If you were gonna change your name...

[mathnerd]

I'm in the process of a legal name change. It was difficult deciding what to go with, but after a couple false starts, I finally found something I like. Oddly, I wound up settling on a name with a bit of a background with me.

I used to teach at a community college. Some students were my age or older and would often settle into using first names of professors. There was this one student that I had for multiple terms (two years worth). He never could get my name right, nor the name of a particular history professor. It seems he just had it stuck in his head that I had her name and she had mine. By the third term, I gave up and just started answering to it.

So, while I'm not using the same full name of the history professor, the nickname is the same. I'm using the English version of her French name.

[mjr]

I got tagged with BOTH of the most common female names for the year I was born- Jennifer Michelle. I detest the name Jenny, and will not answer to it. People who know me call me either Jennifer or Jen, or Kit.

Don't really think I'd change my name at this point, though as a kid I desperately wanted to.

Allegedly, my father wanted to name my sister "Linda Starr", supposedly after Linda McCartney and Ringo Starr. My mother said no. My father still got his Beatles reference in, though, because she did end up with the middle name Michelle.

So I have the anglicised version of Guinevere. I'm Jennifer. And I shorten it to the anglicised Gwen, which is Jenn.

I've got an aunt who was formerly Gwen. She changed her name to Raven. Like the bird.

My RL name is pretty unusual, at least in the US. I prefer to go by a nickname most places, as I got incredibly tired of people mangling my name.
When my ex-husband and I were naming lil Ray we named her after family, mine and his. They were honored, and her name is just unique enough to make her stand out among the same name kiddos

My name (at least my first name) is rather unusual, too. And it has derivative spellings, so often if people don't know how to spell it, they get it wrong.

My son will probably end up correcting people, too. We gave him not only an unusual name, but we changed the spelling by one letter. He also has my wife's maiden name as his middle name, which is not something he could really choose to go by.

[Kit-Ginevra]

My name here is the friend who introduced me to LARP-and Kit works as a girl's or guy's name...
And the other is my LARPy name-I took Ginevra,as I'm a Potterhead,originally of course it comes from Guinevere(a variation of Jennifer).
(and has a wonderfully gruesome legend in its origin)

So,I answer to Kit on here or to LARPers,Ginny or Gin

People who know me call me either Jennifer or Jen, or Kit.

.Seems I have found a female me out there

[CloserToSane]

I'd just dump my first name and use my middle names, plus there are a few nickname options, Mollie would probably be the go to.

[Trixie]

I like my name and never really wanted to change it. I'm the only one in my family with a middle name but I don't think I'm supposed to. I was named after a character in a book and it's something like Mary Beth. Well, when I started school the "Beth" became my middle name and I just go by "Mary". People ask me about me and I tell them the whole story including my middle name. Then they try to annoy me by using my full name. Except it doesn't. I come from a big enough family that I was happy to be called by my name. At work I have about 3 different nicknames so yeah, I pretty much answer to anything.

[Ironclad Alibi]

... so yeah, I pretty much answer to anything.

As the old saying goes, "Call me anything you like, just don't call me late for dinner."

[Sliceanddice]

My rule of thumb for naming my kids (and my advice for anyone who asks me for advice on picking names for their babies) is that if you really want to give your child a "kreativ spellyng" name or something equally "out there," make sure you give your child a second name that's a little more "common" so they have a fall-back. Mostly because what person wants to reach adulthood only to find that they're constantly getting odd looks for being named "Princess" or "Dimyndz" or something similar and either have no middle name at all, or their middle name is similarly "out there."

The names I like for kids are a bit weird and I admit it. Gwynnion, Sorcha, Odin, and Cormac are some of my top picks. And don't care that they are weird they would have middle names (Zelma, River, Chantry and Alexander in kind), and nicknames are easily given in these circumstances.

