I have an easy name (I checked the Social Security “Popular Baby Names” website kt7byu posted and it has finally dropped below 100). I just don’t have a middle name.

I once had a teacher who offered extra credit on an exam for writing in your middle name. It took a lot of insistence to convince her that I wasn’t just trying to cover up a horrid middle name. I guess I could have just made something up, which is how I ended up years later with Jo, but I was young and it was an exam after all.

I told my father the story when I got home and he told me how he always had to defend his name. My grandmother never got her mail at work because her name is Lenoir, but she goes by June. Go figure that no one knew who Lenoir was. She decided to name all her kids by the name she intended to call them, so my Dad is Larry.

He once had a councilor at summer camp who told my Dad his name was Lawrence, not Larry, and that he was too young to know better. The same councilor kept putting him in with the 2nd graders even though my Dad kept telling him he was in 6th grade (my family has a short gene and a tall gene and he got the short gene). My grandmother finally had to come and straighten the councilor out about his grade and his name.

Congratulations JenEx. My sister and her husband just brought a daughter home from China in February. They took their digital camera and computer along and posted pictures most days so the rest of us could enjoy it all vicariously. My BIL never likes to be to mainstream, so they had to have a name that was recognizable, but not popular. He really liked Pace and Piper. I had to break it to him that those are names of characters on a couple of WB shows, so they were dropped like the proverbial hot potato.

When my sister's SIL was pregnant with her first child, her husband insisted that the baby be named after a classic car. He was thinking of something like Mercedes or Porsche (for a girl, I guess). We helpfully provided alternative suggestions--Dodge, Plymouth, Chevrolet, Duesenberg, Packard, etc. They ended up naming the baby (a boy) Pierce for Pierce-Arrow. Could have been worse, I guess.

One of my proudest moments as a teen was reading a newspaper article that listed bizaaro names that parents had chosen for their kids, and there, in all it's glory, was my exact FirstName-MiddleName combo. I never felt so cool. Well, except for when people ask if my parents were on acid when they named me, or if I enjoy having a porn star name.

Oh names, my favorite topic. My name is Jeremiah and everytime I meet someone they're all, "Have you ever heard that song called Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog?" I'm like, first of all you jackhole, the name of the song is Joy To The World and second of all you're only the gazillionth person to ever ask me that stupid ass question. HATE. Then the try to call me Jerry or Jeremy and I totally want to kill them. I'll only answer to Jeremiah, Jer, or J. Anything else? Forget it.



I get that as well erinjsnark. People are always calling me ma'am even after I say my name. Hello, I'm a sir! Ugh.

Different name (Bobbie), same problem. I've also gotten draft notices, letters and calls for "Mr" MyLastName, and insinuations that I'm lying for some unknown reason. On the bright side, it does help to weed out the junk mail and calls, I guess, though I spent the longest time back in middle school and high school thinking of alternative, more professional names I could use in the future. The wierdest nickname I was ever called? Robert. A friend's father was convinced my name was actually Roberta.

Hildy that flamingo was even better than I was picturing! How long is your dad keeping it up in the yard?

My friend has the same name but she's French so she pronounces it like Jahn-viev. She has a hard time with people mangling it. Her sister's name is Solange which really gets messed up.

Y'all, I know it's only Wednesday but I am thoroughly exhausted and totally OVER this week. I just want to sleep...for the next month.

As for the firstname/middlename construct - in my family, if someone calls you by your (correct) first name and (correct) middle name, you are in T - R - O - U - B - L - E .

However, if they call you by a joke firstname/middlename combo, such as "Sarah Maude," you've been outed as a crabby malingerer in need of a timeout and a nap.

First off, hi all! I've been kinda quiet in this forum for, like, forever.

Second, with the name thing? I don't get it with me. My name's fairly obvious, and yet, it keeps getting messed up. Daniel? Darren? Um, wha?

