Hello, My Name Is Emma
My name is Emma. As in number six on the most popular names of the decade and number two in Canada for 2008.
Everywhere I go I hear people calling my name and I can quite get used to it. In the playground I am yelled to get off the slide, I am constantly being asked to hold someone’s hand, to hurry up and to listen. Little girls call me over to play, and tweens want my cell phone number.
Can you tell it is hard for me to get used to having the same name as the under-12 set? (and I am a bit of a narcissist) I’m just not used to sharing my name. I grew up with people calling me Emily because they had never heard of an Emma before. I was the only Emma I knew until high school.
People always used to ask me where the name came from. If I was feeling literary I said Jane Austen' if I was feeling radical I said Emma Goldman and if they were of the older generation I told them the truth.
![avengers_emma-peel-edaeb[1]](http://olivier.quenechdu.free.fr/spip/local/cache-vignettes/L250xH400/avengers_emma-peel-edaeb.jpg "avengers_emma-peel-edaeb[1]")
Now that I have a popular name I feel for people whose names were at the top of the favourites list. In our parenting circle we make fun of all the Kristis, Kristas, Kristins and Kris’ out there. I don’t know why people would name their child a name on the top ten, though sometimes you don't realize it is a popular name until too late. I can tell you it is very annoying to hear your name all the time.
My husband has a very unusual name, and while it totally suits him, he did not like growing up with a simple name that no one can pronounce or spell. He was very insistent that we named our kids “normal” names that people had heard of.
Parents are in a tough position, it used to be that the majority of the population were named one of the top ten names but now the top ten monikers are in the minority. It’s a tough balancing act between known names that aren’t too popular and obscure names that can be tough to live with.
What did you do?
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