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It did a bit (and I never thought of my name as unusual it just wasn't commonly used in my age group) but not overly so. I never liked the idea of having people's names plastered on stuff but when you see practically every name but your on things you don't even want it does make you feel a bit left out.

Yes, it did bother me. My name is pretty rare in Sweden, so I never had any stuff with my name on. I did find a brooch with my name once (I don't know where I have it today) and I have a mug with my name, but that's all.
When I was in Italy I bought a pen with "Federica" on it, because at that moment it was the closest I had been to finding stuff with my name on. It is not EXACTLY my name, but almost!

It bothered me somewhat as a child, but when I hit around 12 I wasn't bothered by it anymore and actually enjoyed having an uncommon name.

I didn't feel left out at all, because so many other people I knew didn't have souvenir mug-names either, including all my siblings & the majority of my cousins. Most of them do now have children with common classic names, but I don't think that being able to find stuff with their names on was ever a consideration.

My name s super common in my country, and being named like every other female my name bothered me more than not finding my names on things would have, I think.

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Like Tuesday, I have a couple of friends with unusual names. I never heard them complain about this, of all things, though one was probably happy to receive a custom-made Sex and the City style necklace with her name on it as a present.

I can't answer your question exactly because my name was usually on things, but I think it made some of my friends with more unusual names feel special that their name wasn't on things. It became their one sympathy point, haha.

I couldn't often find my name in America, but would occasionally when I went to Canada. Which made it feel so much more special. It never really bothered me though. If I really want my name on a keychain or something I could just make it myself.

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I liked having a fairly unusual name growing up, so I would like that for my children in the future.

Not really. My name is Autumn so I never found anything with my name.

Since my name was relatively common for my generation, I typically found stuff with my name on it. I think it's less of a deal these days because you can buy personalized stuff online.

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Also because of this I think I would just use common or uncommon names in the same sibset. For example, it would be Ethan and Grace or it would be Jarvis and Sapphira.

Not at all

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I loved not being able to get stuff with my name on. It made me feel different and special; it kinda still does haha. I used to always look through and make sure it wasn't there. Also none of my friends really had personalised things, even those with more normal/popular names where they could always find their name, so I couldn't really feel left out. I really like that my name and nickname are more unusual (but nice sounding), and it's a huge reason why I'd like my kids to have more unusual names and why popularity is so important to me.

This message was edited 2/26/2017, 11:19 AM

I think I saw my name on pre-made "personalized" key fobs or whatever, once. My name's like yours, a more popular name with off-spelling.

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I didn't really care - it's a nice feeling to see your name on a list, but having things with my name on them is not important to me. And anyway, so many things can be personalized no matter what your name is. I had pencils and bookplates.

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Also, my sister's name was rarer than mine, so when we checked the racks of personlized junks, I'd usually win. It might have bothered me as a young child if she had always been able to find hers, when I could not. But this is not an issue that's important enough to consider when naming kids. Although I think it is important not to give one child a much more unusual name than its sibling, for other reasons.

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It's something that never crossed my mind when naming my children. I'd thought that pre-printed "personalized" things were passe, until I saw a rack of earbuds the other day. My son's name was there but not my daughter's. Neither of them cared at all.

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It does matter a bit whether a name is familiar to people, though, IMO. I walked past a kid's birthday party the other day at the park, and they had a sign up that said Happy Birthday Anna. And I thought, well you sure don't have to worry about what people think of your name if it's Anna. You already know.

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This is definitely a "name opinions board" question. Names are not the topic in the off topic board. If it's about names and experiences of bearing them, put it here. :-)

This message was edited 2/26/2017, 11:13 AM

Yes a little bit but mostly because my sister Nicole almost always could find things with her name on it. I think only twice did I ever find things with my name on them which is Marisa. There were sometimes Marissa items which I bought then would remove a S from. There was always Melissa items which wasn't close enough.

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I stopped being jealous of it and stopped caring around high school. I out grew an interest in buying those kind of items plus my sister got stuck surrounded by Nicole's and Nikki's in our school. She was so annoyed with it and stopped wanting me to call her Nicky since all the Nicole's went by Nikki/ Niki. I started calling her Nicole more often and Snickerdoodle - which was one of her numerous nn's I gave her and was her favorite of them. I became convinced that having a common name was not a good thing.

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This message was edited 2/26/2017, 12:49 PM

Yeah, kind of.

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I had a common name with a slightly uncommon spelling (Rachael), so while there were plenty of things with RACHEL on them, I couldn't find anything that said RACHAEL. Drove me nuts.

