Samantha Cappuccino-Williams
Latest posts by Samantha Cappuccino-Williams (see all)
- Unmedicated Childbirth Survival Tips - February 25, 2013
- You Might Be a Parent If… - February 12, 2013
- 10 (Mildly Shallow) Reasons To Breastfeed - February 10, 2013
Is it just me, or is it like a freakin’ contest nowadays of who can give their kid the most gag-worthy name? All of a sudden, everyone is “that guy” with regards to naming their offspring. You know, that guy who makes folks roll their eyes or stare blankly when they hear the baby’s “hip” or intentionally unusual furniture- or foreign city-inspired name that is spelled with 7 extra consonants and a random apostrophe? Yeah. I didn’t want to be that guy. Don’t you be that guy, either.
So please, don’t:
• Create a new spelling for an otherwise normal name. Why on earth would you intentionally botch the spelling of your kid’s name? People are shitty spellers already. You don’t have to make things harder by taking a perfectly well-spelled name and adding silent letters or superfluous punctuation. Your kid will not be more unique just because you buck the rules of written English and change Mark to Marq. They will not be more mysterious or well-rounded if you spell it S’mantha and not Samantha. They will, however, spend their life correcting people and getting agitated that no-one ever spells their name right, even if the assumed spelling is reasonable (“It’s Mary. No, with four Rs. Yes, M-A-R-R-R-R-Y. God! Everyone thinks it’s just one R!”). Side note: If you change the spelling of a nickname to align it with the real name, I might be able to forgive that. Eg, Catie, instead of Katie, for Catherine.
• Invent a stupid pronunciation, especially for a [relatively] normally spelled name. A friend told me of a girl she knows named Le-ah. No, it’s not pronounced “Lee ah.” It’s not pronounced “Lee.” It’s “Lee dash ah.” You read that right. “Lee dash ah.” The dash in the name is part of the pronunciation. I thought my friend was kidding, but you can’t make stuff like this up. Poor Le-ah is going to be insane by the time she’s 4.
• Name your kid something that is a well-established name of the opposite sex. I’m all for squelching gender stereotypes, but I think there are better ways to do it than by confusing people with your kid’s name. I’m not talking about those borderline names that can go either way, like Terry or Kelly. I’m talking about giving your child a name that is straight up for the opposite sex. I’m talking to you, Jessica Simpson. Maxwell? For a girl? Really? Perhaps you had a great reason for giving your daughter a boy name, but because I don’t know what it is, I am just confused.
• Name your kid a nickname. My brother had a friend named JD. Named JD. It didn’t stand for anything (he’s a Southerner. No further comment necessary). The poor guy got so tired of repeating the line, “No, it isn’t short for anything. That’s just my name,” that he made up a full name for himself. He went with Jack Daniel. Like I said, he’s a Southerner.
• Have a crappy reason for selecting a goofy name. If you want to name your kid Esmeralda Ireland because it was your grandma’s name and grandpa’s birth country, OK. I can get behind that. Maybe the name is weird, but you have a nice reason for choosing it. But if you’re naming your kid Esmeralda Ireland because you like witches and you hope to visit Ireland someday, you’re a tool. You’re also a tool for naming your kid after a random object, place, celebrity, or trendy fictional character (ahem, Edward Cullen).
• Invent a name just to be quirky. My husband and I joked we were going to get on the portmanteau baby-name wagon by combining my grandmas’ names (Gloria + Sophia = Glophia). We high-fived each other for our hilarious originality, but really, with this trend of inventing unique names, the odds are slim that Glophia isn’t already taken. In the end, we had no reason to invent a name, so we didn’t. If you don’t have a reason to invent one, don’t.
Obviously, you can name your kid whatever you want, so really my point is this: if you’re going give your kid a goofy name, have a damn good reason. Or at least a mediocre story.
On a related note, if you’re going to be “that guy” and give your kid an effed up name, don’t also be the guy who refuses to share the name because you’re afraid of negative commentary or feedback. As soon as someone tells me they’re not sharing baby names, I assume the name they picked sucks or will scare people—-and they know it. When you pick a name for your kid—good or bad—own it. Don’t be a puss about it. If someone begins to pooh-pooh your name, cut them off. Who cares if the biggest moron in their high school was Skippy, or the biggest douche was Biff? That’s their experience, not yours. Who cares if your coworkers think Maroon Marmalade is a terrible name as long as you love it. Most people know better than to slam your baby name anyway. Everyone is so damn sensitive nowadays. But on the bright side of the unwanted commentary, someone might actually have a helpful tidbit about your name that you should know before legally assigning it to your child. Like, “Adam Samuel Samsonite? Soooo…his initials will be ASS?” Oh hell no. Thanks for pointing that out, Friend.
Lastly, a little food for thought: When you hear of a kid with a bizarre name, I bet the first thing you think is, “Why would a parent do that to their child?” That’s the important and oft overlooked part: the parent makes the call, but the kid lives with it. Your unusual name choice and alternate spelling are burdens your child has to bear. Maybe they’ll work it like RuPaul, maybe they’ll get shoved in a locker, who knows. Just keep that in mind when you’re deciding which fruit or color to name your kid after.
{ 622 comments… read them below or add one }
As a person that had to live with a “gag-worthy name,” I am in total agreement with this post. If someone asks me if my sister’s name is Moonshine one more time…well you may see me on “Snapped.”
I gave all 3 of my babies “normal” names so they don’t have to go through this shit. My parents tried to chime in on the baby naming process but I told them they should never be allowed to name another living thing!
You have my sympathy. As I read your comment, the only thing I could think was “Gosh. That could have been me.” My maiden name is White. My mother wanted to name me Snow. Yep, Snow White. Thank goodness Dad was a “stick in the mud” and refused to allow it. Instead, I’m named after two characters from “Valley of the Dolls.” Thanks, Mom. But meh, they’re pretty normal names. I’m still calling it a win. (I also made it a point to give my children traditional names.)
Jen, my maiden name is also White. My parents went through the same scenario. The only way my mom got around it was with being half Japanese and making my middle name, Yukiko. Japanese for snow.
I love your name! : )
Speaking of bad kid names, where I work you are exposed to all sort of kid names. For example Redsky and No Wonder are just a few. I feel sorry for these kids.
I see some awkward names at work – Roshavyah – I wanted to ask shave my what!? and a man named John Raper. I really liked the name Ophelia until I heard the whole – o-feel-yah-up joke. I guess if you have a weird kid they will be teased no matter what their name is so go for it!
also my sister’s neighbor named her son Jaythan – which looks kinda cute! until you hear people cheering for him at little league- go Jaythan go- and it sounds like a lisp epidemic…
LMAO… omg I just spit my coffee everywhere when I got the mental video of that game!!
I spit Coke Zero.
My sister’s name is Misty.
When we’re together meeting new people, one of us tells them an easy way to remember our names “Just think of a misty morning on a sandy beach.”
My husband has a brother named Clay, and… his name is Plato. Say it aloud.
I knew someone who’s name really was Misty Morning, because of the mist the day she was born.
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The worst name I ever heard for a girl was Jersey….I honestly hear a cow moo in my head ever time I hear her mother call her. I have two daughters with traditional simple names, Lauren and Victoria..and no Victoria is not a Vicki/Vickie/Tori – don’t mess with an already easy name….grrrr
I never liked the name Rodney, although many people call me “Rod”. There aren’t many “Good” famous people named Rodney. you have Rodney Dangerfield, and Rodney King. Yeah, there is a baseball player and country western singer. But when i tell people my name is Rodney, older folks say ” like Rodney Dangerfield’ and younger ones sometimes bring up Rodney King. I’m constantly pushing for Rod. Oh by the way… Rod Stewart’s name is Roderick Stewart.
Hey Rodney! Do you watch Sci-Fi? One of my favourite characters ever is named Rodney on Stargate Atlantis. You should look it up ;)
Oh. My. Gosh. I literally had the EXACT same thought!! Glad to know there are more like me out there!
There’s Roders Trotter, son of Del Boy, too in Only Fools and Horses ;)
(A British institution for those on the other side of the Big Pond)
We gave ours short easy to spell names that work in English and
French, their nationalities. Some people have managed to shorten my sons, in the same way the French shorten Geraldine to Gégé …
I regret being that person who had to spell their kid’s name differently (Braeden instead of just Braden or even Brayden). Why did I need that extra ‘e’?? I didn’t. I was naive and hormonally charged and it was my first pregnancy. Friends don’t let their friends add extra vowels. Where were my friends in my time of need?
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And “friend” has an extra vowel!
Friend is a combination of Friday and Weekend. ;)
is your Braeden a boy or a girl? my daughter has a girl classmate named Brayden. and several others with boys names as well.
A boy! I do know someone who named their daughter Brayden though. I guess it’s in the vein as Hayden or Peyton/Payton?
I think Braeden looks great with the extra “e”. I wouldn’t second-guess yourself.
My state allows names to be changed for free up to one full year. That option should be better publicized, I think.
Don’t feel bad! My Nephew is named Braeden (exactly that spelling) I’m told it’s the Irish spelling…
The Le-ah thing is a total urban myth. Please stop. Seriously.
Even if it’s not a myth it is soooo overkilled and is driving me insane.
I personally KNOW a Le-ah. It might have been an urban legend once, but not anymore!
It’s real now, ladies. The friend who told me about little Le-ah isn’t one to make schizz up.
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Not a myth. I’m a labor & delivery nurse and have had patients name their babies in this manner.
I wish the Le-ah thing was an urban myth.. Maybe not THAT specific name, but it is amazing the things that people choose to name their children..
About 8 years ago there was the Hayden/Cayden/Brayden/Aiden phase.. I assured my sister, pregnant at the time, that her child would likely have at least one of these in her class… She does, in fact!
I agree with Niki – as another L&D RN I’ve heard many names that I just have to smile at because there is nothing else I can do! And when they ask me how to pronounce a name they spell, I’m honest and tell them I have no idea..
I heard one about a girl who was named Shithead, but is was pronounced Shi-tay-ad. Lord, I hope that one is a myth! And since there was some kid named Hashtag, I really wouldn’t put it past someone to name their child Le-ah
“Shithead” is typically an Indian name. My brother has a couple of friends with this name. It’s pronounced “Sha Heed”. It’s actually quite popular in their culture – and “shit” isn’t a swear word in Hindi.
I agree with some of this post, but with a mom named Venus, my name Athena and my son’s name who is Ares (pronounced Aries, but spelled like the Greek God) we’re sticking with unusual names, who the hell cares what looks we get. I love my name.
We’re pregnant with #2, any ideas boy or girl for a nice ‘God/Goddess’ name that starts with an “A”? Nothing like ‘Aphrodite’ which could be nicknamed ‘Afro” hahaha
Artemis or Apollo are the first that come to mind. and if those aren’t quite right, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures :)
Fun list. Aura is pretty, it means goddess of the morning breeze.
Athena
Ariel?
Thx all!
Love it! My son is Atticus Marek and I love it. When I polled people at work (pre-baby) everyone HATED it. But I couldn’t imagine him as anything else
I love the name Atticus, unfortunately for us, one of my college friends JUST named their son Atticus, like, in the past month. We haven’t see each other in person since graduating, but we share a TON of FB friends.
I had the same issue with Ares, no one liked his name (except for my parents) when we first told them. I can’t possibly picture him as a Matthew or Lukas or anything else common, haha!
