Topic 0 - Introduction

[eschatologies]

Hi, my name is Molly

Comments

[norda]

Names and the exploration of names... I think I will enjoy reading you.

[eschatologies]

:) Thank you!

[intrepia]

What an echo of my own experiences this is. My own nickname, which is the primary name I've gone by since age 4, only shares the first letter with my legal name and is not otherwise connected to my legal name. It was only in college, for reasons similar to the ones you describe, that I started answering to my legal name sometimes. It was disconcerting at first, then I got used to it, but I still primarily went by my nickname, and in my post-college life I've reverted back to almost never using my legal name.

[eschatologies]

It seems like it will be difficult to make the switch so late in my life, when so many people in my life (well, everyone except for this new professor and a few random classmates) knows me by a nickname. I suppose I am relatively young enough that there will be people in my life, in the future, that I have yet to meet.

Is there a reason you've reverted back to never using it?

[intrepia]

I really only used my legal name for official/professional settings -- large classes, job applications, etc. I always used my nickname with family, friends, and basically any setting where it wouldn't have been inappropriate. So it was just natural after college to transition back to using my nickname (apart from the official things, of course!).

[shadowwolf13]

Good idea to an interesting situation.

Best of luck this season.

[eschatologies]

Thanks for reading!

[cacophonesque]

I like both of your names. But names are strange things, and they do shape a lot of our identity--how others treat us and perceive us. Although I may just be acutely aware of this having grown up as Destiny. How differently might I have turned out if I'd been a Deborah or Darla or Delilah?

[eschatologies]

I like the contemplation "what my parents would have named me had I been born the opposite gender". I would have been Patrick, which seems fine and good, except that I've met a few Patrick's in my life and have come out with a distaste for the name based on the people I've known who carried it. No assumption here that all Patricks are inherently bad, but it is funny how perceptions of certain names can stick with a person.

[liret]

Names are complicated, aren't they? I've seen you around h_e, but we haven't talked much. Nice to meet you!

[eschatologies]

Nice to finally meet you, as well! Lots more h_e people are doing this lj idol than I thought - just another way to get to know people I've seen around but never officially approached.