Baby Names - You're kidding Right???

[Twik]

"spelled in an unusual way or including punctuation"

My parents decided to spell my name Kellie. The uncommon spelling appears on my birth certificate.

My 4.11 GPA only netted me the 11th slot in my graduating class, although my GPA was the highest one of our junior year. I graduated college in 3 years instead of 4, and now I'm working on an MBA.

Some of us "weird-spelling" people are smart. To tell you the truth, I'm just glad they didn't name me what my real dad wanted to name me. Brie. Like the cheese.

Unfortunately, my niece's name is Harleigh. Named after her father's vintage motorcycle collection. Poor kid.

-Kels

The only odd thing about Kellie (and it's pretty minor) is that it's more often spelled Kelly. The only problem with it is that you will most likely get the non-applicable spelling. People will still know what the name is.

Hmm, what obscure make of motorcycle is a "Harleigh"? I'd expect they must have had a trademark infringement suit at some point  .

[Clara Bow]

The idiot who managed my store briefly was a Confederacy fanatic. Joined the Sons of the Confederacy, had at least three Confederate flag tattoos, the whole nine yards. What did he name his oldest son?
Lincoln.
Yes.
I constantly pointed out the inconsistency to him.
That's nowhere near as bad as what he did to his daughter though. They named her "Heavenly Heart". Gag!!!
I get irritated with the misspelling trend. I've seen Lincoln spelled "Linkin", "Lincin", "Lincun", you name it. Then there was the woman who named her daughter "Wynntyrr"....

[Ticia]

My sister dated a boy once named Stephen Stephenson. Her name? Stephanie.

We teased her a bit about that one...

[ccnumber4]

I know a kids named Cam Corder. 

[Ticia]

My maiden name is Baker. If little sis had been a boy her name would have been Stuart Dale Baker, so that my Dad could have a Studebaker! Little sis is very very glad that she was not a boy.

[audrey1962]

My favorite naming is my friend's parents: Fran and Stan. They named the oldest son Stan. They were going to name my friend Ann, but fortunately, came to their senses and didn't.

[smuflo]

In Chinese speaking countries students learning English will choose an English name. In more remote areas, or where the teacher and student have less contact with English culture, the choices for the English names can boil down to "an English word I liked the sound of". As a result, you can meet people named Pencil or Garbage, and so forth.  I have a male roommate named Bambi. His girlfriend is Tweetie.

I work in a predominantly Chinese company.  You are correct that many of their "English" names aren't traditional names.  When I see them, I just smile to myself and remember that they chose these nicknames b/c they are working with us Americans who have difficulty pronouncing Chinese names.  Some of my favorites:

Denim, Blues, and Willy Fan. 

Worst name of a person I knew.. a guy I went to highschool with, his first and last name were Jacson Jackson.

[LissaR1]

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

I totally feel for her.

We named our son Toby.  (Well, Tobias, but he's never called that.)  When I was still working, I actually got a lot of flack for the name from several of the black people I worked with.  Apparently, there's a VERY intense scene in Roots where one of the slaves was being horribly beaten to force him to change his name from whatever it was to Toby.  This scene had REALLY left an impression on the people who hated the name.  (I've never seen Roots, but there are names I'm sure I wouldn't pick for similar reasons!)  But, like I said, -I've- never seen Roots.  (And I'm sure a lot of his elementary school classmates won't have, either.)  But it was very frustrating, because it was an association I simply didn't share, and that was the only thing that ruined the name for them.  (Heh.  Our association was to The West Wing, which is totally where he got his name from.  The middle name of Joshua was coincidental, but I find it funny.)

Of course, thanks to Lost, my husband will be happy that I'm dropping the name Juliette from my campaign. 

I went to school with a guy named Harry Seman.  There's not much you can do with that last name, but Harry is one of the worst names you could pick, I'm sure.  My sister was friends with a Ben Dover, and one of the teachers was Richard Weiner.  And yes, he went by wingadingdingy.  Daring man, teaching high school with that name!