Don’t let someone you know using a name be why you don’t name your kid something. Are they going to spend the rest of their life with that person? Probably not. A name is one of the most permanent things we get. Pick the one you want, even if everyone or no one else is using it.
Loved the name Atticus until someone pointed it out that it sounds like someone with a lisp saying “ass kiss”. That ruined it for me.
No it doesn’t (that would sound like Athicus or Athicuth, not Asskiss). I love this character in To Kill a Mockingbird. Although the book overall is a bit depressing, it is a modern American classic.
We named our daughter Ariadne from Ancient Greek times. And we named our son Athan from the word “immortal” in Greek. We have very good stories behind both names but in all honesty, we live in such a culturally divers part of the world that who cares what you name you child. The only people who seem to have a problem with my kids names are the older generation who just refuses to believe that there are other names beyond Henry and Cathrine. I personally don’t love my name, and it’s a pretty straight forward one, yet 80% of the time people spell it wrong anyways. I’m not going to base my life around other people’s inability to be divers.
As long as they can at least snorker : )
Oops, that should be snorkel
I always wonder if such names are considered attractive in the old country and just sound bad in other languages, or if they’re actually the Myrtle or Egbert of “back home,” too.
I hope it was a typo, but while killing time at O’Hare Airport, I picked up a paper and read a story about a girl named “As’shole.” I asked someone about it, and they said its a middle eastern name, that is pronounced Ash-olay.
Oh my god, my cousins wife had a student named La-a… Also pronounced ladasha… Oiy. My daughters are Taylor and Samantha. And someone asked me why I wasn’t spelling it S’mantha, I told them because I love my kid
Maybe if you have smore kids it’s smthing to consider!
haha!
You should have replied – “Because I’m not a f*ck*ng idiot!”
Amen!
So true. It’s because of parents like this that I now need to spell Susan when I talk to people. God only knows how they THINK it’s spelled.
Sooozyn
Siouxzin
Sue’sin
Ha! My mom’s name is Susan, and I can’t wait to start spelling it Sue’sin.
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LOL your grandma will be so sorry she didn’t think of it herself!
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Never in a million years would my mother or grandmother understand the joke. That actually makes it more funny.
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Suzanne? I mean, I know technically that name should be pronounced differently, but that’s the alternative that first comes to mind for me.
Karen. Yes, with a K. And an E. just one R.
(Seriously, my name is dead common. The most common for my age peers, Ive known nearly 100. yes, I counted. Maybe 5 did not spell it Karen, so I don’t know why anyone would have to ask.)
my name is Erin I am a female and people ask me if you spell it Aaron.
I named my daughter Erin. I think it’s a beautiful, feminine name, without being too fru-fru. And, yes, when i was pregnant, people asked (A LOT) if I was going to spell it A-a-r-o-n! stupid and annoying.
My son in Pre-K goes to school with a little girl named Karen. But she pronounces it CAR-in. She is such a cute kid. But I just know she is going to spend her life having to correct people’s pronunciation.
My mom’s name is Susan too, and both her and I are always having to spell out our names. I too wonder what the hell they think it’s spelled like.
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I knew a Jehsickah once, that poor girl…
I know a Susyne.
Holy hilarious post! Thanks for sharing!! :) And oh. so. true.
My favorite is Richen Famos. No joke. Thought the sign in for the tardy list was screwed with when the substitute teacher was filling in for me.
I went to high school with a girl named “Chanda.” Its kind of a pretty name, but her last name was “Lear.”
i love my kids names, but they are slightly off beat, not crazy , just not top 100 , having gone through school with 6 count em 6 other Elizabeth, you might see my point…
Hand to God, I had a friend name their sone Epic. EPIC unless that kid is hand made awesome, he’s screwed. Especially since his last name is Johnson. (His father though tit would be hilarious)
Then my sister is a mix of Danielle and Mischelle, >> Dyschelle -sighs- She was called Dirty Dishes the entirety of high school
I know a Legend!
Epic Johnson!!???!! so funny to hear about but poor kid! he’ll be forced to be either awesome or miserable
Epic Johnson is seriously the best porn name ever.
This reminds me of Golden Tate, who is a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks. I always think “God its a good thing he ended up as a professional athlete. What else could you do in life with a name like that?”
Maybe things won’t be so bad for him. http://www.cracked.com/article_14982_the-9-manliest-names-in-world.html
I named my son Hehr (here) his dads name is Thayer my son loves his name at 1 he wt in at 30lbs at 15 145lbs at 9% body fat and a pretty good wrestler with great size he is definitely here Hehr!
That’s just stupid. Here, Hehr. WTF were you thinking?
Well my choice my child so KMA! If you knew me and my husband and our boy you wouldn’t be sitting here talking BS to me WTF is wrong with you! My child’s name fits him to a T and I have given HIM the option to change it and he will tell u and anyone else who ask do u like your name and he will say YES he is 5ft10 145lbs and 15 years old plays sports and gets good grades he is in the 100% tile for his size so BIOTCH he is HEHR and here!
I also found out later the way u say and spell his name in DUTCH means LORD and GENTLEMEN so….
I hope one day my kid names my grandchild Thehr.
That would be totes badass.
No. Sorry to tell you, but thats just plain wrong. Either in the Netherlands or Germany it is spelled Herr and the meaning is a simple Mr.
The German is Herr, Dutch is heer. In German the ‘e’ is as in ‘fern’, Dutch the ‘ee’ is as in ‘in’ but long. It does not mean lord. God, why don’t people at least google the name they choose for their poor children?
Also, 90 procent sure Darla is a troll.
How does the name “fit him to a T” when you made it up?
And you don’t give him the right to change it; the legal system does. The only thing you gave him is a goofy name that reflects poorly on you.
I suspect you know all of this already, judging by how ultra-defensive you are about the terrible name you burdened your child with.
Well it is better the JOHN OR IS IT DICK?
I also named my daughter DRURY is that a problem for u ? LmAo it is not made up look it up!
I sort of wish you named your daughter Theyr. Although, nothing can be worse than Rob Morrow naming his daughter Tu. Tu Morrow. Poor thing. Hey, as long as your kid likes his name, then who cares?
clearly you suck at names. you dont belong here.
I know someone who named her kids Britaney and Johnathan. She thinks it’s cute-I’m pretty sure it just looks uneducated. Also, I will always remember one of my mother’s former students who was named Adoremeisay. I am not kidding, her name was “adore me I say” all pushed into one word.
Hah. This, exactly : “She thinks it’s cute- I’m pretty sure it just looks uneducated.”
As someone with a really common name, I can understand the desire to give your child a slightly less common name; there are a million Sarahs in the world and at least 5 in my graduating class. However, I whole-heartedly agree with all of the points listed here. As a teacher, I get to see my share of horrible names. My all-time favorite was actually shared with me by a fellow teacher. She had a child in her class named Shi’thead. Now, take that apostrophe out and tell me what that name spells…yeah, who thought that was ok?! I think the countries that have a list of approved names to choose from might have the right idea after hearing that whopper of a name…
OMG. Do you live in the Seattle area?! A friend took care of a kid w/ that name! He said it was pronounced “Shhhh-iTHAY-ed” by the offended mother.
Hahaha ahhhh! No, I live in VA. OMG I can’t believe there was more than one moron who named their poor child Shi’thead. I think this family pronounced it “”Shhi-theeed” if I remember correctly. Either way, AWFUL!!
OMG yes…thank you! I hated going by “Sarah” and my last initial…and then my full last name because there were THREE Sarah’s with the name last initial. Finally I just tried going by my first and middle name like so many Sarahs commonly do (Sarah Jessica, Sarah Michelle) but…I hate my middle name almost as much as my last (my maiden name, not my current). I can’t win!!
I like to write creatively, and I always use odd names for characters…like Stazia, Vayda…weird stuff. People were surprised when I named my son boring ol’ Ryan. LoL
I think the only other people that can feel the pain of being named Sarah in the 80s and 90s are Jennifers…UGH. And my mom claims it wasn’t common at all (no mom…it was only in the top 10 most popular names since 1880 and finally fell off in the early 2000s. Thankfully!)
Haha yes yes yes! My best friend was also named Sarah when I was a kid, so I was Sarah W. but then there ended up being like 3 Sarah W.’s in my class so that got annoying. And I hated my middle name also, so my mom always just called me by my last name, Wilson. My mom always swore the same thing-”there were no Sarahs when I picked that name!!” I eventually got to the point where I typically only answered to Wilson (but then I got married and frequently forget what my married name is).
I’m due in May and naming my daughter Riley Paige and hoping like Hell she doesn’t hate at least one of those names!
THAT is cute! :)
My daughter will probably hate me for her name, but my husband was REALLY adamant on it, and it’s spelling and I agreed stupidly because I wanted the middle name…her name is Mathea Joan…which is cute enough. But Mathea is pronounced: “Mat-he-ah”. Pronounce it like you would if you DID NOT have the natural urge as an English speaker to put the ‘t’ and the ‘h’ together as the “thhhh” sound. No one can pronounce it right…they pronounce it “Math-ee-ah” (like you’re starting to say Matthew in which Mathea is the girl form of Matthew) or “Mat-ay-ah” like with a Spanish accent. I hope she’s not TOO mad at me for it; at least I named her after a cool lady (Joan was my gramma who raised me who passed on years ago).
After reading this post I feel very bad now (the article, not this specific post). I should have argued further for a different spelling.
At least it’s not ‘Sarah’…*roll eyes* She won’t be able to find any license plates or necklaces at the amusement park (well I really couldn’t either, because they were always SOLD OUT!) but…at least it’s different (and I call her “Mattie”…)
It’s got to be better than Moon Unit or Hashtag or something…right?
Oh! And for one of the easiest names in the world NO ONE can properly spell ‘Sarah’. I’m not talking the “Sara” debacle (of which I HATE!!!!) which I know you know what I’m talking about, but no one can spell it. I get “Shara” or “Sarha” or whatever…is EVERYONE dyslexic? Or just THAT stupid???? UGH!
Oh hell, I had to go by JK in jr high because there were too many jennifers going by jenny or jennie back in the 90s.
I was another Jennifer born in 1980. There were at least five of us, if not more. (I’ve blocked out most of my school years.) At the beginning of fourth grade, I insisted on going by my middle name, Renae. It was a tossup, either go through life answer to the call of ‘Jennifer’ along with a dozen others in the room, or having to spell my name out, three times, every. damn. time. I’ve chosen to deal with the spelling frustration over the commonness one. I can understand people being confused with the RenAE, what I don’t understand is why so many people spell it ‘Renea’ when they get it wrong. What the hell?
My favorite mispronounciation is ‘Genie’, I have to tell people that there isn’t an ‘a’ in my name.
Shut the front door. Your name is Jennifer Renae?? My same name. Renae isn’t a very common spelling either.
Another Jenifer here but my mother got the bright idea that leaving off an “n” would make me unique…. Really Mom! The name was like number 1 or 2 on the charts for 3 years before I was born and several years after and leaving out an “n” was going to make me unique. Now I have to explain every time I fill something out that no I did not misspell my own name (actually got my forms handed back to me at the DMV once to “make the correction” WTF seriously I am pretty sure that at this point in life I know how to spell my own name!)
When I had my first I went with Anastasia not common but not weird. Then came our second daughter and Hubs and I just could not agree, or the name was already taken by a close friend or relative so we ended up with Abigail and it almost killed me (sometimes I still want to go change her name). She is Abi by her choosing so at least that’s a little less common.
