What is a Name Snob?

I'm a self-proclaimed name snob.

It began sometime in my early teen years - taking a liking to names... or a disliking. My earliest memory of my obsession with names goes back nearly twenty years, when I was twelve. I was reading the Night World series by L.J. Smith and fell in love with many of the character names. Aradia being the top one (Aradia as a name will get its own post in the near future). The series also contained names that I thought were awful, Morgead and Mary-Lynette being the two that come to mind at the moment. I don't know what was going on in my head twenty years ago to make me focus so much on names, but the obsession grew from there.

As a teenager I hated my name, both first and last (yes, my name snobbery extends to surnames as well. Also nicknames and any other kind of name.), and held great disdain to my parents for naming me something so common and boring as Jennifer. However, I always loved my middle name, Dawn. My surname on the other hand, that was a source of deep hatred to be saved for another post. Now in my early thirties, I still greatly dislike my first and last name, and I don't use them if I don't have to. In fact, I'm seeking a legal name change within the next year, simply because I don't like the names my parents gave me.

At a writer's conference in April this year I met a woman named Lisbeth, and I asked her if that was her given name by her parents or if she derived it from the common name Elisabeth/Elizabeth. She was fortunate to have been given a more unique name - at least in the U.S. Apparently it's quite a common name in Sweden. Lisbeth turned out to be the first fellow name snob I had ever met, and the only so far. Our conversation led me to starting this blog.

So what is a name snob? First, it means I judge names (using the term loosely). Not the people or non-human animals that have them, after all, most of us aren't responsible for the names given to us, but just the name itself. When I hear a name, my brain immediately categorizes it into the positive or negative pile. Negative names are usually boring, common, and ugly. Positive names are usually pretty, unique, artsy, and interesting. Though not all common names go into the negative and not all interesting names go into the positive. You could say it's a complex system that only my brain knows, and I may never be able to fully form into spoken or written words. I'm not sure how or why this developed within me, but my name snobbery is here to stay, so I might as well have fun with it.

Which brings me to the next explanation of what a name snob is. I don't just judge names, I love names! And I'm really good at picking them out, too. I get great enjoyment out of naming my characters, my furry children, and just about anything else I get to name. I have friends who come to me for help when they need a name for something. Most recently, a fellow writer in a Facebook group asked for help naming a character he was developing and listed five first and middle name options, asking us to vote for our favorite. I don't remember what the options were, but I added option six which was a different combination of a first and middle name he had listed, and he liked it so much that he went with that. So he said. My best friend was struggling to pick out a name for the little girl she was carrying last year and was tossing around a few options of names she really liked but couldn't decide on. I combined two as the first and middle name, Skylar Quinn, and she fell in love with it. Her little girl now has that name, and it inspired a character in the Magicis Chronicles, Skylar-Quinn. I do volunteer work with Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue, and I look forward to the opportunity to name a rabbit that we take in and doesn't have a name already. And you can bet that I judge the rabbits names. We currently have one named Uncle Bun Bun. Ugh! That drives me insane. I usually call him BB.

This is a blog about a writer and her obsession with names. I'll be talking about names from every direction you can think of. Characters in stories, celeb baby names, pet names, my favorite names, least favorite names, researching and giving background on origins of names, conducting interviews with people about their names, and on and on it goes. My love for names has no limits.

#Snob #obsession #Names