Baby Names - You're kidding Right???

[tickytack]

"I have a coworker who named her daughter 'Alexia."

What's so unusual about that?

[Amy Rose]

I also graduated with a girl named Ryan. She is the most girly girl you can ever hope to meet.

If I name my kid Mackenzie, it won't be after the area in Scotland. It'll be after my dog.

[Sterling]

My nieces middle name is James.  I actually thought it was nice.  Of course I like good names that are not popluar but not wierd either.

[kisu]

In at least one country, Sweden I think, the government has the ability to veto the name.  I am normally pretty much against government interference, but I think in this case it might be necessary.  They just vetoed a couple who wanted to name their daughter Metallica.

Then there is the other extreme.  My parents thought they were giving me a relatively unusual name.  It ended up being the most popular name of my year.  My brother's last two girlfriends have had the same first name.  There were 3 other girls in my kindergarten class with the same first name.   

Germany and, I think, Austria also have rules about what you can and cannot name your child.

As does France.

And Finland, and Norway too I think.
[/quote]

[hollasa]

If you haven't read Freakonomics, this is a good article on Slate about some of their research on baby names:
http://www.slate.com/id/2116505/

and I don't know if this has been posted - the NameVoyager? Shows graphically the popularity of names - start typing in the name at the top, and it pares down by letter. Fascinating stuff.

To "Miichael"'s mom - please. Please don't. It is a typographical error. It is not a user-friendly name. If you need to be creative with a name, at least do it with the middle name, it will cause your child much less inconvenience in life.

[IndianInlaw]

Speaking of "Phuc".

In the 70's a family of Vietnames refugees came to the US, sponsored by a charitable organization.

They listed the names of the family, all traditional Vietnamese names, except Phuc, who had his name changed to Peter.  Why couldn't they have given him another typical Vietnamese name?  And why explain it at all.

And Peter is also a euphemism, ya know?

[platys]

I know someone who was thinking of naming her baby Cleo, until everyone she told started speaking with fake jamaican accents and talking about being psychic.   

She somehow had never heard of Miss Cleo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Cleo

She was totally angry that people kept pointing out the connection, and now refuses to discuss baby names with us. 

[hockeyfan]

I think if a name has a high potential to be misspelled and/or mispronounced, parents should really think about whether it's a good idea to go with it or not. If the name has some importance to them anyway, then I think it's okay. If they are choosing it just to be "different" then I don't think that's a good enough justification for the trouble the child will have to go through in life.

My DH named his first DD "Makena." I don't like it for a variety of reasons (primarily that it's always misspelled and mispronounced) but he loves Hawaii (its a beach on Maui) so at least there's a reason for it.

[housewife2k]

Regarding backwards names: my husband teaches a kid named "Yorel" (dad: Leroy) and he hates his name- people think he's a spin-off of Jor-el from the Superman comics.

The celebrity baby names bother me.  Jason Lee named his kid "Pilot Inspector."  I know there are lots of others, but that's the one that has always really bugged me- how self-involved do you have to be to give your child a name like that, because it's "funny?"

Deb, not to be nit-picky, but Jason Lee spells his kids name Pilot Inspektor. Hubby and I make a point of over-pronouncing the K. I know I've stated here before, Shannon Sassymon named her son Audio Science-I repeat my general response-course titles are not good names. Penn Jilette named his daughter Moxie CrimeFighter.

My boys have uncommon, but not unusual names. They are all Gaelic or Gypsy in nature, to honor family, and are all pronounced fairly phoenetically. None of them stand out too much, and the most uncommon belongs to the oldest, who has a wide array of nic names to choose from.

My step-sister named her first son Colt James Lee (last name), and doesn't understand the looks she gets from people when she tells them so.

My name is a tribute to my Great-Grandma-it is hyphenated, it is Greek, it is spelled in a way slightly different than pronounced, and is a very common female name to appear in jokes in MN-most of my life I have had my name said wrong, or listened to horrid jokes by people who think they are clever.

[HushHush]

If i see the name Nevaeh one more time I'll scream.  I don't think its cute to name your child words spelled backwards and that had to have been the most popular name last year.

One of my previous co-workers had a client with 8 children.  All named the same but with an accent in a different place so the pronunciation was different.  This isn't the name but you get the idea:

She'nequi
S'henequi
Sh'enequi
Shen'equi

and got mad when my co-worker mispronounced all of the names!

My son's name is easy to pronounce, easy to spell but his last name is a doozy so it was a trade-off.  I can't do anything about his last name but I could make his first name be as easy as possible.

Of course, if I ever have a daughter, I want to name her after my grandmother, Verletta, which is so unusual that I can't find it in any baby name books to learn the origin.  I've never heard of anyone outside my family using that name so I have no idea where it comes from.

Charlotte

[kethria]

Best friend's step sister is named Coqui, which is a kind of Puerto Rican frog. We like it but it does get mispronounced a lot...

It's easy to find little gifts though... anything with a frog on it

[Amy Rose]

One more, then I'm done.

FH went to school with a girl named Gentle Summer Love.

[housewife2k]

One more, then I'm done.

FH went to school with a girl named Gentle Summer Love.

I would like to inform you that diet Mtn Dew hurst, rather badly, when forced out the nose.

Seriously, who would do that to their child!

[kethria]

Oooh OOh I just remembered one. We have a woman here who was named... Holly Berry...

She got married...

New name?

Holly Wood...

Not kidding.

[kajunchick]

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.

Michal was King David's wife in the Bible, so with that spelling it is a girl's name. But I know what you mean, I am still not used to the Jordans and Blakes running around. My daughter is named Maisie Kathryn, so that's pretty girly! LOL