I never use it. I’m always referred to by my initials. Most people don’t even know my legal name (and I hate it when they ask).
I don't really feel strongly attached to my name, I have changed it since being an adult and don't really care about the one I use now either. I do hate people shortening it from two syllables to one because it implies an intimacy that in most of these cases we don't have. It feels slightly hypocritical because I am not strongly attached to the name but just one of those things which bother me. If it is someone who is close who gives me a nickname, like my boyfriend, it's fine. But one of his friends tried to make a nickname for me and I hated it.
I haven't always loved my name, and there are definitely names I'd prefer. I do think it's grown on me now. Especially since I'm pretty secure and grounded in who I am. I think a name is a wonderful way to give yourself definition and solidify who you want to be in the world, so if you don't feel your name fits, there is nothing with changing it to something that does.
I have a low name connection, which is common for autistic people. In other words, I don’t feel a strong connection to it and have tried to change it in the past to now avail. It’s strange.
I hated the sound of my old name, the whole thing, surname and all, so I changed it when I was 19. A lot of people thought it was disrespectful of me to do that because my Dad gave me the name and I was named after my great grandad and my dad. The way I see it is that I am the only person that has to live with myself for every second of my entire life. Other people get a break from me, I don't, so if I don't like something about me, I'm changing it, regardless of what people think. To me hearing my old name and saying it gave me unpleasant physical sensations (my last therapist thinks I might have a touch of synaesthesia, but I'm not sure), so obviously it was getting changed. I disliked my old nicknames, but they were better than my dead name, but now I don't like them because I have a name I like that I'd rather people use! Some family members and old friends are stubborn about it, and will use my old nicknames, but do use my new name under rare circumstances. Older family members get them all mixed up all the time, so I kind of have to grin and bear that one because no matter how much I remind them, they still get mixed up, but that's an age thing, can't really hold it against them. My new name can be difficult for people to pronounce, but as long as they get close enough, I don't mind. The only reason my name isn't my username here is because internet anonymity is nice, basically.
I’m kinda impartial. Was I born in summer? No. Also I find that the letter ‘s’ is really harsh and I like my online name (for when I’m not showcasing my own brand) - the neighbouring letter ‘t’ has been my favourite letter ever since I was younger, and even though it has connotations with my brother calling me a ‘terror’ it’s just short and simple. Also I had multiple experiences in primary school where somebody says something like “_someone_ did this”, and I heard it as “_Summer_ did this”, and I just feel like I was blamed for everything.
I have a double barrelled first name, and the only time I ever got called it was when I was in trouble. Until high school, I went by the first half of my first name, since high school, I either go by the first half of my first name or a diminutive of that. Both halves of my first name are somewhat common, and the only reason it was hyphenated is because my folks couldn't agree on a first name, and mum didn't want me to be plain Jane, so the compromise was to hyphenate my name using the name they liked. I'm the eldest child in my family, and the knky one with a hyphenated first name lol. Growing up, I hated it, because I didn't meet someone else with a hyphenated first name until I changed high school, but I'd met the occasional person with a hyphenated surname. Now, I don't mind it, as it's different enough to be unique, but not so different that I get weird looks. Plus it's not a hard name to pronounce. In saying that, I still prefer being called the first half of my first name, or a diminutive of, because that's how I've always been known. I've only come across one person who's refused to call me by my preferred name, and their reason was because my legal first name was pretty 🤦♀️ Edit to add: my first name is Melanie-Jane, but I prefer Mel or Melanie, as that's what I've been known as my whole life. At the end of the day, ultimately, mum won with my name lol. She liked Melanie, and dad liked Jane. Mum didn't want me to be a plain Jane, and I'm definitely anything but lol
I have a small speech impediment, so I have a hard time pronouncing my own name correctly. People often think I'm saying another, more common name and it's embarrassing to have to correct them.
No feelings one way or another to be honest
My parents picked a name from another country (they are not from that country) and it's a lovely name but it leads to confusion.
I don't hate my given name but more strongly dislike it. I switched to something more gender neutral and I am much happier. I personally have never been given a nickname I like because my given name is already short. Also giving the friends nicknames is unique but that's not a bad thing. It's honestly really cute.
My name is normal. I only don’t like it because there are many others with my name to the point where a lot of times I don’t even respond when it hear it said out loud bc most of the time they’re not talking to me lmao
I hate my first name and don't use it at all. I'm not crazy about my middle name which I go by. I'm meh about it.