And worse, at one of my more recent jobs (key word there), my supervisor decided to call me "D". Or "Redbear". I wanted to say to her "Why, because it's so hard trying to keep track of the ONLY DAVID IN THE FRICKIN' OFFICE??" Fun job, ditsy-ass boss.

GdB,Duchess Kitty, it's interesting to me that your and your friend's name gets messed up, because when I read "Genevieve" I immediately assumed that it got the French pronunciation. I would probably be more likely to mangle it on someone who says it "jenn-eh-veeve".
"Solange"--that's sohl-anj, right? Light aspiration on the j and accent on the second syllable?

My mother's had a terrible time with her name's spelling all her 85 years. She even ordered personalized stationary once and had to send it back THREE times. She finally called the factory & spoke to the guy in charge who argued that she spelled her name wrong. She's Scottish, and Robert Burns has a poem called "Phillis the Fair". It is spelled with an I, not a Y. She's not stupid. She does know how it's spelt.

I just remembered another name issue my family faces. About my third year of college, my parents started receiving recruitment brochures from colleges again, financial aid advice, etc. and phone calls for Laura DecrepidRockStarLastNameVariation. Well, there is no Laura in our family except for my third cousin, who's name is no where near ours and lives on the other side of the city. Plus at the time she was way too young for those solicitations (like 8th grade).

This has continued since (I'm a good 4 or 5 years out of school), and Laura began getting credit cards about 2 years ago. When people call for Laura DecrepidRockStarLastNameVariation, my mother explains she doesn't exist and it confuses the bejebus out of them. What doesn't make sense is that if it were some sort of identity theft, why did they start with signing up for college brochures? Unfortunately, Laura wasn't as smart as I was and some of the colleges were a little below. She really should have bucked up.

I love my last name, and my first is perfectly servicable, although it will never set the pond on fire (Another Anne of Green Gables allusion there; I totally thought of "Mrs. Doctor Dear" when somebody mentioned Mrs. Dr. Doktor upthread.)
In fact, my last name is so much better than my husband's that it's a shame that the kids have his.
My middle name, however, is about as interesting as a bowl of cold oatmeal. It's Jean. Now, Jean is a perfectly fine name, and it's not something awful like Mildred or Mabel, but to me, it's Boooooring, particularly when we have some really nice family surnames that make fine middle names. But nooooo. The boys in my family got the cool family middle names, the girls got zip. In my sister's case, literally zip. She was number four, and I guess my folks had run out of naming gusto, b/c she lacks a middle name.

That's not as boring as mine! Whenever people ask what my middle name is, I just usually say, "The most common white anglo-saxon protestant female middle name" and 9 times out of 10, they get it right.

No unique names in my family! My real name echoes Maternal-Aunt/Paternal-Aunt, one brother is a junior, and the youngest is Maternal-Grandfather/Paternal-Grandfather. I'm just glad I wasn't Maternal-Grandmother/Paternal-Grandmother, which would resulted in Lorraine Leslie. I still can't figure out why my parents stuck to the family names so much. They didn't like Paternal Aunt that much, and I seriously think my mom would have been much, much happier without Maternal Aunt in her life. My dad flat-out hated her. So they name their daughter after her? Yeah, right.

Most of the names in my family were quite normal to begin with...but have been changed to be unique. My mom and her sister, for example: Started out as Mary Sue and Kathy Jo, but ended up as Suki (soo-key)and Katch (kotch). Interesting...

Hee! My best friend's name is Roxanne, and people ALWAYS sing that Police song at her. It would be nice if, one day, folks realized that the song is about a hooker, and therefore not the nicest thing to sing at someone you just met.

All I'm going to say is never, ever, hyphenate your last name upon marriage, ladies. People just don't "get" hyphenation. When you spell your name, they think that the word "hyphen" is spelled out in your name. Sometimes you are filed in alphabetical order according to the name before the hyphen. Sometimes by the name after the hyphen. Inevitably, the resultant name is too long for any "last name" space given on any form with a letter limit. Add in all the usual problems of changing your name on every bill, piece of identification, bank account, professional license, etc. (a hassle even without the hyphenation) and it just isn't worth it.

