Are you named for anyone? How do you feel about your given name? If this is too personal and you prefer to remain anonymous, tell us about your online handle or any nicknames you may have.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

Answers

Oh, I should have added this: what about pet names? Any strange or sweet terms of endearment you'd care to share?

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

I'm named after my grandmothers, Vera Mae and Anna. I've always loved the fact that I shared both their names, but for a long time felt "Ann" was a boring, common name and that Vera was just too weird to be used.

I love both my names.

pet names....bunky, boo-boo, fannie, frieda......tho my friends call me motherfucker, whore, bitch, freak......

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

I forgot my confirmation name...francis...as in asissi....

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

I'm named for my Grandmother, Josephine, and my mother's Aunt Anna. My family and friends call me Josie. I like my given name, I really liked my Grandmother a lot and even though people misspell it all the time, I'm okay with it, in general.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

My dad's brother (my uncle) is named Paul W. also. He was a jazz bassist of some note in his glory days. My middle name came primarily from someone on my mother's side, but also from someone on my dad's side, although more distantly. I found that interesting because it's not a common name.

My parents literally made up my sister's middle name, sort of a shortened and femininized version of my dad's first name. I always thought that was cool.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

My parents wanted to honor Aunt Miriam, so they decided to give me an "M" name. They thought Mallory was unique, I guess. I was almost Molly. Pet names? Oh, I've had a bunch, but I guess Olive Oyl was thw one that lasted, and variations on that theme. Not to imply that I used to look like a flat-chested cartoon character who got shuffled like a piece of meat between Popeye and Bluto.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

I wish I had a family name; I think it's cool. I might not feel that way if I were a Myrtle, tho.

-- Anonymous, August 29, 2000

I had great-aunts on both sides named Margaret. I'm the youngest of several siblings so I guess my parents had to go somewhere to find names they hadn't already used.

I have been called every diminutive of that name since I was a baby. People from different parts of my life call me different versions: Margaret, Marg, Margie, Maggie, Marge, Margey. My husband has even called me Peg or Peggy, usually with the epithet "Pouty" in front of it.

-- Anonymous, August 29, 2000

Actually, I'm the only one in my family who *wasn't* named after anyone. I'm the youngest of four children, and as family legend has it, my mother was too wiped out and in general denial about being pregnant again to actually come up with a name. So, she let my great-aunt Charlotte name me. Aunt Charlotte thought April was a nice Irish name (I don't know about that, and besides, we're not particularly Irish so I don't know why that was a consideration); no idea where my erstwhile middle name, Lynn came from. (Erstwhile because when I got married I dropped the "Lynn" and took my maiden name as my legal middle name.)

I was not born in April. I was born in August. People used to call me Ape, but only a handful are still allowed the privilege.

I'm well pleased with it as a name, actually. It's sort of distinctive without being completely weird.

-- Anonymous, August 29, 2000

I was named after an Irish racehorse, which achieved a good measure of fame in the 1930's. A solid, rather than spectacular, performer during races (his lifetime winnings amounted to just GBP 36) Pale Blue came to public attention after his owner, Flann O'Brien, claimed that the horse was able to levitate. Word spread around Ireland, and hundreds made the pilgrimage to the stables in Kildare, with the Catholic Church even making an attempt to claim that the horse was in some way holy. Eventually, of course, the 'levitation' was revealed as a clevel optical illusion, created by O'Brien with the help of string and mirrors. But the name of the horse lived on.

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2000

My first name: my parents just liked it. Middle name: from Lord of the Rings. Second middle name: I don't know. Third middle name: my paternal grandmother's name.

Now I just use my maiden name for my middle initial, though.

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2000

First name: maternal grandmother's namesake.
Middle name (and name I use): paternal grandmother's namesake. It's spelled funny (see e-mail address) and this name with this spelling shows up on both sides of the family tree, which is pretty weird.
Last name: It was my dad's and his dad's before him ad infinitum.

I go by Lorelei online (or used to do so, far more frequently) and back in the beginning, I never ran into any other Loreleis. I was strapped for a login name and flipped through some 45 rpm records. Lorelei is the instrumental on the flipside of Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love. I didn't get it from mythology, or from Styx or from Cocteau Twins, etc. It was a random off-the-cuff choice that stuck. Now I run into other Loreleis online all the time, and it's annoying.

Close friends call me Milla (Mee-la). I started signing e-mails Milla because no one can say or spell my real name correctly. I got tired of being called Melissa, Maryanne, Mallory, Mona, Miriam, Melinda, Melanie, etc. No one pronounces Milla correctly--some local friends and I exchange e-mail and they started calling me Milla as well--but I can't hear them butcher it so I don't care. And it has nothing to do with Milla Jovovich, though she's cute as a button.

I went by Namaste on occasion, but got weary of explaining it constantly. The translation of that one word is five miles long and pretty much grinds conversation to a halt. Suffice it to say that it is a respectful 'hello'.

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2000

My online name over at Yahoo! is "another". It was 1997 and I was going to look into the chat rooms there. I went to sign up and all the names I wanted to use were already taken. Yahoo! kept telling me "That name is already taken. Please choose another." So I did what I was told and signed up. Now I've had another@yahoo.com ever since then. I've tried getting the same name at some other places, but there's too much to keep up with so I gave up.

Even my online name earned a nickname. It's been shortened by pals to "noter". So I use that at crosswinds.net (another was already taken, dammit) and I will occasionally sign emails that way.

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2000

Off Topic: Milla, I used to go by Lorelei too. It was cool, because no one else was ever a lorelei. Eventually, the Lorelei copycats, damn them to hell, became more common, so I switched to a specific lorelei, the Witch of the Western Mire, Oriencor, from a book I read. No one else has it in the world!

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2000

i hate my real name!!! its so emberessing. i was named after moms favroite great aunt and her name is Winifred. at school i was called winnie the pooh or freddie or winifart. it was terrable! then when i went on my first date when i was 14 my mom told me Dont act like a floosie! my freind was there and herd her say that so ever since then ive been floosie. i think its cute.

-- Anonymous, August 31, 2000

My name was a compromise. My mom wanted to name me Katherine and call me Kate and my dad wanted to name me Pamela. They each hated the other's choice, so Laura it was. My middle name is my mother's maiden name (Williams). She wanted to honor her parents and she's really close to that side of the family. I like it because I'm really close to that side of the family, too.

Nicknames-Laurie, Willie, Blondie, Chief, Laurabelle, Lorelei

-- Anonymous, August 31, 2000

My name, apparently, comes from an obscure piece of fiction called, "Another Claudia." My mother found a battered copy at a yardsale years ago and gave it to me one Christmas. I have yet to read it. Basically, she wanted my sister, Adrien, and I (is that proper English?) to have unusual names that could not be butchered into nicknames. I love my name. You don't hear it very often and wherever I work, there are no other Claudias so I'm never "the other Nancy". My first middle name is my father's mother's middle name and my second middle name comes from some poor souls on my mother's side.

-- Anonymous, September 01, 2000

My brother and I got pretty standard names. Our middle names are our parents first names. I was never a Victoria, just a plain Vicki, which I resent a little. There have been a couple of very different people in my life who have called me Victoria on their own. Their motives would be interesting to know. Lots of people have called me Vic. It makes me smile because I consider it an indication of their comfort level with me.

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2000