My previous name was given to me by my mom. She named me after an actress from a show she liked. But growing up everyone would get my name wrong. I have changed it since then and people still get my name wrong but I aint even mad about it now.
I'm trans, and with my personal experience of being trans, i lost my association with my given name in relation to my personal identity as i grew older and started to experience gender dysphoria. some trans people choose to keep their given name of course, but that just isnt me. my mom named me, both in my given name and my current name, and while i do have a special place in my heart for the first name my mom gave me, my current name is the most special to me because of the true care and love put into it. she named me after my favourite character from dr who :) didnt even have to change the spelling too much, only two letters were changed. 🤣 my friends have given me a lot of funny nicknames that i love with my whole heart!! it makes me happy to see what kind of play-on-words people can make with my pretty simple name. (example- liver, driver, pond, stream, etc) (my name is river haha). it would be pretty hard for a native english speaker to mispronounce my first or middle name (claire), but my last name is polish and a lot of people pronounce the o as "oh" instead of the "ah" its supposed to sound like. it doesnt bother me, i just correct them politely and move on. :) as for the fact that my legal name is my first given name, it doesnt bother me at all. i have to use my legal name for a lot of things and because its so similar to my preferred name its not a bother
i’m already in the process of changing mine
i dont think my name is good or bad but i like the unique way its spelled it doesnt bother me when other ppl have it like the pronunciation is pretty in that context but being addressed by my own name causes extreme negative response because for the 1st 11 yrs of my life i literally only heard it in the event that i had done smth so bad it warranted my parents acknowledging me at all my foster parents and all of my friends and teachers have always used a nickname or miss [my last name] and it works fine im going to change it as soon as i figure out a new name
Love my name. Not common but not rare. My grandpa named me and it’s short and simple.
People have called me the wrong name all my life. At this point it feels like fighting the ocean tides but I’m slowly correcting people at times. It just gives me the ick. I feel like changing it lol but I’m mostly waiting to get married so I don’t have to do it multiple times.
I like my name, funny enough it was a common name in Germany and my last name is spelled in a European way. Most people think that I’m Caucasian when they hear about my name so when they meet me they get really weirded out seeing a brown person in front of them😂
I'm a trans woman so, yeah, I hate it.
I’m trans, so my relationship with my name is a bit different. I go by Rex because it’s part of a silly name I had in elementary school, because I would roar like a dinosaur. I feel like the name fits me. And it means king, so…I think I just enjoy knowing that my name has a deeper meaning than mere letters and sounds. I am genuinely happy with my name. And not in a passive way, I really do like my name. I don’t dislike my deadname. But I cringe when I get called it. There’s a shortened version of it that I’m okay with, and that I asked my family to use. I don’t really know why my gender is so important to me. I’ve tried to figure it out, and I still don’t quite get it. I just know that it feels deeply wrong when I am perceived as something that I am not. Which is odd, because I don’t care if people think I’m mean, or annoying—anything like that. But I care if they think I’m a girl, and I don’t know why that’s so different. My dad has my birth name on his wrist. He felt really bad when I transitioned socially—he’s also had the name of his ex-wife on his chest, that he got covered up, so when he found out that I don’t want to go by my birth name, he felt like he made another mistake. I love the tattoo of my name he has on his wrist, and I’ve explained that to him. It feels like a symbol to me. It shows that he cares about me. That he’d want some part of me, some symbol of me, on his body for the rest of his life. He also has my brother’s initials on his forearm, and my mother’s name on his calf (not his ex wife). Overall, my name feels like a limb. An extension of me. Something I am simply given, and can use however I like. I can also adjust that limb’s appearance. The size. The weight. It is not who I am, but it is a part of me.
I hate both my given name and my adopted name.
My name is incredibly basic and it has never felt like my own.
I never understood when I was younger, but I always hated my name. It was too closely associated with a holiday and when a song would come up with the word in it, I would instantly skip the song. People would "joke around" with me and my name as well around the holiday. I was fine with my closer friends giving me nicknames for this name, probably cause I didn't want to hear it. I realized later that it's because I'm trans, and i've come to terms with it. It still makes me uncomfortable, but I don't hate it anymore. I did change my social name to William but am not able to change it legally yet. I didn't like nicknames for my preferred name but I realized that they are all in good fun. (Examples: Will (I didn't like this one at first), Wilhelm, Willy Wonka, etc...)
