What about having other family members (either born into or marrying into your family) who share your name? What about friends? What if you know someone who named their child your name? What difference does it make if you have a common or uncommon name?
[name]Just[/name] curious because I haven’t met that many people with my name, even though it’s supposedly popular for my age group. For me, the first time was at a summer camp when I was 6 or 7 so don’t remember my reaction. I emailed (but never met) another person with my name ([name]Lauren[/name]) at a volunteering placement and it was kind of odd when the opening and closing had the same name but nothing bad.
I’ve only met a few girls/women over my lifetime with the “correct” (not-mine) spelling of my name, and nobody who spells it the way my mom spelled mine, ever.
It’s a pretty thoroughly uncommon name though.
I have never minded. It’s always been sort of nice. Growing up, I wanted a more common name, though. I have grown out of that and am comfortable in it now. I have never had a friend name a child it or had someone marry into the family with it, I think it’d be more amusing than anything.
As far as my nickname ([name]Josie[/name]) I haven’t met many of those, either, and most Josies seem to be babies/little children now, whereas I’m in my late twenties - we don’t tend to get mixed up.
It really depends on the gender of the person I meet who shares my name. The year I was born, my name was in the top 100 for both boys and girls, and is one of the few names that has stayed truly unisex (aka not being used considerably more for one gender or the other). I have always really disliked meeting men who share the same name as me, and have always been a bit relieved when I meet another female, especially if she uses the same spelling. All in all, I really dislike my name so I never am thrilled to meet anyone with my name, as I just assume they hate their name as much as I do, haha.
I don’t have other family members with my name, and not really any friends, so I can’t comment on that.
The way I see it, names are identifiers. They identify children (people) as individuals and make it easier for that individual to know they are the ones being spoken to. I feel it becomes less of an issue once a child is out of school but for the extended amount of time that they are in school, you want to make sure their name isn’t so common that there are five other children with the exact same name. Luckily, I haven’t come across many people with my name (let alone my spelling!) but I find that when I am in a situation when there is more than one [name]Kelli[/name] (or [name]Kelly[/name]) it really irks me. Perhaps I’m just narcissistic but I like to be the only one in the room with my name. It makes me feel special.
I think if my name were more common then I’d feel differently, but since it happens so rarely I feel a little strange when I meet someone with the same name as me, especially if they pronounce it the same way (I pronounce my name [name]Ah[/name]-ree-el, not [name]Air[/name]-ee-el or [name]Air[/name]-ee-uhl). I’ve met a few other Ariels and Arielles in my life, but usually just in passing. What was weird/interesting was when I started vet school, there was a girl in the class above mine with the same name, same spelling and pronunciation. It was kinda nice though because everyone was already trained to pronounce my name the correct way!
I think what is even weirder is when I meet guys with my name, which has happened. [name]Ariel[/name] is more common on guys than on girls in [name]Israel[/name], but in the US it’s not really thought of as a unisex name so it’s still strange to me when I meet a male [name]Ariel[/name].
My name is [name]Jennifer[/name] so I do not remember a time when I didn’t know somebody with my name. Our next door neighbor had a school aged [name]Jennifer[/name] when we moved in (I was a toddler) and so I grew up next to one not to mention school, church, and various other places.
So its never been something I ever put any thought into, kind of like meeting another child with brown eyes or the same haircut. There were just so many!
I was always the only [name]Caroline[/name] in my school. There was a [name]Carolyn[/name] in high school and we had a running joke about her getting called line and me getting called lyn…when your name is less common I think you tend to fall more on the camaraderie side when you meet someone else with it.
I’ve met a couple 1-6 year old Carolines and a few older (50s and up) Carolines and it’s always a “aww, yay!” feeling. Still havent really met any my age even though the name seems to have always hovered between 75–200 on the US lists.
I was born in 1984 and named [name]Alexandra[/name]. It just moved into the top 100. I’ve meet a few - I don’t mind other [name]Alexandra[/name]'s but I do get peeved by [name]Alexa[/name]'s or girls with given name [name]Alex[/name]. Maybe because they are more modern and it makes me feel like I’m not hip enough. I also really love my name and what it means and somehow abbreviations just bother me. (Though [name]Alexis[/name] not so much). Which is silly since I’ve gone by [name]Alex[/name], [name]Lexy[/name] and [name]Lex[/name] for most of my life.
