As a child or even as an adult, have you had phases when you disliked the name your parents chose for you? Why? Did any of your friends ever confess to you that they never liked their name? What was their reason? .
I am mostly neutral about my name. It feels like it is my house but my front neighbor sees it more than I do. : ) Recently got in touch with some friends after a long time. It struck me that three of them had told me at sometime or the other that they didn't really like their name. Reasons were like: "Too South Indian", "Named after a season/star/ constellation", "turned out to be a very common name later."
Growing up I disliked my name a lot. I am now ashamed to say it: the reason I didn't like my name was because it was a very common name in a different community (not my own), usually given to women a generation or two ahead of me - so I never knew anyone with my name around my age-group. It would always be someone in their 30s or 40s or older. And friends would always ask why did you get this name ? my so-and-so (much older woman) is also named this. Anyway, I left home in my early 20s to be a grad student in the US. And it's been an acquired taste - I have loved my name ever since: short, easy to pronounce + spell everywhere I have to use it, google-friendly to make it a top hit with my last name (those simple pleasures! ). It's origin is confused with two names that are close to a common name in Europe and Turkey. So always a conversation starter with new colleagues or people I run into.
I never disliked my name, but initially in school my first and last name (surname) were both a source of embarrassment. In my home state, it was a pretty common name, but the state where I grow, it was not so common and boys usually kept the name, it was sometimes annoying. The surname was annoying because it was used to tease me and make me cry by some of my classmates and one very annoying immature, prudish teacher (unfortunately this was in middle school) and sometimes people used to ask me in college as well about the surname. All because I grew up in the neighboring state. My surname got changed after marriage and thankfully the new surname wasn't too long, although some people manage to make fun of it as well. But do I regret getting my name? Not really. What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell the same is my motto. The funniest thing is I never thought I would name my kids what I named them currently, it just happened that way. But some 20 years back, I would have never thought of those names. Not that they are bad at all, just not what I had imagined. I don't regret keeping them either. It is just that they are little old and common names. Anyhow, nobody can bully my kids with their current names. That's for sure.
well.. I never really had a problem with my name but in india, maybe south india, there are some names which are super common and they all have the same nick names. So if a bunch of families gather together one calls out for their child, all children come running. Until the parent has a distinct threat in the voice (ha ha ) Pradeep, Deepthi, Sandeep, Sudeep, Deepa, Deepika, KUldeep - all parents call them dipooooo.