I also wanted to add that I like your real name. But if it doesn't suit you, it doesn't suit you. I didn't change my last name when I got married because I like my last name. It has a silent S in it, I mean, who has a silent freakin' S in their name? I grew up forever accepting every weird way my last name could be pronounced and spelled it a zillion times over before I ever met my husband. I was sort of attatched to it by that point. I gave a valiant effort at getting my husband to change his name but, yeah, no.

So I get the name thing. Either you are whatever about it, like it and it fits or don't like it and it doesn't fit. My son has one name on his birth certificate but has always been called another name at home. The first day he started kindergarten, he declared he wanted to go by his birth certificate name, not his "family" name.

Names are a big deal to some people and put a lot of significance to it. You're one of those people. So, when you are old enough, you can either change your name legally to something that fits and feels right, or just start having everyone call you by a nickname (which may be a lot harder than it sounds, to be honest).

But I like your name. I don't know if I'm pronouncing it correctly in my mind, but I put the emphasis on the first syllable and say Baa like Baa-Baa sheep (without the bleeting) and the second part is like the rook you'd play in chess. Am I even close? If so, I like it, I like the way it sounds and I like the way it feels to say it, it has a good mouth feel or whatever.

Lol your so funny. I don't remember you saying something other than the topic of birds before. You sound like a fun person to talk with.

There are certain forums where they have a meltdown if someone uses a naughty word, but we don't get excited here if it happens once in a while. If somebody developed full blown Ozzy Osbourne Syndrome with at least one expletive per sentence then Vlad the Enforcer would have to come in an ask them to dial it back a little. Have you ever met Vlad the Enforcer?

Vlad go away! I can't look at your hands lol

I would have a problem with B because as you can imagine I am called B or Bee by several people. Haimovfids is a bit of a mouthful.
I love Barrett. I also like Baruch a lot, I pronounce it as an Italian name and it sounds very cool.

I have your same problem with my surname, nobody gets it right and I am forever receiving mail with variations of the original lol. Annoying.

I always wanted my name to be Skyler Silver, I like it so much that I will probably change my name sooner or later.
Changing names in UK is very easy, you can legally call yourself whatever you want!

Ack! I knew my "s" part of the word would be covered up by the forum software but I didn't realize it wouldn't work if it was in caps! I just saw it now, SO SORRY VLAD PUT AWAY THE STICK PLEASE FOR B-EXPLETIVE DELETED SAKE!

Actually I don't think it would have been covered up by the forum software even in lower case. There are very few words that I've set to be bleeped and most of them relate to "hate" speech not cuss words.

As a matter of fact, this forum was dead for several years and came back to life as the result of a meltdown about ridiculous overreaction to very mild language on TC. One of the members said "dam" over there, with that spelling (and she said it again today on this forum with the same spelling, under tragic circumstances unfortunately. It's the first time I've seen her use it since the TC incident). There had been a long series of "moderator overkill" incidents on TC and that one was the last straw for me, so I left and several people followed me over here.

Vlad the Enforcer has been instructed to use his moderator stick on people who are hateful and mean, but he doesn't care if people get a little potty-mouthed every now and then as long as they're not cussing AT somebody. So far he's never had to use his stick.

But I didn't cover it up with the "expletive deleted" part, so I think the forum software did it automatically unless you or another moderator did it. I just sorta assumed it would be covered up by the software and when I posted and saw that it had been covered up, I thought I was good to go. I just noticed that the all caps version slipped through though, so, uh, oops! hehe

Anyways, the "b-(expletive deleted)" story is 100% true and totally awesome. We're pretty lax about language around here but thank goodness Coyote hasn't picked any of it up! For some reason, I find that thought mortifying! Which is weird, because the thought of my kiddo cussing is only mildly mortifying. I don't know what that says about me.

If you didn't write "expletive deleted" then it must of been the software that did it. I didn't know it was so prudish lol.

Here's the difference between your bird cussing and your kid cussing: you can teach the kid not to cuss in front of guests.

Yes! Thank you. I must have known that subconsciously. I swear I'm not the worst mother in the world... surely there's someone out there worse than me! ha