Hello all.
I’ve wanted to change my name for a while now. Seriously been considering it since I was about 16 (am 19), but I’ve never liked it and can remember hating it since I was about five years old. My first name is [name_f]Emilie[/name_f], which has always been problematic because I’ve always had 3+ other girls named ‘[name_f]Emily[/name_f]’ in my classes so as a consequence, 1) my name was ALWAYS spelled wrong, and 2) I never felt any originality to it, and had to learn to /not/ respond until I was sure it was me being called. Now that i’m in college and going into a scientific field, I HATE how common my name is. My last name has been lingering around the top 50 surnames in the US, so it’s like a double whammy and even using my middle initial bothers me because I feel like my name essentially provides anonymity to me due to how common it is. My middle names is a one-syllable name that is very old fashioned (it is my grandmother’s name), and I like it fine as a middle name but not as a first name for me.
I’ve thought about going by a middle name, but it is very hard because there aren’t many for [name_f]Emilie[/name_f]/[name_f]Emily[/name_f] that I like, and none that I could use. There’s [name_f]Emma[/name_f], which has all the problems [name_f]Emilie[/name_f] has (and I have a cousin with a similar name), [name_f]Milly[/name_f] which I plain don’t like and sounds too similar to the name I already don’t like (and also have a cousin with a similar name), and [name_u]Lee[/name_u]/[name_f]Leah[/name_f] which I can’t use because I have two cousins with extremely similar names. Who would’ve thunk, right?
To be honest, I’m kind of annoyed that my parents and aunts/uncles couldn’t have been more creative than to name all of us very common, very similar names and basically making it impossible for any of us to have any individuality, but I can’t change that, so I want to either change by name or go by something else. I’d prefer to legally change it so I could use it for my scientific papers (which I’ve already contributed to some projects in college so idk how i’d handle those lol).
Anyway, I don’t know what to change it to. I have more Norwegian and Italian ancestry than anything else but it’s kind of a mixed bag. I’d like something feminine but not too gaudy.
I also don’t know if I would just completely get rid of my first name, or bump it to a middle name. It doesn’t really have any family significance, my parents just liked it, but I would bump it if it made them feel better about me changing it. Or maybe add a new name to the middle slot that i’d go by.
So it would be:
Newname [name_f]Emilie[/name_f] Currentmiddle Surname, which could be Newname Surname or Newname E. C. Surname for papers.
or [name_f]Emilie[/name_f] Newname Currentmiddle Surname. Could be [name_f]Emilie[/name_f] N.C. Surname or E. Newname Surname?
Some things I’ve considered:
[name_f]Mia[/name_f]- Not my favorite, tbh, but I like it and I feel like I could easily transition into it by using it as a nickname even though it’s not really a nickname for [name_f]Emilie[/name_f], lol. If I changed it to [name_f]Mia[/name_f], I would drop [name_f]Emilie[/name_f] completely.
Meira/[name_f]Meara[/name_f]- I love this name, but unfortunately my cousin used a super similar name for her daughter so I feel like it’s already taken. Same goes for [name_f]Leila[/name_f]/[name_f]Layla[/name_f] which I also liked.
[name_f]Freya[/name_f]- I like this name, but I don’t like how some people connect it to white-supremacy and also think that it doesn’t really fit me.
[name_f]Emilia[/name_f]- I like [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] buckets more than [name_f]Emilie[/name_f], but I still feel like it has too many of the problems [name_f]Emilie[/name_f] has.
[name_f]Hazel[/name_f]- I like it, but I don’t like that people would associate it with the fault in our stars lol.
I like nature names, like [name_f]Hazel[/name_f] or [name_u]River[/name_u], but I’m not sure they’d fit me. I’d like it to be something not completely unheard of, easily to pronounce, and as easy to transition to as possible.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Also advice on actually changing my name/bringing it up to my family?