Names

Do you have a middle name?

Do you tell people what it is?

How about your first name do you use your full first name or do you shorten it?

How about if your first name is hyphenated do you use the hyphen or not?

My first name is Jo-Anne, as a child I didn’t think my about it being hyphenated but now that I am in my 50’s I like that it has a hyphen and I am particular about it. I don’t feel like it is just a run of the mill name. I also have a middle name and there is nothing wrong with it, it’s “Nita” I was named after my mother’s aunty Nita but it is not a name I use very often.

My oldest daughter is Kathy-Lee, and her oldest daughter is Sydney-May we seem to have a trend with the first name being hyphenated. Kathy often uses only Kathy and not Kathy-Lee but that might change as she ages since it did with me.

Sometimes I am called just Jo and I am fine with that as well, my mum’s name is Mavis but she has been called Mae for most of her life, as I think about my siblings while writing this I realise that Jeannie prefers to be called Jeannie, so not shortened, Susan prefers to be called Sue and Sandra prefers Sandra but often gets called Sandy and David gets either David or Dave.

Now my grandfather (dad’s dad) Tom’s first name was Richard and his middle name was Thomas and he was always called Tom, his sister my aunty Joyce her first name was Sylvia and her middle name was Joyce but she was always called Joyce as well.

I know so people do not to share their middle name as it can be something a little old fashion at times, being that they may have been named after an elderly relative I have three daughters the only one who was named after a relative is Jessica her middle name is Mae and the name Mae is popular in this family all being named after mum.

We have Sandra Mae, Jessica Mae, Temika Mae & Sydney-May I would have preferred if Sydney’s name was spelt Mae not May but can’t have everything can we.

I do feel if a person is going to give their child a strange maybe out there first name they should also give the child a normal sounding middle name, like if you are going to call your child “Apple” maybe their middle name should be “Jane”…………..lol just saying, something that sounds less out there that the child can use if they do not like their first name.

I also feel many people do not like their own name at some point in their life, Kathy-Lee called herself “Kate” for a while which was ok with me as my nan used to call her “Kate” I don’t remember Natasha ever complaining about her name but Jessica did when she was a teenager but haven’t heard her say anything about her name in years.

I do not think children realise how much thought their parents put into their names but I do not know a parent who did not think a lot about what to name their child, I know Tim and I put a lot of thought into it going over names saying them aloud to get the way the sounded.

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