I never liked or wanted personalized stuff so it wasn't an issue to me. I guess if I wanted an item with my name on it I'd order it or find something with just my initial.

At times, presumably a bit disappointed but nothing I couldn't get over easily. I mean today, you can get things personalized so it doesn't really matter today.

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I would pick names for my kids that I like no matter if they could easily find merchandise with their names on it or not.

No.

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I've never been a fan of personalized merchandise.

Despite having a relatively common name, Catherine, I would have trouble finding things with my name (usually Katherine was available, but I found Catherine much less frequently). I suppose my consolation was that my sister's name, Lucy, was even harder to find at the time (it was quite uncommon when we were growing up in the 80s and 90s). We both survived. Nowadays it's so easy to order personalized things online, it may be a non-issue for kids. Though it was always super exciting to spin around the display of keychains, magnets, etc. and find your name! It certainly would not sway me at all in naming my children.

This message was edited 2/26/2017, 10:04 AM

No, it never bothered me. It's sort of a novelty to me that I can find it now (my name was uncommon in my childhood but very common now). I can never find stuff with my kids names on it, but they don't care either. I do buy them some personalized stuff from Etsy and such.

I could find things with my name on them, but I honestly didn't like the stuff with my name on it! I thought it was lame.

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However, now I can't find stuff with my daughter's name on it, which bothers me. I got her a keychain once that said "Megan" because it's close enough. LOL

Not really. I mean sometimes I got a tiny little bit upset, but I quickly got over it. I love having an uncommon name! There are so many advantages, so this never bothered me for more than a few seconds. I would never change my name.

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These days you can get so many things customized and order cups etc online with any name on it, so it is not really an issue in 2017. In any case, I think it would be silly to not use a name because of something insignificant like this. They often also don't have newer common names on cups in shops etc, like Harper, Riley and Hadley. Usually they just have older common names on their cups like Stephanie, Amber, Elizabeth etc. So not even a common name can guarantee your child one of those name cups :P Plus, let's be honest, most of those you can buy in shops are hideous anyway ;)

I was a kid long before the internet, when one could only buy things with one's name on it in stores, and if the name wasn't there, it wasn't there. My name was common enough that I never had a problem finding things with my name on it.

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My mother had what was, both when she was born and for the duration of her lifetime, a very unusual name. She absolutely hated having an unusual name. That fact has made me aware that some people don't like it. My point being that I'm aware of much more serious reasons to dislike bearing an unusual name than not being able to find pre-made personalized items. It's why, when I chose a name for my daughter, I wanted to simultaneously avoid both a too popular and a too unusual name.

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I do know that not everyone hates having an unusual name. In fact, I think I myself would like it. But the possibility of my child hating it made me want to avoid it.

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Yes, it did. And yet I still gave my child an uncommon name - Miriam. Oh well.

Yes, it did. And yet I still gave my child an uncommon name - Miriam. Oh well.

That wasn't a thing when I was a child, so no.
And my children have common names, so they could find things with their names on.

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My husband never can! At least, not where we live. not that he wants them, now. He has an Arabic first name, and sometimes, it's his little joke that he searches the book-marks, mugs, and so on, and never can find his name.

1. No, because even though I'd find it, my mom wouldn't buy that kind of stuff for me anyway.

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2. It's 2017. We have THE INTERNET. You can now give your child any weirdo name you want and you'd still be able to find a way to get their name put on stuff.

When I was growing up, the fashion of kids having their names on t-shirts, bags, etc was already fading fast due to the fact that it's not too smart to allow just anybody who can read to speak to a child by name and thereby convince them that they aren't strangers. There were still personalized things available, but obviously not with Starla on them.

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It didn't bother me. You can still get personalized shirts or coffee mugs or whatnot and if you don't see your name, there's no shortage of places to get them custom-lettered. A couple years ago I saw somebody in the mall doing these wooden nameplate things, like to put over top of a door, and all of those were made to order and very cheap. (They looked kinda cheap too, actually, but if I was a kid with my own room I would have liked to have one, probably.)

Welcome here! Make an account and join us "for real". :)

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It bothered me that my spelling of 'Jodi' was never available. But I don't think it matters much anymore, as it's so simple to have personalized things made online.

I used to be jealous of my friends when they got things like pencil cases and keyrings with their names on, when we were little (why keyrings? None of us had keys!!), but not when I got older. Then I liked being the only one with my name

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These days it's so easy to get personalised things for children I wouldn't even let it cross my mind