this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025

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What language/culture/origin is your name from? Do you like your name or names from that culture? Have you ever met someone with a same name (either the given or family name)? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 day ago by DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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(Don't share your real name, obviously)

Okay so, wall of text warning:

My legal name is a Chinese name, three characters.

Family name (one character) is said/written first, then the given name (two characters for me... and I assume for most people).

Its a very interesting name, and overall naming system, each character has meaning, well other than the family name which I don't think it really means anything.

My older brother's first character is the same as mine, only the second character is different. (It's [Family Name] + [Character A] + [Character B], Character A is the same.)

I have never met anyone with my exact name, well to be fair, being in the US made those odds even rarer. I did meet someone with the same family name in a US school, and they also had the same DoB as me, which was very weird coincidence.

But my name is so rare in the US, if it ever got leaked, that's practically a unique identifier.

When I look at my name, idk I kinda feel a sense of antiquity. I have a genology book and the pages are falling apart, I had to scan it and made a .pdf from it. I mean those names are from hundred of years ago, I guess they had to keep remaking/rewriting those books because I doubt something from pre-1800s would've survived till now. It makes modern tech feel so futuristic when I think about it, I mean, that geneology book could potentially live om forever, without any deterioation unlike a book.

But simultaneously, when I look at my name, it kinda reminds me of my parent's emotional abusive and neglectful behaviors. Ugh, idk, feels so conflicted about it. I really wanna ask questions about the past, but we aren't really on speaking-terms anymore.

When people ask my name, it's always just so awkward, since... the pronounciation is totally foreign to them. I kinda wanted to choose an English name for simplicity here in the US, but like... I didn't pick one when I was younger and I think its kinda too late to use one now. Idk what name to even choose.

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[–] Little8Lost@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I have 7 names and i never met someone with my "callname" (its one part of a double name) but i got close to meeting one.
I am pretty sure that my name is unique throughout history as the names are partly eurobean, partly jewish but also some rare.

The reason i have so much names is simple: my parents wanted their children to have choices as every child hates their given name
So we got a few legit ones we could choose from.
My older siblings got less and then gave me as much as possible because they thought i was going to be the last child. My younger sibling got "just" 6

We also had a few rules for the names:

first name had to start with the first letter of my mothers last name (we got our fathers last name)
we had to have a name that starts with the first letter of my fathers last name
we all have the name of the "next best" (higher birthrate) deceased family member

For me its pretty fun to introduce with my full name as the faces stop getting more shocked after the fourth.
Its especially daunting for people who have like 3 and think they have a lot

I personally embrace having a lot of names
I use it to get a positive first impression
I haunt people with the idea that if they are mean to me i only react when they either call me by full name or that i assign a different name on each weekday that they have to use
Also i can annoy people filling out lists with "how much name do you need? just the first or complete or what?"

It has its drawbacks because in case my name gets shortened in databases it gets mostly shortened to the first and then i see others with 3 names or something where the complete name is in there

Also with bureaucracy even when its fun its taking time which is less bad for me because i got used to it but still a drawback.

But at least other people only reacted positive to the amount of names as long as they did not have to write them down