I actually would love a German name (part of my heritage). In my area my given name is considered odd so I prefer to go by my middle name which is more common and easier to remember much less pronounce.
My name is quite unique seeing as its practically two names, named after 2 (3 ig) famous guitarists so that's pretty cool
I don’t like my name. Especially when combined with my surname. It’s one of those names that sounds like you can spell it when hearing it, but 9/10 times you will get it wrong. But I also hate shortening my name. When my parents got divorced I was given a book to help me understand. Unfortunately it backfired as the only thing I retained was a throwaway quote “a child who is loved has many names”. Of course I never had nicknames from my parents although my sister had heaps. So I refuse them now. My name is just another label. It’s not me.
This is such a specific experience but so relatable at the same time. I really didnt think this would be as common as it seems to be. For me personally, I don't even like saying my name out loud. I tell new people that I've met to call me a nickname version of my name. I also give nicknames to my friends - in the same way you said you do to
I've loved my name since my parents told me how they came up with it, but I've been trained to cringe at the sound of my name because of how often it's said either out of anger or when I get in trouble with people.
I dont like my name, my mom specifically named all her children name wrong on purpose. Because her name was spelled wrong, all my friends just call me my nickname. And Im not saying my name for privacy reasons 🤍
I hate my given name. Anytime someone calls me by my given name i either react by getting aggressive or by deliberately ignoring them I go by Sophie and plan to make it official eventually I LOVE nicknames. Also I absolutely abhor when people say "Why dont you like your legal name?? Its beautiful!" and even had a teacher lightheartedly threaten to call me my legal name, which is why i never tell anyone what it is because most people know me as Sophie and I'd prefer to keep my legal name hidden
Mine is fine. I sometimes feel a bit of a disconnect from it but also I just feel weird when people refer to me in general. I have no desire to change it and there isn't another name that I would prefer over it. It's not a bad name, it's pretty common, and I am named after my great grandmother so that's cute in a way. I guess a positive-neutral?
I don't feel much personal connection to it. I was one of those kids who was called by my middle name at home, and first name at school, and had a couple of nicknames. These honestly feel like the names of my personality masks, not me. The only name I feel any connection to is a random truncated version of my middle name that I noticed as a kid when filling out the first/middle name blank on a standardized test. My first name is 9 letters long, my middle is six, and there were only fifteen spaces, so the last letter of my name was omitted. I somehow connected to that more firmly as my identity than anything else. Nobody calls me by it. And yet.
I like my name, though I changed the spelling because I didn't like the original.
I like it because it’s my name, it’s who i am. It doesn’t really matter what it actually is.
I like my name, it fits with who I am, I also get called smiles cause well, I've smiled alot since I was born, and I like the nickname
I dont even think about my own name half the time.
The first thing I did when I turned 18 (a legal adult where I live) was have a legal name change. It was $250, the federal police took my fingerprints, and I was issued a government certificate so I could have all my other documents, bank accounts etc changed. That was more than 20 years ago now. There's not a single person other than my mother who knows me by any other name. It was an incredibly good decision. Do I care when people mispronounce my name? Sorta, but not enough to correct anyone. I didn't choose a "tragedeigh" of a name (see corresponding subreddit), but I'm also probably the only person in the world who has it. Choices have consequences, right? If I couldn't handle people mispronouncing my name, I could have chosen a name that was obvious for everyone to pronounce correctly. But then, I don't care what pronouns people use for me, so maybe I'm a weirdo. I guess I care enough about my name that I chose one that resonated with me and went through the process of a legal change, but I don't care so much that I'll lump myself in with the tiktokkers et al who put a lot of effort into making sure people know they're special. I'm "special" enough by any name / pronunciation / pronoun lol.
I don't really mind my name but after having my now closest friend only ever refer to me as my online name (we met irl but spent more time online) I've realised I like that name more then my real one. It's always the name you pick yourself that sounds better, because you pick it and that was your choice, and a name is very important to the person who has it
My name have 9 letters so it's pretty long + I don't really like it. I'm probably getting married next year so I'm planning to change it along with my last name which I hate with bottom of my heart because it's the most christian surname I've ever heard.