If I ever marry again, I'm keeping my last name. I only hyphenated in the first place to shut down my monster-in-law who pitched a hissy fit and failed to understand why an established professional with several business licenses under her maiden name might consider it a bit of a hassle to change a last name.

I always get people misprononcing my name too. Really, how difficult is "Rachel"? But the oddest thing I've noticed is that, my entire life, whenever people know my name but have temporarily forgotten it (like the first day of school or starting a new job, etc.), they *always* call me "Rebecca". I've never understood that. They both start with "R" but that's where the similarity ends. Yet, for some reason, I always end up getting called Rebecca.

That is very strange Rebecca RSL. Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

Why, I oughta pound you!

They're both very *biblical*, you know? Maybe that's it.

I like the French pronunciation, and if people want to use it, it's fine with me. Technically, though, I'm a victim of the Americanization of foreign names. I'm named for my father's home town, St. Genevieve, MO, and as there aren't any more francophone fur trappers living there, the name changed pronunciation (Isn't there a town in the midwest pronounced "Ver-sails" for Versailles?). We have a French lady working in our gift shop, and it always gives me a little thrill when she pronounces the name as it was originally said.

My poor co-worker is named Melanie, which is a fairly common name, but she always always *always* gets called Melody for some reason.

Rachel RSL, people probably call you Rebecca when they can't remember your name because not only are they both biblical names, but they're related in the Bible also. Rebecca married Isaac and gave birth to Jacob, who married Rachel, who was part of Rebecca's extended family back home. So people, even if they're not religious (both Judaism and Christianity work with this story), probably associate the two names in some vague way that they're not really sure about why, but they know they go together. Or maybe they just knew somebody with two daughters named Rebecca and Rachel, the way almost everyone I know who has a son named Jeff also has a son named Greg. I'm not sure why those go together, but they seem to.

My first name is Jo, which isn't in the first 1000 popular names for girls in the database (despite its prominence in both Little Women and The Facts of Life). I have all the gender-swapping issues mentioned above, plus the mis-hearing as Joan or Jill (usually). I hated my name as a kid because it never appeared on pencils or bike license plates. And I once went through a reception line with a guy named Jim, and by the end of the line, he was Joseph and I was Jamie.

To make it worse, my middle initial is E, so that many people just mentally delete the space between first name and middle initial, especially if it's on a printout in all caps. I had blood test results come back from the hospital lab, and the doc had to show me the attached note (once he stopped laughing): "This guy has some REALLY wierd hormones!"

My hubby's last name is Putz. Yup. He's a major in the Air Force. People actually get to call him Major Putz. Yup. Do I need to point out why I kept my last name? Jo Putz is just an unfortunate combination of syllables. But to keep the ILs happy, I added Putz as a second middle name. If I had it to do over again, I'd just maintain my original three-word name, but by now, I'm kinda used to it.

Hi everybody! I have been watching TAR on and off since the first season, but I am so excited about the upcoming season. I have been to shy to post up until now, but I want to be a part of the TWoP fun this season so I'm trying to get my butt in gear, ya know? So hopefully I will be able to get myself out of lurk mode.
Oh, and for the name discussion you have going on? My name is of Indian origin, and it's a male name, traditionally. Only, I'm not Indian- or male. Where I work we have a lot of Indian customers, and I've lost track of how many guys have come up to me and said they have the same name as me. They even correct my pronunciation of my name. I don't mind though, it's interesting having a name with some meaning.

That is exactly right Rabrab.

Another day in Spokane for me. It is hot as HELL here today. The nights here have been pretty boring in the hotel, but this evening I'm going to go to the big casino up the street and play some Pai Gow Poker and maybe some nickel slots.

Yes, it's in Illinois, ground zero for mangled foreign names and places.

Of course there's Cairo (Kay-ro).

And Des Plaines (s pronounced in both).

And my favorite, San Jose (as in and the Pussycats).

