Speaking as a bearer...
in reply to a message by Lumiereslove
This is kind of cool, I almost never see my name discussed on these boards! :-)
My name is Erica, and yea (in response to another poster), I was born in the early 90s. Specifically, my mom got the idea for the name from the Erica Kane character on "All My Children" played by Susan Lucci. I feel like there were a lot of "soap-opera babies" in my generation...
Anyway, I didn't like my name while growing up. At all. People would tease me by simply calling me "Eric," and I also felt like my name wasn't feminine enough. Now, however, I appreciate my name much more. I don't know many other Ericas (and most of them actually spell it "Erika," anyway), and whenever I tell people my name they seem to find it kind of novel - it's not heard every day where I'm from.
I feel like Cara runs into different problems. It's more obviously feminine, rather than a masculine name with an "a" tacked on the end. However, there is the issue of pronunciation (CAIR-uh vs. CAHR-uh), and also the fact that it's a very... "simple" name. Some people like simple, but I have to wonder sometimes if the little Annes, Caras, Emmas, etc., of the world feel at all insubstantial when standing / sitting next to a Katherine, Stephanie, or Victoria in class, you know what I mean?
So really, I think it depends which issues you would rather tackle.
My name is Erica, and yea (in response to another poster), I was born in the early 90s. Specifically, my mom got the idea for the name from the Erica Kane character on "All My Children" played by Susan Lucci. I feel like there were a lot of "soap-opera babies" in my generation...
Anyway, I didn't like my name while growing up. At all. People would tease me by simply calling me "Eric," and I also felt like my name wasn't feminine enough. Now, however, I appreciate my name much more. I don't know many other Ericas (and most of them actually spell it "Erika," anyway), and whenever I tell people my name they seem to find it kind of novel - it's not heard every day where I'm from.
I feel like Cara runs into different problems. It's more obviously feminine, rather than a masculine name with an "a" tacked on the end. However, there is the issue of pronunciation (CAIR-uh vs. CAHR-uh), and also the fact that it's a very... "simple" name. Some people like simple, but I have to wonder sometimes if the little Annes, Caras, Emmas, etc., of the world feel at all insubstantial when standing / sitting next to a Katherine, Stephanie, or Victoria in class, you know what I mean?
So really, I think it depends which issues you would rather tackle.