I tried going by middle name in high school but I just don’t look like a Denise and I couldn’t remember to answer to it so I gave up. Now I am Jen to most who know me other than my older family who still call me Jenie.
I absolutely Love the name Riley Paige!
My daughter’s name is Statia – pronounced Sta-sha. It is a polish family name…..
My nickname in Polish is Kasia – pronounced Ka-sha. I’ve got a couple aunts named Stasia – short for Stanislawa.
as a Jennifer, i completely relate to your issue with the name sarah. 1971 and my mom picks the #1 name…i’ve never cared for it. i had to tell people all through high school, “no! my name is NOT Jenny!” lol
Then the song ’867-5309/Jenny’ came out, and another one my dad used to sing that had the lyric ‘jenny, jenny why don’t you take a walk with me/jenny, jenny, WOO jenny, jenny’.
Born in 1978, Maiden name is Li & lived in Toronto, Canada. Lots of Asians, lots of Li’s, lots of Jennifer’s. Do you know how many Jennifer Li’s I’ve encountered? In high school, there was a Jennifer Li in the same grade as me and we’d often end up in some classes together. Since we couldn’t go by the last name & we had Chinese middle names, we’d have to go by the middle initial.. like Jennifer whatever your middle initial is to tell the difference! And there was at least one instance where our marks got screwed up & because of it. So annoying! Also annoying was every calling me Jenny. I couldn’t stand Jenny! I prefer Jen or Jennifer. It’s only been the last few years that I’ve stopped correctly people who call me Jenny cause I just can’t be bothered anymore!
On that note, while I do understand wanting a different more unique name for our children, I’m not going to name my kid some weird arse name. I still remember when I was in highschool working at the local swimming pool. We had a brother & sister named Beavis & Barbie… no joke. I guess they were just lucky the parent’s didn’t use Butthead instead LOL
Oh! Mary? With four R’s? LOVE HER!
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In a primary school newsletter my kids brought home, student of the week was named Swastika…Yes that’s right. Well at least Nazi’s are good students. Poor kid…wait ’till history class in high school.
This post should be handed out at child-birth classes, for realz. ;)
…’Le-dash-ah’ … meheheheSNORT!
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I work doing newborn portraits in a hospital and we always as the baby’s name. My rule of thumb is, if you can’t spell the name without looking at the piece of paper it’s written on, how do you expect them to learn how to spell it at age 5.
except if you ask the idiot dad….couldn’t spell Cheyenne (oldest daughter’s middle name….because it work with Cassidy)….without help, even 20 years later, I think.
The year she was born there 5 Cassidy’s born in MT….One even shares her birthday. He was the only boy but there were two Cassidy River’s. They did an article in the local paper about “different” names that year.
My SIL couldn’t decide on a middle name for her daughter so she hyphenated her first name and gave her a middle name: Ava-Rose Marie, intending for people to call the baby Ava-Rose. No one does, mostly she goes just by Ava. However, when she was a newborn, my MIL would refer to her as “Ava Hyphen Rose.”
Hahaha amazing that your MIL called her that.
LOL Growing up I thought my name was Brenna Hyphen Rose turns out it was Brenna-Rose :P
Hopefully my oldest will forgive me for his name one day(Torrie-Andrew)
Great post. Give your kid a name that he/she can find on a novelty license plate or keychain…
Totally agree! I was always so sad that I could never find anything with my name on it.
I’m really glad that my daughter won’t be able to find anything with her name on it. My little siblings and I were constantly whining and asking mom for tacky trinkets because they had our names on it. I’m looking forward to not having to deal with that.
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My youngest is named Sawyer – my husband’s grandmother’s maiden name (that’s what we tell his family) but really it’s from Lost. And in the 2.5 years of his life we’ve only met 3 other Sawyers, of similar age, 2 were boys and one was a girl. Mom of the girl Sawyer said, “but Sawyer is a GIRLS name!” all offended that I named my boy Sawyer! Made me giggle.
I totally get this. I got screwed with my whole life for having the name Stori. “tell me a story stori” And since I’m pretty tall, “Are you a tall tale?” Ha ha, very funny. And everyone thinks they are the first person to think of those witty questions. Or my favorite, “Stori? Like a book?” no, dipshit, not like a book. But after 20 years of catching hell, I decided to quiet whining and play along. My first daughter was born, and I named her Paige. Yup, you got it, She’s a Paige out of a Stori. I crack myself up.
Love the name Paige.
And that is HILARIOUS!!
Now THAT is awesome! LMAO!!!
Omg, Stori, I think that is the cutest thing ever. Love it.
That is so great! I love it, gutsy and it will always be funny! Good for you!
haha! love it!
I have a daughter with the middle name Paige. She loves it
Paige is a cute name.. Stori also.. I would love to name my baby girl Story. But sadly i stay away from letter R in names since i cannot pronounce it correctly. :D
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Stori, I can relate. I get “Peace?! Is your last name (insert one of the following here)??!”
-Out
-Man
-OnEarth
-Dude
Other questions:
Were your parents hippies?
Did you change your name to that?
What’s worse is my last name (before marriage) was Ossom, so I get “Peace, you’re Ossom!” or “Is your middle name Is?” Now, the one I hate most: Possom. My school assigned username is possom, so, professors, don’t forget to grade assignments completed by the student Possom, or check out my school website at blahblah.edu/possom. Oh, don’t forget to email me at possom@blahblah.edu. Ugh!!!! Call me a possum and you die!
Peace- I got you. Completely. The one good thing out of having an odd hippie name, I perfected the “Wtf? Stfu” look by 12 :)
That is awesome!!
Sawyer is a boy name. JMO.
I just want to give this an AMEN! My Dad named one of my brothers after himself, which name is a werid, stupid family name — Dilworth. So my poor brother had to go thru school with everyone calling him Dil Pickle. I know my Dad was hoping that my brother would continue the name but Brother has sworn it ends with him.
My cousin’s husband’s family has a rather unusual male first name from their Italian dialect — Prisco. The ones named Prisco are proud of it and it hasn’t held them back. All successful. I don’t see a problem with awkward names if they are representative of your ethnic group or place of origin, as long as they aren’t vulgar in English. My last name, if you change one letter, is a swear, but in 60 years I have only had two people do that to me, and both were losers I easily ignored. I do have a normal first name.
I am just starting the baby naming game with baby #2 due in June. I have no clue where to start, it was so easy with my boy my first, but girls names have so many stories behind them.
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June, Nina or Leana are my favorite girl names, not to weird and still pretty!!!
I have always loved the names Natalie, Brooke and Lily. Elizabeth is my all time favorite.
Keli. As a kid it sucked. “Mom, can I have a really cool magnet from random theme park? Oh no, wait,
sorry, I can’t because NOONE spells a nice normal name like Kelly K-E-L-I. After 33 years I don’t even bother correcting people anymore….
My husband’s mother named him Keli. Yep, try being a BOY spelled K-E-L-I … And I thought T-A-M-I was annoying…
I’m a chick with a guy’s name….spelled in an unusual way *sigh*. I could never find a cool license tag for my bike. But at least I wasn’t named Venereal. No shit. I spotted that gem in my mom’s old yearbook.
I subbed once in a 3rd grade room and pronounced a girl’s name with a “ch” sound because it was spelled, Chelbie. Her 8 year old sassiness quickly pointed out that it was pronounced with a “sh” sound not “ch”. (Well then why the heck did your mamma not spell it that way then!)
When I sub, I call out the last names and ask the kids to pronounce their first names. Last names are usually a lot easier, not being made up by illiterates. Getting their names wrong takes up too much time with the giggling and pouting that ensue.
Try Cheryn. (pronounced Sharon). That’s the unique name given to my aunt in 1948!
I found out that no one spells my daughter’s name the way we thought was right until after she was born. Lillian- so Lilly…nope apparently Lily is the “correct” way. Such is life. No magnets for her!
I am so happy you just posted this – we plan to name our baby due in June Lilly but now it will be Lily!
Congrats! It’s a good name =)
My career involves working with elders, many of whom are named Lillian, Lilly, Lily, and, by far the most common, Lillie. In fact, I almost never see it spelled “Lily”. It’s a beautiful name that has withstood the test of time even if we spell it differently from one generation to the next.
Thanks Miss B!
Lilly probably _was_ the “correct” way. With the Harry Potter generation(of which I am one) starting to have kids any year now, I’d bet anything that Lily will become more common!
There’s a Lily in Harry Potter? I am way out of the loop.
Lily Potter(née Evans) is Harry’s mom:)
Oh yeah. I do remember that now. Good call.
I’m also wondering if, just maybe, Hermione, Luna, Ginevra etc will have their moment of fame in another 5 years or so. Wouldn’t be surprised.
Maybe Lily is the British spelling and here in the US it’s Lilly?
Good point!!
lily’s the actual plant.
My niece is named Lillian and we call/spell her name Lilly.
What, really? I would have guessed Lilly too.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this post! I howled as I read it…
My husband (Jon) and I had all these rules when we named our children… Jon and I have had to spell our names for people our entire lives (“It’s just J-O-N, no H… ” “Kristen… is it CH? or K?… -IN or -EN or -YN?… Seriously?) Gah!
We also had one more rule:
Name the kids what we want them to be called.
So my son is Jake and my daughter is Meg. Enough said. :)
i have a similar problem. i tell someone my name and it ends up being changed to Christine or Cristin. i don’t understand why people want to leave off the a. i also get “is that spelled with a c or a k.” neither, it’s a ch. come on really? is it that freaking hard of a name?
My mom’s name is Christina and everyone does the same thing to her. I always correct them because I think it’s just rude to not listen to someone when they have told you 3 times it’s Christin-A! She doesn’t mind anymore, but I always wonder why she just doesn’t go by Chris instead of having people say your name wrong. I guess they’d get Chris wrong too.
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yeah, i finally gave up and will answer to anything now.
I knew a woman who spelled her name Chris- KRIS.
She was my boss, so if I got it wrong, I was in deep poo! lol
No – not that hard of a name – just one with a few different ways of being spelled. If people are at all like me, they’re simply asking so they can give you the props (the respect) of spelling it correctly for YOU, and not just assume that the way they spell it is the way you do so. If you look at it in that light, it gives a much more positive spin to the situation, right? :)
My husband and I used the same “name them what they will be called” rule with our son and it drives people crazy! He is Charlie, not Charles, but people seem to need a “proper” name, even though Charlie is a perfectly normal one!
This is exactly what we did with my son. He’s Charlie, not Charles. I actually wanted to call him Spike but the grandparents went a bit mental when I mentioned that one hehehe
My husband’s name is Jon also.I don’t why his parents did this.People write it incorrectly even when you spell it.I have a friend named Kristen,you’re not alone.Our daughter is named Katherine(after my mom).We wanted a normal name for our child.
Eww, I’m on the “call ‘em what you want but provide a grown-up name they can use when they’re adults” side of the fence. You know, for when they’re appearing in court.
Swastika? WTF? How to doom your child for life…
I went to school with a girl named Alison Wonderland.
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Believe it or not, before hitler defiled everything he touched, the swastika used to be a lucky religious icon.
I’d have a hard time being nice to a kid named Swastika. I just would. Disgusting. And I don’t buy that it’s meant to evoke the South Asian religious symbol.
I’ve never heard of a child named Altar or Crucifix, have you?
I was just stating what it meant before what it means today.
