1956 - Fresh Name, Fresh Identity How to Choose Your English Name

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Michelle how's it going today hey good Lindsay how are you I'm great I'm feeling fresh coming off the
weekend and feeling ready to be on the mic so all good same here same here Lindsay do you ever have
people ask you like clarify your name or they're not sure what your name is or yeah yeah for
sure sometimes people will say oh is it Lizzy and like oh it's not really it's not I don't and I'll
correct them you know it's important to correct people when they get the name wrong but yeah so
there are sometimes there's issues with names what about you Michelle have you had that happen to you
I remember that in Middle School uh there was a substitute teacher who kept on calling me Michael
Michael yeah because interesting yeah I I don't I don't know I guess she didn't uh I I don't know
but she she was mispronouncing my name and you know she was a you know like I should have said
no it's Michelle that's the thing is I think sometimes when people mispronounce someone's
name the other person is just kind of like whatever especially if it's not gonna be like
a long-term deep relationship so but yeah what do you think about that what have you ever heard
of people kind of just saying whatever whatever yeah you say my name is yeah I don't like that
that kind of bothers me too Michelle because it is a sign of confidence when you correct someone
and you say no it's you know it's Lindsay it's not Lizzy I'm not a huge fan of the name Lizzy
right like right just my personal opinion names are very opinion based right uh and so I don't
want people calling me Lizzy it's Lindsay uh and so I think it does show real confidence
and assertiveness uh when you do take the time to correct someone for sure yeah absolutely
um so and we're going to talk about this a lot today today guys this episode is all
about names yes but we have something important to do first Michelle we have
something really exciting to share with you guys um we have a a trophy because
um amazing I have passed 100 000 subscribers on the all ears English YouTube channel and
we received this wonderful Trophy and we just wanted to share this with you guys because you
guys are the reason this happened I know we want to say thank you for to you guys for believing
in connection not Perfection for being right here with us now YouTube is a really great way
to consume this podcast because you get to see us on videos you know our Smiles our expressions of
course if you love just listening on the podcast which personally Michelle I'm more of a podcast
listener than a video Watcher myself so nothing is ever going to change over there guys you can
always listen on Spotify Apple podcast Google podcast but YouTube is a really good option right
Michelle and you'll have more than a hundred thousand other fans of all ears English over
there listening I love it yeah guys really thank you so much when Lindsay told me that we hit 100
000 subscribers I was like wow I felt really proud I felt really good about all yours English about
our team and the hard work that we put in but we put in this hard work because we love doing
it we love doing it for you guys and just thank you for sticking with us all these some of you
have you been listening almost 10 years so true it's amazing our long time listeners we love you
guys and we're gonna keep going for as long as we possibly can here at Euler's English so hit
follow whether it's on YouTube or on Apple podcast or Spotify and keep listening to all
ears English good stuff excellent thanks guys all right Michelle so I loved when I got this
question from our listener because I thought it was a unique question it was different it was fun
you know it's something special so should I go ahead and read the question from our listeners
yes okay all right here we go so you know this is a shout out to our listener I don't have okay this
is May from China all right this is the first time I've ever reviewed a podcast normally I'm just a
quiet listener but I really want to say thank you to your team I've been following it uh For Five
Years Learning many useful English Expressions that I have no chance to get from the textbook
so it's such a fruitful experience of five stars love the word fruitful Michelle fantastic this is
great oh actually this is not a student who asked the question is it it's a different student yeah
um because we don't have the question here oh that's weird no the question is below the
question is below here we go I'm not sure if it was the same student or if we're just calling out
a reviewer but anyways okay here's the actual question here we go Michelle so I'm working at
a company in Korea and I'm 41 years old and I have two children and I have a plan to work and
live in the U.S in the near future with my husband and my children currently I have no English name
in my company and my counterpart has difficulty pronouncing my first name but I'm not sure what
English name is suitable for my age I would like to have my own name but when I search the internet
then only the common names are listing like Olivia Mia Emma and and so on so could you please
recommend some English name for me when you have a chance because I have native friends so I can't
imagine what kind of name will be suitable I'm a career woman and I'm very passionate in any task
I Undertake and very easy going and extroverted if you suggest a female name for me then it will
be very motivating to learn my English studying because this time I'll be able to invest every
day with others English it's one of my biggest pleasures and you are my role models wow amazing
I love that thank you thank you it's so good and I actually think this is such an interesting
question and it's true Michelle if you went ahead and you know as a 41 year old this listener and I
are the same age by the way and so I totally get where she's coming from as a 41 year old if you
go and Google common names you're going to get names of kids now right right right right right
right because you're looking at the popular names from now so like she said exactly Olivia Mia Emma
those are like alleles need a lot of like little girls babies with those names yes exactly so we
have a really good episode planned for today well so I mean you before we jump into the you know
our ideas the question is do people have to feel like they have to change their name I mean I like
part of it is is fun right so I mean I'm yeah this isn't the same thing but I remember in high school
in French class like they would have us choose names wait did you take French or Spanish you
said I took into French okay okay yeah what was your name so my name was Michelle because you know
