Common Name Woes

[iluvponiez]

My given name is very, very unusual. But my surname is pretty common, I'd say, for a Norwegian name- Kristiansen.

There's very few people around here though that have any idea how to pronounce it and they struggle with it so hard. I can't understand! It seems obvious how it's said to me.

[Vintergatan]

My son is Ivan Earl. Earl after his great grandfather. Ivan started out as a joke name. He was going to be Donovan. (Glad he isn't.) Turns out Ivan is my stepgrandfather's name, and it's Russian for John, my stepdad's name.  Worked all around!

It's also south-slavic version of John and is one of the most popular names in Serbia, together with its female counterpart, Ivana, which is my mother's name But here it's actually pronounced EEvan(ah), not EYEvan(ah) ^^

On an interesting note regarding my surname (jewish surname with south-slavic spelling), I never have it misspelled here in Iceland, but back home, it was misspelled ALL THE TIME! Serbia is very unimaginative with surnames so as soon as something not ending with -ić appears, people have no idea what to do with it

[elish2]

My name is pretty uncommon especially for a girl...Elisha

Then my daughters both have unique names too...Illyana and Trillian

[Strawberry Swirl]

LOL my name is not common in the least.

I'm not willing to give it up so easily- all I can say is that it's a different version of my fursona's name. (Katja)
It's always an adventure going to doctor's and dentist's offices. You never know what pronunciation you're going to get!

[Sky_Rocket_Sammie]

Without going into details. My last name is now very common in two separate fantasy fandoms. One I like the other I despise (glares at it). So when both stated to become popular, the questions started as to how I got it. I've had it, it's from my mother's family. And they've had it, to our knowledge for generations. Said last name is also very common among people of Native/First Nations decent.  Always fun to start asking around "hey do you know...." We could be cousins if we go far enough back.

A friend of mine had one of the two most common last names in the English speaking language. It was always interesting to watch him navigate giving it out for registrations etc. Peoples reactions "no really what is your last name?"

[Ivaness]

My son is Ivan Earl. Earl after his great grandfather. Ivan started out as a joke name. He was going to be Donovan. (Glad he isn't.) Turns out Ivan is my stepgrandfather's name, and it's Russian for John, my stepdad's name.  Worked all around!

It's also south-slavic version of John and is one of the most popular names in Serbia, together with its female counterpart, Ivana, which is my mother's name But here it's actually pronounced EEvan(ah), not EYEvan(ah) ^^

Nice! Unfortunately, most people here in the US can't even pronounce Ivan. -.- We get it mispronounced to Ian, Ethan, and Evan. Or, even Avan. Oh and Evon. One time on the phone, I was just like ITS PRONOUNCED EXACTLY HOW IT LOOKS. It isn't that hard!
Even people who I've talked to before, or who see him on a monthly basis, have trouble saying his name. Argh!

[Tiffymh1fan]

My name was common when I was little, Tiffany. There were always at least 3-4 in the same grade as me. I named my daughter Liberty and Im starting to slowly see a rise in that name now. At the time there were only 5 US people that shared that name.. The numbers have increased slowly since.

The funny thing about names in my family is they all sound the same in the end of the name. They all have a E sound at the end. My family does not plan it that way, but it just happens. You have to say the names just so you know what I mean lol, Tiffany, Liberty, Stephanie, Nikki, Kelly, Katie, Brittany, Whitney, Jamie, Amy, Destiny, Vikki, Cindy... You can see there are no boys in my family... That just means there were More ponys to play with  

[Ivaness]

My name was common when I was little, Tiffany. There were always at least 3-4 in the same grade as me. I named my daughter Liberty and Im starting to slowly see a rise in that name now. At the time there were only 5 US people that shared that name.. The numbers have increased slowly since.

I've always loved the name Jubilee, goes right along with your E names. Haha. Liberty is a beautiful name! I knew a girl whose name was Justice. Then she moved schools (after being the only Justice at her old one) and she met a BOY whose name was Justice. Haha. She wasn't happy.

[Tiffymh1fan]

My name was common when I was little, Tiffany. There were always at least 3-4 in the same grade as me. I named my daughter Liberty and Im starting to slowly see a rise in that name now. At the time there were only 5 US people that shared that name.. The numbers have increased slowly since.