A cross was once just two perpendicular lines, too, but I bet 99.9% of people think it means “Christian.” Meaning is everything.
Actually I think Crocoficio (don’t rember the exact spelling) is an Italian name
Yes it is! Most people don’t know that. You see them all the time in Asia. At first I was like “what?!” but then someone informed me of this. Its actually turned the other direction of the evil one that hitler used.
I lived in India for 2 years as a visiting professor at Delhi University. The “swastika” appears on many very old buildings, (>1,000 years) but Jennie M is wrong, NOT ALL OF THEM are the reverse of the Nazi swastika. You see them turning in both direction, and often see them on each side of an entryway, with one turning to the right and one turning to the left.
Regardless of its venerable history as a symbol of good luck, it has been irrevocably tarnished by its association with the Nazi party, as has the name Adolph. Not something you want to saddle your kid with unless you happen to be grand poobah of the KKK.
I once met a Robin Hood and a Bill Clinton – neither were related to their famous namesakes :)
Hilarious! Reminds me of a kid in high school named Sterling Silva and another with the first name Avalanche.. Doh!
I can’t stand trendy names, my son is 10 and his name is Thomas. I can’t say I was totally shocked when the young girl working at the skating rink asked my son how he spells his name? At first I thought, um, really? But as I thought about it the more I understood, it seems as if every child his age is a Jaidyn, Braidyn, Haidyn, anything with dyn at the end and the spelling could go any which way. I named my second son Cole and thought I was really thinking out of the box and became nervous after signing the birth certificate but after 7 yrs I love his name, it’s not the name of every other child but it’s also not as traditional as my first sons name. Both of my children have actually thanked me for giving them what they call “normal names.” I can say I am happy they come home to tell me about little Fisher Price or little Aderick the girl and it’s not them who are getting laughed at.
I have a Cole too! Love his name, it’s not out there or crazy, but not too terribly common. Though people ask if it’s short for Colton or Colby…
I gotta add, Lauren was uncommon enough that I wanted to be named Stephanie or Cindy when I was growing up. I found out later my mother battled to name me COVEN and lost to my father. Lauren didn’t seem so bad after that! <3Dad<3
My son name ( 2 ) is Dane. He is named After his Grandpa.
My daughters name ( 6mo) is Sawyer. Yes it’s a boys name. But I think it’s beautiful. Her full name is Sawyer Elizabeth Cizek.
Sawyer Elizabeth is beautiful and sounds classic, even if it’s not. And Dane is wonderfully masculine. Good choices both IMHO.
I named my youngest son Philip J Fry….yes after a cartoon character…no regrets
Love it!
Is it because you like the name or is it really after the cartoon…because that would be…Erm…lame!
My name is Lucinda, and I go by Cindy. Nice, normal spelling and all that. But, part of the issue lies in the fact that when I was naming my son (I named him Joe, just Joe, because that’s his father’s name…his mother started it, not me.. LOL) I found the name Cindy spelled something like 16 different ways… including:
Sindee
Sindy
Cyndee
Syndee
Need I continue? These books are convincing people s*it like this is smart. However, I guess Sindee would be an awesome stripper name.
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I’m a Cindy too — not a nickname, that is my name. The number of times people call me Cynthia or ask if it’s spelled with an “S” — ughhhh.
For the record, my fourth son is named Edward, and was born during the Twilight craze. The books and movies simply reminded me that 1. my grandfather and great-grandfather are Edward/Edourd and 2. I have always liked the name (Austen fan.)
You can be reminded of a good, old-fashioned name by a crappy book or movie without naming your kid *after* it, kwim?
And sorry, the name Edward barely went up in the naming stats since Twilight — but Jacob and Cullen sure did. Gag!
My son is 20 and there were four Jacobs in his grade school class.
I am a Cyndi… ALWAYS have to spell my name.
My mother was one of dozens of Marys in her family and school so she wanted to give me an unusual name. No one can ever pronounce or spell mine. I named my kids are Lauren and William. Spelled the usual way. Still surprises me when I see “Loren” or “Lauryn” instead. No one yet has messed up “William”.
Oh, and my husband once met someone named Placenta because her mother heard the word in the delivery room and thought it was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard. Epidural meds should be allowed to wear off before babies are named!
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! When my mother was in the hospital with my youngest brother, there was a girl named Placenta in the newborn nursery!
I love the name Brigitta. I’ve liked it since the first time I heard it on ‘The Sound of Music’.
placenta are you effing kidding me. name your baby after the nastiest thing ever… like shithead. people are so dumb!!!
In my state you have a full year to fix your mistake, no questions asked. That option is not used enough.
I should also add, my husband’s father wanted to name him Joker Thaddeus, because they just wanted his initials to be J.T for some reason I can’t remember. His mother veto’d in favor of Joe. LOL
My name is Shannahon pronounced Shannon. My mother swears she found it in an Old Irish novel. I have never found this spelling anywhere. I admit I still named my children the uncommon names of Trevelyn & Jaedan. I still love them.
Are you Shannahon Priest? I think itis more of a last name.
Having been born on Easter Sunday, my Dad thought it would be fun to name me either Bunny or Ester in honor of the holiday. Thankfully my Mom put her foot down and said no way and came up with Jill and no, it’s not short for Jillian but thanks for asking. I think with a name like Bunny I either would have become a stripper or a socialite and Ester, is the crazy cat lady that lives down the street. I can live with people constantly saying “Jack and Jill went up the hill…” when they meet me as its better than the alternative.
Speaking of stripper names: I know a guy with a daughter named Xotica. Yes, pronounced ex-ot-ica. He swears her mother named her. They call her Zottie. I’m wondering if she’ll be heading to the courthouse to get a name change the moment she’s old enough to read a dictionary.
Everyone (including my husband and his family) says that my step-daughter has a stripper name- Lacey Jane.
I don’t see it, but they are convinced!
Lacey Jane . . . No, I don’t see it either.
My friend named her son Bravery and her daughter Honor… I’m waiting for them to hit grade school to rub it in
Growing up I knew an Honor. I always thought it was a pretty name, but as she got into her late teens people starting calling her Honor Knees.
If you know Boston, you’ll find this amusing — I worked with someone who named her kids Chelsea and Logan in the mid-80s. I asked if the next one was going to be Everett or Revere. She had not realized that she had given her kids two Boston place names! (She wasn’t originally from Boston and it just didn’t register — honestly I think someone ought to point out any such oddities to parents as they fill out the forms at the hospital — perhaps she would have chosen something other than Logan if she had realized…)
Honor is pretty for a girl, but poor little Bravery is going to get his ass kicked.
My mom was an elementary school teacher for many many years.
She has taught a group of siblings who were named Ruby, Emerald, Diamond, Garnet (one of 2 boys) and Jewelry (spelled like that). The there was the odd brother out who was like Keshawn or something.
My favorite was Cinnamon. I shit you not, this poor little girls name was Cinnamon Candy Apple then her last name. That poor poor child.
I don’t mind Cinnamon but Candy Apple is just cruel. Garnet is not an unusual boy’s name in some parts of the US.
An uncle has an Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, Garnet and I think another gemstone named kid…….yeah…….
My doctor named his son Diamond because he said he wanted him to have the properties of a diamond. All those ass whoopings will no doubt harden him up : )
I like different names (not to be confused with “what the hell is that” kinda’ names). I can agree with this post 100%. Some names out there are just overboard (like Le-ah or Mary with four R’s…huh?). I stuck with Landon and Liam for my two boys, which in all honesty, are fairly common names these days with common spellings). It makes you wonder what the parents were thinking during the child-naming process. Wowza!
My parents named me Shanelle because I was the 5th daughter born (Chanel No. 5) it was a joke at first, I was supposed to be Stacy but I love it! The only thing that stinks is that I can’t find anything with my name on it.
I had the most common name ever- Ashley Johnson. I wanted to get married so badly (I mean I love my husband and all, but I wanted his last name). I also work in a pharmacy, so I see children’s names all the time. There are some ridiculous ones, I’m pretty sure that Maddyisun is my favorite. And I swear if I see one more poor child named Nevaeh, because it’s heaven spelled backwards, I’ll scream!
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My daughter’s name is Kaitlyn Nevaeh and I adore her name. We call her Kaity, however. Her Daddy picked her middle name out and I had never heard if it before he suggested it and I love how it sounds. It flows very well with her first name.
I used to work in collections for bad payday loan checks and some of the worst names I ever saw was Lemonjello (pronounced Lah-mon-jah-low) and Orangejello (pronounced Or-on-jah-low). Yes, they were related, they were brothers. I would not have thought them real if they hadn’t been printed on their checks.
Also, there was a woman with a name that had 18 letters in the FIRST name alone. It was something like Toniagawongashieka. I’m positive I butchered the spelling just like I butchered the pronunciation every time I had to call her.
as a kaitlyne i have to say i hate my name spelling and everything it gets worse when i say my sisters name is kirstyne. i mean what was my mom thinking? i have however followed the path of weird names calling my son Alistair and my sister with a little one called Moara like more-a.
Re: Glophia. You are too late. http://records.ancestry.com/Glophia_records.ashx?pid=129285543
My husband and I always joked around that we were going to name our first child just a simple tongue click. But…we weren’t sure how to spell it.
PS: No. My name is not pronounced like Princess Leia from Star Wars. It’s pronounced like Leah. Not to be confused with Le dash ah…
Named my daughter Léa a very traditional and common French spelling (we live in France) and it is pronounced like Princess Leia (laya) but here Princess Leia is pronounce LayEEa so we avoid that whole scenario. At the birth when we announced the name to family and friends my brother (in the usa) asked how to pronounce it “leeah or layah” which took me by surprise as I had never heard the other… either way it is a lovely name.
I have a friend named “H” (yes just the letter), strangely enough it works (for him).
I have a friend, who’s a teacher, tell me that she had a student with the name: shi’ thead…..yes shithead with an apostrophe!
I speak from experience when I say it can really suck having a “misspelled” name. My parents decided to leave one of the L’s in Michele because my middle name is Lee. I guess they thought it would just be too many L’s, and who would want that, right? EVERY STINKIN’ THING I GET IS SPELLED WITH TWO DAMN L’S!!!!! At one time I even contemplated changing my name to Michelle.
Haha my cousin is Jullie. I bet that’s annoying.
My daughter’s name is on the unique, but pronounceable (Sp?) side-Lila Jasmine Harmonie. I have my own story for it, too rambling to tell, but I will say that Harmonie is the feminized from ‘Harmon’, which was my deceased best friend’s maiden name. Now, my son’s name was a little more provoking. I grew up in vegas, so I’m citified. I left vegas nearly ten years ago and ended up in southern illinois nearly six years ago. Our region is very hunter friendly. Slowly, but surely, I got into camo. My husband is a deer hunter and uses bow and arrows to hunt. It’s one of his favorite pass times. Well, when naming our son, he decided on ‘bow hunter’. It was better than ‘Buck Hunter’-i said ‘hell to the no!’ on that one-but I changed the spelling to ‘beaux’ because there was no way In hell I was going to have the letters B and O in my kid’s name next to each other. I want to save him from SOME kind of ridicule. The ‘beaux’ spelling also means beautiful or handsome in french. There are many people where we live that love his name when they find out what it is. I gave a nurse to tell her hubs my son’s name because she said that he’d get a kick out of it-she loved It too. To be even more ‘redneck’, my son was a bow hunter for his first 2 halloweens, AND we call hIm ‘bubba’. It could’ve been worse. Keep in mind that our last name is Daniels, and I was lobbying HARD for Charles Jackson, and wanted to call him ‘charlie jack’.
