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Help[Opinions] Re: Erica / Heather
in reply to a message by Felie
In the U.S. Erica is pronounced ER-i-kə. Though the Italian pronunciation is kind of pretty, everyone here would have a hard time getting the pronunciation correct.
In the U.S. Erica has a rich white girl vibe. I always imagine someone very blonde with blue eyes. Probably partially because we had a neighbor named Erica for a few years who was blonde, blue eyed, wealthy, and dressed very preppy. She had a son named Ethan, when she got pregnant again they moved because the houses in our neighborhood were too small in their opinion. A lot of yuppies were living in our block at that time, we were their transition neighborhood, it was the early 2000's and houses were being bought and sold for around 600K.
Heather has more of a middle class vibe and it's a little more artsy. I don't imagine blonde girls only since I've met a large variety of Heather's. The Heather I know the best has bright orange ginger hair. Heather is a fairly dated name, I was born on the tail end of when Heather was really popular in the U.S.
Out of the two my favorite is Heather. I named one of my mid-sized beanie babies Heather, it makes me think of switch back trails, far below valleys, pink little mountain flowers, and it reminds me a little bit of Scotland. In WA heather grows on our mountains or at least the one I climbed had a bunch of heather.
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Favorite Names:
Vivian, Aurora, Hazel, Fiona, Sabrina, Citrina, Josephine, Maeve, April, Dorothea, Althea, Artemis, Delphina, Cascadia, Luna, Iris, Frida, Marguerite, Kiera
Ciaran, Rowan, Brendan, Malcolm, Cedar, Robin, Julian, Tristan, Arthur, Magnus, Xavier, Felix, Cedric, Gavin, Connor, Silas
In the U.S. Erica has a rich white girl vibe. I always imagine someone very blonde with blue eyes. Probably partially because we had a neighbor named Erica for a few years who was blonde, blue eyed, wealthy, and dressed very preppy. She had a son named Ethan, when she got pregnant again they moved because the houses in our neighborhood were too small in their opinion. A lot of yuppies were living in our block at that time, we were their transition neighborhood, it was the early 2000's and houses were being bought and sold for around 600K.
Heather has more of a middle class vibe and it's a little more artsy. I don't imagine blonde girls only since I've met a large variety of Heather's. The Heather I know the best has bright orange ginger hair. Heather is a fairly dated name, I was born on the tail end of when Heather was really popular in the U.S.
Out of the two my favorite is Heather. I named one of my mid-sized beanie babies Heather, it makes me think of switch back trails, far below valleys, pink little mountain flowers, and it reminds me a little bit of Scotland. In WA heather grows on our mountains or at least the one I climbed had a bunch of heather.
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Favorite Names:
Vivian, Aurora, Hazel, Fiona, Sabrina, Citrina, Josephine, Maeve, April, Dorothea, Althea, Artemis, Delphina, Cascadia, Luna, Iris, Frida, Marguerite, Kiera
Ciaran, Rowan, Brendan, Malcolm, Cedar, Robin, Julian, Tristan, Arthur, Magnus, Xavier, Felix, Cedric, Gavin, Connor, Silas
This message was edited 10/10/2017, 8:37 PM
Archived Thread - replies disabled
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Replies
As an Erica who is nothing like the image you described, this is the first I've heard of Erica being a "preppy white girl" name! ("Rich," maybe, though that would mainly be due to the association with the "All My Children" character Erica Kane, who I was sort of named after. But "preppy" is a new one for me, lol!)
Maybe we just grew up in vastly different neighborhoods (there certainly weren't any houses around me being sold for more than 300K), but none of the Ericas / Erikas I new in school, or encountered as a child, were even white. A couple were black, but most were Hispanic. (I met my first white Erika in college, and a white Arica some years later.) As for me, I'm a short, dark-haired, pear-shaped Italian-American, and I've always been far more nerdy than "preppy" or "yuppie" (though I did go to a private liberal arts college in New England...).
