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By any other name...
1. Are you named after anyone? If so, explain.
Nope. At least not my real name. My parents just thought that the first and middle names they picked out flowed nicely together. My mom has told me that if they'd just waited a week or two to decide on a name they would have known it wasn't the right one. My full first name isn't half bad, and it isn't too ill-suited, but absolutely none of the common nicknames work for me. The only people who use that name now, though, are people who don't know me, government officials (which is pretty much the same group), and my dad and his side of the family. My mom's side of the family is much better about catching on to those sorts of things.
2. Do you have your children's names picked out already? If so, is there any significance?
Yeah, I've always been partial to Miriam Adeline -- I like the name Miriam and my grandmother's name is Mary Adeline, so it's essentially the same name. And for a boy, Alexander Jay -- Alexander is a family name on my mom's side (there's generally been an Alexander somewhere in that family line as far back as the Revolutionary War and it's my grandfather's middle name). Jay is a family name on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rackham's side of the family.
3. If you were born a member of the opposite sex what would your name have been?
Vance Edward. I kid you not. It was sort of a last minute thing, though, since my dad had a dream fairly early on that I was going to be a girl... they'd picked out girl names and bought girl clothes. When my mom went into labor they had a moment of panic where they realized they were in trouble if I turned out to be a boy. Though I rather suspect Vance Edward is a name combination my dad had always liked... it seems like something he'd pick.
The weird part is that I started going by Fen (or Fenchurch) when I was 14 and then sometime in my late 20s I stumbled across a book of "unusual and rare" baby names... I opened the book at random and ended up right on the page for Vance, which gave the definition as "Old English for Fenns or Fen, meaning a low marshy area." I swear I could hear Twilight Zone music.
4. If you could re-name yourself what name would you pick and why?
Heh. Well, there's an easy one. Fen.
5. Are there any mispronunciations/typos that people do w/ your name constantly?
All the time. Fern, Fin, Ven. It's a bit more understandable though, since it's not exactly a standard sort of name. As for my real first name, well, the principal of my high school (who was a complete moron), constantly mispronounced my name... including at graduation. You have to understand, my real first name? NOT unusual. In fact, pretty common (especially for the era in which I was born -- which is how I always ended up with completely unrelated nicknames and how I eventually ended up with Fen). I'll never understand how that man got to be principal of a high school. Or got through college in the first place.
Nope. At least not my real name. My parents just thought that the first and middle names they picked out flowed nicely together. My mom has told me that if they'd just waited a week or two to decide on a name they would have known it wasn't the right one. My full first name isn't half bad, and it isn't too ill-suited, but absolutely none of the common nicknames work for me. The only people who use that name now, though, are people who don't know me, government officials (which is pretty much the same group), and my dad and his side of the family. My mom's side of the family is much better about catching on to those sorts of things.
2. Do you have your children's names picked out already? If so, is there any significance?
Yeah, I've always been partial to Miriam Adeline -- I like the name Miriam and my grandmother's name is Mary Adeline, so it's essentially the same name. And for a boy, Alexander Jay -- Alexander is a family name on my mom's side (there's generally been an Alexander somewhere in that family line as far back as the Revolutionary War and it's my grandfather's middle name). Jay is a family name on
rackham's side of the family.3. If you were born a member of the opposite sex what would your name have been?
Vance Edward. I kid you not. It was sort of a last minute thing, though, since my dad had a dream fairly early on that I was going to be a girl... they'd picked out girl names and bought girl clothes. When my mom went into labor they had a moment of panic where they realized they were in trouble if I turned out to be a boy. Though I rather suspect Vance Edward is a name combination my dad had always liked... it seems like something he'd pick.
The weird part is that I started going by Fen (or Fenchurch) when I was 14 and then sometime in my late 20s I stumbled across a book of "unusual and rare" baby names... I opened the book at random and ended up right on the page for Vance, which gave the definition as "Old English for Fenns or Fen, meaning a low marshy area." I swear I could hear Twilight Zone music.
4. If you could re-name yourself what name would you pick and why?
Heh. Well, there's an easy one. Fen.
5. Are there any mispronunciations/typos that people do w/ your name constantly?
All the time. Fern, Fin, Ven. It's a bit more understandable though, since it's not exactly a standard sort of name. As for my real first name, well, the principal of my high school (who was a complete moron), constantly mispronounced my name... including at graduation. You have to understand, my real first name? NOT unusual. In fact, pretty common (especially for the era in which I was born -- which is how I always ended up with completely unrelated nicknames and how I eventually ended up with Fen). I'll never understand how that man got to be principal of a high school. Or got through college in the first place.