I gave a nurse permission*
First things first. The “he was Southern” comment? RUDE.
My boys both have not so typical names (Braxton and Camden) and our new baby who is a girl will be Evelyn. Evie for short.
I can’t stand names with unnecessary apostrophes! Also my sixth grade teacher was Mr. Head. His first name was no joke Dic. Wtf!?
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Wow,a baby Evelyn.I went by Lynn instead of Evie,but a few people call me Evie anyway.I spell it Evy.(It was originally a man’s name.)Congratulations,all to the best to you and your family.
There are five Evelyn’s in my daughter’s kindergarten year.
My grandmother, who was born in 1921, was named Billie after a famous actress named Billie Burke (her father was a fan). My grandmother disliked the name because she thought it was undignified and sounded like a nickname. In later years she went by her middle name, Evelyn, but she told me that when she was in high school she had a teacher who insisted on calling her Wilhelmina (being German, he decided that must be what Billie was short for).
This is such a great post! My first name is Summer and my parents wanted to give me the full first name of Summer Thyme, but decided to take off the Thyme because they thought I would get teased too much. Yeah, I didn’t get teased at all for having the name Summer *rolls eyes*.
My husband & I decided even before we had our son that we wanted to give our child a unique/uncommon name, but it had to be spelled the normal way and you had to be able to distinctly tell the sex of the baby from the name. Our son’s name is Lincoln. We had a couple of people ask us how we were going to spell it before he was born and we told them all that we were spelling it the normal way.
Of course, my husband being the smart ass that he says that if we have another child we have to name them Current Resident just because we get so much mail for “Current Resident”. Yeah, he thinks he’s pretty funny. I would never let him do that to our child.
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I have a cousin named Sommer, and also born on the first day of summer. We called her Sommer Time.
We named our oldest daughter Caitlyn, the gaelic form of my mother’s name. But alas, it was the number one name (and all the various spellings) for several years. So with DD2 we decided to go uncommon. We settled on Adele, a beautiful name and that wasn’t in the top lists in decades. We got all kinds of great comments. And then the singer became famous. Our daughter thinks it’s neat, but too many people now assume we named her after the singer. Oh well… at least now more people know how to spell it correctly!
Awesome list. We named our son Michael and we were surprised at all the feedback because we gave him a normal name.
My son’s name is David. There are very few Davids in his age group but many, many kids have a dad, uncle or grandpa named David so it turned out to be a great name — neither weird nor common.
I laughed so hard at you all (Southern) that I am in tears!! I worked for years as a Nurse in the Labor and Delivery area of the Hospital and sometimes it took all of my ability to make it to the door of the patient’s birthing room before laughing at the baby name that they chosen to saddle on their new sweet baby. Also, My Husband was the one of us that insisted on fairly conventional names for our sons and could shoot down any boy name that was not locker room approved!!
My latest name that confuses me is why does anyone name their baby “blue, bleau, blu. Etc.”..? Weird
cuz their fav color is BLUE –i do stand with u on the Blue spelling of it tho. lets not get dumb with the affected spellings.
I sure hated my name growing up. I love, love, love it now!
My daughters name is Caydence AnaLea Savanah ****
Liberty is a fantastic name!
We named our child Robert Parker. He’s named for both Grandfathers but is called RP for now since at the time he was born his Grand-daddy was called Bobby and neither my hubby nor I liked the “Rob” or “Robbie/Robby” option and Robert was (and at 6 still is) too formal. I threatened to nickname him Bert … but my SIL has a HORSE named Bert so even that was vetoed.
My full legal name is Cathi. Just Cathi. Not Catherine, and not spelled with a y or an ie. My parents discussed naming me Catherine, but my father doesn’t like shortened versions of names as nick-names so he decided to give me the nickname and end it in an I in honor of his baby sister who is Vicki – not Victoria, Just Vicki. What’s funny is my brother married a woman whose first legal name is Traci. But – in an attempt to be rebellious in my late teens and early 20′s I shortened my name to Cat as a nickname. I think it fits me.
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I love the name Nova. But when i was going through baby names i had pretty much settled on Cayde being the middle name.
Nova Cayde was nixed as it sounds like Novacaine.
We named our youngest son Walker and we love it. However my step mother in law has repeatedly told me she hates the name. She even said in front of my infant and my 2 other kids that Walker is an ugly name. What do you do about a situation like this w/o causing WW3?
Ww3 will start anyway. I’d explain to her that if she can’t suck it up, get over the name that you and your hubs chose, and be the grandparent that your son deserves, then she doesn’t need to be involved. Your boy doesn’t need that animosity just because of a name.
i agree!
it’s ridiculous
She’s grandma, let her pick out her own nickname for him that only she uses. He’ll love it. My grandpa called me Mary (far from my actual name) for reasons of his own. I didn’t mind in the least. I liked that he had this special name just for me.
Just because she’s grandma does not give her the right to be mean and ugly about a name that she has no input on. She could’ve taken the high road and do as you suggested, but she didn’t. Now, she’ll have to deal with the fallout if that little boy finds out that his grandma didn’t like his name thinks that she doesn’t like him. Before my son was born, my mom didn’t like my son’s name, but she wasn’t horrible about it, nor did she make a scene in front of my young daughter like Nicole’s step-mother did. Now, she loves my son’s name just fine.
Walker is a bad ass name! I love it!
Thank you
I like Walker, different without being obnoxious. :)
Walker is a very cool name!
Thanks
i bet there are HUGE other issues in ur relationship with her. deal with those and leave this alone for now. unless she says it in front of the boy when hes old enuf to understand. then it’s the No Ones Allowed To Be Mean To My Boy rule in play.
She did say it in front of him, that’s the problem
Even if you think a name is horrible, you never say it!
Is his middle name Texas Ranger? Sorry, I had Talledega Nights on my mind!
LOL, no but I get that all the time
My dad pointed out my daughters initials spell BIG (Brooklynn Isabella G) when she was 3 weeks old. Lord help me if she ends up tall or with a weight problem, But then again my initials spell RAG (Rebecca Ann G) but you can’t help who you fall in love with right?
My cousins sons initials are NHL, National Hockey League. My name backwards spells a rat (Tara) got teased on that one.
my initials are ACG- all conditions gear (shoe reference) and my 2 girls initials are HRD- hard. yeah, school might be wrought with sexual innuendo.
My initials are NAG and unfortunately when I got married the last initial didn’t change because it started with the same letter. And where I work, everything goes by your full initials….
Lol, I always swore I would never marry a man whose last name started with “D” since that would make my initials “OLD.”
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I’m sorry but our goal as parents was to name our children with names that could not be found on a novelty key chain. My name is unusual enough in the US that I went all the way to college before meeting another Petra. Both of my children have real, traditional names, just unusual in an American setting.
These days, I am almost grateful with relief when friends tell me they’ve named their children Jack, Elizabeth or Michael. I’m so over the fancy, strange names.
I actually thought Jessica Simpson had a boy at first. Hah!
Also? It irks me when people insist on naming their children using a particular initial. For example, my cousin Karen married Kenneth. All 3 daughters have names starting with K. They nearly drove themselves mad when it came to naming daughter #3.
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My husband is a Jeff, and all 5 of the children in his family have J names. Cute. *eye roll*
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To clarify: he and all of his siblings have J names. I kind of made it sound like he fathered 5 children in a family that I am not involved in. I sure hope that is not the case.
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My family does the all the names start with the same letter…. We have the M&M’s (all the children’s names start with an M and their last name is an M as well. We have the J family where all of the members start with J’s (even parents). My mom had the B’s. Then not entirely on purpose but almost all my grandmother’s great grandkids names start with a K (mine included).
I accidentally named all my boys with vowels (Alex, Isaac, Edward.) My daughter is a consonant!
My boys are all vowels also (Evan, Isiac, Ayden) and my daughter a consonant (Taylor) the first two boys werent on purpose but the third had to be a vowel to match the other two
Yeah, we have the A-team here! Adam, Alleah, Ava, Adrianna. Sometimes I regret it, but not often. :)
My parents went with all the same endings for the girls. Kathryn, Karalyn, Jaclyn, Taryn, Emilyn, and Brittyn. I think they said it was an accident at first, but then they decided to continue it. I’m really glad they didn’t continue with all K names. that would have gotten rough with 6 girls.
It’s more subtle and less confusing, especially since most of us go by nick names. I’m trying to think of a more subtle theme like that for my kids names.
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My father wanted to name me Billie Dawn, since his name is Billy Don. Thank goodness my mom stopped that one. But she did have a thing for Gone With the Wind and so I’m named after a plantation…lol. Also I learned the hard way with my son, Don’t name your kid after the father if there is any hint he will be a deadbeat, walk out, POS. Now I have to have my son’s named changed. I don’t know what I was thinking… :(
i named my daughter kinda after her daddy. i am honoring him as being in the position of her father. like i honor obama as prez. as a person hes a turd tho. my daughters daddy is one of the worst fathers on earth. but im not having her name changed.
How old are you?
My husband is Steve and he wanted to name our DD Stephanie. I told him fine, if we have a boy, he’ll be Amos (my real name is Amy). I won and named her Madeleine (another win on the spelling). For our son he wanted to name him Dickie. At that point our friends and family (and ME) just ignored him. Our son is Samuel with initials of SIP. oh well.
My choice in names for my two youngest probably fall under the ‘odd’ category, but I don’t think they are TOO odd ; Gage Isaiah Hinton, and Camberlei (like Kimberley only replace the first I with an A) Angel Dannyella. (Her dad’s name is Danny and my late Grandma’s name was Luella) — I wanted to use both. :)
Camberlei makes me think of Camembert cheese, though. But you do what you want — really.
Your son’s name is great. Your poor daughter though … The reason for this article is names like Camberlei. It is silly, it sounds like the name of an oil pipeline. As a teacher, I would pronounce your daughter’s name CAM – BER – LEY every time.
I am a teacher too, and I thought the exact same thing!
Well, ISN’T it pronounced Cam-ber-lee? That’s what I took it to be – I thought the mom explained it so you would know the way the last syllable was pronounced…?
Danny Aiello?
We named our son Santiago Salazar. I fought his dad on the middle name I should of stuck to my guns cause now when people ask me what his name is all I hear is but Salazar is a last name. So when ppl ask me his name I just say Santiago. His name is long enough anyways.
Salazar may have started out as a last name, but Harry Potter has changed all that! (Salazar Slytherin)
As a “Jennifer” who was born in 1970, there were always a bunch of us in every class. Right now, all 4 adults involved with my daughter’s Girl Scout troop are named Jennifer. *sigh*
I definitely understand the desire to avoid that for your child! But I just picked names that were recognizable, but not high on the list. “Madeline” for my eldest, although that backfired a bit, it was in the top 50 the girl before she was born, but we ended up having THREE in her preschool class. Also, WHY do so many people mispronounce this? “In an old house in Paris, all covered with VINES, lived 12 little girls in two straight LINES….the youngest one was MadeLINE.” Hello? Has no one ever read this?
“Sylvie” for the youngest. This one actually has a family connection as well. Also, it’s not on any list of top-anything in the US, and yet, the year she was born, 3 other people I met after she was born, had named their child the same. Go figure.
