I am named after an English school teacher, Jean Brodie, from another era. When my mom was in highschool they showed the film The Life of Miss Jean Brodie, now as my mom remembers it, she thought it was a great name, and that she was a great person. Somehow my mom wasn't really paying attention that day in class. Fastforward a few years, my mom is having a baby (me) and needs a name, she remembers how she loved the name Jean Brodie and so she decides to switch it around and name me Brodie Jean. Again I can't stress how much I hate it. Fastfoward about 30 years and my mom calls me and says that the movie The Life of Miss Jean Brodie is gonna be on t.v. and I gotta watch it. So I start to watch it, and oh my word, my mother was not paying attention in class for sure, when she thought this was a good woman to name me after. Half way through the movie my mom calls me laughing and apologizes for naming me after this woman. She really wasn't such a good lady after all, and that is an understatement!
Now a days you hear boys with the name Brody with a "y", but I have NEVER seen nor heard of another girl with then name Brodie spelled with "IE".
By the way I have gotten over my name~ now I just don't care that I have to repeat myself over and over again when someone asks me my name.
But the lesson I learned was what impact does a name have on a child? Do parents really stop and think about it? I know I did!
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32 comments:
Hi there.....saw you on SITS. I love the name thing, because I can relate. I don't hate mine, but it's different and people usually mispell it and say it wrong. I've cursed my kids though with the different thing......but alas...But on a side note--I think your name is darling! I really and truly do! :)
come see some of my stuff for your princesses. :)
Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest
For me, naming my babies is something that is important when the baby is born [okay obviously. but i didn't mean it like that]. Well, when I saw my baby for the first time, I had a few names picked out and I knew exactly which one was meant to be...the name just looked like her! I think often time, parents are too stuck on the name and it ends up not relating to the child.
That probably made no sense...oh well.
I love your name--seriously love it! My name is Karen Michelle, but my parents decided to call me Michelle. What a headache to explain...ugh.
I gave a lot of thought into the girls' names. Names are so important. For me I could tell both of their personalities--I knew Isabella was go-go-go--and she really is! And Madelyn was so calm and laid back--and when she was born I just knew she was a Maddie (and not an Addison or Olivia). Their names really fit who they are and I even made sure to think about when they were older would their names fit...
Weird and maybe confusing...but I just totally get what you're saying :)
Oh I understand! My name is rare, but it's uncommon and it's spelled differently. I am constantly telling people to take the e off. It's get frusterating. You're not alone, but that was nice of you to think of your children.
I think your name is lovely but then we had a cat called Brodie and she was the sweetest thing! (Please don't take that the wrong way!!) I have the problem that people can't pronounce my name, so I end up being called all sorts of things!
I guess there's always the choice of changing it! Neither of my grandmothers liked their given names, so both went by their second names. I have different reasons to dislike my given name so I started going by my new name (and if you think naming your child is hard, try coming up with one for an adult *lol*) a few months ago and will be registering it as my legal alias later this week - next time I go back to the UK I'll be changing it by deed poll :D
Regardless of how you came by your name, I actually like it. What would you name yourself if you decided to change your name?
I love my name. I just wish people could spell it. Maybe I could just be JDaniel's mom as my real world name too.
That's so funny your mother apologized to you for naming you after the person in the movie! I never saw that movie, but now am curious.
Congrats on your SITS day! I'm following you now.
To prove your point, there is a Brodie (Jason Lee) in Mallrats. However, I do like the name.
I think names are really important and celebrities shouldn't have the power to name their children.
Happy SITS day.
LisaDay
I absolutely love your name. And coming from someone that shared a name with half of the population of little girls born in the 70's I appreciate a unique name. My only problem is that my name has a "short". My name is Jennifer but I go by Jenny and I do not like to be called Jennifer. My husband, Tony (anthony) is in the same boat so we were sure that our kids name could only be said one way. Funny how we carry certain things with us into adulthood. Congrats on your SITS day!
Jenny
I like your name! My name, Ronnica, has the same issues. Constantly having to correct it from "Veronica" and occasionally "Monica." And of course the double N adds more issues...but I wouldn't change it. I love it. I want to give my children slightly more normal names, but also not popular ones. I don't want them to have to fight with being one of several people with that name, but I also don't want them to have to correct people several times a day on how to spell their names.
saw you on SITS. thought i'd get to know ya. =)
and i too can relate to the name game. my name is justine, and when i tell people (especially people who don't hear well) i get, "christine?", "jessica?" (really? does that SOUND like jessica??) and "justice" (sure, you can get justice, but not justine?) and the WORST worst was at my high school graduation when i was called up as justin. and don't think that was the FIRST time i was called that. so i named my kid bella. and no. not after that girl in the twilight movies. GRRR. haha.
nice to meet you!
I like the uniqueness of your name. I certainly understand why you don't like it though. My name is Michele with one 'L' so I often had a difficult time finding things with my name on it.
Happy SITS Day!
Well, at least you do hear "Brody" now. I don't think it's bad - but I know what you mean about being a kid.
Happy SITS Day. I know what you mean. I meet so many people and think what were your parents thinking when they named you? or Your parents must've hated you! When I was pregnant with my son though I came up with only one weird name. It was before we found out he was a boy and i said if its a girl lets name her Paprika! Oh what a pretty name! Still to this day dont know what I was thinking and am very glad we had a boy. And he has a very normal name.