I have a preference for names that are unusual, but not strange.  No one raises an eyebrow at the name Toby, but when he was born the nurses told us they hadn't had a Toby in years.  But they're hard to find, and even harder to agree on.  ::Sigh::

[Shores]

I like who I am...and my name is part of that.  Hopefully, dd will feel that way too.   

Good for you! Name her whatever you like. I think people get way too uptight about a name. And the whole government approval thing is massively offensive to me. Tell ME what I'm ALLOWED to name my kid. pfff... I think Miicheal will be just fine. Insecurity is the fault of parenting, not a name.

[extranormal]

My maiden name is Baker. If little sis had been a boy her name would have been Stuart Dale Baker, so that my Dad could have a Studebaker! Little sis is very very glad that she was not a boy.

OK, I have to admit I think that would have been fabulous. It's pretty subtle; I mean, it isn't as if one immediately thinks of the car when hearing Stuart Baker. Of course, I probably wouldn't find it so funny if I were stuck with the name.

I know a woman named Melissa, along with kabillions of other women around her age. What's bizarre is that her parents' short list of names was:

Melissa
Ophelia
Desdemona
Hermia

Maybe it's just that cooler heads prevailed, but Melissa? Not even Miranda?

And I just have to hope that Gentle Summer Love is a stronger person for having been named like a feminine hygiene product.

[MC Clapyohanz]

There's an old Saturday Night Live sketch about this. Nic Cage's character gets a package and the delivery guy says he has something for A$$wipe (and pronounces it accordingly). Cage gets indignant and points out huffily that his name is pronounced Ahz-WEE-pay.

Ahz-wee-pay has been in my lexicon ever since.

I was thinking about this skit while reading the posts & wondered if anyone would mention it.
Remember at the end of the sketch he slips & calls himself A$$wipe? I still say "ahz-wee-pay."

[Sootikin]

.....
I wonder what Brits think of American kids named Randy...

Tee hee, I can tell you what Kiwis think, from experience , not sure if I've told this here before.  A new American chap started at work and his name was either 'Charles Randall Somebody' or 'Randall Charles Somebody', commonly known as 'Randy'.

Uh not in NZ you're not unless you like people tittering over your permanent sexu*l readiness everytime your name's mentioned.  Nope 'Chuck' is no good either, it's what we all do after one or three too many.  Being a good old Southern gentleman he settled for Charles.

I went to school with an 'OK Matthews', I always imagined his folks seeing him for the first time and cooing 'Aw he's OK' instead of 'Aw he's gorgeous'.

A friend of mine was pregnant to a chap with the surname Rikirangi, I wanted them to have a boy and call him either Ricky Rikirangi or Rangi Rikirangi, sadly they had a lovely daughter .

[Sootikin]

I wonder what Brits think of American kids named Randy...

As a Kiwi, and thus sharing quite a bit of language and humour with the Brits, I can say that Kiwi's at least find it very very amusing to meet people named Randy.

I was especially amused seeing "R Randy lastname" I had to wonder what his first name was that Randy was preferable.

Also funny is "Chuck".

Even more amusing is that trend a while back of taking "maid" type names... names like "Fanny". Which in my country refers to a different part of a person's bottom. (leading to the subsequent amusement of a 'fanny pack')  

Did you work with the same guy I did, (I hadn't read your post when I posted)?

[MC Clapyohanz]

A little boy named "Samaj Ekim

Actually, my mom had a little boy in her class named Semaj (yes, james spelled backwards).

She taught special ed.
 

[Sootikin]

I used to do a lot of work for the royal airforce and after meeting tons of them, finally exploded with "Are all Englishmen named after penis's!" when I was introduced to, Jock Cockran, Woody Babcock and one other doosey that I don't remember now.

Half were laughing so hard they couldn't breath the other half were staring blankly because they didn't realize what Jock and Woody meant in America. They at least understood the last names.

Both my (Scottish) Dad and brother are/were called John, Dad's nickname was 'Jock', my bro's was 'Strap', I was at least 20 before it dawned on me...