I’m an actual Jennie. I was born in 80, and had-still have-the same issue. Hell, even one of my hubs’s cousins name is Jennifer. Jennie-spelling included-Is actually a family name. It was my grandmother’s middle, and MY middle is Kathryn, which Catherine was her confirmation name. My mom always liked the combination of Jennie Kathryn.
Maybe they pronounce it incorrectly because they are both French names? The French pronunciation is what I tend to say, but then, I’ve never read those books!
I am a ‘Jennifer’ born in 1980. There will still at least five (if not more) Jennifers in my grade. By fourth grade, I’d switched to my middle name, Renae. Correcting the spelling constantly was still preferable to being, yet another, Jennifer.
My husband, Jonathon is of Irish/Scottish origin and I’m of Belgian origine (Veronique). He’s anglophone, I’m francophone… (We are from Quebec, the land of confusion and bilingualism!) So we needed kids name that would sound fine in both French and English. We came up with Fenwick as a joke but went with Duncan for #1, Liam for #2 and the boys got to name their sister after a character from a cartoon: Akiza. Pronounced exactly as it is written. So 1 Scottish, 1 Irish and 1 Japanese name.. No one really know how to react to her name, but we all love it!
…..my maiden name is Fenwick. What’s wrong with Fenwick?!
There’s nothing wrong with Fenwick, but for me, not as as a first name… Especially here in Quebec where most speak french! Sorry if I’ve offended you!
haha no worries! My mom wanted me to name our boy Fenwick actually, and call him Finn/Fynn or some variant of that. I kinda like it but we ended up not using it.
Akiza might sound Japanese but it is not, by any means, a Japanese girl’s name.
Lynzee, if you know where the name is from, I’d like to hear it… So far, I can only trace it to a Japanese cartoon, Yu-gi-ho 5D, in which a girl has that name.
It’s the “dub” name for the English version of the show. The character in the English version is “Akiza Izinski,” not a Japanese name. The character’s name in the Japanese version “Aki Izayoi.” Aki is a very common Japanese name, as it means “red” or “dawn.” Akiza is entirely made up.
If it makes you feel any better “Akizakura” is the name for the Cosmos flower in Japanese.
Mouhahahahah– That’s even better!
My daughter’s name is a completely made up: somewhat Japanese, close relative of a Cosmos flower, also close to meaning red or Dawn! lol
I’ll stick to: “Her brothers named her from a cartoon”!
:)
Considering my name I really shouldnt comment !
However a new “favourite” (sarcasm…) is Emlee-K8
Yes, the name contains a number ! Prounced Emily-Kate
OMG !!!
I have a Kaleigh, and OMG- the fight to figure out how to spell her name was crazy! We knew what name we wanted, but we didn’t know there were so many ways to spell it. (I still think we should have spelled it Kaley…LOL)
Yup, there is a girl in my nephews class named k8 – Kate. Her grandparents are in Sweden and they couldn’t get her a passport to go see them because the passport application doesn’t allow numbers in that field.
AWsum!
The “correct: spelling of the Kaley names is Gaelic — Ceilidh. It means musical party or celebration — very popular in my home island of cape Breton.
you say no alternate spellings? my name is an alternate spelling and i love it. my big sister misty forced it when my mom wanted to name me leshada or something crazy like that. my full name is Destinee Faith Duffield. my sister is Misty Marie Duffield. and my older brother is named after our father (who none of us are on good terms with) and he’s unfortunatly named Bobby Joe Duffield.
I had a friend growIng up named Destiny Faith-hahaha.
TRY the spelling Destanie Ann. At least my mother did not get her way Sara Lee. Sad thing is I run a bakery. Lol. My daughter’s names are Sahara Dawn and Azaria Bay. I LOVE them both
I always hated my name, Donna-Kaye, the dash is silent. I can’t say much though because my oldest is named Nevada, yes like the state. My youngest has the perfectly normal name of David. My sister and I joked one day that I should spell it daevyd. We thought it was hilarious, my husband was less than amused and I had to assure him it was only a joke
HA! my name is Donna Lea (pronounced Lee) – I like it – although occasionally I get, ‘Donna Leah’ – the other day I got asked ‘Donna, with the traditional spelling with an H’ WTF? NO! what is wrong with you?
Working in social services, I have seen quite a few interesting names. The most horrifying being Urethra. I wonder if the parents know what Urethra is. And I will never forget during the first month of my job receiving a file with a first name that had about 12 letters in it and when I asked a co-worker how to pronoun it, she said “John.” Why all the extra letters and apostrophes? I also have a friend who gives her kids unique names. She doesn’t share them with everyone until the kids are born. She has a girl named Pagan. Now I’m all for freedom to choose your own religion and religious tolerance, but this kid is going to have a hard time as we live in the “Bible belt” of the country. But don’t try to tell Mom that. At least all the kids have middle names that aren’t as unique so they can go by them if they so choose.
they play the name game in my babydaddy’s family. everyone is some version of William, Marie, Helen, or Elizabeth. there was no way we were playing that game! we named our first Hannah Rhiannon. and when our second was baking i decided to start a new game with initials. she was named Hailey Raven. i wanted Rebecca but daddy and Hannah liked Raven so ok. if we have another girl she will be an H with Rebecca. so they will all have the same initials. silly i know but if i have monograms put on their clothes they can be passed down no problem lol!
I have a friend whose family has a long-standing tradition that fathers and first-born sons share the same initials. I thought that was really neat.
As long as you don’t go the route of the Duggars and end up with 19 children with names all starting with the same letter LOL For a few, it’s cool, but after that many, it’s like “enough already!” :-)
Oh, and we have some family friends who all have names starting with the same letter. There are only 4 of them, though, and the names themselves are pretty common.
In my family my parents are Michael and Maria so they chose M names for my sister and I… Megan and Maureen.
My name is Akeembra. The end.
I like unique names…not out there in left field names. Growing up there were 3 Stephanies in my class. Blah! So my son’s name is Canyon Bronson. Canyon because we liked it and its not so out there, and Bronson for my husbands grandfather.
My name is Britanie. Not only did I once have THREE other girls in a class with the same name as me but I constantly have to tell people “there’s only one t and an i e instead of a y at the end”. It’s annoying.
I went to school with a girl that spelled her name Brituhknee…..
That poor girl!
I have a normal name yet I have to correct ppl … I luv the spelling of my name… I named my daughter EmmaLeigh …. I have a neice named Michaela (makayla) …& I kno someone who named her son Kidd ( its Irish )
“Michaela” is the correct spelling of the name. Makayla, Mikayla, McKayla, etc. are all, um, “creative” ways of spelling Michaela.
Everyone thinks we were really creative with our son’s name – Tustan, but it’s actually an old family name on my husband’s side.
My daughter’s name is Kambria.
Her last initial? O. So, her initials are KO- Like, knock out.
Also, I named her after the rock band Coheed and Cambria. My step-dad introduced me to the band, and I named her after them as a way of naming my child for him. He’s a really awesome man.
I spelled it with a K, because her middle name starts with a C and I didn’t want her to be able to be nick-named C.C.
Kambria is a pretty name regardless.
Thank you. I call her Kami-Cakes.
Two and a half years later, I cannot imagine her name being something different. It just fits her, you know?
Now my son, on the other hand… I would LOVE to change his name.
He’s Miguel. I don’t like common names, and Miguel is a pretty common Spanish name.
I wanted Calder, but the ex nixed that idea.
My only positive thing about his name?
I have a LOT of Michaels in my family, including my dad.
So, I got to name my boy after my daddy without putting yet another Michael in the family.
I swear this is true. My friend is a receptionist at a large hospital Emergency Room. She had a mother with twin girls come in, their names were Tampaxa and Kotexa. That is so cruel. Parents like this should be arrested.
Was she high when she named them that? How ridiculous!!?!?!?!
that’s child abuse!!!!! so bad
My name is Vickie. Yes, with an i and an e. I am well into middle age, but even as a child I struggled with spelling it for people. For a while I just went by Vi, and now I often use Vic. My son’s name is after my father, Douglas, he goes by Doug. My daughter’s name is Margaretta,I wanted a Margaret name but didn’t really like any that I encountered until The Sound of Music (one of the nuns, the really sweet one) and I called her Meggie, she goes by Meg. She can also choose to go by Maggie, if she wants, or even Greta, they all work with her name. Right now she is a teenager and going through all of that drama with her name, so she makes people call her Margaretta (mar-ga-RHET-ta). I figure that she will eventually just settle on Meg and be done with it. Both kids are named after my family, I told their dad (now my ex) that if his name is their last name, then I choose their first and middle names.
This list should be given to all parents before they are allowed to put down a name as their final answer on the baby’s birth certificate.
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All I know is I spent my life spelling my nick name – Jenna – now it’s common and I get asked how to spell Jennifer. Two ‘f’s? Is there a ph? really?
I gave my kids top 10 names pretty much cause I didn’t look at the lists, even though I swore I would after being in school with so many ‘Jennifer’ girls.
believe it or not I babysat a girl named Ghenipher (pronounced Jennifer)
Ugh. I wonder when a day will go by when I won’t read something rude about southerners(people must think we can’t read…). Good article though. When I was a preschool teacher a few years ago,I had 2 Hayden,2 Caden,2 Braden,and an Aiden. ALL spelled differently.Most of the girls in the school were named either Madison,Sophia,or Ava. My favorite was a sibling set named “Imagine and Nation”.
A child in my son’s kindergarten class was named(no lie) Dementia!
that is nuts. At a local hospital a few years back a black woman named her twins light chocolate and dark chocolate. they wrote an article about her in the paper. She had 2 other kids with weird names too… crazy.
My kids have relatively normal names. I always hated my name so I made sure my kids have lots of choices – first name, middle name, a combo…. my biggest mistake was naming my girls Abigail and Amelia – they pointed out to me that the 2 geese in the Aristocats are Abigail and Amelia Gabble. Can’t win for losing! Mom of Parker Kyle, Abigail Leigh, Amelia Paige, Statia Elaine (that is my odd one but it is a family name) and Grace Elizabeth…..
I have a friend whose daughters are named Abigail and Amelia! I wonder if that’s where she got the names from… hmmm… :) I love the names.
My son is James (called Jamie), he’s named for both of his grandfathers. My daughter is Zoe, a Greek name to honour my husband’s Greek heritage – who would have thought that her name would turn out to be more common than his?
There needs to be similar forethought to the overall initials that the child ends up with. For instance, I know someone whose surname is Darr. Thankfully, they didn’t go with naming their child Ray (as in Ray Darr) or making it so the initials were T A Darr. However, I know others who have forgotten to do those type of checks with the whole name or initials, and their child has suffered more than their fair share of teasing, because it’s just too easy to make fun of. That’s gotta be just as bad (if not worse) than having an odd name or one that’s spelt uniquely.
My daughter is named after my favorite book character, but I love her name and couldn’t give a rats ass what anyone else thinks. It is Liathana with the Li pronounced Lie… but if she decides she doesn’t like it she can chose Lia or Ana as a nickname. My cousin teaches a boy named UrMajestie and calls him Mr. whatever his last name is because his first name is ridiculous.
I’m a teacher at a grade 7-12 school. We have a Precious, a Sparkels (yeah, with that spelling), a Nubraska, and a Gywnnel (pronounced “Janelle”… Huh? And she would get bent out of shape whenever a new teacher mispronounced it.)