Then there's the whole fact of calling the area around Chicago "Chicagoland." I never thought that was strange when growing up there, but since then people who've moved to the city have told me they find it mighty odd.

Jane? Yeah, me too. BUT...at least it's my mom's name (and she was never given a middle name by her tired parents!)... My brother also has my father's first name (Robert) as his middle name. My parents are Bob and Jane. How simpleton.

I'll bet it's Ann. I know because that's my middle name. How dull!

And the fellow who I was trying to get directions from once: I couldn't find the place he was talking about because he kept referring to "Bel-wah". I finally realized that his Belwah was my Beloit. I wanted to ask, did he call that other city Deh-twah, too?

Speaking of this: and the discussion of city names...there are towns in Michigan called Paradise and Hell.

I was going to guess Ann, too. Without the "e", of course. One of these days I'll get around to adding the "e" since my mother wasn't thoughtful enough to.

I learned something really interesting when I moved to Louisiana: In this state, my only true legal name is my maiden name. I can adopt a married name (and even have to go through a legal name change to go back to my maiden name for non-Louisiana purposes, such as Social Security), but I have to sign all legal documents with my maiden name in addition to my married name. At first I thought it was obnoxious of them to make me sign things using my maiden name as my middle name (which I don't), but then I learned it's from the Napoleonic Code. And heaven knows most women around here go by three names, so you know that however much they're slumming in who they married, they come from the right family. Like my boss's mother, who was a Queen of Carnival (the ultimate social reward in New Orleans society) in the 1940s; her current married name is almost an afterthought!

But I about went ballistic when we went to sign the papers on our house and I learned that when a husband and wife are signing legal documents, the man has to sign first. Our realtor told me that, then just sat back and watched me explode, evil man that he was!

We have a town in Virginia, Buena Vista, that's pronounced, "Buuuna Vista." It sounds as redneck as you would think.

And here in Charlottesville we have a major road, Rio, that's pronounced, "Rye-O," which all newcomers need to be indoctrinated with.

My hometown in PA is DuBois, which is pronounced like the author's last name, but some people facetiously call it "Du Bwa," and, in fact, I saw that was someone's vanity plate once, which was really cute.

My grandmother lived in Pinckney, Michigan, and did her shopping in Hell. Of course, I live in Pennsylvania now where we have such lovely towns as Intercourse, Blue Ball, Virginville, and Maidencreek.

I, for one, have always hated my name. I think it's ugly and I'm pretty sure my mom gave it to me out of spite. Her name was Martha and her mom's name was Rhoda so I think she just wanted to continue the tradition of giving their daughters ugly names.

So is the childhood desire for cheap doodads with one's name imprinted on them strictly a girly thing? Or do little boys also covet the likes of personalized miniature license plates?

You always see things offered with boy's names, too, but it is kind of hard to imagine them getting as excited about it.

On a related topic, monogramming was really in when I was little (like on monogrammed sweaters), and I see that's coming back (or at least it is in the J Crew catalogue), like so many other things from the 80s...

Which Monty Python character are you?

I am King Arthur - idealistic but not very bright.

I'm also in "Chicagoland," and have yet to figure out how to pronounce "Bourbonnais." I think it rhymes with "mayonnaise" but I'm not certain.

I grew up in Utah, and in my family we say "It's out in the toolies" to describe something that's at the ass-end of nowhere. This is because the town of Toole is out in the toolies, but it's actually pronounced "two-willa."

I think it's mostly a girly thing. The racks with girl-named stuff were always bigger at the dollar stores when I was growing up, anyway. I remember being very proud of the sparkly "Ashley" stickers I managed to find.

I'm also grateful to my parents for realizing that naming their child "Laura Ashley" wasn't a good idea, nor was "Ashley Sara" for someone whose last name starts with an S. Why they couldn't get rid of the Ashley altogether, I'll never understand. Sure, there are a limited number of names that sound good with the crazy Ukie last name, but Ashley? Bah.

