Popular and Unpopular Names

[Amy Z]

The delightfully short Cindy <ducks> wrote:

> OK, 'fess up.  Why don't you like "Amy?"  Is it the "y" ending?  Or 
> is it just too darn short?  Or something else?

It seems kind of Jewish-American-Princessy to me.*  And kind of cute 
and girly-girlish.  I do not want to be any of those things.  And 
when I look at it in print I often think, "That's ME?," but maybe 
everyone has that experience, the way a word will look unreal if you 
write it over and over again.

I've thought from time to time of changing it, but stick with it 
because, well, it's my name.  However discontent I feel with it at 
times, I do seem to be trained to answer to it.**  Also, the task of 
choosing another one seems so momentous--like I'm defining myself for 
all time.  My middle name is an option, but it doesn't fit me much 
better than "Amy."

It just now occurred to me that maybe I should stop dreaming about 
one day having a daughter whom I name Terra, since I'm unlikely to 
get my dh's agreement anyway (he likes plain names), and just change 
*my* name to that.  Terra Ziffenplatzen . . . Terra 
Ziffenplatzen . . . what do y'all think?

Amy
who knows a Cynthia who changed her name

*Use of this term does not imply endorsement of the anti-Semitic, 
misogynist stereotype it describes.  Offer invalid in Utah, Wyoming 
and Guam.  Batteries not included.

**It's kind of like emigrating, which I think of doing periodically 
when yet another ______ [insert political party here] is elected 
President, or I read USA Today or The New Yorker, or I make the 
mistake of watching the Emmys and realize I am witnessing the decline 
of a once-great culture and there's not a damn thing I can do about 
it.  But even if I could find another country that I liked better, 
there's no escaping it:  I'm an American.