Baby Names - You're kidding Right???

[Evil Duckie]

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[PurpleyBlue]

Okay, I just want to say that several people have now pointed out that they are against Heavenly naming her child "Miichael".  She's handled it very graciously, but in the end it is her decision and I think continuing to tell her repeatedly is not polite.  Especially since she very politely asked that it stop.

[hollasa]

From the Baby's named a bad bad thing FAQ:

Q: Shouldn't people have interesting names to distinguish themselves?
A: Would John Fitzgerald Kennedy be a more interesting person if he were named Dakota Ruger Kennedy?

Is "Marilyn Monroe" really more "unique" an individual than "Norma Jean Baker"?

Would John, Paul, George and Ringo (ne Richard) have been worse musicians than Maverick, Taybree, Kason and Tom (ne Anakin)?

The ones who take already interesting names and "special" them up with odd spellings are the ones that really get my goat. They're hedging their bets too much.

If you like a common name, but don't like how it's spelled, tough. Either use the usual spelling, or find a new name. Andrywe is NOT a name.

As a side note, I knew someone once on a baby board who wanted her child's nick name to be Jewel, and she like the name Juliana. Problem solved, right? Name her Juliana, nickname her Jewel? No - she was going to name her Jewellyana, so she could just shorten the name to Jewel. That one really fails the baby name test of whether or not it would good on an office door, vs. good on a stripper bar marquee.

[megswsu]

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?

Hahahahaha. That is so funny! DH's parents did that to him, and I still have yet to figure it out. The named him "R" but *always* intended upon calling him "K".        He doesn't even know why. What made it worse was that for a long time he went by "R" at work, and that's where we met. So after we started dating he asked me to call him "K". It was weird, but I got used to it. But then I had to explain it to my family who did not get it. Now everything's fine, but I will never do that to my kid.

However I will say if a middle name somehow starts to be used as a nickname of sorts and it sticks, fine. But to name your child something w/the intent upon calling them something else makes absolutely no sense to me.

Another note on spelling...my name is farily common (really big in the early 80s as at one point there were 5 "megs" living in my sorority house), but the spelling of it is not unusual. However people often assume it's spelled all sorts of different ways. It always makes me scratch my head. I always spell names the "normal" way unless the person tells me otherwise.

[Brentwood]

My maiden name was "Rolling" you can not believe how many people, when hearing the name would ask you to spell it, then say "Huh - just like the word."  Well...yeah.  Or, they would see it and pronounce it "Rawling", and then act surprised when you corrected them.  I mean - it's a word used in everyday vocabulary!  My first instinct would be to pronounce it the same as the word.


 

My last name is a common, every day verb. Extremely common. People say the world ALL the time. Somehow, however, it causes instant confusion when used as a last name, and people rarely ever spell it right the first time.

[ChristiKayAnn]

I worked Child Support a number of years ago. Some of the "winning" names were

*Damage and Savage (twin boys)

*Lemonjello and Orangejello (No, this is NOT an urban legend. This was their name according to court documents)

*Porsche, Mercedes and Fiat.

*Jack Daniel and Tangeray (sp?)

And my personal "favorite"...

Sy'phylis. The mother of the child pronounced it "see-FY-lis" but you all know how we pronounced it 

We have a family of children who used to come to my church (they moved out of state recently) seven children named Denver(f), Dallas(f), Miami(f), Phoenix(m), Houston(m), and Seattle(f) (and one more city name but I forget what her name was she was the oldest and lived out of state so I never met her.  Great kids, friendly and loving with such sweet hearts and so much potential but why, oh why, did their mom name them after football teams (Yes, that was the explanation given for the city names)

[Brentwood]

As a side note, I knew someone once on a baby board who wanted her child's nick name to be Jewel, and she like the name Juliana. Problem solved, right? Name her Juliana, nickname her Jewel? No - she was going to name her Jewellyana, so she could just shorten the name to Jewel. That one really fails the baby name test of whether or not it would good on an office door, vs. good on a stripper bar marquee.

Juliana is such a beautiful name. It's a shame to mess with it!

[Linley]

I've always had a spelling/pronunciation problem with my name because it is a foreign name with two common English forms. I'm Caroline, and really if I had my way it's the French pronunciation (Caroleen). But because I would rather use an anglicized pronunciation with English speakers than have them butcher the foreign pronunciation (it can be bad, believe me), I (and my parents) say it Carolin. Okay, fine. Well, since that pronunciation is usually spelled Carolyn (which I hate the look of personally), I either end up with my name misspelled or a different pronunciation. Drives me nuts. Of course, I have little or no problem with this in any language other than English (go figure).

My mother has a French name with no real English equivalent (that side of the family is French). Worse, if anyone has ever heard of this name it's in the male form. She has a very foreign surname as well. I haven't found a telephone solicitor yet who can pronounce either correctly. My father has a normal first name but goes by a name that isn't part of his name at all (his parents never intended to call him by his given name, the name he is called was chosen to honor a friend of my grandfather, why they just didn't make that my father's legal name I don't know.) My grandmother goes by her middle name. I guess we just have name issues in my family.

