Question of the Week: How do you feel about sharing your name(s)?

Question of the Week: How do you feel about sharing your name(s)?

Today’s QOW was inspired by a comment from jgirl525.

This week it’s a two-parter:

a.  What’s your response when you meet someone who shares your own first name? Do you feel an instant kinship or do you feel more proprietary?  If it’s a popular name, do you immediately start comparing nicknames and wondering why your parents chose a name like, say, Jennifer, of which there are now (literally) 1,424,755 in the world?

If it’s an unusual name, do you feel just a little bit resentful that it’s not yours alone?

b. Basically the same question, but this is about how it relates to the choice you made for your child.  Do you feel simpatico towards another parent who picked the same name, admiring them for their fabulous taste—or do you secretly want to shout ‘but that’s MY name’!?

About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.