To: A certain parent

[tamezin]

I see nothing wrong with gender swapping names. Unfortunately in society today, and of course kids have always been and always will be evil, it is better to customize a favorite name to take on a masculine or feminine (sp) spelling depending on the gender of the child.

My daughter's name is Joey (short for Joanne) , named after a favorite aunt, but she actually chose to continue going by Joey rather than take on the more feminine version of her name.

Ethan would be a little harder to manipulate, but with a little imagination, I am sure it could be done. Perhaps the parents were lacking in that area as well as sensitivity.

[Andara Bledin]

Ethan would be a little harder to manipulate, but with a little imagination, I am sure it could be done. Perhaps the parents were lacking in that area as well as sensitivity.

Oh, no. With even a smidge of work, you can change Ethan to Ethanne. Same exact pronunciation, but I'm willing to bet that the change in spelling would make all the difference.

And if she really hated it, she could just go by Anne.

^-.-^

[PaRaGaS]

My daughter's middle name is Iraina (pronounced as it's spelled - E-rain-ah). She was named for Irene (pronounced E-rain-ah) Adler - the only woman to ever outwit Sherlock Holmes (and first mentioned in "A Study in Scarlet"). One day (whilst snowed in), we were watching my Sherlock Holmes DVDs of the TV Show (with Jeremy Brett), and they called her E-rain-ah. I fell in love with the name immediately (I also thought her name was pronounced Eye-reen). So that's how Kelly got her middle name.

I have a hunch (I have no knowledge of Sherlock Holmes whatsoever) that this "E-rain-ah" is properly spelled "Irena". The east-european variant of "Irene". But Iraina is a nice twist

[CaroPhoenix]

I have a hunch (I have no knowledge of Sherlock Holmes whatsoever) that this "E-rain-ah" is properly spelled "Irena". The east-european variant of "Irene". But Iraina is a nice twist

Thank you and you're probably right. We spelled Iraina just because, to us, it looks like how it's supposed to be pronounced. That's our thoughts in case she wants to go by her middle name instead of her first name.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Ana Maria.

I know someone by that name! Or at least a variation.

Please please PLEASE also look up what the name MEANS. Trust me, It will HELP. I'm waiting for someone to call me Celebrex* or Viagra* any day now.










*Yes, it's true, the meaning of my name is: Resurrection Penis.

[Evil Queen]

*Yes, it's true, the meaning of my name is: Resurrection Penis.

Now, you're misrepresenting yourself a little bit.

Seems RetailWorkhorse's surname (and mine, seeing as we're related) is slang for a certain piece of male anatomy. RetailWorkhorse's real name is greek in origin and means "Resurrection."

Mine is "Graceful"

Our Mothers? "Lost"

And our Fathers... you see where this is going.... is "Beloved"

There. Explained in a painful manner.

[ravenrose]

I changed my name when I was 18, for several reasons.

First off, the story I had heard from my "sperm donor" growing up was that my mother *swore* up and down I would be a boy, so refused to even consider any girl names (I was allegedly supposed to be "Eric"), so when I was born, and they didn't have any girl names, they named me after my mom's OBGYN. Not true. The *real* story is that I was named normally, except for my middle name, which was the name of the woman the sperm donor was having an affair with when I was born. (I inadvertently ended up using my middle name in school, as there were a lot of other kids with my first name.)

Also, there's a weird thing that happened when one put the first initial together with my last name. It became a very not-fun word (not dirty, just not fun for me). That wasn't an issue until high school (although I knew about it before then, just nobody picked on me about it), when a teacher thoughtfully brought it up for the whole class to enjoy, and then when some school pictures came out.

So when I turned 18, I took my step-dad's name (as he is my *real* daddy, and always has been). I shortened the name I had been using already (which also happened to be the feminine of my dad's name) that is an unusual spelling of the name (Jayne, if you must know ), my middle name comes from a form of his mother's name, and I took his last name.