I've always loved the name Jubilee, goes right along with your E names. Haha. Liberty is a beautiful name! I knew a girl whose name was Justice. Then she moved schools (after being the only Justice at her old one) and she met a BOY whose name was Justice. Haha. She wasn't happy.

Awe, Thank you! 

[clones_rebellion]

I have a not-so-common name that was spelled differently. That presents it's own set of woes. Most of the time I get called by the wrong name completely. There's a common name that sounds similar to my name. If someone actually gets my name right, they usually don't spell it right. Even family members who *Should* get it right, tend to spell it wrong. Grrr! I actually do like my name, but it sooo irritates me when I'm called by the wrong name and/or it gets spelled wrong.

[AnnaPommes]

Without going into details. My last name is now very common in two separate fantasy fandoms. One I like the other I despise (glares at it). So when both stated to become popular, the questions started as to how I got it. I've had it, it's from my mother's family. And they've had it, to our knowledge for generations.

UHH!! is it a very undersaturated color?!? That would be quite awesome, because that is a badass lastname!

[Loona]

My German last name is hard enough for people to pronounce, they don't even try anymore.

lol, I am starting to experience exactly this in the past few years! there are more and more occasions when I am simply called "Monika ..." (for example at the doctor's - but the same thing happened also when I went to sign my contract at my current workplace), where everyone else before me was called by their full names

but I usually like Finnish names in general. I'm actually planning to name my daughter Aino, if I ever have a daughter.

Aww, that's my name ^-^ For those who don't know, it comes from the Finnish national epic Kalevala. Some suggest the origin of the name is the word 'ainoa' for 'only', which makes "Aino tyttö" (a girl named Aino) 'the only daughter'. But the etymology is not certain.

It's not too common a name, but common enough so that I know several other Ainos, I meet them frequently at the university and there's one that joined our wind band recently. I think this is the first time I'm in a group with someone that shares my name, there were never others in my class or hobby groups. Takes a while to get used to! But my last name is so rare that there shouldn't be any others in Finland, or anywhere else for that matter, with this combination.

(Okay, of course I had to check... The most popular years for the name Aino were around 1900-1939. There was a decline in the 60s-70s, while the name has gained some popularity again in the 80s-90s and particularly after 2000. Seems like there will be more of us in the future. I think there's been a revival of old names in general here in Finland during the past years.)

it's interesting to see how this name became less and more popular during the years. I always thought it is a common name, but I haven't met any Ainos, which was strange. now that I think of it, it wasn't me who thought it, that's what we learned at university.
the lecturer was somewhere around her 70-80s (and this was almost 10 years ago), so maybe the reason why she taught it's a common name was that it was actually common when she was young

[PandoraFox]

My German last name is hard enough for people to pronounce, they don't even try anymore.

I have that with my own last name. Rolling R's and other sounds are very hard for English speaking people to reproduce.
Pretty much all of my English speaking college teachers, have given up on so much as trying to pronounce my last name. Even carefully enunciating it for them doesn't help.
It's terribly archaic spelling doesn't help either.
Dutch people read it, ponder on it, then pronounce it wrong pretty much 100% of the time.
My college teachers tended to stare at the jumble of letters like it was going to jump of the page and bite them.
At least roll call was generally interesting. :p
 

[RarityDash]

Most people with my name are either 2 or 92. Seriously. It was very common in the 1910's, and is now at around 30th most common. I feel like literally every person I meet says its "pretty"

[June]

I have a common name and a uncommon surname. There are two ways to spell it which would mean, in my language, you read them differently but that's not really noticeable. When I was in elementary school, there was another girl with the same name in my class, but they just gave me the epithet "Big" because I was tall and, well, a few kilos overweight.
Later on came nasty nicknames derived from my surname.
Now at uni I'm just known by my name even though there are 3 of us in my group. People just use our surnames if there is a confusion. I like it this way.

I was never given a nice nickname before, and the only one I liked was annoying a few "friends" some reason (?!) so I've never gotten a chance to be called by it for real. I've been using it for gaming for a few years, though.

Even though my surname is really uncommon and I've never met anybody besides my family with it, there is a girl who shares the exact same name and surname with me! I've been added on skype by her friends and everyone was confused for some time

When I was younger I didn't really like my name, but I like it now. It's short, easy to pronounce and it's written the same with Latin and Cyrillic system. It can be also written and read with Japanese katakana without sounding funny. Now that's practical!