"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" was first a classic book, also got made into a Broadway play. So, at least the name's got literary cred!
My name is Liza and I didn't like it growing up because, like you said, I could never find any crappy things with my name on them.
And now I'm due with my first child, a girl, in two weeks. And we're naming her Sailor. My husband asked me if I thought she'd like it. I said she'll probably do what I did - not like it when she's little, but love it when she's older. I like having a different name. Even if everyone does call me "Lisa" when they first see it.
I can never find cups, pencils with my name on them either... because EVERYBODY AND HER SISTER are named Laura. By the time I get there, all the pencils have run out.
Wish I had a cool name like yours.
My middle name is also Jean :)
I rather like your name, a lot! I think it's totally cool and different. I went to school with a Brodi, and yes it was a boy, but still I knew someone named that. I even considered naming my son that.
Both of my kids start with M's as well, which really was never my intent, but it happened anyway. Now we feel like if we have a third, it must be an M.
Anyway, fun to hear the origin of your name.
If it makes you feel any better, I could never find anything with my name spelled correctly on it, since I'm Allyson with a Y. But, I think my spelling is the best. hahaha
Happy SITS day. I'm Kim along with twenty or so other girls I went to school with, so I totally envy the original name thing. I went easy on my boys and gave them normal family names though.
I love the name Brodie, but I love unique names. It was so nice as a child to not answer to everyone else's name. I was in a class of 10 Whitneys, 4 Sarahs, and 6 Kaitlins - boy was it refreshing to be Leah. Actually, I graduated from a school of about 8000 kids and was the only Leah in the district. Everyone knew who I was. I can relate to your frustration though.
I named my daughter Ryanne (Ryan) Annaliece. I wanted her to have a name that was unique. We chose Ryan because it is a family name on both sides of the family, plus it means "the little queen" which fits her to a T! Yes, queen. Ryan was actually a girls name in Europe before Americans started naming their boys Ryan. So to the next person who gripes at me at the grocery store for my daughters name, get your facts straight! haha! :)
Oh yeah, I enjoyed your post! I'm new to SITS and it's so nice to be able to communicate through the blogs and get to know new people.
I think it's a great name!
My son's name is BRADY. You know, like the BRADY BUNCH. I can't tell you how many times I actually have to repeat his name to people! Even then, they call him Brody. Seriously, has no one heard of the BRADY BUNCH???
I've always hated my name, until I got older. My full name is Elizabeth, and everyone loved it, but me. I go by Beth. Always have, and prolly always will. I tried going by Elizabeth, but it just didn't work out. Eh. Whatev!
Now I'm just happy being Beth!
My name is Hanneke. It's Dutch and a very common name in Holland. Well, it was in the sixties when I was born, nowadays you don't see it so much anymore. But here in the US, or in any other country than Holland, pronouncing Hanneke is quite the challenge. Like you, I wanted my child to have an easy to pronounce name, no matter where she will end up living. We named her Lola and it suits her. Can't find it on mugs or zipper pulls, but no one mispronounces or mis-spells it!
Happy SITS Day! Ejoy the comment love.
I like you name. It is cute.
Hey there, happy SITS day!! Thanks for sharing the story of your name. It's always really interesting to see how some people ended up with the names they had. One of my friends is named after the heroine in a trashy romance novel, and I know someone else named after a hair care brand. But you know what, it just makes you more uniquely you! :)
Have an Extraordinary Day!
My name is Joanne. A pretty simple name all-in-all but somehow people still always get it wrong. I get Joanna, Johanna, and even Joanney. I named my son Matthew, an even simpler name, right? He gets Machew and Matew. When I complain people tell me that's the Belizean creole way of saying his name. And for the worst one yet, my cousin is Adam. People in Jamaica are always calling him Hadam.
I've decided, no matter what your name is, someone, somewhere is going to get it wrong.
Happy SITS Day!
Cheers :-)
- CoconutPalmDesigns
Happy SITS Day!
Cute post, and I think your name is nice! Really--I think it's cute and different, but in a good way! Of course, now I'm curious who Jean Brodie was!!
I hated my middle name, fortunately I was able to change it when I got married.
BUT one of the main reasons we picked our first child's name was that it is different. It's similar to another name, a fairly popular boy name, that has an "n" in it so I'm always correcting that. But she says that she likes that it's rare.
My other 2 on the other hand, have more common names, chosen for different reasons. I think it's more of a problem always looking around to see if a stranger is calling your child or confirming that there is, in fact, another kid running around with the same name.
At any rate, we have a long and rare last name so they'll always be spelling something!
Happy SITS Day
I feel so sad for you not having found a pencil/cup/ornament with your name on it. My littlest sister has an odd name too, and we have never found a personalized product for her either. :( At least you didn't have to share your name with anyone in your class, right?
Happy SITS day!
I hated my name as a child and really wanted to change it...but didn't. So I guess I'm okay with it now.
So, why was Jean Brodie not such a nice person? Or do I need to google it? :)
No one ever pronounces my daughters name correctly! If you're curious, email me, because I don't broadcast her real name online, but I understand the frustration when no one wants to say or spell it correctly.
I, on the other hand, have an extremely common name (Amanda). Which presents it's own irritations..lol.
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