I love that my name now is so unique. It's fun, and since I deal with total strangers from other countries, it's fun when I meet someone with my spelling )

[worddork]

I know that with our surname, my brother and I have started a list of names he can never name his children. Our surname is Ashe (pronounced ash, like the tree) however when said quickly it sounds like Ass.

So here's the list so far:
Jack
Rosie
Harry
Peter
Richard
Annie
Mary

You can see what an issue it will be when my brother starts having kids.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Whether or not you like your name totally depends on personality. I'm a big fan of giving kids 2 or 3 names, with at least one very normal one and one unusual one so that they can choose as they get older which they'd prefer. My parents gave me an unusual given name and a very normal nickname, and I hated it. Then they gave my little sister a very normal given name and an unusual nickname, and she hated that. We have opposite personalities, and that's what preference comes down to.

My Parents named me Anastasia Nicole, and my Mother called me Stacie as a child. I grew up hating the name Stacie and I reverted to my given name at about 15 years old. It's pronounced Ah-nah-stah-SI-ah. I personally love it, and I love the unusual pronunciation. But I get that some people can't pronounce it properly, so I tell them to call me Tas.

Its meaning is usually given as 'resurrection', which pisses me off, because it's a cop-out. I took Greek in college and tracked down the etymology of my name. Ana is a preposition which means 'back up' or 'up again'. Stasia is the future form of the verb 'histemi', which means 'to stand or to rise'. So the actual meaning is 'She who shall rise up again'. Because of its meaning, it became common to give the name to Catholic children born around Easter time, and that's how it got it's association with the Resurrection.


I agree with whoever above said that if the child is that upset over being named Ethan that she's nearly in tears telling someone, then she's got some other kind of problems she's dealing with.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Now, you're misrepresenting yourself a little bit.

Seems RetailWorkhorse's surname (and mine, seeing as we're related) is slang for a certain piece of male anatomy. RetailWorkhorse's real name is greek in origin and means "Resurrection."

Mine is "Graceful"

Our Mothers? "Lost"

And our Fathers... you see where this is going.... is "Beloved"

There. Explained in a painful manner.

I didn't misrepresent myself. You even spelled it out for us.

[Becks]

Maybe by the time she's grown up, the girl named Ethan will have grown to like her name.

If not, there's always the option of legally changing it.

However, for now, I feel sorry for her. Children can be so very cruel.

Can anyone tell me what Rebecca means...really? I've heard "bound", "tied" and my personal favorite, "captivating".

[Custard Chick]

I honestly love masculine names for girls and am currently trying to convince my boyfriend to name our first girl (whenever she may come into being) Elliot, calling her Elle or Ellie. As odd as it may be, two of my favorite TV characters are named Elliot (Elliot Stabler from Law & Order: SVU and Elliot Reid (a girl) from Scrubs), but she never needs to know that her name was conceived by an Irish Catholic SVU detective and a neurotic, commit-a-phode doctor.

[Andara Bledin]

Can anyone tell me what Rebecca means...really? I've heard "bound", "tied" and my personal favorite, "captivating".

Sorry, but everybody seems to agree that Rebecca is most likely of Hebrew origin for "to bind" or possibly "snare". Supposedly it's to indicate chastity in marriage or somesuch.

I like the "captivating" interpretation, though.

^-.-^

[Becks]

Yeah, I'm sticking with the "captivating" interpretation.

[Broomjockey]

A lot of people of a certain age group quote a certain movie line when they hear my last name, so that's a downside in addition to being stupidly common. Then my middle name is for my raging asshat of an uncle who I haven't talked to in a couple years.

My first name is dirt common, the name of an (arch-?)angel, and boring. I've highly considered changing my name. I've been looking at a lot of Celtic and Nordic names, too. I keep flipping around on what I'd like to change it to though. So until I can find something I like for more than a week, I'm holding off.