My name is Sara one of the most common names ever! Notice it does not have the 'h' I get that one alot, hahaha. My favorite moments were in marching band in high school when the director would say, "Sara(h) please come up to the front" and literally 25 girls would break ranks and walk up to the front!

My dad is really into Sci-Fi. I have a lil sister named Honor after Honor Harrington, a kick ass lady Admiral of a space fleet, lol, and a lil brother named Corwin after some mythic prince. Now why couldn't my name be so creative and unique!?

You know, I went to high school with a guy named, Twig Branch.

There are way too many ways to spell Kathryn so almost no one ever gets it right! And, the worst part is when people shorten it to Kathy. I introduce myself as kathryn but inevitably it becomes Kathy which, for some reason really bugs me. I grew up catholic and till the day he died, my dad always called me Kathryn Mary as does most of my family. Kath I don't mind, but Kathy...like Dotsie says, makes me feel about 8.
When I named my kids, I chose names that either wouldn't be shortened or if changed (ie: Timmy) I didn't mind.

--This is a little article I wrote about my "many names"


My ancestors didn’t have the problem of a “Smith” or a “Jones”. Based upon the five spelling variations of one singular German surname, I can clearly see my distant relatives, five brothers, looking at each other confused, ready to come to blows, trying to spell what I know as “Zickafoose” to U.S. Immigration Officers. I envision them arguing and defending each individual letter just as my Great Aunts would defend with equal certainty at family reunions varying secret ingredients in the family recipe of rhubarb pie.

Names aren’t supposed to have fuss. But they do.

As I embarked down the aisle as a young bride, I debated against moving to the middle or giving up my maiden name, Zickafoose. I mean, after all, what’s not to love. No one can pronounce or spell it upon hearing. Every syllable is phonetically emphasized and every letter is spoken slowly for clarity. Destiny and poor understanding by others of just how deeply my ancestors struggled translating this name into English would doom me to have no less than six variations of “Zickafoose” on any credit report and to respond in crowds to any combination of slurred sounds that began with a “Z”.

Love won out and I traded Zickafoose for Stewart. I thought it would be smooth sailing until I received my first pieces of mail addressing me as “Mrs. Stuart” and “Mrs. Steward”. When the first telemarketer called me “Mrs. Steward” I simply dissolved into tears.

My interest in the importance of a good name would carry me into a second marriage where I was required again to decide to hyphenate and in doing so retain name rights with my daughter or to adopt my husband’s name, Hamilton. Common, familiar and right up there with Jones.

In my dilemma, I knew I needed to research others that held my would-be name. In my profession, I need a website, and a platform to work from. All of which depend on my name. In my searching and debating I came to realize that it would not do to have the name “Wendy Hamilton”, after all I, being a plus-size lady, might be confused often for the same-named Playmate, Miss December 1991, and feature of our namesake website. I imagine my hands would have gotten tired from all the autographs.

My choice to hyphenate is not without consequences. So far in my almost three years of hyphenated marriage I have created more than just mild confusion for schools, churches, insurance agencies, and hospitals. I’ve even had the misfortune of having a child or two misfiled somewhere between Stewart and Hamilton.

I have come to understand how a good name is to be desired more than great riches and the best name, well, that is one that is not asked to be repeated or is misspelled.

Well Wendy Stewart-Hamilton, I loved this article. You have one of those sneaky dry scenses of humor and believe me.....

THATS A GOOD THING

Having a name like Lita in a neighborhood full of AnnMarie's, Josephine's, and Filomena's made me stand out as a child. I could expect children to get it wrong but it never ceased to amaze me how adults have such a hard time with my name.

I have been (and still am) called everything from Lydia, Lisa, Linda, the list goes on. So many times I have to tell a person, "It's Lita. Like Rita with an L."
(I feel like Liza Minnelli-lol)

My family just calls me Lee.

The nice thing about an unusual name is I can tell when a call is from a telemarketer and I can quickly say, "She's not here."

Dianne, I just read your very first post in this thread and the same thing happened with my son. His name is Michael and he was 8 years old and insisted we call him Fred. I have no idea where he got Fred from.

This lasted a day. He would not respond to Michael but when dinner came around and he sat down at the table, I took his plate away and said, "Sorry, this food is for Michael, not Fred." He quickly forgot his self-appointed moniker.

Fred???? How funny. Kids crack me up.

I am also a Karen....
In 5th grade I had a teacher who got annoyed that there were 3 of us named Karen!!! She got even more mad that our last names all began with "S"!

How rude of our parents to all name us Karen w/ last names that began with an "S"!!!

Try going thru life as Georgia Staggers. She does? Yes she does. I've heard um all...

Not only that, half the people I met say, "Nice to meet you GLORIA." I have been called Gloria all my life.

And the other half think I LIVE in Georgia. I usually end up saying, "no, I'm not Glorida. I'm Georgia from Alabama, and I stagger. No banjo on the knee, thank you very much.

JJ

I thought it posted about this before, but who cares? Anyway, I was supposed to be a boy and I was going to be Henry, Jr. for my Dad and if I turned out to be a girl I was going to be Henryetta.

I will forever be grateful to my mother who at the last moment regained a molecule of sanity and refused to name me Henryetta. Thank you Mom.

Anyway, if I wasn't Henryetta, who was I? Mom was reading the paper and she found an article about some movie star named Janis Paige and she decided Janis was a good name. Then she read something about Danny Kaye and gave me Kaye for my middle name. AMEN!

But in a moment of sheer stupidity, I told my kids that story and now anytime they think I'm being a dork, they call me Henryetta. Grrr.

The moral of the story is, Never tell your kids anything. They'll use it on you!
smile