Does anyone use a name that's not their own?

[RebeccaDoll]

While I have had a few names I have gone by - usually my middle name because there were 5 Rebecca's in my class my entire life- it's unusual and shamefully star trekkie thanks to my father - so I will not utter it here, but if you are a trekkie, think original series, female, contraversal kiss, and the actress's FULL name is my middle name.

But I am a nicknamer, I give people names, usually normal, because they remind me of someone or I already know 2-3 other people with the same name. Or in a few cases they did something in the first 5 seconds of me meeting them I have forever linked them with said action.

They include
Steven - He looked and behaved like the same namesake from Braveheart.
S.K. - His real name starts with a 'T', and I introduced him to 10 or so people as S.K. (he had a story about strippers and it was all I associated with him for about a month) and they believe it stands for something similar to names like T.J.
Figs - Girl I knew, last name Isiacks, Pronounced like Mr.Newton, Newtons reminds me of Fig Newton, therefore Figs
Bagel Boy - He was eating bagel's and I pointed him out to another person "Go give that form to the Bagel Boy over there", now we call him BB.

 

[Diamondback]

I've been trying to reinvent myself as a charming person my whole life. As you can see, it hasn't been an unqualified success.

But not exactly a "failure", either... Success that's short of "Total Victory" but still shows measurable gain belongs on the "positive" side of the ledger, right?

 

[Darhling]

Nope.. but it would be quite cool if friends would do it to me and give me a mysterious and exxotic name.. my real name is utterly dull..

 

[Fletch]

Bagel Boy - He was eating bagel's and I pointed him out to another person "Go give that form to the Bagel Boy over there", now we call him BB.

Good call. In some places, calling someone Bagel Boy would be grounds for legal action.

 

[High Pockets]

On a related tangent, due to limited sense of "self-identity" over most of my life (another complication of an assimilative personality), I've had a tendency to completely reinvent myself every so many years, from "Trial-Size Commando" to "Secret Service/MIB" to finally "Mini-MacArthur" under which I think I've finally found who I really am. (Not to mention a whole lot more style than the "Mall Ninja" look...lol ) Kinda fits with the rattler nickname, needing to "shed outgrown skins" every so often... but I think this one, while I still have to grow into it a bit more, should fit for most of the rest of my life.

Anyone else have a "pattern of behavior" similar to this?

You kidd'n me? At the age of fifty-five I'm still looking for the real Tommy.
One of these days I'll come across him.

I've always gone by Tom or Tommy,....but for as long as I can remember I've hated my middle name.
One Thanksgiving I questioned my mother as to why she chose that particular name. Her answer was; "Uh,..I don't know."
Within a week I was in the office of an attorney-friend of mine making plans to legally change it.
I never told my mother.

 

[Feraud]

Ehhhh having gone through middle school you can imagine the chiding I received. Most people just call me Dylan or Almond.

I cannot imagine anyone having an issue with someone named Dylan.

 

[High Pockets]

Me neither,...I think it's cool! Trade ya!?!

 

[bobalooba]

On a related tangent, due to limited sense of "self-identity" over most of my life (another complication of an assimilative personality), I've had a tendency to completely reinvent myself every so many years, from "Trial-Size Commando" to "Secret Service/MIB" to finally "Mini-MacArthur" under which I think I've finally found who I really am. (Not to mention a whole lot more style than the "Mall Ninja" look...lol ) Kinda fits with the rattler nickname, needing to "shed outgrown skins" every so often... but I think this one, while I still have to grow into it a bit more, should fit for most of the rest of my life.

Anyone else have a "pattern of behavior" similar to this?
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Now playing: John Williams - The Raiders March
via FoxyTunes

I do this also, for a long time I dressed punkish (I still do from time to time) but I would sport a leather jacket, combat boots, jeans and some sort of band tee and I used to have long hair. One day I realized how ridiculous I looked and cut my hair, hung up my jacket and bought a few sweaters and for a while I did a "potsie look". I could only do this for so long it seems because I once again realized I looked silly and going for a purely fifties look offered little change in appearance, that was two years ago.

