names

I used to think my mum and dad were brother and sister. How else would they have the same surname?

Miss Innocent

When I was little, I thought that my Aunts had two names. Their first name was "Annie" and then they had another name to differentiate them.

"Annie-Dolores" and "Annie-Darlene"

Later, I learned that "Annie" was a corruption of "Auntie" and at that time, I decided to keep calling them that, because I liked it.

Anon

I believed that when you get older, you change names. That's prolly because in our language some names are now rarely used (I thought they're old man names, since I didn't know any kid with such name) and the currently common ones are "kid ones". For example, when Billy grows to John's age, he will be renamed to John and John will be renamed to something else. Since Billy sounds "childish".

Anon

I thought that when you became an adult you had to change your name to a more adult sounding name. My dad's name is Leonard, and I couldn't see how any child could possibly have that name. I believed this probably until I actually asked my dad what his old name was. And then my brother Leonard Jr. was born.

Julianne

i believed that our neighbour's name was 'whatchamacallit' because my dad always referred to him so, forgetting his actual name.

you can imagine my confusion when he referred so someone else as 'whatchamacallit'.

sweetfreak

I have had many surgeries over the first ten years of my life. I am now eighteen. My neurologist's name was Dr. Grant. I never knew his first name but when I was younger I assumed his name was Ulysses because of the Ulysses S grant in history. I asked my mom when I was six if it was the same guy. I was shocked to find out that he wasn't.

Anon

When I was 5 my cousin told me a story about his friend, Ryan Jackson. I dont know what the story was about because before he could finish I asked if Ryan was related to Michael Jackson. When my cousin said no, we got into an argument because I thought no one in the world could have the same last name unless they were related.

abman

My parents names are Mary and Gary. So when I was little I thought everyone in the worlds parents were named Mary and Gary. Maybe because they rhymed? I dont know!

Sara

I used to believe that Barry Goldwater was a magical man because his name Goldwater conjured up images of him sparkling and wonderful. I later learned he was a terrible politician.

daniesza

when i was really little i thought that if you had twins, you had to give them the same name!

i also had two friends who shared the same birthday, so i was certain that that meant they were cousins!

Anon

In my local fire station there was a really fat man who was the care taker, i always assumed his name was Dennis because this is what it says on the front of the fire engines, i thought this was because he was too fat to be a fireman so they put his name on the truck instead, it was only a few months ago i realised his name was desnond.......not dennis as i had always called him!!!!1

Sammyjo

i used to think my aunt sandra was aunt bannana.

Anon

I was about 10 or 11 when I first heard of Marilyn Manson. This was also the first time I'd heard of the name Marilyn, so I thought it was a man's name.

When I first saw a picture of Marilyn Monroe I was shocked to see he was a woman!

Catherine

i always thought twins had the same name as each other

Elle

I used to believe that people with certain combinations of names, like "Carla" and "Melissa", for example, or like "Tammy" and "Lucy" were mutually invisible to each other, couldn't interact with each other in any way, and would be totally unaware of each other's existence. But then later I knew of a Carla and a Melissa who were each other's best friends. So they clearly knew about each other and interacted with each other. So after that I gradually got over that belief.

Julie

When I was little, my great-grandmother convinced me that if you said the name one person when you meant to say the name of a different person, that first person was thinking of you. Now

Katie