but but then I remember the next year I was like I don't want it to be Michelle I want to have like a
different identity a different feeling class so I was Brigitte oh interesting yeah then I loved
the name Bridget and yeah so I was Bridget and um what about you did you have like a name and well
we didn't we didn't have choices we didn't get to choose our name we were assigned I think my French
teacher was pretty strict and I was assigned you did French too yes I did friend we have so
many parallels Michelle it's so funny this was fourth grade fourth grade French and I think my
name was friend friends Francesco or no that's an Italian name isn't it friends Francois Francoise
Francoise is what it was um I didn't love my name but I couldn't I didn't have an option to change
it it was just Francoise yeah so we got to we got to choosing and that was always exciting
um and so it you know in some ways it's fun but I just wanna before we talk about tips
for choosing the name um say that you don't have to change your name if you don't yes
I totally agree with you Michelle it's a really good take and a good way to start because part
of learning a new language is bringing our own identity our sense of humor our personality into
this new language and so we don't need to bend ourselves and become a completely new person when
we speak English so that's the that is an option to you is just going with the name and coming up
with tricks to help people learn to pronounce your name right and and you know don't don't hold back
like don't say oh this is my name but I know it's hard to say so don't worry about it like make sure
you know give people a chance to learn it um they will right but yeah so so I just wanted to say
that like your name is part of your identity yes but yeah sorry go ahead I was gonna say and it
shows confidence when you have your name maybe it's hard to pronounce but it's okay because
you're going to help people with it exactly and then they'll get it and then when they get they
get it they'll get it however our listener is asking and and I'm sure a lot of people have
thought about this like how to choose another name maybe maybe it's exciting or fun for you to kind
of change things up a little bit I know I mean you know if I were moving to another place maybe
maybe I would for you know to to just I would I would change it if it was for you know fun like
I felt like it was for a fun new identity but I I wouldn't want to change it to you know feel
like I was accommodating everybody else does that make sense right I completely agree so in today's
episode you know that's the first thing we want you to think about for our listener here uh you
have the option to not do this to opt out of it right but we're going to give you a good framework
of if you do decide you want to things that you could think about in today's episode right
Michelle absolutely we will give you some tips on choosing your name so things that you can think
about when deciding on this name so guys before we uh do that we want to let you know about all yours
English episode 14 1872 which is this episode is calling your name personification in English so
that's something fun to listen to very fun go into I actually that was a really interesting episode
we talked about how we can in English we could talk about how our computer has an attitude or
becomes a person in the language very different so check that one out guys okay Michelle where should
we start today for our listeners who do want to change their name where can we start okay so I've
we've come with about six things to consider um and so we're gonna try and get through most of
them if not all um and here we go so the first one we will say is the year and I think Lindsay
you really uh picked up on that with this this question yeah you know the question The Listener
mentioned names like Mia and Emma and you told me that you actually emailed the listener back right
Lindsay yeah I I loved this question so much that I personally responded to this listener
and sometimes I do that guys sometimes when you do send in your question you'll get a personal
response from me not every question but the really good ones do get a personal response
and so I did I immediately went to a website and found you know baby names from 1981 because
it's the same age as that I am and I was curious too what are those names um so that would be the
first thing and we will put a link uh in the blog post this is a blog post to that but just go to
Google right Michelle and just type in baby names 1981 USA right if you're going to be working in
the U.S right so there are there are sites like babycenter.com that's the one that you you that
you had so take a look like for example on this list tour Jessica right we know the name Jessica
um Lisa Heather you know so so names like that whereas if you're if you're 41 well I mean listen
names can be popular at any age I mean I think they can't I think I'm as pretty Emma is pretty
classic I mean but uh sure it is one of my closest friends in high school was named Emma and she was
my age yeah right so there you go like you don't but like but something to consider maybe maybe
that is also on the 1981 list but you don't have to if you feel like oh I want to kind of have a
cool new trendy name but something to consider is like when when were you born and what names were
popular in this year yeah I've been I've become kind of disappointed that I've found that a lot
of Millennials have my name I'm kind of a Gen X or cusp cusper right between Gen X and Millennial
and so many Millennials have the name Lindsay but not very many gen xers so my parents they thought
they were you know on The Cutting Edge of a trend but it turns out now all these people I know who
are millennials have the name Lindsay so okay okay I don't know yeah maybe it doesn't make sense to
play the trends just go with something you know if you're naming a baby for example that you that you
like right but that's a different story different question yeah right because some people might want
their child to have like a trendier name um something that a lot of people have and some
like the more unique name so it's just personal preference and that kind of leads us into the
second one which is just how does it sound to you do you like it right I mean that's I mean that is
something to talk about do you like this name um so yeah do you like the name you have to like it
yeah exactly I mean I think people have a names are so opinion based and often it's based on
someone else we knew at one point that we liked or didn't like that had that name and that just
colors the name for us in our minds right right right right right right right that's true so if
