- 5 Minutes for Books reviewer Lisa
- Church Lisa
- Church Aggie Lisa (an Aggie who has moved here who I met recently at church)
- Bible Study Fellowship Lisa (apparently many Lisas are holier-than-average)
- Neighbor Lisa
- Kyle's preschool-friend's-mom Lisa, who until this year would have been up on that top list.
Throughout my growing-up-years, there were always lots of Jennifers (and I don't recall so many Lisas). The personalized craze was big in the early 80's, and could I ever get a pair of shoelaces or a mirror with my name on it? No sirree. They were always sold out. In fifth grade, there were three of four of us, in the same class. Right before we moved here, there were four or five of us in the same adult Sunday School class.
But then we moved to Connecticut. And I was the only one. Oh, I heard of Jennifer's out there, and they still abounded in the blogosphere, but I had no competition in my immediate circles.
But this year, that all changed. Of the 17 children in Kyle's class, four of them have moms named Jennifer. That's almost 25%.
So although there may be loads of Lisas, there are apparently jillions of Jennifers.
What about you? How common or uncommon is your name? How do you feel about that? Let's see what this unofficial blog-comment survey reveals.
14 comments:
My name's Cassandra and only once have I had competition. My 7th grade english class had another Cassandra and my teacher said that it was highly unusual for her to have two Cassandras in the same year.
I'm Kimberly. There are a lot of us...but only 1 me :-)
(BTW, some of my favorite people are Jennifers!)
Have you seen the "grade your parents" app on Facebook? I took that and it said my parents got a D for naming me Dawn, based on the ranking that name had in the year I was born. I was really surprised because through 17 years of schooling, I'd only ever met two or three other Dawns in school- one in elementary school and one in college. I didn't think it was all that common at all!
My name isn't too common but we have 7 Joe's in our life.
I thought about you Dawn, because I wouldn't have thought that Dawn was common at all.
Btw -- I meant to leave the first comment to say that though it is/was a common name, and I didn't like that in elementary school, I am perfectly fine with my name. So rest easy, Mom and Dad.
My name is not overly common but there's usually one other Nancy around. At my previous job, we were Nancy #1 (me, because I started before she did) and Nancy #2.
Here's a cute story: in my 6 year old's class, one of the other moms is a Nancy. She told me her daughter said to her "Alex's mom is also Nancy. But don't worry, I can tell you apart." From the mouths of babes...
Of my Facebook friends the most common names are Jennifer and Lisa. I also know quite a few women named Amy, Karen amd Melissa.
There were several Stephanies in my tiny rural high school (graduating class of 60). One particular Stephanie was a grade under me and her last name was my maiden name with "son" on the end. Make sense? (Like Harris and Harrison only not.) It made for occasional confusion.
BTW, my sister-in-law is Jennifer and one of my first cousins is Jennifer. And a mom at home school co-op is Jennifer.
I know a lot of Lisa's also (and I have to specify which one I'm talking about as well!). I also know a lot of Carrie's - none of whom seem to spell their name like me and so my name is seldom, if ever, spelled right by anyone!
Elizabeth. Never trendy (until recently) but always a basic level of popular. There was always another Elizabeth. Luckily its a name with a ton of nicknames--Beth, Betsy, Liz, Lizzy, Ellie, Libby, etc.
My married last name is extremely common, and when naming our kids it was a high priority to find names that weren't. We succeeded. "Elliot" turns up occasionally on top 100 lists, usually around the 85 mark, but Abel and Ilsa are NEVER on the popular lists. It's a good thing.
Oh did I mention my middle name was Ann? Elizabeth Ann. Could you get any more common?
Lisa, here. Yes, so many of us that I grew up as "Lisa F", F being the first letter of my last name so as to differentiate me from the one (or two) other Lisa's in my class.
And, no, holiness doesn't come with the name though I wish it did! :)
There were a lot of Jennifers when my kids were coming along.
On a little facebook thing about name originality, it said "Barbara" was pretty common in the later 1950s when I was born. I never thought it was all that common, but I have always know anywhere from 1-4 other Barbaras. When I first starting blogging there were several other Barbaras among the blogs I read, so I went with "Barbara H." to distinguish myself. I don't know of anyone naming their daughter Barbara these days, though, so I think it is becoming even less common.
When I was a pre-teen I liked more flowy, feminine sounding names -- Barbara just seemed sharp and grating with all the Rs (and my married name had two Rs as well!) But I have made peace with it over the years. :-)
Well I've never met another Corinne, although occasionally someone I run into says they know someone else with the name. I recently met someone whose middle name was Corinne, so that was kind of fun. I never liked my name and thought it didn't suit me until a few years ago, when I think I finally grew into it. Most people pronounce and spell my name wrong, but I don't take it personally.
One of my very best friends is a Lysa (spelled uniquely but pronounced the same as Lisa), but surprisingly I haven't known a lot of Jennifers.
This was fun!
I only knew a couple of Melissas growing up. I was often called Lisa, and one teacher always called me Jennifer. (she often confused me for the only Jennifer in my class...said we looked too much alike).
I still don't run into my name too often. I'm glad. I like to be unique, which is why my daughter has a unique name.
Well, I share my name with the "greatest natural disaster of all time" or something like that...
Growing up, I babysat another Katrina, and my mom knew one other Katrina, but that was pretty much it.
Incidentally, my best friend throughout elementary school was named Lisa, and girl in my class of whom I was most afraid was named Jennifer. (I like you much better, by the way.)
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