I don’t love “Sheri.” I would’ve liked something a little more unique. Funny thing is we thought we gave our kids unique names, especially my daughter, and there’s another kid in her class with the same name. Honestly, the odds of that…

I love my name. I was born in December, but my mom said that I would have been Holly Ann no matter what. My due date was actually Thanksgiving. When I was a waitress in high school, people would ask me if I was born on Christmas. (I wasn’t.) I got so tired of the question that my standard answer became, “No, I was born on Halloween and my parents didn’t like the name ‘Pumpkin’.” It would stop them in their tracks.

I got the inevitable Holly Hobbie jokes, as she was popular when I was in grade school. I love my name though; I love that it’s not popular.

I like my name these days, but growing up I desperately wished my name was Lynne. I even made shrinky-dink nametags for all the plants and named them all Lynne Smith! (I’m nothing if not exotic LOL.)

Of course it got to be a lot easier to be a “Robin” in Israel after the movie Robin Hood came out. FINALLY, I could tell them my name was “Robin, like Robin Hood.” In fact, I still have to do that fairly often. It still gets mispronounced consistently, but at least they don’t call me Reuben anymore!

Sometimes I liked my name, other times not so much. In kindergarten there were two Melissa’s in the class. So, the teacher aske if she could start calling the other girl “Missy” and me “Melissa”. We both agreed, but later on I found out this little gal was mad. Saw her at recess and she burst into tears and yelled at me because my name was Melissa too. She wanted her name back. So fun.
My cousin actually suggested the name and my parents looked it up in a baby book. It means “honey bee” or “honey nymph”. My Dad loves honey. His favorite treat is home made bread, butter and honey. He can’t get enough of the stuff. So, the name seemed like a good fit :)

I always wanted something other than “Debbie” - I liked long, beautiful names like Kathryn and Ashleigh. For a while I wanted to go by Deborah, but that just didn’t feel like me. I started going by Deb about 10 years ago when there was a Debi in my office and that’s stuck ever since. I like Deb - it’s short and simple and less cutesy. :)

I don’t mind my name, but there were 5 other Jessica’s in my high school class, and at least that many in the class after me–it was like the number one most common girls name for babies born in 1979 and 1980. But my Mom was being such a rebel by not naming me (or my sisters) a more traditional, expected Irish name. My grandparents were all from Ireland, and all my cousins have Irish names, but my Mom was all about non-conformity! Funny, because both my kids have Irish names now.

My parents were watching a toddler at church, and they thought she was really cute. They hearrd her mom call her name and thought she said “Corrie”. Later, they found out her name was Lori.

I think things would have turned out different with that name. Anyway, when I was a kid I used to always pretend my name was Nancy. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I had read every Nancy Drew book by 5th grade.

These are all great stories about your names. Thanks for sharing!

We share the same middle name - Elizabeth…

My parents were deciding between Janine and Nicole. They picked Janine because they didn’t want me to have a nickname - my mom hated hers, so she gave me a name you couldn’t shorten (although I became Neener in college)!

I’ve never liked my name. Not even a little bit. And I think that’s kind of sad.

Hi! I linked to your page from Pioneer Woman. I just had to click on it because my name is Summer too. I had to laugh when I saw what your post was about. But, I have always loved my name because it is different, even though I did get tired of people calling me Spring, Fall, and Winter! Ugh! I actually named my daughter Season…lol. And strangely enough my middle name is Kymberli, which I also have always liked. Anyways, enjoyed your post ;)

I am a nomenclature fanatic!

My name is my mom’s name is reverse. Marie Josephine. Which is funny because she hates her name and goes by JoMarie. Her mom’s name is Helene Marie, and she goes by Marie. Growing up I never met any other Maries, I thought it was very unique. I finally met another Marie my senior year, she was from Italy. I was very angry, I had become quite posessive of my name. I always wished my name was Maria, thought it was much prettier. There was a girl that rode my bus whose name was Mary, and she went through a French phase, wanted people to call her Marie, until I overheard, caught her eye, raised my eyebrow, and she blushed. She was Mary again forevermore. My mil’s name is Mary, and we often get each other’s mail.

Because of the whole name tradition thing and my obsession with names I wanted my daughter’s name to be very unique, but not weird (join the club, eh?). I actually found a name that sort of followed the tradition, that is an actual name but very unusual. So her name is Jessamine Morgen, which is Old English for “jasmine” and “morning” ( as opposed to “Morgan,” which means “bright.” I actually wanted her middle name to be Morning but dh wouldn’t go for it.) I figured Jessamine was close enough to Josephine, and the initials are the same, so it works. Now if only people could pronounce it…

Jessamine Morgen is a beautiful name!

My Maiden name was Mustard. Nuff said, eh? The truth is, despite all the cheesy easy jokes (I’ve heard them all!) I loved my name and miss having it stuck right there on the end (now it’s my middle name). I worked in film and tv for a while (a brief pre-mommy period) and everyone just called me Mustard. Easy to remember. Nobody ever forgot who I was, and I would often get referals for jobs and shoots because I was easy to remember.