Heather is the name that conjures images of blond women, for me, but that's mainly due to me associating the name with the actresses Heather Locklear and Heather Graham.
Maybe we just grew up in vastly different neighborhoods (there certainly weren't any houses around me being sold for more than 300K), but none of the Ericas / Erikas I new in school, or encountered as a child, were even white. A couple were black, but most were Hispanic. (I met my first white Erika in college, and a white Arica some years later.) As for me, I'm a short, dark-haired, pear-shaped Italian-American, and I've always been far more nerdy than "preppy" or "yuppie" (though I did go to a private liberal arts college in New England...).
Heather is the name that conjures images of blond women, for me, but that's mainly due to me associating the name with the actresses Heather Locklear and Heather Graham.
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The high school friend named Erica whom I mentioned in my post was preppy and, maybe not rich exactly, but came from a fairly affluent family. No surprise there, because everyone in my hometown was preppy and fairly affluent. But she actually also was blonde and blue-eyed lol.
I had a short, dark-haired, pear shaped friend whose name was Karen.
I had a short, dark-haired, pear shaped friend whose name was Karen.
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Accidental Repeat
I hope I didn't offend you. Saying that in the U.S. Erica has that vibe isn't correct, saying around where I grew up Erica is a preppy white girl name is more accurate.
I never had an Erica in my class and truthfully I only had one or two Heather's ever in my class and that was in college. I think there was a Heather two years older than me in high school. I've met a few Erica's and they all had blonde hair, blue eyes, and were around 10 to 15 years older than me which means they would have born in the 70's. The only Erica I've ever known was our neighbor, she was mostly nice but often looked down her nose at us when we would interact. Also my next door neighbor for many years was a man named Eric who also had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was the nicest guy ever and it was so sad when he died.
When my parent's bought their house 30 years ago the neighborhood wasn't a high income people.but it became a transition neighborhood for rich yuppie people although now it is purely a higher income neighborhood since homes sell on average around 800k. But all the most recent people in the neighborhood are not preppy yuppie types they are techie people with chickens in their backyard or who don't own a car. My parent's house that badly needs upkeep fits in better with our new neighbors who don't keep their houses immaculate looking.
I grew up in Seattle which is a mostly white city in a mostly white neighborhood, but I went to a middle school/ high school that was about equal in it's racial demographic for white, black, and asian. We had a higher than normal Native American student body as well, it was the only public school in the city that gave no or little preference to neighborhood enrollment and it had city wide busing. The school is sadly gone now because of a superintendent who hated alternative schools. Most of the students who went there chose it because of the school's focus on art or they had been bullied and were searching for a school that was accepting and friendly. It was a great place and it's too bad that it's gone. My school had a lot of students with less usual or rare names.
Sorry it's getting late and I am starting to ramble more and more.
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I hope I didn't offend you. Saying that in the U.S. Erica has that vibe isn't correct, saying around where I grew up Erica is a preppy white girl name is more accurate.
I never had an Erica in my class and truthfully I only had one or two Heather's ever in my class and that was in college. I think there was a Heather two years older than me in high school. I've met a few Erica's and they all had blonde hair, blue eyes, and were around 10 to 15 years older than me which means they would have born in the 70's. The only Erica I've ever known was our neighbor, she was mostly nice but often looked down her nose at us when we would interact. Also my next door neighbor for many years was a man named Eric who also had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was the nicest guy ever and it was so sad when he died.
When my parent's bought their house 30 years ago the neighborhood wasn't a high income people.but it became a transition neighborhood for rich yuppie people although now it is purely a higher income neighborhood since homes sell on average around 800k. But all the most recent people in the neighborhood are not preppy yuppie types they are techie people with chickens in their backyard or who don't own a car. My parent's house that badly needs upkeep fits in better with our new neighbors who don't keep their houses immaculate looking.