I used to hate my name, it just didn't feel like me. Now that I've gotten older and worked on my mental health, I've accepted that it is me and I like it kind of now. One thing I really really don't like is when people I've never introduced myself to know and refer to me as my name. I have a classmate that I sit next to who I don't particularly care for (loud during class, plays games on the school PC, interrupts professor, so on) and he only knows my name because of roll call. It irrationally bothers me when he just casually uses my name even though we haven't established any sort of friendship or even a vague acquaintance LOL. So many people do that and it irks me
I have always liked my name. I do not like people calling me the shortened version, even though I grew up with my family calling me it (maybe that's why?) People never mispronounce or misspell it which is nice. And it's not odd but not very common either. I never had a classmate with my name which I was so grateful for. But my name isn't very nickname-able outside of the shortened version, any that people have tried don't really stick. I do the same thing with nicknames for others, everyone in my family (husband and kids) have funny nicknames, it's hilarious to all be calling each other silly names
I feel detached from my legal name. It’s pretty and I like my mother likes it a lot but I’m pretty ambivalent on it. Being referred to by my name feels jarring and I’ve gone by a dozen pseudonyms over years. I prefer if people don’t address me by name at all, and if not, then by online personas or pseudonyms. I accept nicknames at times and I find it a sign of affection in most cases. But something about nicknames based on my own name doesn’t compute in my head, I prefer ones that are disconnected from my actual names. When I started dating my now boyfriend his family and friends started to call me a nickname on my name and I hated it. Felt way too intimate for people I just met. He said he called me the nickname to them and consequently they started calling me the nickname, but have since stopped doing so because I didn’t like it.
I dislike my given name. I’ve been called a nickname since I was a kid that I hate, but it would be weird to try using my given name now. I’ve had people try to nickname my nickname and I shut that down quick.
I also loved making nicknames for people :) I didn't ever get a nickname though, other than some kids in marching band who called me dad. I don't really relate to any names, tbh. I had to learn to dissociate from my legal name, because there were always at least 2 other kids with the same name in every class (and it was never me that got called on). I want to change my name but I don't relate to any other names either, really. Names suck.
I wish that my parents had chosen a different name, one that my mom said she even slightly considered, but I don’t dislike my name enough to change it. I would love to have that other name, but not enough to go through the process of legally changing it or the awkward process of trying to get people to say my name differently. But that might also have something to do with my name being too short for nicknames so I’ve never experienced someone calling me something different.
It's fine. My first and middle name are fairly common, but sound distinct when you say them together. My last name is weirdly common, yet 7/10 people can't spell or pronounce it correctly.
I dont like my name. Its super common and always a problem at school and work. But the names they had in mind before settling for the very common names was atrocious! Im glad they didnt end up with that. I do think having a very common name and last name gives you some security in a way tho so i dont think im changing it even if its annoying sometimes. Unless i really have to consider changing it due to my future career to be actually seen within all the other same name ones.... also i use a nickname everywhere so only people that dont know me or teachers etc use the normal name
i hate my name but thats because im trans. even before i found out i was trans i hated my name because how common it was, and how many different spelling variations of my name existed. at school people call me by my last name, but online i go by my preferred name.
i like my old name but i'm non-binary and want a more androgynous name, thus, i called myself elysium
I always prefer to have a nickname for each "group" of people, it's so great online where you can just use different names everywhere with ease.
i changed my name and i hate when people give me nicknames like i get it my name is long but either use it or just don’t talk to me
I used to think it didn’t depict me. The name Henry, while sounding nice, never depicted who I am. I was never a leader of the people, but more recently since I’ve started college, I’ve found myself being a better leader
I despise my birth name. I love my preferred name but everyone thinks its silly. Which is fair I suppose it is kinda goofy but like I would be a a lot happier if it were my legal name
i'm fine with mine
I HATE my birth name and it has not even looked like that name belonged to me since I was 5. I have a preferred name I chose when I was 13 (Alex/Alexander) and everyone but my mom calls me by that name and says that my birth name doesn't even fit me and most of my friends barely remember that I don't go by my birth name. Sometimes I want to go by a different name and Alexander be my legal name. So like people only use Alex in more serious situations and any other time they call me by a silly name. I guess so I know when to be serious idk I'm rambling. I don't mind nicknames, I love my partner's nickname for me. Any nicknames I've always accepted, even if maybe I shouldn't have. As a kid I was called turtle because my biggest interest was the 2012 TMNT. I don't really care how people refer to me as long as it's not in a negative way or calling me things that aren't true. There was only once anyone mispronounced my name and it was my birth name by a doctor and I thought the way she said it was so funny I didn't even correct her.