Since then I have given up trying to look a specific way, rather I look different (though not radically so) each day. I wear jeans or chinos with a long or short sleeved shirt with any or none of the almost a dozen sweaters I own and I wear a blazer when I wear the chinos and I sport a fedora or homburg. This is all inspired mostly by a love of, not so much vintage style, but classic style. I am no longer trying to look as though I belong in a certain era but I try to look as though I could be in any era (yet still stand out, as is my way)

Any way, sorry that was way off topic

As for names I am called I am often called "Oz" because I had a friend who loved buffy the vampire slayer and she said my hair reminded her of a character, she started calling me that and it stuck.

 

[bobalooba]

\Some people are shocked when they find out my real name is Max.[huh]

that's my name too!

what's yours short for, if anything?

 

[Lenore]

... there were 5 Rebecca's in my class my entire life...

I know the feeling well. Throughout High School we kept the same Homeroom classes and they were done alphabetically by LAST name. Between Ca and Co there were 4 of us. I think I could count 20 someodd Sarahs in my graduating class.

*sighs*

Is there any wonder why I go by Lenore?

 

[JennyLou]

So Jennylou did your brother name your twin sister too?

Ha, no. She was named Josie, kinda after my grandmother Josefina.

 

[JennyLou]

Because my name is so common I sometimes go by Dot (short for Dorothy). I do this when they ask for a name when I order food or a drink. The chances of another Jennifer being in the room is very likely.

 

[dhermann1]

Gah, I wish. I am so tired of "Faith" lol.

OK, you are now Scarlett.

 

[RebeccaDoll]

Fletch - Good ole' B.B. happens to eat bagels almost everyday since the matter out of spite, he is hilarious! No legal action luckily!

Lenore - Lenore is a lovely name to choose, unfortunatly I have rarely been able to escape my real name or my middle names as how people know me, hazards of living in the same small city your entire life.

 

[Mahagonny Bill]

For some reason, many people call be "Bob". I don't know why, I guess I just look like a Bob. It has gotten to the point where I'll answer to it and I have been known to give to street folk who are chatting me up for change, but my friends still call me Bill.

The most egregious renaming I have run into was in high school. There was a girl from Vietnam in my class named Ha Vu. I always thought that was a cool name, but she didn't seem to like it. When she turned 18 she went through the process of becoming a US citizen and decided to change her name at the same time. The name she picked? Alexis St. James . I was appalled. I think she watched too much Dynasty when she was young.

 

[Lenore]

Lenore - Lenore is a lovely name to choose, unfortunatly I have rarely been able to escape my real name or my middle names as how people know me, hazards of living in the same small city your entire life.

Very true. I've kicked around the same area of Houston most of my life, but luckily the opportunity arose when I got a new job many years ago and no one knew of me. It was a great way to ease into it. With that came more confidence to use it in social situations and in making new friends. Now when I have to use the name Sarah (at doctor's offices, legal issues, etc) I actually stumble over it. It's awkward and doesn't really fit me anymore, not that it ever really did.

I'm still Sarah to my parents and my husband's family, though he calls me Lenore unless he's upset about something. We were introduced by someone I went to middle school with, so now I'm stuck forever with it family wise, though I really don't mind too much.

 

[Darhling]

Last year in my theater class, someone thought I looked like a Timmy. So only a few people in the class called me Timmy, then they started introducing me to people as "Timmy", and it just got around. SO now most people at school call me by that name. Some people are shocked when they find out my real name is Max.[huh]

I really, really like the name Max.. I have always said if I ever have a child, it should have Max as a middlename, despite the sex.

 

[get_atomized]

While I have had a few names I have gone by - usually my middle name because there were 5 Rebecca's in my class my entire life- it's unusual and shamefully star trekkie thanks to my father - so I will not utter it here, but if you are a trekkie, think original series, female, contraversal kiss, and the actress's FULL name is my middle name.

For real?! As a huge OS Trekkie, I think that's swell! I wish it was my name.

 

[Diamondback]

I really, really like the name Max.. I have always said if I ever have a child, it should have Max as a middlename, despite the sex.

It can work--one of the ladies over on the BD-5 miniplane board goes by "Max".

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Now playing: James Horner - Into The LEM
via FoxyTunes

 

[FinalVestige79]

I cannot imagine anyone having an issue with someone named Dylan.

Thanks guys....just keep in mind with what a little kid with hormones...and what the name rhymes with.