![What Would You Name Yourself? [Wow! It’s Wednesday!]](http://fierceandnerdy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/love_mood_etc.jpg)
What Would You Name Yourself? [Wow! It’s Wednesday!]
I’ve talked a lot on this blog about how much I love my name. I love it so much so that I not only kept my last name when I got married, but I also continue to leave a trail of my initials everywhere I write. But this wasn’t always the case.
When I was a child, I hated my name. It was strange in a rather awkward way. I was named after my father, yes, but why not Ernesta or Ernestine? Some of my earliest memories involve having to say my name over and over again until whoever I was introducing to myself got it. This usually involved an eventual full-out spelling of it. This wouldn’t have happened, if I’d been named something simple, like say, “Betty,” which is both my mother’s and my daughter’s name. I have a theory that folks with simple names give their firstborn complicated ones, and folks with complicated names go with simple for their first born.
In any case, I think that part of the reason I’ve so embraced the current computer age so fully is that it has freed me from the necessity of spelling out my name for strangers. Everything is typed in before I have to deal with customer service reps on the phone, and nametags have become so ubiquitous that I rarely have to cold-introduce myself anymore. What a relief. It had gotten so bad before the computer age, that I had just stopped correcting people when they called me Vanessa. My name had just plain old tuckered me out.
So though I wouldn’t change my name now, I do sometimes wonder what I would have named myself if I could have chosen. Lately, I’ve been leaning toward Agnes, an ugly name, with tons of character, that seems just right for a really smart woman who knows her own mind.
But what about you? Did you always love your name? Do you like it now? What would you change it to if it weren’t such a hassle to change your name? Let me know in the comments. 7
My husband has a semi-complicated name (it’s not actually, but people are dumb). I have a very complicated name. We gave our children names that seemed not-complicated to me but have confused a shocking number of people.
My middle name is interesting and unusual but not weird or hard to spell like my first name. That would have been better.
But if I had to choose a name from scratch? I can’t even imagine. I definitely would want an interesting name, though. I would much rather live with an impossible name than have been one of the 4 Jennifers or 3 Michelles in my 4th grade class.
I know quite a few people who have chosen to use their middle name. Though funnily enough all of their first names are really boring like Mary or Michael or Susan. My middle name is also interesting, unusual, but easier than my first. However, I hate it, so that’s just not ever going to happen, even in my imagination.
I know quite a few people who have chosen to use their middle name. Though funnily enough all of their first names are really boring like Mary or Michael or Susan. My middle name is also interesting, unusual, but easier than my first. However, I hate it, so that’s just not ever going to happen, even in my imagination.
I like my name, ESP my last name. If I could change my name, I would change it to my daughter’s middle name, Mackenzie.
You do have a great last name, and I love the name Mackenzie!
Interesting…My given name is Erica Djuan McCray. Everyone called me Djuan (like swan or Spanish Juan) until first grade when I too got tired of people butchering my name. Then it was Erica to everyone but family. Plain and simple. Except for being called Erica Kane (of All My Children). During my regular-club-going days I was Roxanne. I guess I’ve used enough monikers that I don’t really have any others I would try on for size.
By the way, Ernessa…I love the potential symbolism behind your initials. The first time I saw them typed, I thought etc.–etcetera, which is fitting for writer.
What’s funny is that my dad and my sister are ETC, too. My father even has a license plate with ETC on it. But my sister, being an engineer, totally didn’t embrace her initials. Either that are I hogged them. One of those…
I loved that your club name was Roxanne. That’s perfect!
What a great question! Although I hated my name as a child, I adore it now. I used to fantasize about having a normal name, like Mary Ann. My mom didn’t give any of her children middle names with the reasoning that:
1. Nothing much fits between them. (What in the world would you put between Miro and Gudelsky?)
2. If we detested our unusual names as adults, we could make up middle ones and use those.
Even in this age of email, most people have difficulty pronouncing my name but I am not bothered by that anymore.
It took me forever to get your name down. I remember making a really conscious decision to just to refer to you by your skate name until you joined the blog. :)