If you want mispronunciations, come to New Orleans, where we have some truly wonderful street names:

Tchoupitoulas -- Chop-i-TOO-las (the two "ou"s are pronounced differently)
Burgundy -- Bur-GUN-dy
Peniston -- PEN-is-ton (like a ballpoint pen, not like what it looks like!)
Calliope -- Caah-lee-OPE

and my all-time favorite, and yes, it really IS pronounced this way:

Socrates -- SOH-crates

We won't even discuss the way French gets mangled by the time it makes it this far from its homeland!

Huh?! Pbuttercup, I'm the rabbit. I didn't even know that was an option!

Brave little toaster, don't forget the city of "Staunton," pronounced "Stant-in." Many a newbie Virginian looking at the rest of us as if we are insane, over that one.

Bourbonnais = I think the s is silent, despite the butchery of Des Plaines. Now that I think about it, no wonder my French teachers were always so mad...the must have hated how Chicago-area things were pronounced.

The Chicagoland thing was always normal to me until about 4 years ago when a guy started poking fun at it. I busted out the Empire Carpet song over & over to shut him up.

I know a child named Disney and another one named Massey Hall. The last one will only seem bizarre to my fellow Torontonians because, of course, we have a Massey Hall as a concert hall. I'll bet they name their next unfortunate child Carnegie!

Hee! Although I have to admit that sometimes when I see people who have named their babies certain unusual names, I do make assumptions like that. Like for example, if someone names their baby Kayla, I think, "Aha! Days of Our Lives fan!", Laken, Santa Barbara, Fallon, Dynasty, and so on.


And I suppose Dougiepoo is out of the question entirely? Seriously, when I went by my actual name, I used to hate being called the full version instead of the common nickname.

Speaking of which? I go by my initials for a reason. It's because I don't care for my name at all. So telling me you prefer calling people by actual names as opposed to initials? Great, but the world doesn't revolve around you. If I wanted to go by my actual name, I would. I once had a staffing agent tell me she was going to call me by my given name because using my initials was unprofessional. I was thisclose to telling her that I was named after my father, who shot my mother and himself in front of me, and calling me by that name would bring back painful memories. I mean, that's a complete lie in every sense, thankfully, but seriously--you never know what the reasons behind things could be.


Neither does my mom--Mary Ann is her first name and she has no middle. Every now and then she'll run into some idiot who tries to tell her that "Ann" must be her middle name, then. She makes short work of them quickly. I mean, I think she knows what her own name is, ya know?


Ugh, I get that too sometimes. Really, I think on the phone people should dispense with gender-specific terms of address, because if you get it wrong, it can be embarrassing and/or insulting.


SO true. And don't forget the Chicago streets Devon (Di-VAHN instead of DEV-uhn) and Paulina (Paul-EYE-nuh instead of Paul-EE-na).


BWAH!

One last name thing--my grandparents ran into a lot of discrimination for being Italian back in the first part of last century, so they had two sets of names. My grandfather couldn't find work until he started using "Sangamon" instead of "Sangiacomo", and depending on how people knew her, my grandmother was either "Philomena" or "Florence". (Another clerical error story--her middle name was "Veatrice".)

Hee,ThatGrrl, I'm the rabbit too!! Of course, Now I have a strange desire to read "Bunnicula"

In the Monty Python test I am, of course, French. I figured I would be.

Now I don't feel so bad, Fields of Gold! I'm glad I'm not alone in my rabbit-idity. Snicker. I just emailed the guy I'm seeing and asked if he wants to pet the bunny.

DariaG, your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries. I spit in your general direction or actually I guess you would spit in mine. And, I did that all from memory. Takes a bow.

I'm the rabbit! Which makes me a little too happy - maybe I am a mean lil fellow.

Holy tamale, LastDodo, it never struck me that Devon wouldn't be pronounced Di-VAHN Avenue. But I know that the name is "Dee-von". It's just instinctive...

Also, I just gots phats Madonna tickets for Sunday. Hopefully this time I won't be trashed & will remember more of the show than the last tour...oops. Doing my happy dance whoot whoot! Madonna!