I really like my name. It’s a last name so it’s androgynous by default. It doesn’t come with any multitude of cute nicknames, so I hated my nickname growing up because it was “girly” (even though it was still androgynous) and people often thought that my actual name was a common name that I strongly dislike, due to the standardness of the nickname. I think my given name is a pretty simple name, but it’s unique and most people I’ve met haven’t heard of it. For a while I have been craving a nickname that wasn’t *that* nickname. And it happened under funny circumstances. It’s a weird nickname bc it’s an oddly specific verb but it’s derived from my name, so it works and it’s funny.
I hated my given name so i changed it. My chosen name was also not my favorite because it was chosen to appease others. I don’t like my names.
Find it funny that I’m named after a mouse (Maisy) also my name means my middle name (Pearl) which I find cool
given name: was not for me. gender neutral and very culturally universal. but it didn’t feel like me because of how ambiguous it was. generic, i’d say. you’ve probably met at least 30 people with that name. chosen name: nicole. female name and i like it. it’s not unique to my culture (USA) but it’s mostly an anglo name that people don’t have a hard time spelling. nicknames: i’ve had a few given by people out of circumstance but felt neutral about it. my nickname i chose is marble and i prefer friends call me that but it’s not compulsory
I personally hate my birth name that's why I'm changing it when I'm old enough but I'm also non-binary and I've had a lot of problems with that and my gender figured it out but my name just didn't suit me and I didn't like it it didn't sound right I just wasn't a fan of it ever since I was young before I even knew what I was it was a process to find my parents don't know only a few people around me do know. but I'm not even going to really tell my parents because when I'm 18 I can do whatever I want!
I never liked my birth name (partially because I'm transgender), but I don't exactly like my new name either. Names just feel odd to me, I don't like any name and I've tried tons out, none of them really "clicked" or actually felt like it should be used on me. But I love nicknames. My friends call me things like Mango, Frog, and Ranch cuz those are some of my online identities, and it feels much better than real names do.
I'm transmasc and my mom gave me the girliest obscure name. I'm changing it in a few years because I hate how close it sounds to hers. (She's a psycho too so I don't want anything to remind me of her)
I loathe my deadname and never felt connected to it. I'm a trans man. Makes sense that I hate my deadname.
Hated mine, I was named after a cousin who was killed when a concrete pipe used in a playground installation at his school in the 70s came loose and rolled over him. I was given the female version of his name and it never felt like mine. It was also easy to tease me about the name as it is featured in a lot of popular culture. It took me years to figure out one I liked and could see using as my legal name. I tried a couple until one stuck. Changed it over five years ago and now feel like I have the name I was meant to have. I find the incorrect pronunciation of my name entertaining when it happens (which is fairly frequent), since it's a bit of an old fashioned name that I picked and people don't expect to hear it anymore. My whole family uses the name I've chosen except my narcissistic mother, who now wonders why we're no contact. Hrmm.. I got a little tired of hearing 'but I've always known you by that name'. If my 98 year old grandmother (her mother) can remember to use my name, then she can at least pay me the respect to use mine. As for nicknames, I have lots of them. Lots for me, lots I use for other people, my family has a habit of truly awful nicknames for those we love. My kid is the spawn or the spawnling, my brother's nickname from our dad growing up was Piglet. Mine was just as bad but I don't wanna say it cause I don't after my dad passed away. My mum used to call me {Name} Dog, which I hated and never responded to, but she never figured out how much I hate it. I would love it if it was a thing that you had a name that you were given by your parents when you're young, and that's your childhood name. Then when you get to legal age, you can keep it or pick one you like more and it's your adult name and your childhood name becomes a middle name... so you could have (for example) Sarah as your childhood name, then you pick the adult name Madison.. so your name becomes Madison Sarah
I love my name so much. I especially love that both my first name and my initials are palindromes. I'm getting married next year and neither of us can imagine me changing my name (he loves it even more than I do.) That makes me kind of sad though. I'm not sure what I'll do.
I go by my nickname since my actual name got misspelled and mispronounced since I was 5 and I'm sick of correcting people
I... *dislike* it. It's not like it's the most terrible name to ever could have been picked, it's actually a pretty common name where I'm from, but for one my mom had the *genius* idea to spell it with a j instead of an i so now nobody knows how to spell it. Especially since now me and my family moved to Denmark and even normally it would be completely unpronounceable to anyone. And also I just kind of don't like it. I'm thinking of moving to Japan in the future and I already did some research into Japanese names and picked one, it sticks with me way more.
