Saludos to everyone:

I haven't written messages for a while, but, anyways, here's my 
contribution to this discussion.

My paternal grandfather's name is a very special case in my family. 
He was baptized Jose Adolfo Apodaca Ramirez (Adolfo Apodaca, a 
secas). Twenty-some years later, when he got married, he was 
described as Ranulfo Apodaca (and he signed his name like that, 
too). For the rest of his life, he was known to everyone as Arnulfo 
Apodaca. This is the name that appears on his death certificate. His 
real name (Adolfo) was never used by the family, and was eventually 
replaced by "Arnulfo". In fact, an uncle, one of my brothers, and 
some distant cousin I don't even know, all were given my grandpa's 
fake name.

Don't you think that Adolfo sounded much better than Arnulfo? Still, 
it seems that my grandfather preferred the "ugly" name.

My family tree is packed with names that are a little bit odd by 
today's standards. An example is my maternal grandmother. Her name 
is Manuela. Her mom's name was Ambrosia Frias. Ambrosia's sisters 
were Panfila and Rafaela. Ambrosia's mother was Pascuala Aguilar.

Others names that appear in my family tree are Cayetana, Urbano, 
Gertrudis Aniceta, Pantaleona, Austreberta, Macaria, etc.

I am sure that during their times, those names were not considered 
odd, and probably, in 100 years, my greatgrandchildren will think 
that my name and those of my brothers and sisters were weird. 

Saludos,

Steve Apodaca in Winston Salem, NC

PS. By the way, I would like to share this story: my mom was a huge 
baseball fan. She loved the Dogders from the 1970's and 1980's and 
one of her favorite players was Steve Garvey. That's why I have this 
ugly name. :-(