This topic was a challenge only in that I think I could write half a dozen blog posts about my name(s), but had to pare it down into something shorter than War and Peace. And as always, I learned all kinds of new things about folks based on what they wrote. Let's see what everyone submitted: Lisette's By any other name ... (note: I reminded her to fix the LJ security so everyone can read but she's on vacation this week so it make take a bit) Rachelle is a unique name, and I can see how lots of folks would say Rachel instead. But I'm a sucker for French names.

Becca's Daddy's little girl Again, hooray guest post! I'm sucking her into the blogging world! I consider it a special treat that I got to spend as much time as I did with her dad when we were teenagers. Becca's dad rocks as does Becca herself.

Jen's Short but sweet comment I give Jen a pass on posting a whole entry on this since she's been mired in pavilion repair and preparations for camping. But again, I'm a sucker for French names and honored she chose hers based on mine.

Donal's What IS my real name? I have known him as Donal for a long time before I even knew what his "real" name was. But it just goes to show that "real" is all relative. I also like the idea of letting people pick a name for themselves once they reach adulthood.

Julia/JD's They call me Julia so you don't have to When I was in second grade my teacher Ms. Young called me Jenny instead of Genie (there were 8000 Jennifers around that time) and it drove me INSANE. She stopped once I started calling her Ms. Yang.

Gina's Living Out Loud #7 I learned a lot reading this. I'm not named for anybody, so the idea of living up to a name is foreign to me. But I'd say Noni would be proud.

Candice's Me, myself, and I... oh, um, and that fourth one: my four names. Miinna is officially one of the coolest names ever. And I think there should be a whole book written on different cultures and what is "customary" to do about changing names after marriage. It's important to do what feels right and not just what "everyone" is doing.

Justus' So what's your real name? Interestingly enough, when Justus joined Facebook recently I wondered "hmm, is Justus his real name?". I guess it is. And as far as names go, Justus is pretty kick ass.

Megan's Our shared name It goes to show that you can always change your mind about a name at any point in your life. As someone who spent a lot of time pondering what to do with all my names after marriage (#1 and #2), I can appreciate all of this.

Deb's What's in a Name My cousin wanted to name her daughter Siobhan and we all said that she would either have to move to Ireland or join the SCA to have anyone pronounce it correctly. But it's still one of my favorite names.

Sarah's What's in a name? I think the h in Sarah is very important as well. It makes it seem like a softer spelling, like you're saying ahhh in a relaxing way. And I can also appreciate having a ton of names and wanting to keep them all.

Sharyn's Writing about my name Much like Sharyn, my aunt's name is Rebecca but we all call her Sissy. At one point she was concerned that we kids did not know her "real" name, but we know who she really is.

Orianna's By any other name It's fascinating to me how the title of Aunt can be as powerful as Mom. Titles are what we make of them.

Kim's No Full Name, Please I laughed out loud at "See: My strong dislike of the letter B which has no good reason." That and picking out names is agonizing and so fun!

Karal's It rhymes with Meryl My favorite line is "when I was 5, I wanted to be Sally — but I think I wanted to be Charlie Brown’s little sister more than I wanted to actually take her name." A highly googlable but super neat name.

Vic's Onomatology I first met him as squorch and then had to figure out who this Vic person was on FaceBook. But I'm curious where Ike came from.

Rich's Name? Which One? I must defend his Welsh name and demand that people not just throw in a few extra consonants for good measure when spelling it. Two dd's make a th sound and that's about it. And he didn't even tell you all the names I have for him.

And finally my own Who do you think I am?

Holy crap, people, you've blown me away with all the participation! 18 participants this month, seven of which are new to the LOL project! See how fun this is?!

I even started collecting this recap yesterday and it's still taken me a bit to sort it all out. As always, if I somehow lost your entry, let me know and I'll amend the recap.

With so many quality entries, I struggled the most on picking a winner this month. But as we all know, the writing and the comments and feedback are the big deal more than whatever I can provide as a trophy.

So this month, I pick Becca as the winner. Her prize is I'm sending her a batch of cookies because I have my own fond memories of hanging out in her kitchen watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and making pounds and pounds of chocolate chip cookies. And she will always be her Daddy's "little cookie."

I already have the theme lined up for this month's project but I may not post about it until Monday or later. This project brings me so much joy that I just want to thank you all for playing along. I hope you get as much out of it as I do. I can't wait for next month!