So, being the name-obssessed person tham I am, I’ve recently become fascinated with a trend I’ve seen in my own family that goes three generations back. It has led to me beleive this theory that people will have a completely different naming-style than their parents. It’s sort of a grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side type thing and how I believe no one will ever be complety satisified (right off the bat, anyway) with their given name.
Here it is:
My grandmother’s name is [name]Carolyn[/name] [name]Jeanne[/name], but has gone by [name]Jeanne[/name] ever sinc3 she was a child. It’s a classic older sibling story–her two-year-old sister couldn’t pronounce [name]Carolyn[/name] and since there’s no shortened version of [name]Carolyn[/name] they began calling her [name]Jeanne[/name]. She was [name]Jeanne[/name] at home and [name]Carolyn[/name] at school and everywhere else. She talks about how annoying/confusing this was for her. She still goes by [name]Jeanne[/name] but is always addressed as [name]Carolyn[/name] by other people. (i.e. when she was staying in the hospital she was “Patient [name]Carolyn[/name]”). I can see why this isn’t ideal.
Then when it came time to my mother and aunt, she didn’t give them middle names and their first names had a common nickname in case there were any problems w/ the first name. However, this caused its own problems. First of all, my mom’s name is [name]Suzanne[/name] and in the course of my childhood have heard how many times it is confused with [name]Susan[/name]. Hoenstly, half the people my mom knows call her [name]Susan[/name] and it’s so tiring to repeatedly correct them she just goes with it. Since she has no middle name there are no family connections or much rhythm to her name. She has also never liked the nicknames that go along with it. Family members spell her name [name]Suzy[/name]/[name]Suzi[/name]/[name]Susie[/name] and she has to go exclusively by [name]Suzanne[/name] in the work place beacause “[name]Suzy[/name]” will just lead to “[name]Susan[/name]”.
So when naming me and my brother she wanted names that couldn’t be shortened. Our midle names have family links, something that she never had. (But my middle name is [name]Suzanne[/name] so I have to deal with all that crap too–"What’s your middle name? [name]Susan[/name]? No, [name]Suzanne[/name]? [name]How[/name] do you spell that?) My name is [name]Rachel[/name], which has no nicknames so that’s just who I am–[name]Rachel[/name]. I have no other options. I don’t really like [name]Rachel[/name] and that’s kind of discouraging that I can’t go buy anything else. In conclusion, when the fourth generation comes along, I want my kids to have optoions. I want to give them names that can be shortened or usable mns.
See a pattern?
So what do you guys think? Has anyone else noticed this? Please let me know if you think this is a valid theory!