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My given name is Patricia. I am not Patricia, Tricia, Trish, Pat, Paddy or any of those things. When I was first experimenting with sounds, I was particularly taken with the T and K ones. So I have been Tooki since about 15 months. I guess if Te Reo was a thing 65 years ago I might have been Tuki, but it wasn’t. Apparently it’s really close to the Yiddish word for bum. This is amusing as my non binary child has converted to Judaism and has a degree in Linguistics and loves dabbling in Yiddish. If it wasn’t hissing with rain in Auckland tonight, we’d be eating in the garden with friends, but it is so we aren’t, so I’ll have another glass of wine. I’m a literacy tutor and I’m passionate about language, and I really wanted you to put a comma in “I’m sorry, I’m in Christchurch.” But that’s incredibly anal, so I’m just hoping it went well for you. I know it did, because you are actually amazing when it comes down to it, however nervous you are before hand.

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Haha sorry about the punctuation I was rushing!!! Love that you’re a yiddish bum!!

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But you’re not going to tell us what your name used to be?!?!? I’m so curious now!!! I still can’t get past the names Apple and Moses. I mean, they’re nearly grown up and I’m still not over it.

Glad you watched Ted Lasso. The biscuits in the little pink boxes! So adorable!!

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We were in ED the other night with my kid, and in the cubicle next to me I hear "This is Delta". I freaked out and almost puked with nervousness. The doctor said "Hi Delta" and I realised it was her name. Nice name, but unfortunate now. I used to like the name Isis too.

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Yes both unfortunate names in the current era! 😆

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Haha oh I’m so sorry for laughing! I hope you’re ok now? And Delta always reminds me of the Delta Dawn song!!

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Omg now I really want to know your original name! My favourite boys name has always been Joshua but I married a Jackson and I just couldn’t name either of my kids after my teen heart throb 🤣🤣 So instead I named my first born Luka because my mid 20’s heart throb was Dr Luka on ER 😀 Hubby still doesn’t know where I came up with that name!

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I’ve always loved the name Luka, and it’s only from reading your comment that I realise where my love has come from 😂

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I wanted to call my son Cannon, it’s a family name. Between the photocopier and the weapon we just couldn’t do it, it is his middle name though. Also wanted to call him Louis but didn’t want it mispronounced as Lewis. Finally wanted to call him Levon .. as in Levon Hulme from the band but that didn’t play out well with kiwi accents either. We decided on a name where he could be called Louis as a nickname, but if we call him that he yells at us ‘that’s not my name’.

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I love the name Levon! But I also don’t know if I’m pronouncing it right? Is it LEE-von? Or Lev-ON?

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We like LEE-von but feared it would turn into Livon

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Adventurous Women was fantastic last night! You were fantastic - perfect way to end the show.

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Thank you so much!!

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How old were you when you decided to change your name? I have gone through life with the name Isa, which is pronounced like Lisa without the L (yes I have to say that all the time!). I grew up in Australia at a time when a) everybody pronounced it "Iza" (actually they still do!), and b) nobody had weird names, but I still never wanted to change it. It has a backstory that makes it special to me. But my coffee name is "Isabella" 😄

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I was like 29. I really recommend it. I love my name. And I forget I ever had any other name. My coffee name was Alex!

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A coffee name! Of course, hadn’t thought about how many people must have them. I don’t need one for pronunciation reasons but might get a new, cooler name for coffee just for fun.

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But I had also toyed with nicknames and other ways of spelling it basically from as soon as I was born... so like the actual change was 29 but long before that I had shortened names and nicknames!

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My parents wanted to name me Arthur Tofu Lindauer (like the sparking wine, apparently it played a key part in my conception). However the grandparents teamed up and convince my parents to go with Sophie. Sophie is a nice name, but I think I would have rocked Arthur. For my youngest brother we had a family vote to name him. It as Rupert vs Buster. Rupert won.... but Buster would have been amazingly accurate. His biggest claim to fame as a toddler was managing to set a box of lego on fire (no lighter or matches in sight, it took years to work out how he managed it).

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As an Aussie in NZ, I thought about having an Australian connection in my kids' names. I used to like the Aboriginal name Tahlia, but then I read about someone considering calling their kid Jenna Talia, and I couldn't think of anything else 🤦‍♀️

I still love Nameberry despite having no more babies to name. The comments on their Instagram show how far some people will go to have a unique name. I won't judge as maybe it's normal in America, but I wonder how many of those kids will want a more common name when they're older. My shy kid has a (recognisable & old-fashioned but) less common name, and sometimes she says she wished she had a more "popular" name... and yet I know people who grew up with common names who wished they were different. Naming is hard!!

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One of our kids has a top ten name and one has one most people haven't heard before. No one has misspelled or mispronounced the uncommon one, the top ten one people get wrong all the time even though we intentionally used the most common spelling. We chose names that have a multiple different options for nicknames so hopefully they'll like some version of their name when they are older.

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That’s so interesting! Definitely thought a top 10 name would ensure the right spelling!

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I considered naming my daughter Ariel until someone told me they had a friend at school with that name and other kids would call her 'hairy hole'! It lost it's shine for me after that.

Also, I LOVE the capybara photos Emily - you can post those every week if you like :)

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😂omggggg hairy hole ???

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Kids will find an awful version of any name though right? 😞

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