pay one's dues

Earn something through hard work, long experience, or suffering. For example, She'd paid her dues in small-town shows before she finally got a Broadway part. This expression transfers the cost of being a paid-up member in an organization to that of gaining experience in an endeavor. [Mid-1900s]

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Jimmy	['dʒimi]
Dafina	-	Albanian, Macedonian
ŞEmsettİN	-	Turkish
Janez	-	Slovene
Nurzhan	-	Kazakh
Pallabi	-	Bengali