Did your parents give you a crummy name?

When I was about 10 or 12, my mother asked me why I liked the Archie comics so much ,and I told her they were funny and I liked his friend Jughead and his girl friend and I liked her name-and my mother asked 'what is her name,' and I said "Veronica" and to my surprise my mother told me that had been my real name and my grandmother had it changed three times.

I like it better than my 'name' they finally gave me, and was sort of shocked about that for a while but, when I applied for SSA, the woman asked me about the name changes on my Birth Certificates. We had a chuckle over it. It had an odd background story.

Still, I think I am more of a Veronica ,than who I am now. I thought about getting it changed legally to my real name, many times, but never pursued that...too much paperwork would have to be changed- drivers license, checking accounts, medical records etc.etc,etc.

I wonder, sometimes, how long my mother would have kept that info from me, from the day she asked me about the Archie comics. Maybe I would not have known until I turned 65 , and applied for SSA.
 

Only my closest friends know that my actual first name is Franklin, because I never use the lin part unless I absolutely have to. I don't *hate* the name Franklin, but I prefer to be Frank. :p

My parents decided dad would name their sons and mom would name their daughters.

Dad named me and my bros after presidents....not necessarily good presidents, or even especially famous ones, just ones with names he liked, I guess. Grant, Hoover, Franklin, and McKinley. But he always called me Mickey and my younger brother Mac. I don't know why.

All my cousins and the older relatives still call me Mickey. My wife does, too, most of the time. She says it fits me better.
 
Jules said:
I have no idea why people give their children two names and then call them by the middle name. That happened with my mother. She would be addressed by her first name in public places. It got tedious asking them to call her by her usual name.
My name is just ordinary.
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Well, in my late husband's family, all the girls had the same first name, so they went by their middle names. So did the boys, but at least they had different first names.

Plus, they kept recycling the names each generation. At a family reunion, you'd have to ask, "Are you Susan's Freddie or are you Mark's Freddie?" "No, I'm Freddie's Freddie."
 

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Warrigal said:
My grandmother died months before I was born and I was given her name, Gertrude, for my middle name. When I was about 10, I came to hate it. For the first time I was in a co-ed class and at the beginning of the year our teacher read out our full names to check the roll. The boys thought it very funny to call me Dirty Gertie. The other source of mirth was a boy whose middle name was Septimus.

Now that I am old, I have grown into my name, especially after I have learned more about my grandmother. I am proud to bear her name now.

My classmate went on to become Professor of Paediatrics at a Sydney university.
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Both of my grandmothers' had the same first name.. as did my paternal aunt who was the eldest daughter... so I was given their name as my middle name...
 
I'm not many generations from living in the farmer's stables in the old country, so even by the time I arrived on Earth there were still a lot of names in the family that most people can't pronounce, or guess at from the spelling, today.
 
hollydolly said:
Both of my grandmothers had the same first name.. as did my paternal aunt who was the eldest daughter... so I was given their name as my middle name...
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Similar to my family. One of my maternal aunts was Gertrude; Auntie Gertie to all of her nieces and nephews, Trudi to her husband and friends. One of my cousins also had Gertrude as a middle name.

I think Trudi is a delightful name but it wouldn't suit me.
 
Murrmurr said:
Only my closest friends know that my actual first name is Franklin, because I never use the lin part unless I absolutely have to. I don't *hate* the name Franklin, but I prefer to be Frank. :p

My parents decided dad would name their sons and mom would name their daughters.

Dad named me and my bros after presidents....not necessarily good presidents, or even especially famous ones, just ones with names he liked, I guess. Grant, Hoover, Franklin, and McKinley. But he always called me Mickey and my younger brother Mac. I don't know why.

All my cousins and the older relatives still call me Mickey. My wife does, too, most of the time. She says it fits me better.
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I think FDR, Franklin Roosevelt, was pretty famous don't you? It's a lot for a boy to live up to. :unsure:
 
Speaking of Native American names ... years ago when I lived and was stationed in San Diego, my best friend was a Vietnam veteran from Dillon Montana. Full blooded Crow. "Skip" told me that his Indian name was given to him by his grandfather. Named him Wolf Snot. May have been native sense of humor or may have been his name. I never knew for sure. Wolf /dog ... Skip had been a dog handler in the Army.

