Recently my friend Misty and I were having lunch and she mentioned that she’s looking for a new job. She told me her rather plain middle name and asked me if I thought she should use that on job applications. I told her I liked the name Misty but didn’t have a good answer about what would be most effective at landing a new job. Here’s an essay she wrote about living with her name.
I’m thinking about ditching my first name for job applications, and using my middle name instead. The other day I remembered that while I worked briefly at a restaurant back in 2006, the manager asked me if Misty was a nickname. He might have asked before writing out the first paycheck. When I said no, he replied that he thought it might have been my “dancing name.” His name is one of the most common- one that doesn’t register a blip on any snobbiness radar- yep, John. The Social Security website lists the most popular names by decade here.
Misty was the 75th most popular name for girls in the ’70s. That’s not too shabby! But then in the ’80s, Misty dropped to 100th. By the 1990s, Misty had fallen off the chart.
In the interest of figuring out peoples’ perception of my first name, I decided to find out what people really think. That’s when I went over to Nameberry.com, a popular baby-naming site. I found that one of the site’s contributors had polled his cohorts about naming a child Misty:
“Does anyone like the name Misty? I know the general perception is that it’s “stripperish”, but I honestly love it. It’s my current obsession, and I don’t think it sounds stripperish at all. I think it sounds very pretty and almost mystical. But, I know it’s not very well received, especially on Nameberry. Am I alone in my love for this name?”
OK, that’s a good start. Someone somewhere likes my name! But it only went downhill from there.
I am a lawyer and I work with two other lawyers (in their 30s) named Misty and Brandy. They are both great lawyers and very well respected, but they always joke that their names make them feel like the office strippers.
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I also see Misty as 70s/hippy/dated. Two, what do you think about Mista, from Scandinavian mythology? Three, I also think of Pokemon. Four, I don’t think it is stripperish. Lastly, I could easily see it on a little girl, but not on an older adult woman, much less an old lady.
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misty sounds super dated and a little, sorry to offend, white trash….
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like the one poster said they had a cat named that…it’s up there with sapphire….its just meh. you can do better, I think.
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Walking into a five star restaurant being called Misty or Mandi is like walking in wearing a formal 80’s pantsuit. No one is going to ask you to change, but it’s outdated, ugly, and tacky.
Is it wrong if that one was so mean it made me laugh?
My first thought is stripper. And if it’s that widespread of a connotation, she’ll never be able to escape it. Sorry
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For me it’s also a pet name–had a dog named Misty for 14 years. It does sound like a lower class name as well. So sorry!
Once in a while, someone will come along and say something nice about my name.
It has a young and almost wistful vibe to it for me.
Wistful! I like it. But then most people just feel a sense of Misty pity.
It’s a name for a cat. I don’t like it and think that a woman named Misty would be cruel.
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Porn star is the only thing that comes to mind. Sorry.
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What about it as a nickname for Melissa, since Missy often is? Another 80s name, but I think a lot more wearable than Misty by itself.
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FYI Mist is a German word for shit, so, you might want to be aware of that. Doubt it would come up often, but, just so you know.
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I knew two Mistys in elementary school, believe it or not, so that’s what comes to mind, that it’s a very 1980s name. Also, this was in a lower-income, Southern US community, so, I associate the name with that demographic (and don’t do it in the hateful way that I know could come up in tone from others, but am just saying, it is a fact that that’s where the names were used in my experience). For some reason, I have this association with a brand of cigarettes? You could look and see if there’s any truth to that.
Here are some more excerpts from another site:
Very cute, but seriously lacking in substance.
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It’s a very cute name; My pony is called Misty. For, a person though, it might be slightly embarrassing because it sounds so girly.
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Reminds me of a 1980’s teeni-bopper who dreams about rainbows, riding horses, and Carebears all day. Who paints her dog’s nails pink and wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, only she is so vapid and silly, she just ends up getting married right out of high school. Not a very good adult name, in my opinion. Okay nickname for a little girl.
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This name should be for cats and dogs only.It’s a tad cute, I must admit, but a little too cute, and thus tacky, for a grown-up. It’s very tacky when combined with Dawn, Autumn, Winter, or whatever could be Misty. It works better as a nickname or a middle name, as it isn’t really one of those mature, sophisticated names, and it might lead to credibility issues.
Credibility issues! I should be offended right now.
Laura Wattenberg, author of “The Baby Name Wizard”, suggests that Misty is suitable primarily for horses and strippers. I actually kind of like Misty.
Suitable for horses and strippers! And that’s from someone who likes my name. I should REALLY be offended right now.
I’m guessing that when they named me, my parents( who are from a small town in South Georgia) didn’t know about the 1976 porn movie The Opening of Misty Beethoven. Hearing the name Misty, my mother probably pictured a pleasant foggy morning or dewy meadow. But at some point over the years, Misty became one of the chosen fake names of strippers and porn stars, and people who like to ruminate on names in their spare time have the same associations that my manager did. So should I use Misty when applying for a job? Well I’m not likely to start go-go dancing anytime soon… so maybe not.
