Weddingbee boards

I know I've posted about this before and I think you replied on my other post so bear with me if you've heard my story/reasoning..

And by the way, I love the name Amanda but you are right, it WAS popular during that time.. my niece is named Amanda and she was born in 1986.    I know how it is to have a name that was just trendy during the decade you were born. Worse when there is some cheezy song associated with it!

I plan on a total name change.  It will be weird since I am almost 40!  But I hope to do it before we move out of state, that way I will start fresh with a new name and not have as much difficulty with people getting used to it, if that makes sense.  My kids don't call me anything but "Mom" and my wife calls me "Babe" so it shouldn't affect them too much. ;)

But like you, I have always hated my name.  It just doesn't suit me at all and my mom admits she picked it becasue the hospital was pushing her to pick something.  I went for a week with no name at all!  She tried to convince them to let her take me home and name me later.. she said she needed to "know" me to know what name would fit, and that makes sense, but they wouldn't allow it (military hospital) so she just kind of pulled a name out of what was popular and that was that.   She had expected a boy, I think, and didn't have any names ready.

I think a name should have careful consideration and meaning and ideally, a family connection.  My sons names were both chosen for their meaning and have family significance.   My mom didn't even "really like" my name! 

My last name (my father's name) is hard to pronounce, always misspelled, and I have no affection for it.. my father and I were NOT close.

So I will most likely be changing my first name to my G-Grandmother's (Lucile) and going by "Lucy".  I have surveyed friends and family and everyone agrees it suits me 100x better than my given name.   I haven't decided what to do about my middle name yet.. it's just a typical "filler" middle name so I will probably change it too, not sure to what.

Then my last name will be my wife's Grandma's maiden name.  It's gorgeous and my wife has a last name that is "not hers" for reasons you gave about your Aunt.. her last name was her mom's first husband's name.  A man she has never met and has nothing to do with and who is not her father, and it's super common.

My wife is also changing her 1st name to a nickname she has gone by for a long time.  She already has 2 names unofficially.. a nickname her family calls her, based on her birth name, and totally NOT HER,  and a nickname she's used as an adult that everyone else knows her by, work, school, etc., but isn't legally her name.   So she is changing her legal name to the one used most, but among her fmily she will still be known by the old name, but she isn't very close with them so it's not an issue really.  And she will also be taking her Grandma's maiden name as her lst name so we will have the same surname.

Wow, I didn't mean for that to get so long! But I wanted to share because I understand why you want to do this.   My mom has no issue with me changing my name and even encouraged it (and at one point offered to pay for it!)..   I think life is too short to go around with a name or names you can't stand.  I cringe every time I hear my name spoken out loud!

@Miss Marine: Ha, yeah, so true.  Get this; (true story)... I didn't change my name the first time I married.  Everyone ASSUMED I did, though.

My father and I weren't very close; birthdays and Christmas visits but that was about it. So he was one who assumed I'd changed my name and he named me in his will with the WRONG NAME.

I didn't realize this until after he passed away!  What it meant from then on is that I received oil royalty checks made out to the wrong name and it was a mess.  My bank let me cash the checks because my (then) husband and I had joint accounts so even though my name wasn't  the same as his, since he was on the accounts they let it slide.  I had to go through a big headache to get it fixed and even now there are still problems. 

I sold the oil royalties years ago, but found out I have "unclaimed funds" held by the state, from oil companies who sent me checks after I moved and for whatever reason they didn't catch up with me and were turned over to the state. And yes, you guessed it, the old wrong name.  It's been a nightmare trying to prove a name change that never happened.  They kept telling me that I needed to provide proof of my "name change" and I kept trying to explain that there never was a NAME CHANGE!  Round and round.  I still have no idea how I am gonig to be able to cash those checks held by the state, years later, when I thought it was all fixed and over with. They are made out to me, with my first name and my ex's surname and there's no "joint account" to help out now since he and I haven't been together in almost a decade!