All quiet in the west - the name meme

[reynardo]

1. Are you named after anyone? If so, explain.
My dad always claimed I was named after a librarian at his work. When I was 18 I worked a summer job there, and there was a lady who had been there 30 years - and she'd never heard of a "Gillian" in that library. So I can only assume I was named after an old flame of his :-)

2. Do you have your children's names picked out already? If so, is there any significance?

What, apart from the ones I have already? Chris's parents chose the "Chris" part, but kept the name I chose, "Gregory", as a middle name. Adam's father chose his first name, and the middle name was my brother's first name, "Timothy".

If we were to have a girl, I'm hoping for "Rebecca Coralie".

3. If you were born a member of the opposite sex, what would your name have been?

Timothy George.

4. If you could re-name yourself, what name would you pick and why?

Nah. It took me about 20 years to get used to it, so I couldn't be bothered changing it now. The surname, though - did that!

5. Are there any mispronunciations or typos that people do with your name constantly?

Oh crumbs - where to start... The most common two are "Jillian" and "Gilligan". At work, customers tend to hear "Kelly-Ann" a lot, possibly because they aren't listening. I have people who ask me if my name is spelled with a G or a J - and it's derned difficult to pronounce the hard "G" sound with a J there.

I've also had "Julie", "Kylie" and "Julian".

Comments

[vaingloriesque.livejournal.com]

At work, customers tend to hear "Kelly-Ann" a lot, possibly because they aren't listening

Hark! Is that a world weary sigh I'm hearing? ;-)

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Argh, I never knew you pronounced your name with a hard G. My mental pronunciation will probably never recover.

The only other Gillian I ever knew was actually a Ghillian, pronounced with a J sound. Her parents had spelled it with an H out of some misguided notion that it would discourage people from inadvertantly pronouncing it with a hard G. It always seemed to me that "Ghi" is more likely to get interpreted as hard-g than "Gi."

Ghillian?!

[waitingman.livejournal.com]

I'd pronounce it as 'Fillian'... but maybe that's just me...

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Given that I was more concerned with not pronouncing "Ceredwyn" wrong, you caught me off guard with your name. I even slipped back into the wrong pronunciation because my parents kept doing it, and either didn't believe me or weren't listening when I insisted they were wrong.