I grew up in Seattle which is a mostly white city in a mostly white neighborhood, but I went to a middle school/ high school that was about equal in it's racial demographic for white, black, and asian. We had a higher than normal Native American student body as well, it was the only public school in the city that gave no or little preference to neighborhood enrollment and it had city wide busing. The school is sadly gone now because of a superintendent who hated alternative schools. Most of the students who went there chose it because of the school's focus on art or they had been bullied and were searching for a school that was accepting and friendly. It was a great place and it's too bad that it's gone. My school had a lot of students with less usual or rare names.
Sorry it's getting late and I am starting to ramble more and more.
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This message was edited 10/13/2017, 4:49 AM
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I hope I didn't offend you. Saying that in the U.S. Erica has that vibe isn't correct, saying around where I grew up Erica is a preppy white girl name is more accurate.
I never had an Erica in my class and truthfully I only had one or two Heather's ever in my class and that was in college. I think there was a Heather two years older than me in high school. I've met a few Erica's and they all had blonde hair, blue eyes, and were around 10 to 15 years older than me which means they would have born in the 70's. The only Erica I've ever known well was our neighbor, she was mostly nice but often looked down her nose at us when we would interact. Also my next door neighbor for many years was a man named Eric who also had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was the nicest guy ever and it was so sad when he died.
When my parent's bought their house 30 years ago the neighborhood wasn't a high income people.but it became a transition neighborhood for rich yuppie people although now it is purely a higher income neighborhood since homes sell on average around 800k. But all the most recent people in the neighborhood are not preppy yuppie types they are techie people with chickens in their backyard or who don't own a car. My parent's house that badly needs upkeep fits in better with our new neighbors who don't keep their houses immaculate looking.
I grew up in Seattle which is a mostly white city in a mostly white neighborhood, but I went to a middle school/ high school that was about equal in it's racial demographic for white, black, and asian. We had a higher than normal Native American student body as well, it was the only public school in the city that gave no or little preference to neighborhood enrollment and it had city wide busing. The school is sadly gone now because of a superintendent who hated alternative schools. Most of the students who went there chose it because of the school's focus on art or they had been bullied and were searching for a school that was accepting and friendly. It was a great place and it's too bad that it's gone. My school had a lot of students with less usual or rare names.
Sorry it's getting late and I am starting to ramble more and more.
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I never had an Erica in my class and truthfully I only had one or two Heather's ever in my class and that was in college. I think there was a Heather two years older than me in high school. I've met a few Erica's and they all had blonde hair, blue eyes, and were around 10 to 15 years older than me which means they would have born in the 70's. The only Erica I've ever known well was our neighbor, she was mostly nice but often looked down her nose at us when we would interact. Also my next door neighbor for many years was a man named Eric who also had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was the nicest guy ever and it was so sad when he died.
When my parent's bought their house 30 years ago the neighborhood wasn't a high income people.but it became a transition neighborhood for rich yuppie people although now it is purely a higher income neighborhood since homes sell on average around 800k. But all the most recent people in the neighborhood are not preppy yuppie types they are techie people with chickens in their backyard or who don't own a car. My parent's house that badly needs upkeep fits in better with our new neighbors who don't keep their houses immaculate looking.
I grew up in Seattle which is a mostly white city in a mostly white neighborhood, but I went to a middle school/ high school that was about equal in it's racial demographic for white, black, and asian. We had a higher than normal Native American student body as well, it was the only public school in the city that gave no or little preference to neighborhood enrollment and it had city wide busing. The school is sadly gone now because of a superintendent who hated alternative schools. Most of the students who went there chose it because of the school's focus on art or they had been bullied and were searching for a school that was accepting and friendly. It was a great place and it's too bad that it's gone. My school had a lot of students with less usual or rare names.
Sorry it's getting late and I am starting to ramble more and more.
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This message was edited 10/13/2017, 1:28 PM
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Oh no, you didn't offend! I was just surprised at the image, because it was the opposite of what I'd grown up with.
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