Yeah, you're definitely not a Maude. Gertrude - shortened to Trudy - is a possibility. But Maude's definitely out of the picture.

My name has been a hassle, but I don't worry about it much. No one can pronounce it (LAH-nee, for the uninitiated) and when they've got the pronunciation right, they get the spelling wrong. (Lonnie is a frequent winner, although I think my favorite was when a boyfriend's mother called me Lolly.) My dad wanted to call me Candace (spelled normally, but pronounced Can-dass-ay) or Dierdre, either of which I could probably live with, but I think Lani's a good fit. It's a little off and a little odd, just like me.

But I love Pemberley! It says so much with so little...

Here two I've heard recently:

• Lisa Mercedes
• Holly Costa

No one can spell my name and since my first name is so very Irish and my last name is so very Norwegian, no one really expects me.

No. You are not a Maude or a Gertrude or Josephine for that matter.

Eileen

I've spent my entire life correcting the pronunciation of Alesia (what were they THINKING???) so my kids have names that are impossible to mispronounce. On the other hand, I was very nearly named after two great-grandmothers, which would have made me Arizona Ruhaima Holliday.
I kid you not.
So Alesia? not so bad.

If I was a boy, my dad wanted to name me Garth. After my mother stopped laughing at him, she told him firmly that I would be Matthew.

I am also not Alison, which I guess I almost was.

Lauren won out, because mom liked it best. I despised it through grade school for two reasons. The first being... when I was little there were no Laurens, so my name was not on any merchandise. No rulers, no pencils, nothing. and the second, I couldn't come up with a cute nickname that ended in i.

I like my name. My full name. I am actually called Tina by my family and everyone I went to high school with (all because my older sister couldn't pronounce my name correctly when I was born). Not too keen on anyone else calling me that now though--just them. I was supposed to be named Jean after my maternal grandmother. Glad my dad won out on that one and named me after his father. My sister has a better name though--she is named after our paternal grandmother, Zoe.

As for wacky children's names...I have cousins who have named their children common names but with slightly unusual spellings, like Ashlee and Emylee. I wouldn't do that personally, but to each his own. I tend to like the more traditional names like Elizabeth, Anastasia, Catherine, Colin and the like. The freakiest celebrity baby names I have heard of late: Penn of Penn & Teller naming his daughter Moxie CrimeFighter and his son Zolten. And the girl from A Knight's Tale and 40 Days and 40 Nights...she named her son Audio Science. I am not kidding you. I fear for that kid.

I had a coworker who named her daughter Lemonee. I kid you not. It's apparently Greek for Lemon Blossom, but neither she nor the father are Greek.

On common names - at school there were about five million girls named Michelle (my mother blames the Beatles, LOL).

On unusual names - well, Frank Zappa's daughter is called Moon Unit Zappa...

I have 6 kids. The 4 girls have uncommon but not unusual names. The 2 boys have very common names, though neither was supposed to.
Gretchen is named for my friend in the Navy.
Jordan is because of the river in the Bible.
Maggie is because her Daddy is Irish. I wanted her middle name to be "Mae" like my grandmother's, but the Man said "NO WAY". Something about a Rod Stewart song. Ok, I know that song well, and really wanted her to be named for the song. I settled for "Shea" though. Close enough.
And Emile (pronounced Emily) is named for my step-father, middle named Emil. She tells people," It's like Smile, but with an E at the front".
The boys are Mathew (uno-T to his friends), and Michael. Michael was supposed to be Nicholas, but was born 2 weeks early on Christmas Eve. Doc thought Nicholas would be really mean, considering.
I don't mind the weird names so much as naming kids something that you never intend to call them. If you want to call a child Lexie, don't name her Alexandra. Just MHO. That's why I have a Maggie instead of a Margaret.

As another Eileen, I have spent my life being called Ellen or Arlene.

My brother in law named his daughter Autumn Breeze.

Have we noted what my pen name is? That's my actual middle name-- first day of school? Always an adventure. And trying to explain I was named after two saints. What fun, in my very Anglo, Protestant school. *snerk*

I did the same as Alesia-- gave the kids names that are easy to pronounce. In English.

TeresaH--Autumn Breeze sounds like a cocktail....oh wait, that's sea breeze. Close enough.

I don't know if this is true but I heard once that a man with the surname Ng (pronounced like 'ing') wanted to name his daughter Eve and have her middle initial be N so her name would be Eve N Ng. Evil, huh? ;)

Christina, that sounds like the Hogg sisters, Ima and Ura. And no, it's not a joke. Very sad.
And my Grams? Well, let's just say that my great grandfather thought he was being very clever when he named her.
Ima...
Mae...
Day!

He was a very cruel man.
Geez, ladies, stop laughing. I am being totally serious about that. The poor woman could not WAIT to get married, just to change it. Really though, can you blame her? At least she had her sister for company in the bad name department - Doris. Yeah, Doris Day. And no, not the famous one. That's the problem. But man, did she get teased. See, I told you he was cruel!

My SIL had a friend (notice the "had" part) who had a boy about the same time that my SIL had one of her kids. Now, I am NOT making this up--she named the boy Critter. Critter. What kind of a freaking name is THAT?!! And when my girlfriend's son was playing Pop Warner football he played against a kid with that name... I would have slapped my momma silly when I grew up if she had given ME that moniker...!! Yes, and I believe, if memory serves me right, that good drugs were involved in that name choice, and we ain't talkin' the Demerol! *wink*

My name is a typo. No, really! I was supposed to be named Janine but they made a mistake on my birth certificate and my mom just wanted to go home so she said, "Just leave it. That's fine." I hated it growing up. The lady on Romper Room never saw Janina in her Magic Mirror.

My friend Mark married a girl who had picked out a name for a baby girl years before they even met:Lacey Rose. Their last name you ask? Stocking. Yup, Lacey Stocking. That poor kid is doomed to be a stripper or porn star.

Well, I'm a little late for this party, but I knew a woman long ago named Chardelle - named after two grandmothers, I believe - Charlotte and Adelle...

I love my daughter's name. She, however, wishes I had gone with my #2 choice, Savannah, instead of the name Sierra. She changes the spelling to Ciara quite often. If she has her way, I will add another middle name to her name and then she will be--are you ready?--Sierra Ilona Rose Carvalho Maderos. Yep. Just had to share that my kid has one of the longest names of anyone I know! I would have been happy with Sierra Rose, but then there is that whole family name issue and not having her named after someone in the DH's family....

Is there another little girl in the world named Kensington? Or, did we have the pleasure of meeting you at Target?

On May 19, 2003, my husband and I cancelled an appointment with a fertility specialist at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. We decided the best place for our fertility was in the hands of God. On May 29, we flew to London and stayed in Kensington where we spent a week in love with the country and each other. After two years of trying, God and London brought us the gift of a baby. Nine months to the day of our cancelled infertility appointment, our daughter was born (February 19). Her name was suppose to be Sydney Rose, but we wanted to commemorate our wonderful holiday in beautiful Kensington, London by naming our blessing Kensington Rose. With her strawberry blond curls and bright blue eyes, she wears her name royally. For short, we call her Kensi. I would enjoy hearing back from you. Cheers. ~ Theresa Rose

My nephew's friend is named Sir Arthur. The kids call him Sir.
And I used to go to church w/ an entire family of different names. There was Queenie, Beautiful, Handsome and Prince. No joke.