My grandfather had one name. As an adult, "Pop" took a seemingly random initial as a middle name. Anyway, my middle name is the only name my grandfather had ... Fonzy. I was okay with the name until the show "Happy Days" in the 70's. The character in that show spelled his name Fonzie and it was short for his last name, Fonzarelli. My middle name precedes that show by at least a couple of generations, is spelled differently and not short for any other name. So it was that when entering the military and finding my middle name, Fonzy, the petty officers at the Military Entry Processing Station (MEPS) had me make an entry and sign their book of interesting and famous named people who entered the military. Perfectamundo Heaaayyy
 
Had neighbors whose last name was Albert. Father's given name was George. All the sons, five of them, had the middle name of George. One of the sons was named Albert; therefore, his name was Albert Albert. Actually, Albert George Albert. one of the sons was named George; therefore, his name was George George Albert. Whyyyy???

When my mother was aggravated at one of us, she'd start at the top of the list with the oldest one first and name us all, ending with "whichever one you are!"

My own name? I've grown into it but get truly annoyed when it's mispronounced because it's merely the feminine version of a very common man's name and pronounced exactly the same way.
 
hollydolly said:
Both of my grandmothers' had the same first name.. as did my paternal aunt who was the eldest daughter... so I was given their name as my middle name...
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My grandfather and his 2 brothers all married women with the same first name. And they were all from different families.

If the name was Mary, you'd probably think "Well, yeah, you know...not really that surprising." But it's Alice. Not an uncommon name back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, but I think it was far less common than Mary.

I think Alice is a pretty name. Just sounds pretty to me. I'd have named my daughter Alice if my family wasn't already chuck-full of 'em.
 
I can't really fault my parents since they give me my father's name with a Jr. after it. But I always went by my middle name, Douglas, because my first name is a variation of what I would consider an old Jewish man's name. My ancestors were Jews from Germany, butchered their names and converted to Christianity. Even my father went by his middle name until adulthood because it just didn't fit a young person.

The name never fit me growing up. The worst was when roll call was done at the beginning of each school year and my first name was called. All my schoolmates would snicker. Even today, I sometimes wince when someone calls me by my first name at the doctor's office or filling a prescription. The name still doesn't fit me. I actually had adult co-workers who found out my first name and called me by it purposely because they thought it was funny.

I guess we're all okay these days because Millennials are naming their kids things like Opal and Olive from the old days. I did hear two ladies talking recently and one said she named her baby Neveah because it is Heaven spelled backwards. :ROFLMAO:
 
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fuzzybuddy said:
Do you think some names don't fit the person. Maybe we should follow the Indian custom? Did your parents give you a crummy name?
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I had a name all picked out for my horse's foal, but once he was born it just didn't fit him at all, so I gave him a different name.

My name was very common growing up and I didn't like it. I've legally changed it (first, middle, and last) a couple times. I'd change the last name again if it wasn't such a hassle to get paperwork up-to-date.

When I was in my 20s I hadn't updated all the documentation so I had a passport in one name, my social security card in another name, and my drivers license in a third name. Then I got a job at a company that had top secret stuff and the new employee instructions were to bring in all those documents. I was a bit worried about explaining it all, but luckily my position there didn't require a clearance so they didn't actually ask me to produce the docs (was before employers had to see SS cards).
 
There was a ’belief’ group that were adamant about your name being instrumental in your whole life. My boss had to have his name ok’d by them before he could marry his wife. He might have been better off it had failed - jmo.
 
Widow of Vietnam Vet said:
When I was about 10 or 12, my mother asked me why I liked the Archie comics so much ,and I told her they were funny and I liked his friend Jughead and his girl friend and I liked her name-and my mother asked 'what is her name,' and I said "Veronica" and to my surprise my mother told me that had been my real name and my grandmother had it changed three times.

I like it better than my 'name' they finally gave me, and was sort of shocked about that for a while but, when I applied for SSA, the woman asked me about the name changes on my Birth Certificates. We had a chuckle over it. It had an odd background story.

Still, I think I am more of a Veronica ,than who I am now. I thought about getting it changed legally to my real name, many times, but never pursued that...too much paperwork would have to be changed- drivers license, checking accounts, medical records etc.etc,etc.

I wonder, sometimes, how long my mother would have kept that info from me, from the day she asked me about the Archie comics. Maybe I would not have known until I turned 65 , and applied for SSA.
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Well, IMHO Veronica WAS the pretty one. Did they name you Betty instead? :ROFLMAO:
 
My older brother and I have the first names of buddies of my dad who lost their lives
during WWII. One on Peleliu and one on Okinawa.
My middle name is my fathers first name.
Proud of both names.
(my youngest son's first name is my father's first name)
 

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