October 28, 2013 at 6:48 am
There is some really interesting information about baby names in Chapter 6 of "Freakonomics" - the thesis being that names say more about where you came from than who you ultimately become in life.
October 28, 2013 at 6:50 am
nickd-799913 (10/28/2013)
My surname is deJager; with the 'J' pronounced as a 'Y'. So I run into both pronunciation and spelling issues, as it is ingrained into people to capitalize the first letter. I have run into a number of pieces of software that force me to capitalize the first letter and do not let me capitalize the third letter.
Your name is possibly a mix of French (the de part) and German (the Jager, which is possibly a corruption of Jäger) so your forebears could of have been something to do with hunting.
October 28, 2013 at 7:12 am
I kept my married surname on divorce firstly because it was easiest to have the same family name as my school age children and also because it was simple and would cost me money and hassle to change it.
When naming the children we had to take into account not only how it would sound shouted across the adjacent school playground but also that it would be suitable for any age from baby to teenager to adult to old folks in a home! We stuck to classic names as did most middle class parents at the time when names actually showed something of a class divide between the traditional and the trendy (mainly after pop stars of the era) so I agree about names showing your origins.
October 28, 2013 at 7:21 am
not exactly on topic but I have numerous people on the phone who don't listen to my email address. it's a bit unusual in that it is a .org.uk domain. however many times I tell customer services people 'dot org dot U K' or 'dot O R G dot U K' they always without fail read it back as .co.uk.
I wonder at what point our online identities will take over how we are known and recognised from our actual names. A previous email address I had many years ago from a well known webmail vendor was i_am_ben_ward@.... and even today at least one of my friends says 'I am Ben Ward' when he sees me instead of saying hello Ben...
Ben
^ Thats me!
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October 28, 2013 at 7:32 am
When I moved back to NC, I found that I couldn't get my NC license because the name on my SSN card did not match my birth name. Had to get a new card.
Also I had an uncle named Billy who had to explain all the time that his name is not William.
Tony
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Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
October 28, 2013 at 8:48 am
My father is from Germany and our lastname is short on vowels. There is only one and the last three letters are consonants. People inevitably want to put an "e" right before the last letter. I'm used to that. But I kid you not, there was one occasion when I spelled my last name to someone, and they insisted I spelled my own last name wrong.
October 28, 2013 at 8:55 am
What's wrong with the name "7 of 9"? I like it. Of course, I am also one of those who are offended by how the new Star Trek films have ruined history (the future?) by the changes they made to the series.
Also, I am not one who wants to give my name out for a restaurant to scream out that my order is ready. I have frequently use "Seven" in those cases. I am not sure if I like the stupid looks it causes, but I think I enjoy it.
I have four kids, each of whom has a unique story about their name. One name we changed because the delivery nurse kept using it before we made a final decision. Another is a Greek spelling rather than the traditional American spelling. The other two are unique names but easily shortened to common names. I enjoyed sharing my name with others in school, but not everyone does. My kids have some options that allow them to choose unique if they wish. Of course, given my disgust with the American school system I also kind of look forward to putting a teacher in her or his place when they argue over how my kids names should be spelled!
Dave
October 28, 2013 at 8:59 am
That's a good point about giving kids an 'alternate' name. Novel names can be interesting to parents, but the kids themselves might not appreciate that novelty while growing up.
An ordinary middle or nickname may well be appreciated by some kids. (I spelled my son's name a bit oddly (40 years ago), seemed clever at the time, but I've grown to regret having done that.)
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
October 28, 2013 at 9:40 am
LSAdvantage (10/28/2013)
...But I kid you not, there was one occasion when I spelled my last name to someone, and they insisted I spelled my own last name wrong.
I have found this to be an unbelievably common experience. Not just by me. Often with people with delusions of adequacy (I like people of all sorts and try not to be too judgemental but reserve my true ridicule for those who try to impose their attitude of superiority over everyone when it is totally baseless).
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
October 28, 2013 at 10:44 am
Gary Varga (10/28/2013)
LSAdvantage (10/28/2013)
...But I kid you not, there was one occasion when I spelled my last name to someone, and they insisted I spelled my own last name wrong.I have found this to be an unbelievably common experience. Not just by me. Often with people with delusions of adequacy (I like people of all sorts and try not to be too judgemental but reserve my true ridicule for those who try to impose their attitude of superiority over everyone when it is totally baseless).
Both my mother and aunt experienced this as well. In my mother's case, the delivery nurse argued with my Grandmother about the name she and chosen and forced her to use a different variation.
In my aunt's case, a teacher at school insisted there should be an "e" at the end of her name. My Grandmother actually went into the school and reprimanded the teacher.
October 28, 2013 at 10:53 am
djackson 22568 (10/28/2013)
...I also kind of look forward to putting a teacher in her or his place when they argue over how my kids names should be spelled!
My wife is named Terri, which is not short for anything. She has a story about her 3rd grade teacher who insisted that her name was short for Theresa and that she should stop arguing about it!
Greg
October 28, 2013 at 10:58 am
A long time ago, I knew someone whose surname was Null. Now that I work with databases I often wonder if any of you have encountered problems with this surname? I imagine that problems were more likely in the early days of database use.
October 28, 2013 at 2:27 pm
I've got four names. That, by itself, isn't too much of a problem. But because my father and I share the same first name, I've always gone by the second. Now, whenever I fill out a document, I'm faced with the three-name-blanks dilemma. What do I put where? At various times throughout life I have:
Put all four down, with two names in the "First Name" field
Put all four down, with two names in the "Middle Name" field
Dropped the third name entirely
Dropped the first name entirely
Used First Inititial Second Name in the "First Name" field.
I'm sure I've forgotten other variants.
I'm in so many databases in so many ways that I legitimately have no idea who I am when I talk to any given company!
October 28, 2013 at 3:43 pm
Sometimes, initials can be a problem. My parents didn't consider mine. This lead to me, as a second grader, knocking the top two front (permanent) teeth from a bigger, third-grader's mouth. Needless to say, it wasn't a very popular way to tease me, after that! (If you're not a native English speaker, the "problem" may not be obvious.)
On the subject of shortening, I much prefer "Phil" to "Philip" (American spelling). I'm a very informal person, so my informal name suits me quite nicely!
October 28, 2013 at 4:57 pm
I went to a women's college in the mid-'90s. In my dorm of ~60 women, we had 8 Jennifers, and that seemed to be the ratio across campus. Almost all used the common, non-"cutesy" shortened version of "Jen" so trying to get one's friend's attention in the dining hall would often lead to loads of us turning our heads. I eventually took the other half of the name to avoid the confusion.
Unique names may be a pain because of misspellings and misunderstandings, but having to come up with a nickname to differentiate yourself from the thousands of identical names out there is also a pretty big pain.
And convincing everyone you interact with that you really do want to be called either your full name or your chosen nickname rather than the most common nickname out there seems to be Sisyphean. :rolleyes:
(And don't even get me started on the proper way to pronounce my surname. I've given up on that one.)
Jennifer Levy (@iffermonster)
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