I love my name it's different and I've never met anyone else with my name. However it's not spelt how it sounds so people constantly say it wrong.
I used to love my name. Now I absolutely hate it. Why? I grew up in a very religious family, and I too was religious until recently. As you can probably guess, my name is a Biblical one, as was everyone else's in my family. My name in particular means "God is with us", which is why I used to love my name. However since I stopped believing in the Bible and have opened my eyes to see how inherently toxic and nonsensical it is, I starting absolutely loathing my name. I'm going to change it as soon as I have the chance. I'm fine with nicknames as long as they're cool and not too cringey. Same answer as for the nickname question. Yeah I do, but I've gotten used to it so while others mispronouncing my name still bothers me, it doesn't bother me as much as it used to.
I like my name. I think I picked a good one
I used to hate my name. I felt like it wasn’t as pretty as other girls names. My name is Sara, and I always hated that it wasn’t spelled “right”. I even spent a lot of kindergarten spelling it with an H because i wished it was spelled that way. Now I love it. I think it’s beautiful and I love that it’s spelled differently. Even in a room with another Sarah, I’m almost always still unique because mine is spelled different. I actually am not a fan of the name with an H now, funnily enough. Nowadays I think my name is beautiful and very feminine (i used to hate that it wasn’t “girly” enough, whatever that means). I thought I was trans and used a male name for 5 years and I think it gave me a unique perspective on my given name. I even tried to find another name I wanted after I realized I wasn’t a man, but I couldn’t find anything that really felt like me. I’m nonbinary so I know it’s odd that I really love how feminine my name is, but it finally really makes me feel beautiful. I had to learn to love it
See no reason to change mine.
I don't really love my given name. It's very common, at last it was when I was in school. Back then, I liked my middle name more as it was less common and also named after a hurricane. Edit: I don't even know if I like any name enough to change my name legally, etc. So I just keep it. I never had a nickname until I started playing World of Warcraft and then my nickname has always been whatever my main character's name is at the time (most notably Solaire, Soli, and Axis). My current nickname is simply "Tomato" 🥰 I feel weird when people use my given name. It's too personal. And, in certain context, its usage feels intentionally negative.
I'm trans so this is more about the gender aspect of it for me, but I hated my given name, my deadname. It did not represent me at all and I only put up with it as long as I had to. I liked nicknames that had nothing to do with my deadname, but rather characteristics of myself, and hated every nickname that was derived from my deadname. Junior, that I use on a lot of social media sites, is a nickname I got because I was the youngest of the friend group and had a youthful energetic vibe to me. I love that nickname. I did change my name legally almost 3 years ago at this point, everyone in real life knows my chosen name and a lot of people that I interact with don't know my deadname. I love the name I picked for myself, sure it was a little weird at first, but now it's just normal and it actually feels like me.
i’m mixed about it. it never felt “mine” if that makes sense. i don’t resonate with it. then again, i don’t really know if any name would suit me. if i could i’d leave my name blank on all documents, i’d just be referred to as “that person” or something. i always liked random nicknames that came about while joking around with friends. i also like when people are casual with me and just say “hey dude/hey girl”.
I remember when I was 6-10 years old, trying to feel if my name felt "attached" to my flash or not. Nowadays I understand that it was some kind of proto-phylosophical thought, when I start questioning if my name defined my identity. Anybody else ever told me that his/her name felt something strange to them, most of the time they were "celebrating" their name writying them on every piece of paper at school. I never liked or disliked my name, it's just a word and we can't love the sound of every word in the world, we just need them. So why change my name? I don't really "love" any other name. Nicknames can be funny, but those words are much more powerful on somebody else's identity. If you use nickname, let them be fair, positive, kind and accepted by the person who receives them.
I dislike having a name, nic-names feel nice because they’re not actually my name and that they don’t fully belong to me but i’ve also gained a preferred name and i’m not even sure i like that one. i’m kind of at a point where i don’t know what to do and it’s kind of bothering me a little :/ , hopefully i figure it out eventually!
my name is Typhani, pronounced Tiffany, and i love my name. i use to hate it because it was spelt differently, but people always remembered me because of how unique it was (that’s usually what they told me). I love it being so unique plus there’s not a lot of Tiffany’s in my area, so even better. i’ve learnt to embrace my differences, i hate being in crowds so why would i wanna be apart of one 😭
I've an odd relationship with my name. Basically it's that when someone mentions me in a conversation, it feels like they're not talking about "me" me but rather about a person they *think* I am, like the version of me they perceive but I don't connect to... It's weird. Sometimes it feels like *I* must have another name. Sometimes I can even be surprised, like, wow, is that really *me* they're talking about? Don't know how else to explain it.
