[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Popular and Unpopular Names

[Sheryll Townsend]

 --- Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt at yahoo.com> wrote: > 
> 
> When I was born, my mother wanted an uncommon name
> for
> me, and named me Tyler. As a kid, I was the only
> Tyler
> I knew, and it used to annoy me that I could never
> find personalized little toys, etc. with my name on
> them. Now, Tyler seems quite popular as a boy's
> name.
> After spending most of my life as the only Tyler, I
> still am startled when I'm out in public and hear
> someone calling their kid by that name.
> 
I know that feels. While Sheryll isn't a particularly
uncommon name, spelling it this way is unusual. I only
knew one other Cheryl growing up and I didn't meet her
until high school. And I could never find any of those
little personalised items, either. 

My sister had the same problem, though there's
actually a story behind her name. There are nearly 5
years between us and by the time my sister came along
my parents already had names picked out. My sister was
going to be called Sandra Lee. Fair enough. However,
in those days you couldn't leave the hospital until
you had named you baby. About the time my mother was
finding out she was pregnant, her sister had a baby
girl. Didn't know what to call her, so named her
Sandra Lee. My parents were told that they were having
a boy, so weren't too worried about that name being
taken, and decided to call a boy Shawn. They had a
girl. My mother suggested calling my sister Shawn.
Nope, says Dad, that's a boy's name. So my mother took
the d and the a out of Sandra, stuck it on the end of
Shawn and said "Not a boy's name anymore". So my
sister ended up being Shawnda Lynn. You might not
think that's so bad. However, she was a teenager about
the time that Honda was big on a campaign that
advertised 'get your hands on a Honda'. Not much of a
stretch from Honda to Shawnda. Fortunately my sister
has a good sense of humour (and likely still has the
Honda mirror I gave her). :-D

I have about 25 cousins on both sides of our family
and I don't think any of us have used names for our
children that are already in the family. Makes for
some interesting names. My cousins have named their
children things like Talina, Chyna, Avery (a
delightful little girl) and Nolan. My sister's
children are Austin, Makayla and Kailan and my
daughter is named Nyssa. I cheated and gave her two
middle names - Elizabeth (after my aunt) and Shawnda. 

Nyssa hated her name growing up because no one could
pronounce it and people were forever asking her if her
name was Vanessa or Melissa. By the time she was three
her standard response to "What's your name?" was
"Nyssa, N-Y-S-S-A, Nyssa". It's pronounced Nissa and
even through high school she had teachers that
insisted on calling her Neesa. I never thought it
would cause that much trouble. *sigh*

Sheryll, thinking her husband's siblings had it easy
with names like Susan, Andrew, Mike, Larry, Frank, etc.

=====
"No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously." - Dave Barry

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