Growing up I knew almost none. There weren’t any others in my school and I only met a few other people in passing with my name.
In college there was another girl at my job with my name so we had to go by [name]Kim[/name] S and [name]Kim[/name] H, which was annoying. There was also a secretary to the president of the company named [name]Kim[/name].
Currently I work right beside (like next desk over) to another [name]Kim[/name]. She goes by [name]Kimberly[/name] but that doesn’t always work out well. It’s a bit annoying getting mixed up, but it’s not like people have to go far to fix the problem.
So it’s funny, growing up I had the feeling that my name was rather uncommon, but in my adulthood I’ve always worked with another person with my name. It doesn’t really bother me, I don’t really love my name or anything, but it’s easy to spell and pronounce so it could be worse.
I’ve never met another [name]Gina[/name]. [name]Regina[/name], yes, several. But I just told people who seemed confused that [name]Gina[/name] wasn’t a nickname that I was original [name]Gina[/name] and they were [name]Gina[/name] again… Also a few [name]Virginia[/name]'s use [name]Gina[/name] as a nn, and my cousin has a family member that is [name]Jeanna[/name] (prn the same). [name]Janna[/name]/[name]Jana[/name]'s I’ve run into more, and my BFF is [name]Janna[/name], so that gets confusing.
I get disappointed when I meet other Tinas. I don’t mind if it’s a nickname for [name]Christina[/name] or something though. I have a step cousin named [name]Tina[/name] though and I like her so I don’t completely mind. She doesn’t come to a lot of family events either so it’s not overly confusing… only slightly because we are the only girls and close in age haha. Since I am the “blood” [name]Tina[/name] though, she goes by “so and so’s [name]Tina[/name]” when there is a discussion about us.
However since I am french and work with the French community a lot of them are not as familiar with the name [name]Tina[/name] and they always find it interesting and ask me to spell it out, and then I feel super special. I think it’s why I don’t want an overly popular name for my baby. My husband’s name is [name]Justin[/name], [name]WAY[/name] more common and some of his good friends are also named [name]Justin[/name] and he doesn’t car at all lol he finds it completely irrelevant.
I’ve only met a handful of Alisons my own age (usually spelled [name]Allison[/name]). The first time was in kindergarten, and we became best friends until I moved…I think we bonded over our name. I met my second in high school, but since she was always [name]Allie[/name], and I was always [name]Alison[/name], it never felt like a big deal. Today, I work with another, and there’s another at my church, but I can’t remember a time when it caused any kind of confusion. As an adult, I don’t feel much of anything when I meet someone my age with my name, except possibly some relief that her name will be easy for me to remember.
I love meeting little kids with my name, though. It makes me smile.
For most of my life, I got excited. I had only met one other [name]Whitney[/name] until I was in 10th grade. The third [name]Whitney[/name] was when I was a sophomore in college. All of these other Whitneys were a year or two older, but after that I started meeting Whitneys who were a product of the 80s boom on my name, it got annoying. Most are about 10 years younger. I’ve still only met 4 total who were my age, and I think I’d get excited if I found a fifth. Another 20-year-old [name]Whitney[/name] would just be irritating to me.
I’ve pretty much been surrounded by Sophies so it’s no big deal for me. I do love when I hear of someone who’s named their baby [name]Sophie[/name] though, it’s like knowing my name’s still popular and being used 20 years down the line makes me happy for some reason. I think it’s going to be better when I’m older being part of the first wave of Sophies and having a name that feels young because of all the girls younger than me having it. I’ve not met many Sophies that are older than me though, literally two in my whole life, all the others I know are the same age or younger. It throws me in the supermarket though when someone shouts out ‘[name]SOPHIE[/name]!’ and I turn to see some mother yelling at a little terror child further down the ailse.
