Thursday, May 28, 2009

Uninspired

I ask my sister to please forgive me for completely ripping off the idea for my post from her post for today. I don't know what my deal is. I'm in some sort of blogging slump. Not only writing, but reading (as you can tell from my sagging comment sections of the last few days. I'm just not getting out there much). But when I read her post today about having a common name and wanting to change it when she was young, the thought occured to me, "I wonder how many people wanted to change their name when they were young?"

So here's my question: Did you want to change your name when you were young? To what?

I'll go first. And let me just say that it's a good thing I never had the money (or the real determination) to change my name back then. I'd be really sorry now. (Also no offense to anyone reading if one of the names I no longer want to be named is your name!)

First... Becky. yep, that's right. Becky. When I was 6 or 7 that was the cutest name I could think of.

Next, Roxanne. Why? I have no idea. But I decided when I was 9 that it was a very exotic sounding name.

Then Hillary. REALLY glad I don't have that one now. But for a while when I was 10, I thought it was so elegant.

I was super excited when I was 13 and 14 to discover that my father had wanted to name me Amber when I was born. I thought it was a perfect name for me. However, I discovered later in life just how many Ambers there were, so I'm pretty glad I didn't change it to that.

I think there was also a time when I wanted to be Tabitha (probably because of Bewitched), Rosemary, Jessica (Sweet Valley High phase) and, get this, Jody. JODY! Boy, I was really creative in the name department. But I guess my real goal back then was trying to have a name that fit in. Cause, let's face it, Arianne doesn't fit in anywhere. Even in France, where the name comes from, it's rare. And spelled differently. So as a child who had to spell her name out constantly and pronounce it for every stranger and substitute teacher twenty times, I just wanted something easy.

Of course, as an adult, I'm glad I'm not Jody or Amber. I like having an uncommon name. One that was easy to spell, pronounce, and remember would be even better. But hey, it could be worse. I could be named Jorja or Kymberleigh or Payj. I guess Arianne's not so bad.

10 comments:

Kristina P. said...

I actually never wanted to change my name.

My family calls me Tina, and I hate it. I've never ever gone by Tina with friends or in school.

I also like that my name is spelled with a K.

mCat said...

Being called Missy for most of my childhood, I always wanted a change, but once I hit high school, new school, new neighborhood, new ward, I decided to go by my full name Melissa. Never wanted to change, always liked it. One thing my Mom did well. Even if it is after Maggie the alcoholic on Days of Our Lives's daughter.....

J.J. said...

My name is Joseph Jeffry but I've been called J.J. as long as I can remember. I tried having people call me Joseph for a little while but they always tried to call me Joe. My favorite now is when close friends make variations. Most call me "J" and others "Jayzer" or "Jage". I wouldn't change my name if someone paid me...wait, how much?

Nicki said...

I just commented about this on Jennie's blog! I really wish my parents hadn't given my a first name I never use. From the day I was born they called me by my middle name (since my first name was my mom's name and it would be all confusing). I love my name but I'm going to legally switch my first and middle name to make it easier for all those pesky legal things that don't let me use a nickname :)

Chelsea said...

I used to want to change my name all the time because when I was little NO ONE pronounced or spelled it right. This was before the Clinton administration when Chelsea/Chelsie/Kelsi/etc became trendy. My 3rd grade teacher called me "Chess-lee" for the whole year (I stopped correcting her.)

My favorite names were Becky (so funny that that's one of yours too!), Crystal, Summer, and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty, anyone?) I'm glad my parents didn't listen to me.

Financial Aid for College said...

You WILL have to admit, however, that almost EVERYONE who did understand your name said, "Arianne! What a BEAUTIFUL name!" Which is why we chose it. I still think it's one of the prettiest names in the world. (just like you)

If you could chose a middle name NOW, what would it be? (You should start a contest, and award people -- especially me -- with your gorgeous glycerin soap.)

Sara said...

I can remember wanting to change my name to Samantha (Sam) and then wanting to add an h to the end of my name!

Mia said...

I am with Nikki, my parents named me with the intention of calling me by my middle name. It is a pain. Back in the day when there weren't 500 Mia's on the playground it was also a hard name to pronounce from the spelling. Is it mee-uh or my-uh? So I liked it that I was the only one but I hated explaining the whole middle name thing which I still don't like to explain to every doctor's office and so on. Although I could switch over to my first name and still be unique because that name will likely never catch on.

Shawn said...

I LOVE your name, by the by! So pretty---much like yourself... :)

As for my name, I have always been proud of my name, because I have always approached life walking to a "different drummer" you might say, so Shawn always fit me. I used to never hear my name---it was so unusual---until about 15 years ago and every one started to name their boys Sean. AAccckkkk! Now it drives me crazy when I hear it being called...

But yes, I've always loved my name.

And I also like the fact that I don't have a middle name. Love that.

Anonymous said...

I go by my middle name, too. The biggest pain is that my first name is my dad's first name, a name everyone uses for him. It's always an issue of me getting his mail, him getting mine, the car insurance company thinks his accident was mine, etc. I never use the name so why won't they stop bothering me?!

Although my middle name came from some truck driver my dad knew in California, I never wanted to change it. In high school and college when people would ask why I don't go by my first name (prior to that, my answer was similar to above) I'd say because Andre is sexier.