If you could change your first name what would you have ?

I quite like Euphemia and Ethel!
Euphemia is Effie for short. Wasn't she the beautiful child in Silas Marner who toddled into his life and changed him for the better?

My neighbour was actually shortened to Eufy (pronounced Yoofy), but everybody took the mickey out of her and called her Euphemism, which was unkind.

Casdon

petra

I’m just grateful that my father didn't get his way with naming me. He wanted Ethel 😱

My poor neighbour was Euphemia - with apologies if anybody here is called that, it must be one of the most dreadful names ever.

Oh, I don’t know! My husband’s grandmother was called Tryphena!!

I wouldn’t want to change my name now but at school it was unusual.
We all had nicknames for each other anyway so it didn’t matter.

When a young teenager I wished I had been called Annabelle, or tbh any long fancy name😁
When older I liked my own name but if I had to choose another name right now it would be Lily or Iris.

I'm half Italian and would have loved an Italian name - Francesca, Bianca, Sofia, Carla, Giorgia, Gemma, anything but my awful English name!

Curlywhirly

I'm half Italian and would have loved an Italian name - Francesca, Bianca, Sofia, Carla, Giorgia, Gemma, anything but my awful English name!

Aww, never mind, Curlywhirly is at the very least, an unusual name and an icebreaker at parties 😁

Ah now that's an idea, perhaps I should introduce myself with my Gransnet name 🙄 instead of my disliked real one!

Worth a try, just to see their faces 😂

I was the first grandchild on Dad’s side of the family and they took ages choosing my name. Consequently I have one name ( my brother and sister have two each and my children have three. I have a French name (last registered as a name in the UK in 2018 I think) and often spelt wrong. I love the names Catherine, Charlotte or Araminta.

I used to quite like my name but it has gone out of fashion so it’s relatively easy to guess my age. I’d love to be a Catherine or Madeleine. But my real favourite is Rose. Maybe because I love gardening.

I always wanted a name that sounded like a boy. Peta, Toni or Stevie were my pretend names sometimes

Grandma70s

Katherine, with a K, is one of my names, too. I like it better with a C.

Both my grandchildren (16 and 13) have three first names (if you see what I mean). I think it was the fashion when they were born, and still is for many.

I like it better with a K! A DD’s middle name is Katharine.

When I was growing up I read a book called Catrin in Wales and loved that name. Also Rhiannon and Anghared. Catrin would probably have been easier to spell than the others.

I hated my name. I was called Caroline which was very fancy for the 50s, I would much rather have been Carol which was more acceptable at school. Still my second name was Joan, which I thought was even worse. My mother had been christened Joan because she was born when St Joan was being canonised. I rather fancied Lindsey as a name, but my school friends would probably have thought it was weird.

Grandmatie, I also have a French name, as do my siblings. My older sister hated her name Martine growing up, since it was very uncommon, but now that we are more multicultural than in the 60's and 70's, she is fine with it. All three girls have French names starting with M, so you can narrow mine down.

I've always been fine with my name and never really had a replacement in mind, but I chose Theresa as my confirmation name. Going to Catholic school, we had a real mixture of Irish, Italian, French, and Dutch background students. I did think the name Amanda was quite exotic!

Persephone.

As my name is short, ugly and very common (among my generation) I always wished I had a beautiful name. I still get mad when people spell my name the other way.
New parents should be given rules - Don’t choose the most popular name of the year, nor something unheard of.
Don’t spell it a peculiar way.
Find out what it means.
Don’t use a name nobody can pronounce or spell (that’s all Irish names)

The one I'm actually known by !

First name on my birth cert is the name of singer Mum heard on the radio. As soon as my birth had been registered she took against the chosen name and I've never been called it or known as it.

Except on my passport, medical records, professional certificates, degrees, bank accounts, and every govt department :-(

Sarah would be the name I’d choose. It was what my mum wanted to call me as it was both my grandmother’s and a nice great aunt name but my dad said no. Instead I’ve got a name that dates me and has variants so I always have to spell it out. I suppose I don’t actually hate it but I don’t like it.

The irony is, when my dad registered my birth, having got his own way with my first name, he then gave the registrar the wrong spelling of my second name! I’ve always spelt it the way my mum wanted it to be and so far it’s never been an issue wrt to security that it doesn’t match my birth certificate but that day could still come.

I've met a number of older Scottish ladies named after their Dad a with feminised version of his name. Donaldina, Andrewina, Jamesina, Thomasina. Often abbreviated to Ina,, rhymes with eye- na.

Worst of all was my next door neighbour,

poor Archiebelle.

I’m very grateful for my name, I wouldn’t want to change it.
Names I wanted for my daughters, but vetoed by my husband (much to their relief)

Clover
Lydia
Jonquil
Piper

Lately I love the name Saoirse I just wonder if girls with that name who don't live in Ireland will have a lifetime of being mispronounced (Seer sha) I believe, and having to spell it out continuously.

Sometimes it’s someone with the name and their personality that attracts you to the name. When I was at college I liked Sherrie. Unusual then without being strange.

Persephone a beautiful name, but just reminds me of listening to one of my children reading it out for the first time, pronouncing it Percy phone, logical, I couldn't help laughing though