you like the name the the way it sounds or maybe like there's a celebrity you like with
that name maybe there's maybe there's um a friend or a person that you've met who
has a name that you like as well um so just think do you like it I mean it's pretty simple
yeah exactly exactly I would add one thing to this before we go into the others is think about
how your last name and the and the first name go together if you're going to use them that way like
I'm not sure if our listener would do that if she would take her new adopted name and put her
last name after that but if in general you would want to think about that how does it sound as one
full name right does it flow right does it have a nice a nice flow together something to think about
um and then what's the third thing so the third thing would be do you identify with it right
um oh no it was that the thing we just said no no no no no no you're right you're right the meaning
right like so yeah maybe um I actually remember oh wow okay I think it was in Middle School and
in my English class I don't know why but there was a thing where like we um it was kind of like not
a secret santa but it was a secret who you got assigned to and you had to rename this person
and based on like what You observe about them and I was renamed do you mind if I
look up the meaning of this name now I'm sure go for it okay I was renamed Ruth
okay interesting yeah yeah and I wonder what does it mean okay it says uh this is
from uh verywellfamily.com friend friendship compassionate friend
yeah okay okay so that's a nice meaning so like maybe maybe this isn't important to you what it
means maybe you'd more care about the Sun but maybe when you look up the meaning it I'd like
maybe you you could even Google like um names meaning strengths or names mean you know um
name and yeah that means something to me I like that that is one angle you could take if you're
looking for a way to make the decision you could do that you know keep in mind a lot of people
don't necessarily know what their name means I don't even know what my name means uh my first
name like I've never taken the time to look it up so it's not like it's gonna disqualify you if you
don't like the meaning it doesn't mean you can't use that name that's an important Point yeah that
is an important point but maybe if you're the type of person who is interested in that that could
be a a cool way to do it or maybe you could think what's the name of your of your name your original
name and your first language and maybe similar meaning in an English name so that that could be a
way to like tie it together for you very cool idea so thinking about the meaning you know that if
you're wondering how to go about this that could be one strategy think about spelling as a fourth
thing right Michelle I mean are there a lot of ways to spell it some names you know for example
the name Sarah sometimes it has an H sometimes it doesn't is that going to be complicated or are you
always going to be explaining it's Sarah with an H right well there's a lot of names like that we
could do a whole episode on that I mean Lindsay I mean some there are there's sometimes a y and e y
yeah but I will say this is actually an opportunity for a connection oh
sorry Michelle I didn't mean to cut you off there no it's okay
was it two else or one and and whenever I meet another Michelle they say oh two Wells are one
and I say oh and it's always like oh me too or oh I'm one so that's that's what I was about to say
it's a connection moment so every time I meet another Lindsay to say a-r-e-y and sometimes
like Baristas will say this to me really quick just in passing but it's a moment of laughter
and connection or it's a little competitive it's oh it's the right way the wrong it's right it's
just fun you know it's a way you can connect with people so this is what you get if you choose a
name that has a few different spellings all right think about that maybe we'll do another episode
about that like uh yeah about that connection moment or it goes into it um okay and so then
uh the we have two more Lindsay what's the next one okay popularity so you know do you
want a common or unique name right that's just a personal preference right do you want to stand out
um I once knew someone named September I thought that was really cool you know like someone named
September a woman my age that I studied abroad with in Paris but that's a very unique name you
want a name that's that unique right right right right right yes so something to think about as
well and then this last one is does it sound at all like your name if you wanted to right maybe
you want to have a you know a similar sound um like Lindsay I don't know like let's think of um
any random name of maybe a listener or a student you've had I was trying to think of well one of
our favorite listeners Massimo from Italy we love Massimo are you know from our live event Urban
Adventure yeah right like yes right something like that Max Matthew you know maybe maybe names
like that like you know names that have a similar sound so that might be another way to consider it
um so yes that would be something else but again so mostly think about do you want to change it
do you feel that you have to why um like we said people can learn your name it may take some time
um but you know people if you want to use your name you should use your name but we also wanted
to give you the tools in case you want to have a little bit of fun with it choose a different name
yeah I mean when I first saw this question I thought wow how are we going to answer
this but we came up with a lot of good angles that you can take guys you know think about
connection moments think about spelling think about how it works with the last
name so many things we could think about to get a name we want so good Michelle I love it
exactly oh well this was this was really fun I think you know we we can talk more about this
um and I there's just there's so much to say on this topic um but names are really important
it's your identity and you know choose something choose something that you really enjoy yes and a
huge thank you to our listener from South Korea for sending in this awesome question guys send
your questions to Lindsay at all there's Lindsay with an ayersenglish.com and we'll make a great
episode based on your question Michelle thanks for hanging out today and guys hit follow either on
YouTube go and check us out on YouTube ahlers English podcast or right here wherever you're
listening on this podcast good stuff perfect okay well this was fun thank you for that great
question and guys thanks again for uh subscribing to our YouTube Channel 100 000 subscribers love it
so good Michelle all right I'll see you very back here very soon have a good one all right [Music]