Baby Names - You're kidding Right???

[kingsrings]

My pet peeve is people named William Williamson or John Johnson and the like. I figure their parents must have been lazy.

Of course, now that I admitted that in public, 14 of you are going to PM me telling me that your husband's or father's or brother's name was Jeff Jefferson.

-Kels

I don't know any Jeff Jeffersons, but you might get a kick out of this one. When my oldest daughter was in third grade, her teacher's name was Kellie Kelly.

Oh, that tops the Doris Morris I once knew. I guess she really, really believed in changing her last name after marriage no matter what.

[sweedetobee]

I don't have kids but I already asked Mr. Sweede if we could name our future baby Sven and he said no

I thought it would be cute since we're Swedish but we live in the US so it will still be unusual. But he thinks it is a stereotypical Swedish name.
 

[Brentwood]

I don't know any Jeff Jeffersons, but you might get a kick out of this one. When my oldest daughter was in third grade, her teacher's name was Kellie Kelly.


Oh, that tops the Doris Morris I once knew. I guess she really, really believed in changing her last name after marriage no matter what.

Yep - that's how Kellie Kelly got her name. She married a Mr. Kelly.

[Brentwood]

I don't have kids but I already asked Mr. Sweede if we could name our future baby Sven and he said no

I thought it would be cute since we're Swedish but we live in the US so it will still be unusual. But he thinks it is a stereotypical Swedish name.
 

Speaking of Scandinavian names, my maiden name is Norwegian, but we've always pronounced it with an "Amerian accent." Several years ago, some random guy - not a Norwegian, mind you - told me I was pronouncing my name wrong. He was insistent on it!

[Shores]

True, but sh!thead is.

ok... which falls under the already aforementioned disapproval of offensive names. Whats it have to do with the price of tea in China? My comment was that names being banned just for being "abnormal" is wrong IMO.

[sweedetobee]

I don't have kids but I already asked Mr. Sweede if we could name our future baby Sven and he said no

I thought it would be cute since we're Swedish but we live in the US so it will still be unusual. But he thinks it is a stereotypical Swedish name.

LOL, it is!  Haven't you heard any Sven and Ole jokes?  Maybe my Minnesota roots are showing. 

Mr. Sweede works with some poeple from Minnesota (we don't live there) and they keep telling him he "has" to come visit them and they'll show him around. I called to change my name on our insurance policy when we moved and the CS agent on the phone, upon hearing my last name, started talking all about the movie "The Immigrants" about a town in MInnesota, and how I had to watch the movie. 

[drzim]

Add me to the list of people with a common name spelled differently.  It has been nothing but a nightmare my entire life;  after a stint of going by my middle name, I finally just legally changed it to the normal spelling.

If people saw it written, they'd pronounce it wrong.  If I said my name, they would always spell it wrong.
I think that until you've had to live with one of these you-neek names, you don't understand what a pain it is.   I never ever thought my name was cool, I thought my parents were stupid.  

The funniest thing was when I asked my mom "WHY?" she said that she liked the initials--with the weird spelling my first and last name started with the same letter. 

The thing that is strange to me is that the "Miiiichael" poster admits to her or her DH's own problems with spelling/pronunciations of their names, yet she is willing to do the same thing to her child?!

My kids are named Ashley and Kathleen.

[platys]

I love baby names, and usually, when I find a name that I find... well, unique, I can find someone to defend it, even in terms of "Well, my great aunt gertride named her brother that, and they seem happy".

I can't find anyone to defend Miichael so far.

I had a female class mate named Michael - I always thought that was super cool.  Miichael just looks like a typo.

[auntmeegs]

About a week ago at work, I was working beside someone and during a lull she told me her dil was having a new baby.  They had just found out it was a girl.  Lucky me I got to hear all the details.  Well I asked what they were going to name it.  She told me and I kid you not she said Ahhneastiy Lyyn (yes that's the way they are going to spell it).  Without thinking I said are they nuts and she said well when someone admires the baby and says ahh how sweet she wanted to be able to say yes that is her name.  I know I made a mistake when I said that but please don't name that poor baby that.  Is there anything you can say to a grandmother that could make her kids reconsider.  I can't even imagine how long it will take that poor child to learn to spell her name.

That is absolutely horrific.  And so MEAN!

[Sootikin]

True, but sh!thead is.

ok... which falls under the already aforementioned disapproval of offensive names. Whats it have to do with the price of tea in China? My comment was that names being banned just for being "abnormal" is wrong IMO.

Absolutely nothing, my original post was in response to your comment 'And the whole government approval thing is massively offensive to me', and I simply missed your change of heart.

[megswsu]

In Swedish "Michael" is "Mikael".  In case you wanted an alternate interesting spelling The name will still get pronounced incorrectly but hey, who doesn't love a Swede  And in my personal opinion, it has less chance of getting messed up than 2 "i"s.  

Ooooo. Mikael is cool. I like that.

"Who doesn't love a Swede?" LOL. That kills me. Made me think of my stepdad as he's 100% Swedish (his dad immigrated, and mom was 1st generation). Grandpa changed the spelling of his last name from "Ljungdahl" to Youngdahl seeing as how most people would have no *clue* how to pronounce the former, but it does look really cool. Incidentally one cousin legally changed her last name to the Swedish form. But that was a generational thing I think---"Americanizing" names back in the day. They named my SD Carl, but obviously didn't use the traditional spelling w/a "K". Luckily you can't really mispronounce it. But occassinoally people try spelling it with a 'K.'

[Twik]

How do you pronounce Miichael anyway? If it's pronounced like "Michael", then spell it like "Michael".

She'll be plagued by people calling her "MEE-ishal" or "MEE - Ikal" al her life.

[Suze]

a slight veer here --

How about the parents that tell you right from the birth of the child. We are naming him Dakota but we will call him Cody.   Why didn't you just name him Cody in the first place?

Or --

do the name the child and then only call them by their middle name to the point that no one in the family even remembers that middle name is not theiir first name?

If you are going to call the child that ...Why didn't you just name them that name in the first place?

Oh and how about George Forman?  All his boys are named George Jr.

Sis and I are Carole and Susan, Dad was a "Karl (with a K)"

Sis still gets stuff once in awhile for MR Carole

[Shoo]

Well, if you read the post a few pages back from someone who explained that she had a common name with an unusual spelling very similar to the one you're currently contemplating, it should be quite self explanatory.

Yes...I read that.  I thought I addressed that concern when I mentioned that I had had to put up with this nonsense my entire life...and my name is not spelled differently than any of the other people who share it with me. 

I guess that's why the comment sounded slightly snarky to me.

Is this where I mention that we had to have our marriage license printed 3 times before the clerk got it right.  It makes a great story.   

I'll agree that I think Michael is kind of a cute name for a girl.  But I'll also offer that I am not fond of the notion that a parent would saddle her child with a difficult name using the rationale, "I survived it...so can she."

I went through a lot of things as a kid that I wouldn't wish on my child.  I can remember wearing shoes so old and so cheap that they were literally falling off my feet.  I survived it, sure.  But I'd never make my own dd go through that.  I remember how it felt.

You'll do what you want, of course, but I hope you won't dismiss the concerns you've read here today.  

[platys]

My name is Gail - which was pretty common in the 50s and 60s, but fell out of favor completely by the 70s (when I was named it).  So, people tend to spell it wrong more often now than they did when I was young - but even then, its something like "Gale", and its easy to correct.   (Growing up, I got Gail most often, followed by Gayle.  Now I get Gail/Gale equally.)