A graduate has the name Onur Koc. Think about it… He’s Turkish, and it’s pronounced “Oh-noor Koch”, but he preferred to be called Michael or “Turk”.
I was at a store once and heard a mother calling for her daughter Rubella… :(
Years ago where I worked I had a youth volunteer whose name was spelled Chloe, but pronounced Shiloh…ugh.
Then there is the singer Sade that pronounces her name “Sharday.”
It’s a Nigerian name, pronounced “Sha-day” (without the dash ofcourse
Gywnne is Welsh, I suppose they have just spelt the Welsh name wrong? It should be pronounced GwIN… Pretty much as it is spelt really. A very common name in Wales.
I have taught several Miracle and Amiracles, but the worst was Amica (pronounced Amisha). She threatened to hit me when I said it wrong on the first day of school. I don’t miss teaching middle school!
I had a super popular name growing up, but spelled Tiffney instead of Tiffany..for years I corrected people, but now I just go with it if they write it that way. I don’t care for the off the wall names, but I do like to have ones that are different but not unheard of. I named my son Landon and my daughter Linley.
DD18 is Caitlyn Elizabeth Elliott – Caitlyn is a name I found in a baby book. It is a version of Catherine which one cousin and my maternal grandmother were named. It is spelt with a C so that her intials are CEE to match her paternal grandfather’s who was Cecil Edgar Elliott. It is spelt with lyn as my middle name is Evelyn ( since I chose not to do Caitlyn with a K) Her middle name is after my mother who is Anne Elizabeth. So with one kid we hit both sides of the family.
DS14 is Connor Laird Elliott – Connor with a C to match his sister. Connor is from Connor McCloud of the Clan McCloud from the movie Highlander. Laird was the only middle name we could agree on. It is the name of the head of the clan as in the Laird or Lord of the manor. ( and its hilarious but he is obsessed with all things Scottich and is actually learning the bagpipes)
I wanted Scottish/Irish/Welsh names to go with the last name. I had no idea they were both going to be soooo popular.
Names I got vetoed on – Luke, Leia, Pierce, Hunter, Logan, David(we know too many and its my dad’s and my brother’s name), Junior( he didn’t want his son named after him)
Names I vetoed – Sean( we knew three of them) Rebecca(hated a girl in school called that) Thomas( too many in both family trees) Micheal( 2 in my family already) John(too many in both family trees)
We actually had another name picked out for a girl that my ex preffered – Morgan Jean – but as soon as I saw my DD18 after her birth I said there’s my Cailtyn and put that argument to rest. If Connor had been a girl though he would have been called Morgan as I wouldn’t have been able to get that past my ex again. The only boys name we could ever agree on was Connor Laird.
My name is Kelley-Anne. So I understand about the mispelling horrors. I finally have just given up. I mostly go by Kelley now. My last name is Amero not pronounced like Camero but Amerault( which is what it was shortened from many long eons ago)AAAAmerOOO – I think if a North American currency comes into effect I should get royalties cause they are thinking of calling it the Amero!!!!
Yeah, you just can never tell what is going to be popular. I have a teenage Sophia, named after her great-grandmother. Who would have guessed that a decade later every other baby girl would be named Sophia?
I had a friend on mine thinking of naming her son Holden Johnson!!!!! Thank goodness she changers her mind!!!! ;)
There is a grad student where I teach with that last name Holden. His sick parents named him Dick (not Richard, his legal name is Dick).
Had a friend tell me that they went to a school with a girl named Anita Dick. Needless to say she got married out of high school and later when she was divorced kept her married name.
I take crap for my name but its a family name and I’m named after a great aunt. Apparently while my mom was still on her meds my dad got to fill out the birth certificate while she was out.
When I had my daughter people tried to get me to name her Lexus! Yeah not a chance in hell. Normal name she can spell.
I had to comment on this one. As a labor and Delivery nurse I had heard way too many poorly chosen names like sparkle delight, Jack Daniels, and Fonda Dicks but the one that really threw me for a loop and freaked out everyone who came in contact with that baby was “Lucifer Elvis”. Every baby in the nursery would wake up and cry when this baby came into the room, no lie!! Also, what was with the trend to name girls Nevaeh (Heaven spelled backwards). I had to ask one mom what she was thinking when she named her son Tnes Nevaeh and she answered “cause he was Heaven Sent” Sheesh!!
I love Neveah! didnt know it was backwards for Heaven for a long long time tho …just liked the name itself lol
When I was little and lived in a small country town there were 8 girls with the name Tegan… all spelt differently! My name, spelt Tegan, was the simplest version. There was Teghanne and Teegene and Thegan etc!
The whole suffixes -son and -wyn on a girls name needs to be added to the don’t do list too! As in MaddiSON or GWYN or BronWYN! They are male suffixes! wyn is the male version of wen. Gwyn – Welsh boys name, Gewn – Welsh girls name! My parents always got told off for spelling my sister’s name wrong. It’s Bronwen, which is the correct version! (they must have had a thing with Welsh names since mine is Welsh as well)
My sisters an i have normal names i remember dad said i was named for the beatles tune but aparently my mum wantedthw name shayline or something likethat spellinf i calles myself rhat in school as michelle was so common in thw 70s. My kids have narmalish named i hace a hanna ( yes no h at thw end) lexi shorten rom alezis h has always been lexi and my youngezt ia anne yes with qn e without the e ann looks wrong. My son is thw only one oddiah with the spelling as conar.
WTF are you even saying?
LOL!
I take it that English is not your first language?!
Overall I’m happy with my kids names, but there have been MANY times I wish I knew what I was thinking when I picked them! My twins (boys) are Connor (perfectly normal, love it), and Cayden (holy sh*t there’s 3 in his class and why did I not know it should be spelled Kaden?!? FML.), and my daughter, Kinsey (which I love, but sorry baby girl because everyone calls you McKenzie I had no idea.) I blame it on pregnancy hormones. Say Connor, Cayden, Kinsey really fast when you’re mad… Blah! But they are better than any of the names I had picked out in high school while dreaming of having kids! Also, growing up as Nicole I wanted unique, but not weird. I think I did good except jumping on the Aiden/Cayden/Whatever-den bandwagon. I love love love the name Lincoln definitely would of named DD that if she had been a boy. Almost changed her to Catherine the night before going into have her… But already had stuff made with Kinsey, so Kinsey it is!
I know only a handful of others with the same name as me. Everyone wanted to call me Mindy when I was a kid. I insisted on Melinda.
As a teacher, I find this post hilarious! Some of the gems I’ve come across in 10 years of teaching: Rossi Martini, Ruckus, Elektra (I always joke that she will grow up to be an American Gladiator), Kassahndrah (how many h’s does one name need?), and Elmo. Yes, Elmo. We named our twin girls Norah and RaeAnn. Fairly normal, but I’ve never had any students with those names.
Xaq. Pronounced “Zach.” He was an unpopular, quirky, sad kid, but the name wasn’t his problem. A likable kid could be named Dishrag and I’ll bet it wouldn’t matter. People would find it “cute.”
I have issues with the name “Jagger.” The ones I’ve taught have all been hyperactive little hellions.
That’s how I feel about all Jack/Jacksons. I used to love the name Jack, but too many crazy kids ruined it for me.
So how do we feel about Saber? I tried with both boys to get my wife to agree to the name but it was a no-go.
Your wife is a smart lady.
My mom was an Allmans Bros. Fan in the 70′s, Melissa won out over Jessica. My first name is fine, my middle name… Le Shay…well not so find of it. My kids beautiful old fashioned names, Claire, Jack and Charlotte. The first two were easy, husband wanted to name baby 3 Coraline, after the cult movie my old kids were addicted to while pregnant with Charlotte, but I won on that.
My friend who teaches had a student named Lemonjello pronounced li-moan-ah.How will that look on a job application? Other countries like have a list,you need special permission from the courts for an unusual name.Growing up with the name Evelyn was tough,people had old or deceased Aunts with that name,but I never met any peers with it.My husband is named Jon, no H not short for Jonathon.You have to spell it,people still get it wrong.We wanted our child to have a normal name,spelled normally.Loved your blog about this.
My name is fairly uncommon but normal. However I’ve seen it spelled Jackielynn, Jacklynn, Jacquelynn, and other ways (which my mother insists are incorrect) I’m from KY so no one can pronounce it correctly anyway (drives my mom nuts)
Anyway I knew a guy in high school who was Thomas Thompson and another one who was named Hunter Chase Buck..his dad thought this was soo clever. I also have a friend named Michel..everyone thinks she is a guy named Michael but it is a different version of Michelle.
I worked with a chick in KY name Jacqueline and I always always butchered her name when I tried to spell it.
I know someone who named her child ABCDE .. and I honestly found it really awful.. they pronounce it as ‘Absedee’ .. I pity the kid who will forever be asked how his name is pronounced and why he was named as such.
In the ’80′s I had a job where I processed every name in the school district. We kept a list of unusual names. There was a girl named Abcde. Another memorable one was ‘Heherson’. Yes, He-Her-Son! I wish I could remember them all. I wanted to name my daughter after my grandmother Violet, but my sister nixed that idea as our last name is Holstine….yes, she would have been ‘Purple Cow’! So it’s her middle name.
I am always asked if it’s short for Margaret, but I was named after Peggy’s Bar and Grill, a cafe my folks always drove past as I was incubating. So, I tell them my middle name is Barandgrill! (It’s not; lighten up!)
The craziest names I have come across is T-a, pronounced tadasha. J-lah, pronounced jayla. My personal favorite- Majah Lee Blessed, for a boy….poor kid…
Momma named us: Julie, Jada & Jessica…. oh, and my mom’s name is Jane! It gets very confusing when companies send mail out with only the first initial & last name.
I named my sweet little monster Emma Paisley. I didn’t know till I was out of the hospital that Emma was the #1 name that year. Hell, I just happened to be reading the book by Jane Austen when I went into labor and thought it was pretty.
Also didn’t realize that her initials would be EPS… yeah, might have thought that through a little better given more time. Blaming hormones & short notice (premature)!
My name is Cary Ann. Not Carrie or Kerry but the male form. The spelling did not bother me growing up, it was the name itself, so i liked having it spelled different. My fiance is Talvin he gets Calvin all the time. My 9 year old is Lily, middle name Ann, not common at the time. My 18 mo is very different, was going to be Erida, A Greek name cause we did want something unique and pretty but pregnancy brain changed it to Edira, middle name Lyn. Pronounced eh-dare-a, some say eh-dear-a, which is how its spelled so I can’t say much but she’s my bear I don’t care what her name is
My kids all have “different” but not weird names. Sadly, I did doom my girls to a lifetime of mispronunciations but they both LOVE their names so no biggie. One almost had the initials PMS but I told dad (who wanted the P name) that NO WAY, JOSÉ!
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LOVE this post! Le dash ah. NOOOO!!! I can’t believe it. That’s beyond unforgivable.
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My husband’s favorite line:
“Yes, that’s her real name, not her stripper name.”
Screw you, dude LOL At least my mom won the fight.
Daddy wanted my name to be Myrtle.
I’ll take Love–thanks, Momma!
I get the stripper name comment a lot too… when I was named in the early 80′s, Tiffany was not yet a stripper/cheerleader/ditz name…. my mom just thought it was pretty… but now? My hubby actually thought it was a fake name when he first met me!