[AdamAnt316]

Other than the fact that my RL name rhymes with "Atom Bomb", I've been fairly content with it. However, if I were going to choose a different name, it'd probably be my musician alias, Dr. Phineas J. Optigan. Not sure why I chose Phineas or the middle initial J. (possibly short for Jeremiah), but the rest of it should be quasi-obvious to anyone who's seen my site.
-Adam

[Kogarashi]

The names I like for kids are a bit weird and I admit it. Gwynnion, Sorcha, Odin, and Cormac are some of my top picks. And don't care that they are weird they would have middle names (Zelma, River, Chantry and Alexander in kind), and nicknames are easily given in these circumstances.

If a name shortens into decent nicknames, then I'd consider that an exception. And my advice is mostly because I've read those "bad baby name" sites before and you always have to wonder what little "Princess Diamonds Jones" is going to do when she grows up and it's time to pick a career. I mean, sure, some of those names work for little kids, but they don't grow with the kid.

[Sliceanddice]

If a name shortens into decent nicknames, then I'd consider that an exception. And my advice is mostly because I've read those "bad baby name" sites before and you always have to wonder what little "Princess Diamonds Jones" is going to do when she grows up and it's time to pick a career. I mean, sure, some of those names work for little kids, but they don't grow with the kid.

Yeah Gwyn, Nini, Sora, Chan, Mac, Cor, Xander plus the middle name as nickname thing. I like my unusual names because it will be relatively unique, but culturally acceptable names in a sense. With middle names they can use as alternative.

And every single one is nerdy/geeky i can tell you the books/comics and other things the names are from.

[Seshat]

I would like to second the advice someone (I forget who) posted in this thread.

Take the statistical data for baby names in your country the previous year, or the past five years. Discard the top 100. Check the frequency of the rest, discard everything below the point where names start becoming rare.

Go through the rest, pick something from that list. Use the 'normal' spelling for your ethnicity, or the 'normal' spelling as used in your nation.

So for people of French ethnicity living in America, Jean or John, Luc or Luke. (Why yes, I am using a certain captain for inspiration.)

John could also be Yohanan (יוֹחָנָן), Iōannēs (Ἰωάννης), Iohannes, Giovanni, Gianni, Ioan, Juan, João, Jean, Joan or Jan.
Also Johann (with or without various accents), Hans, Jens, and Johannes. And Ieuan, Ifan, Ianto, Ioan, Siôn, Evan, Eoin and Seán. Finally, János, Ivan, Ján, Honza, Janez, Gjoni , Xhon, Xhoni and Jovan.

A little research into family history, and your little John Luke could become Evan Lucas. Or Ianto Lŵc.

[AnaKhouri]

I quite like my name. It's Latin. But growing up my family always called me a nickname I hated and still hate, so everyone from high school on knows me by my long name.

My sons have names that are old and not popular, (one German, one Scottish) but not so old as to be odd in 21st century America, and they both have a literary reference, which pleases me.

I saw a post on reddit from a woman who wanted to name her daughter Scully. Now, I am the biggest X-Files fan in the universe, and I would never name a child Scully. Scully has two perfectly good names (Dana Katherine). If you name your daughter Dana Katherine, you know it's a reference to your favorite show and it meaningful to you, and your daughter will not be saddled with being tied to (what will be to her) an old, stupid TV show. My second son's name is a reference to my favorite play, but it's not Macbeth. I know where his name comes from and that's good enough for me. Think of the children, people.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I like both my RL name and my online handle just fine. I don't see a need to change either of them.

If I were gonna change my RL name, it would probably just be to my online handle of Jay Winger.

[Seshat]

My second son's name is a reference to my favorite play, but it's not Macbeth. I know where his name comes from and that's good enough for me. Think of the children, people.

Young Duncan will need to fear, should Great Birnham Wood come to Dunsinane.


(And yes, there are a number of perfectly good boy's names in MacBeth which are not Duncan, so it could be any of them too.)

[MoonCat]

I got tagged with BOTH of the most common female names for the year I was born- Jennifer Michelle. I detest the name Jenny, and will not answer to it. People who know me call me either Jennifer or Jen, or Kit.

Don't really think I'd change my name at this point, though as a kid I desperately wanted to.

There was a girl who used to show up at pagan circles here who went by "Nifer" instead of Jen or Jenny. It was different.