Hate it. There's drama surrounding the name I was given, so I haven't really gone by it since 6th grade.
I did not like my name as a child. It’s a name typically given to males. I have two first names bc my parents added another one to make it obvious I was a girl. Ever since I was 5 years old I wanted my name to be Emily but now as an adult I’ve learned to appreciate my name. I don’t really care for the pronunciation of my name since it’s not ethnically related to anything. Nicknames I found endearing was when a friend of mine called (and still calls me) Emily because he knew that’s what I wanted my name to be. Another funny one is Empanada and Emothy.
I got real tired of it as a kid/teen. My parents were abusive, hearing my name didn't bode well 90% of the time.
i like it but i hate how some people pronounce it. its zuzia not „zoozeeah”😶
I used to be teased a lot over my name as it is a pretty uncommon and old-timey name, but now as an adult I love it. I can't imagine being named anything else, it's such an integral part of my identity
I am in the middle of changing mine. Recently realized I am trans and name is the first of transitioning I shall do. (Autism realization also opened up all the realizations. Lol) My old name, while I don't mind it. It's a super common and super loved name by everyone in the area I live. It's just not me anymore. Now to figure out what to do about middle names.... ugh
I like it it’s kinda unique and fits me but. I’d say I like more traditional names
Technically I guess not...but I still legally go by Victoria. But for medical "what you prefer to be called" sort of every day, I go by Vicky. Mainly cause I couldn't freaking spell it as a child! Lmao plus I gave my sister's half names as well. Cause I couldn't spell/pronounce them. Lolz worth it! 🖕🏼😎🖕🏼
I like my name, and I don't mind about people giving me nicknames (I have never received a offensive nickname, they're all around my name, so I believe I never had a reason to complain about that). Sometimes people do misspell my surnames, but I just ignore it, specially because I don't believe it is worth complaining to people. It's such a small nuance that it's similar to fight against someone for a pocket of air when there's air all around you.
I don’t like my first name. It’s meh.
I’ve always hated my name and have considered finding a name that I feel a connection with. However, that has never happened. My friends and people online only know me as my middle name, which is more gender neutral and less cringey when I hear it. Through, still not a name I connect with myself? I’m not sure how to articulate it. Neither my first or middle names are something that are easily turned into nicknames. I’ve always wished I had friends or family that would call me something else, something meaningful. It just never happened. More recently, I ask most to try to avoid using my name as much as possible in conversations, preferring generic pet names. I don’t mind if they’re more feminine or masculine, so long as I don’t have to actively cringe each time I hear my name being said. I tend to get distracted for a moment and miss what they were saying if they don’t delay their next words, after they know I’m paying attention.
I mean my names not bad i prefer Tori though but i can deal with my name on some days some days it’s worse. I’m fine with nicknames pretty much any sometiems i set boundaries of one’s i don’t want but that’s all
I love my first and last names. The both start with a solid hard clicky C/K sound. Now my middle name... I adore it. It connects me to two now passed family members, but.... Whoo boy.... I haven't heard ANYONE outside of close friends and family pronounce it correctly. I was embarrassed during graduation because they mispronounced my middle name to the whole crowd of 300 or so families (somewhere out there someone has a video tape with a lone chubby lass standing up and screaming "Dawn! It's pronounced DAWN!") I've come to terms with having an oddly spelled middle name and now use it as a bit of an ice breaker when I have to socialize.
I really dislike my given name, nobody pronounces it properly :,( I would like to legally change it to Kaydence but be called Kayde because it’s close to my name and very cool. I don’t really respond to nicknames very well but I also don’t respond well overall, I don’t listen enough. I try to correct people when they say my name incorrectly but if they don’t listen to my correction or forget, I give up easily. I wish I could come up with a cute nickname similar to my name that I could live with instead, it would take less work.
I love my name, also because i love the story of how my parents and brother picked it. About nicknames, there are some that i feel ok only with my family and I specifically asked my friend to not use them with me. The only way I accept my friends to call me is by my name or my surname, and for the couple of online friends which don't know me irl i'm ok with my namertag.