Uh-Man-Duh!

Well my name is just about as generic as it gets; Amanda. Originally my mom liked the name Summer, and wanted to name me Summer Autumn Winter; yeah I know, funny right. Thank goodness she put her thinking cap on and realized that might not be the nicest thing she could do for me. My parents finally settled on Amanda Nichole Winter. When the list of number one baby names for the year 1984 came out, they found out that Amanda was actually the number one name that year.

I got proof of that in kindergarten where I met 3 of my classmates, Amanda, Amanda and Amanda. Since there were 4 of us, my mom asked if I wanted to go by a nickname. My grandma called me Ammi, but that just sounded too childish; I mean I was a big girl now! Grandpa called me smurfette thanks to a blue lollipop, but I didn’t really see that as school appropriate. My brothers thought it was really entertaining to call me “a-man-duh” (emphasis on the duh) but I thought it would sound really weird to introduce myself saying my name like that. I finally decided I liked Mandy. Now I had to decide how I wanted to spell it, so many choices; Mandy, Mandi, Mandie, Mandee. I picked Mandy with a “y” because I liked writing the “y” at the end; don’t ask why, (no pun intended).

Since I have now gone by Mandy since kindergarten, it catches me off guard to be called Amanda, although I do still respond to Amanda, or turn around if I hear someone call it out. No one ever calls me Amanda anymore, unless it is said in just such a tone, I know you know that tone, and it is usually followed by my middle name. I definitely don’t mind my name, but sometimes I wish it wasn’t quite so common, because I feel that I am not common, so why should my name be? I wouldn’t go so far as to change it to something like Princess Consuela Bananahammock, courtesy of Phoebe on Friends. All in all, I personally don’t really feel like my name defines me. I have so many different nicknames, from so many different groups of people, but I don’t really feel like any of them defines who I am. I go by Mandy even at work, so it’s not like Amanda is more professional or anything. All I know is that Amanda is the one who gets in trouble, not me, Mandy!