I hear people calling children/teenagers with my name all the time but it’s usually a different spelling ([name]Caitlin[/name]/[name]Caitlyn[/name]/[name]Kaitlyn[/name]/[name]Katelynn[/name] vs. [name]Kaitlin[/name]). So that happens a lot and I’m indifferent to it. When I meet someone with the same spelling of the name I’m always surprised, in a pleasant way. It’s not the most popular spelling of the name so it’s unusual.
No one in my family shares my name and I don’t know anyone with a baby named [name]Kaitlin[/name], or any spelling variation. Actually my name gets trashed on here, which is weird to me because I think it’s a good name.
I did meet a girl freshman year of college who was the same age as me, had the same hair color as me, and was a commuter like me and we became good friends! We were known as “the Kates”, but to tell us apart she went by [name]Katie[/name] or Kaz (a high school nn) and I went by [name]Kate[/name]/[name]Kaitlin[/name]. People used to mix us up all the time though, which was actually funny.
When I was 10 years old I met a 70 year old [name]Ingrid[/name]. But that was the only person I have met (so far) that shares my name. I dislike my name (although I know that many Berries love it) and I don’t understand when people compliment me on it. Yes, I’m glad not to be the fifth [name]Abigail[/name] in my class or the seventh [name]Isabella[/name], but I don’t want to be the only [name]Ingrid[/name].
It’s weird though, because my cousins (most of which live in the Midwest) know about five [name]Ingrid[/name]'s in their neighborhood. Anyway, back to the point–when I met that seventy year old [name]Ingrid[/name], (sorry, it’s the only example I can give) I felt embarrassed. But that might’ve just been because I had discovered that I had an old-lady name
MY names [name]Israel[/name], and the only other 5 I’ve met are all guys. -__-
I go by [name]Izzy[/name] though, and I personally HATE when someone else has my name. I’m so used to my real name being uncommon that’s it’s just weird to me. I like ring unique and original.
With my legal name, I don’t really have much of a reaction… it’s been fairly common for a while, so I’ve always known other people with my name, rarely with the same spelling though, and I’m not friends with any of the girls I share a name with (so far, lol).
I met a guy with my legal name, though, and that psyched me up. I thought it was awesome! I like it so much more on him, haha. We’re friends, and we thought it was cool when we met. We bonded over it. He’s from Iceland, and it’s a masculine name there.
My legal name is the same as my cousin’s middle name, too. We think it’s neat to share the name, even though I don’t really consider it my name.
I’ve met other [name]Lucias[/name], though, but only in passing, and only on little girls, and only in Spain. It’s SUPER popular in Spain… just not so much for my age group (… or maybe it’s because of where I’ve lived in Spain).
I’ve only met one other [name]Athena[/name] in my life. And when I met her, I was kind of annoyed. [name]Every[/name] time we ran into eachother whether it be class or the hallway, some one would ALWAYS comment on how we were both [name]Athena[/name]'s. We’re in different social cirlces (her’s being the more loud, popular, and rambunctious) so if I here her friends say “[name]Athena[/name] has a big butt” I get confused until they clarify that they’re talking about the other [name]Athena[/name].
Oh, I once saw an [name]Athena[/name] on the news when there were a bunch of kidnapping scares in the county. She spelled it “[name]Athina[/name]”. That was also met with annoyence, all I could think was “That’s spelled wrong.”
I have never met another [name]Diana[/name] in person so I don’t know. I have a feeling it would be odd though. I know I have three friends named [name]Sarah[/name] and it becomes annoying to have to say [name]Sarah[/name] ____ in order to not get them confused when talking to another friend. I also have two friends that have the name [name]Katie[/name]. They also find it rather annoying too. So popularity is an issue for me since I don’t want my child to feel that their name is a nuisance.
Family member wise, I would find that more annoying because it would seem like copying and then at family gatherings, you’ll always be confused. My fiance’s name is [name]Brendan[/name] and he is constantly called [name]Brandon[/name] around my family since I have a cousin [name]Brandon[/name]. Now when [name]Brandon[/name] isn’t there, no one messes up, which is odd… That to me is annoying and it’s not his fault in that case.
