Does anyone else get it that when you know exactly one person wih a name, that name becomes unusable to you because it’s that person and can’t be anyone else?
Once you meet a second person with that name, everything’s fine. It stops being that person and becomes a name again. Now it’s usable.
I had that with the name [name_f]Lydia[/name_f]. Knowing none, it worked fine and I liked it. Knowing one, it would have been weird to use it, not even because I didn’t like her or something, just because that name belonged to her and no one else. Now that I know another [name_f]Lydia[/name_f], it’s okay.
So basically, knowing 0 or 2+ is okay, but 1 is out. Anyone else?
I am kind of like that too sometimes. I have only met one person named [name_f]Mariana[/name_f], and she lives next door to my mom so I saw her grow up. She is almost an adult now, but I would not use her name as a first name even though I love the name.
My daughter however, I named [name_f]Noemi[/name_f] after hearing a girl at a school with that name. But I only saw the girl once, I didn’t have her for a whole year so it didn’t feel like I was taking her name. If that makes sense. I did student teaching for a year with a girl named [name_f]Liana[/name_f] and I would probably not use that name either because I spent a lot of time with her doing observations and stuff.
I’m weird about stuff like this. If I know someone with a name, or have known someone in the past with the name, I probably won’t use it. Luckily I’m into really uncommon names, and I have never met or known of anyone else with my kids’ names, but if I was into more common names it would probably be an issue. I even completely turned down one name because I had someone with the name in my class when i was a kid. We never speak anymore, and the name wasn’t particularly uncommon, but I couldn’t bring myself to consider it.
it’s probably a good job i’m not a teacher or something like that, right? Haha.
I have been going to the same place every summer since I was 8 months old, and so I made some friends there Im very very close to
One of their names is [name_f]Christiana[/name_f] which I love but could never use since it would seem as if it was an honor name and would just be weird anyway
It depends on how much I identify the name with the person. If I only hear it in passing, it doesn’t matter, but if I hear one name and I strongly identify it with someone I know… it may reduce its usability in my eyes.
Here’s hoping I don’t meet people with my top choice names.
Both dh and I quite like [name_f]Clara[/name_f], but i went to school with a Klaira (the only one I’ve ever met) and it just feels too weird to use it!
I’ve run into this a few times but it depends on how much I love the name.
I’ve only ever met one [name_u]Kennedy[/name_u], when I was 13 and we were friends briefly, but haven’t spoken since we were about 14 or 15. Because of that, I no longer find it weird and I’d totally name my baby [name_u]Kennedy[/name_u]. I also only know one [name_f]Melanie[/name_f], who happens to be my best friend, and her name is on my list, but again, it’s not weird for me because she saw it on my list before we were really close friends.
However, I only know one [name_f]Crystal[/name_f], and she and I loathe each other (to put it very, very lightly). My mother knows a [name_f]Chrystal[/name_f], and I was friends with a [name_f]Krystal[/name_f] growing up, but with the spelling I like, I only know this one [name_f]Crystal[/name_f]. Because of how strongly I dislike her, I wouldn’t be able to use the name.
I think for me it’s something about the “singularity” of a name. Meaning, not only the number of people you personally know by that name, but also the amount that you hear it used in general.
So even though I only know one [name_m]Arthur[/name_m], the name feels usable to me because it’s fairly common otherwise and it has several pop culture references. It has context outside of the one person I know by that name.
However, I only know one [name_f]Linnea[/name_f], and I’ve only heard that name on her and on here, so that name feels tied to the person for me.
My best friend, and neighbor, growing up was called [name_f]Nina[/name_f]. To this day, I have never met another [name_f]Nina[/name_f]. I have heard of a few on social media, but never in real life. I feel like if I met someone else with that name, it wouldn’t become weird unless we became super close. I don’t really know why, but I feel like it would be pretty strange since I only connect that name with that one girl.
