What do you think of YOUR name?

[kala_way]

I'm Kimberly Erin. I don't hate it. It's easy to spell and not too common and it's not ugly. It's a little too flowery for me--I called it a cheerleader name in high-school . I go by Kim, but even that I'm not too crazy about. But then when I think about it I can't decide what name I would prefer. Erin isn't terrible either, though as a kid I always got the response "like the boys name?" since Aaron is a lot more common than Erin. Neither of them were family names or had any real significance my mom just liked them.

[artiste]

My name's Laci Marie, which I love. I almost never came across another Laci as a kid (except once in a Costco...a big giant guy, which was weird). Never met one who spells it the same way. Mostly Lacey or Lacy. I like that it's short and spunky. I tend to get "Lace" as a nickname, which is fine. The only downsides are the spelling (I CONSTANTLY have to spell it for people), not being able to ever find my name on personalized gifts, and the way Asian tourists seem to pronounce my name...when I worked at Disneyland, they'd read my name tag and call me "Lassie," haha!

[dresdendoll]

I'm Dianne Fietje. My middle name is my mom's first name, and she's from Holland (technically, for her, Fietje is a nickname for Josephina). I like that my first name has two "n's" because the pronunciation makes more sense that way...after all, it's the way Anne is spelled/pronounced. But I always have to correct people, who typically want to spell it with one "n." I wish my first name were more unique (and I have made sure that my own children have very unique names), but it helps that there are strong, talented women with this name who came before me!

[orangerolls]

I'm Alix Christabel. I hated my name when I was young. Alix was too masculine and Christabel was too feminine. I just wanted to be normal and fit in and not have to explain or spell my name to everybody. I REALLY loathed Christabel. People used to tease me that sounded like Tinkerbel! I don't know why I cared so much, except that I know I was a very self-conscious child and didn't like standing out. Now I love my name. I love that it has a story (Alix was the name of the Tsarina of Russia - my mum had a fascination with Russian royal family, which she passed on to me; Christabel was after Christabel Pankhurst and also from the poem "The Lovely Lady Christabel"), and I love that it's unique. I want to name my own children unique names for the same reason. I know it can be hard when you're young, but I think it's something you grow into and appreciate and eventually love.

[pinkpenguin87]

My full name is Elizabeth Jolene. I was named for my great-great Aunt Lizzie, who my mother was very close to, and my Mom herself, who's name is Jolene. As a small child, I went by Elly-Jo, but I nixed that when I was about seven. I still have family members who call me that, though. When I was a kid, I HATED my name. I was the only Elly in my school and no one could ever pronounce it right. When I graduated from the grade school to the middle school, I changed the spelling to ELLIE and suddenly, everyone knew how to say it. As I've grown older, I've come to love both Ellie and Elizabeth, but I still cringe when an elderly family member calls me Ellie Jo. Ugh.

[greenapple]

My name is Alyssa. It was extremely unique when I was a kid, and being unique was not fun at that time. However, the actress Alyssa Milano made the name take off in the late 80's, and then it seemed odd to hear little girls with my name. I ended up liking my name for a while, but now I'm a little tired of it again. As a kid, I didn't really have any nicknames, but would get called many variations of my name, (Alisha, Alicia, etc. ) As an adult, some peopel call me Aly, which I like. I've always preferred names with a lot of nickname possibilities.

[lilylunapotter]

My name's Olivia Catherine Ann, which is... perfectly lovely, but not too original. That sums up what I think about it, I think. Though I do really like that Catherine is my mother and Ann is my grandmother, that's special for me.

[lexiem]

Alexandra Sophie M____ - I kind of have no choice but to like my middle names because I choose them. Shocker right there, huh? My mom was a single parent and had a hard enough time coming up with a first name that worked well in German, English and French and where she liked the meaning. So she took her sweet time to have my baptized and give me middle names. Actually it was pretty cool she gave me a list of potential first and second middle names and told me I had to choose one of each. Sophie was her forerunner for the first because it was the name of both of her grandmothers - which I still love. The second had to be French Polynesian to honor our Tahitian heritage the list of names was pretty much filled up by what other family members had and so I choose one of two that my mom suggested. Not sure if I'll give my kids the chance to choose their own middle names but it's definitely a special bond my mom and I share. Plus I have yet to meet anyone with exactly that combination.

Edit: changed my mind on my privacy setting. Edit changed reflect that.

[mircifer]

My name is Kristen Lorraine and I absolutely hated it for the longest time. Kristen was just so normal and boring. I've always loved Lorraine - my mom has joked that it was incredibly fitting, since I've always loved the rain? Haha, a bit silly but it makes me love it even more.
Kristen was one of three options my mom had come up with, along with Victoria and Samantha. She loves the nn Sam (and would have named me Scott Alexander had I been a boy, which would have made my initals SAM), and Victoria was the name of her favorite character on her favorite soap opera, Santa Barbara. Kristen was the name of the actress who played Victoria. She says when I was born, all she could think was that I looked "like a little Betsy" (her name), but she settled on Kristen.
Lorraine is my great grandmother's middle name. My mom loves to tell about how when she found out I was a girl, she went to my great grandma and asked her how she spelled her middle name, and Marmie answered "L-O-R-R-A-I-N-E and don't you dare name your daughter that." XD
At this point, I do like my name. I wish I liked any of the common nns for it (Kris and Kristy rub me the wrong way), but it feels special to me because of the family connection, as well as the fact that it captures where my mom was in her life at the time. Young, maybe a little naive, and watching soap operas, dreaming of her baby girl.

[helloheidi]

My name, Heidi Marie, I didn't like when I was a kid. I always wished my name was something more "normal" (or what my 8-year-old mind thought was normal.) Plus, the other kids would always say "Hi Dee!" Nowadays though, I've come to absolutely love my name! I like how unique it is around here, as I'm the only Heidi my age.
My mom was confident that she was going to have a boy when she was pregnant with me and had picked out the name Levi James, but alas, I was born a girl, so she threw out the name Heidi in honor of a family friend of ours and my then four-year-old sister insisted on that being my name. Marie was basically just a filler middle name, that, unfortunately for me, so many moms used for their daughter's middle names in the 90s.
The only reservation I have about my name is the fact that my sister's name is Hillary Michelle, so that both of our initials are HMG, something I've always found to be extremely tacky (no offense if you did this with your children's initials!)