[Brentwood]

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?

I don't see that as much different from my parents naming me Catherine but calling me Cathy, or naming my brother Anthony and calling him Tony. It think it's pretty common to give kids a "formal" name, but call them by a shortened form or a nickname.

[AdakAK]

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?

My parents did this for my sister.  My mom wanted to name her Katy, but my dad thought that when she grew up that she might feel that Katy was a young girl's name and not appropriate for her.  So they named her with their favorite name that is commonly shortened to Katy and just called her Katy at home.  She did end up preferring her legal name and hasn't used Katy outside the family since she moved to a school in middle school that already had 2 Katys and none of her legal name.

Susan

[ChristiKayAnn]

I don't understand the Randy thing. What does it mean to the British and NZers?

There's a girl at my church (she's 11) named Michal. Her parents are both incredibly smart and sophisticated people, so I'm not sure why they gave her a "boy" name, but it works for them, so whatever.
Then again, there is my sister who named her second son Cougar. Not joking. But again, it works for them, and now I can't picture him ever having been named anything else. (He's 4.)

Since this is a couple from your church it might be a biblical name. Michal was the first wife of King David in the Old Testament. (1 Samuel 18:20)

[Felica]

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with naming a baby something unique or something common. It's a personal choice, and really not anyone else's business. My oldest son's name is in between different and common. His name is Graye. G-R-A-Y-E. Gray is a color, a common color, but it's not an everyday name. I added the e on the end because I liked the way it looked written that way. Because I wanted to, and that's all that matters.

I also have a friend named Rayne. Pronounced just like Rain. Her mom changed the spelling because she thought it would look more like a name. I have a friend named Sean. Pronounced Shaun. That's a pretty common spelling, but it doesn't look anything like it sounds, does it? Kaitlyn, Caitlyn, Katelin, Catelin, and several others are all different ways to spell one name too. Is only ONE of them correct? Which one?

I think it's pretty rude etiquette-wise to try and foist your own personal opinions off on someone else. Disagree if you like, but is it really your business or place to try and make someone else 'see the light"?

[CocoCamm]

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?!

Alright...enough.

First of all, it is Miichael--not Miiiichael.  As I said before, if you just look at how I wrote it down--there wouldn't be this problem.  Heavens!  It's started already and she's not even born.   

Second, as I mentioned before (about a zillion times), although Mr. H and I have always had to spell and pronounce our names, it wasn't that big of a deal for us...it is part and parcel of having a unique name.  I'm sorry if it was for others.  We always understood that our names meant something special to our parents, and therefore our names meant something special to us.  We hope to instill this idea in our daughter as well.  So yes--we are willing to do the same thing to our child.

Third, I note that you have named your daughter Ashley.  I have two nieces named Ashley.  If I were to say to you that both Ashleys hated their names because there were always at least 3 Ashleys in their classes growing up...would that hurt your feelings?  Make you feel like you've done a disservice to her and that she is going to hate you for that name?  No.  It would just make you mad...for no reason.  I wouldn't say that to you.  Please afford me the same courtesy.

And last...I think I asked that the conversation be returned to OP's original intent and away from my obvious foibles as a parent.   

ETA...thank you EMRMiller.

 I have to know~What is the point of the 2 i's? Also does one call a girl Mike for short or is that where the nickname Mickey comes from? Or is there no nickname associated w/ Michael for a girl? I'm honestly curious not trying to pick on you. 

My name is Courtney. Traditionally its a boys name but I have only come across one guy with the name. In my high school of about 1500 kids there were 3 of us all in different grades. In the "real" world I have yet to run into another Courtney. Personally I think my name rocks, its unique without being silly or weird. Of course the downside is few people remember to add the u (come on people its COURT-ney we're not being tricky here) and there really isnt a way to shorten my name. I prefer you not call me Court, I'm not court, court is a place you go when you've been bad. 

[megswsu]

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?

I don't see that as much different from my parents naming me Catherine but calling me Cathy, or naming my brother Anthony and calling him Tony. It think it's pretty common to give kids a "formal" name, but call them by a shortened form or a nickname.

I would disagree. I think those are two different scenarios. "Cathy" is short for "Catherine", so logically when coming u with nicknames that makes sense. In DH's case, "K" is *not* a shortened version of his first name. They are two different names entirely. To me, his parents should have just named him "K" with his middle name being "R" since they never had any intention of calling him "R." (and, "K" is not a family name. It was actually DH's dad's best friend's name from childhood. Follow that?   so it's not like there was a family connection or something).

[AdakAK]

Here at my children's school there is a girl named Kevin.  I felt very bad because the first time that she brought me some paperwork with her name, I told her "Oh, go back, they've given you your brother's paperwork.  This is for Kevin."  I felt so terrible when her friends said that her name WAS Kevin.  I was new to the school and still learning their names.

She does have a brother who attends, and it wasn't uncommon for people to grab the wrong one.  I have always wondered why her parents chose that name.  She has two older brothers and one younger brother, I believe the older two have fairly common names and the younger one has a slightly uncommon, but not unheard of name.  

Susan