We named our fourth boy Xander. We thought about going with Alexander, but I wanted him called Xander and having to explain to people not to call him Alex, Al, or whatever was just going to be a pain. So we went straight for the nickname. Not too many problems…..with the name that is! : )
My first name is Cheryl..old fashioned but that’s nice and I married a Steven. So we come from normal stock, and I chose mostly very normal names for my kids (also family names)–Anthony Tyler, Robyn Cynthia(i know i know, “y” not “i”) and Ian James.
I went thru HS with a girl named Mikel (like michael) and she hated it because it was a boy’s name, and then went on to name her oldest Jasona – like the “a” makes that much difference sheesh
The worst part about Le-ah (“Ledasha”) or another I’ve heard K-ah (“Kadasha”) is that these people don’t use a “dash” at all. They are using a hyphen. So not only a dumb name but a dumb parent too. If you pronounce the hyphen at all (which you shouldn’t), pronounce it “Lehyphena” or “Kahyphena”. Teach these parents a lesson about their stupidity. You don’t get to make up new words and expect the rest of society to mispronounce it just to suit you.
My sister in laws name is Katlyn. Like “Katelyn” or “Kaitlyn” but it looks like Cat-Lin…
Her mom miss-spelled her name by missing a vowel when she registered for the birth certificate. Never bothered to fix it. True story.
FAIL.
Met a girl in my sons clas named Jeweleah, prounounced Julia. Really? Poor girl.
In addition if you can’t comfortably say “gentlemen next on stage (insert name)” while listening to motley Crüe girls, girls girls then you should also,reconsider. Examples, misty, jayden, jade, Dakota, Montana, etc. and I love meeting girls named kaya. That’s my dogs name :)
My name is Julia Marie but I go by Julie, My sister’s name is Michelle Marie, My son’s name is John Harrison, My nephew’s names are Robert William and Ryan Anthony. My parents names were John Edward and Marijane Etania. My mother was born in 1943, so I don’t know about that. I am named after both my grandmas, my sister’s middle name is one of my grandmas. My son is named after my father, etc. Whatever happened to carrying on family names?
I tried SOOO hard but there were not very many viable options! Not naming my daughter Agnes, no matter how sentimental I am. Add in that my last name is Smith. So names that are too traditional just sound plain with Smith. (And I have the tiniest bit of a lisp, so too many S sounds with Smith is a no-go for me as well)
I still went fairly common names, but not handed down names.
I looooove the name Agnes! If I have 2 more little girls they will be Abigail, Agnes, and Amelia
We vowed all our kids would be named for our family/loved ones. Our daughter is named after our maternal grandmothers. If it was a boy, it would have been named after our dads. We owned the names from the beginning – stops anyone from saying anything when you say you’re naming after family.
If we have a second girl, it will be named after our moms. If that doesn’t work out and we have two boys next, we will have to change the plan and name our second boy the male version of my mom’s name and my MIL’s maiden name as the middle name. We’re trying our best to keep everything normal, meaning we will not use the “awful” names as first names – but it’s not out of the question for middle names, because really, who cares what your middle name is?
We have plenty of names to work with and lots of great people in our lives to honor like that, so we’re very lucky/blessed.
On a funnier note, I always wanted to name my first girl by my maiden name, Macy. Then I married a Gray and the plan had to change because I’m not cruel. Oh well, maybe my girl can name HER daughter “Macy”.
“Best” names I remember where from summer camp in Michigan. One of the girls in my cabin went by “Erin” and her sister went by “Day”. Then I saw their real names on a sign in sheet: Erin was “Air-N-Sea” and Day was “Day-By-Day”.
Bottom line, if the name passes the Business Card Test, I think you’re good. Just make sure your baby’s name can look like an adult name on a business card. Would YOU take them seriously if they handed you their business card with their given name on it? If yes, I think you’re good. If not, rethink! Yes, it may be a cute name to use for a baby, but at least give them another name they can use professionally in the future. Since, you know, they will be an adult for 80% of their life, NOT a baby forever! That’s my only argument against naming a baby a cutesy nickname – because they might need/want that professional name in the future.
How did you people actually read this article, then proceed to post the bat shit crazy names you have chosen for your kids? Sigh. It’s like the article just got longer and more in depth in case we didn’t get that people really truly sometimes throw all caution to the wind to come up with something ‘unique’?
That is exactly what I was thinking as I was reading the comments. It was like I was having flashbacks of old Baby Center posts from 2005 when I was pregnant for the first time and realized how stupid our population has become.
Some of the comments above make my head hurt. The justifications of saddling your kids with ridiculous names aren’t going to comfort them much as they go through school and then on to become a professional in an adult world. As a Jennifer (who chose in grade school to go by her middle name instead) I decided I would name my children proper names that weren’t overly popular. I ended up with a Katarina Gabrielle and a Zachary Mordecai. The only problem my daughter has is people not being able to read correctly and calling her Katrina instead. You’d think Zachary would be a no-brainer, but apparently, there are those who find a hard ‘ch’ sound confusing and misspell it with a ‘ck’. Literacy is becoming a lost art.
I agree! Did you people not read the article?? Why post if you are the ones naming your kids ridiculous names. If you need a parentheses after the name to explain it to people then you probably shouldn’t be naming your kid that. I refuse to pronounce these names the way the parents made up . I’ll pronounce it the way the English language tells me to. How arrogant to expect society to pronounce your made up words and then get all inflamed when people don’t say it right. Poor kids.
…Are you inbred? Those are both properly spelled names. How arrogant of you to be such a close minded ass hat to think that English is the only language out there.
Dude. K-ah is not a properly spelled name if, in English, they want it pronounced “Kadasha.”
I should have specified. I was referring to my earlier post about K-ah and Le-ah, ( and T-a for that matter too). The people posting have some unique names I’m not particularly fond of but I was referring to the names in my previous post. Didn’t mean to offend anyone. Obviously English isn’t the only language. Try not to be so condescending. I named my own daughter a Celtic name. The names I refuse to mispronounce are the ones with a hyphen. A hyphen is not a dash. Thus, mispronounced.
Jackie, I understood that you weren’t referencing my kids’ names, but the ones upthread. Though, after reading through some of the ridiculous posts up there, I can understand why Face-Palm may have thought you were talking about the names ‘Katarina’ and ‘Mordecai’ and decided to jump on it.
No, no. I think Katarina and Mordecai are both great names. I was talking about legitimately misspelled names. Thanks for taking the time to clear that up.
My sister has always had that problem. Her name is Dana. Easy, right? She was named after Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters, but growing up, people were always mispronouncing it (instead of Day-na they would say Dan-a…) Dana is pronounced Day-na, since there is only one n! That is phonetically correct! How is it so complicated?
My former last name was DANNA but people would always pronounce it “day-na”.
Ok, this tops all: My grandmother was named Orville, & she got drafted and had to take her birth certificate down to the draft board to prove she was a girl!! Her sister was Covell, and her 2 brothers were named Homey and Oakley, in that order for whatever her mother’s reason – with all these names everyone stopped asking… I could go on and on, unfortunately!
My grandfather was Roy, and his siblings were all, poor things, named the following: Gussie, Gertie, Edith, Parnell, Gordon, and Porter. Some of those are fine, but Gussie and Gertie get me every time, not nicknames for anything. Gotta love Kentucky.
I love this post, hilarious. As I’m expecting my fourth child it’s also relevant. I love all of my kids’ names and wouldn’t change them for anything. They’re not super common, for the most part and are all spelled normally. My three girls are: Addison Keely, Zoe Caroline, and Isabel Avery. Our fourth will be a boy and we had a hard time choosing something, but finally settled on Rory James.
I was planning on Nanking my daughter Athena after my grandmother. But she was named Hannah. When she started school there was always two other Hannah’s in her class. She hated it so much. That in middle school we legal changed it to Athena.
Being named Jessica in the late 70s I had 5 others with my same name in my small graduating class, 4 of us were once in a French class together. That being said I always liked slightly offbeat names.. that was until I started working as a social worker and saw what some parents named their children. Twins Passion and Precious, a boy named Trouble..yes Trouble, many names with dashes that were pronounced, one with the apostrophe pronounced (K’i = kapostrophei) and more kids that had purposeful initials like ASS than I want to remember. With that we named my daughter Taylor Christine, no not after Taylor Swift and no she is not a boy…actually it is my MIL’s maiden name. I felt it was normal enough to not stand out ridiculously and will look good on a resume/biz card someday..which I think all parents should xonsider before naming their kids. LOL
I am guilty of changing the spelling of my daughter’s name, but I feel it was for a good reason. Her name is Saydi. I changed the traditional spelling of Sadie because when I look at that name, all I see is “sad” and “die.” It’s a beautiful name, but I always thought the spelling was horrible.
I have stayed up late reading these posts. Hilarious!
My husband insisted our sons’ name be Andrew as he had wanted to name his son after the most popular boy in his high school who had a seemingly golden life as “Drew”. I was crazy over the name Cade (this was back in the late 80′s when I had only heard of the name in a Western novel). Well he won, and it was Andrew Cade. Funny thing is he was called Andy as a baby and it stuck. He has never been called Drew once. Our family’s nick name for him is “Ange” which is what Barney Fife called Sheriff Andy Griffith in the classic Andy Griffith show Mayberry RFD…… which is so awesome!
Funny – he was one of the most popular kids in his High School (and now college) after all.
I have taught many strangely named kids, including a JJ, just that, the initials, pronounced jayjay. I have colleagues who have taught, James Bonds (2 of them!), Liz Taylor and the most…Erm…interesting was JelliBean CoCo,pronounced exactly as it seems (she hated it!) I also heard of a child born one arm first and the shoulder being in plaster forcing the arm to be extended above the head for the first six weeks of life, you guessed it, parents named him…Superman…..
I am so the parent that messes it up! I named my youngest daughter Karalyne (caroline) but we pronounce it Kara-line. We are from the south of course and down here Caroline is pronounced like caraline and not CarOline so that was what started it. Plus she is called Kara more than Karalyne.
The next town over, there’s a boy named James. Only the spelling is JAEMZ. Yes, people, it’s going to look like he can’t spell for life.
That reminds me of Silence of the Lambs. Jame Gumb. Eek.
Now I know this one is popular, but it’s SO frickin white trash that I want to strangle parents that use it. That damn Neveah name needs to DIE.
Agreed! I’ve been saying this for years, ever since it first popped up. It is stupid. It isn’t clever, it isn’t beautiful, it just sounds dumb and uneducated.
Not fond of it either (especially as I don’t believe in heaven), but I’ve taught kids with the name and I respect them even if I think their parents chose a crappy name. Teachers should ideally never let their own values show when dealing with children. It’s hard but it’s the professional way to approach the job.
I always tell people to blame my MIL for the spelling of my daughter’s name. My FIL’s name is Rick, so MIL used it for my husband’s middle name as Aric (Eric). Husband and I used our middle names to name our daughter. She is Arica. It’s consistently mispronounced as a-REE-kah. People remember her when we introduce her though, “Arica with an A.” We are attending a new church and one guy refers to her as exactly that. “Arica with an A.” :-) No one can seem to pronounce our last name either, so she’s kinda screwed anyway. I mean it’s not Smith, but it’s not an odd, unheard of name either.
Anyone who follows standard English pronunciation rules would say “Ah-reek-uh.” Or “Uh-ree-kuh.” You can’t expect people to guess invented pronunciation rules. People have enough trouble with Standard English.
My friend ran into a little one named “Absedee”. Spelled….A..B..C..D..E. Her name was Abcde
good Lord!
I made the mistake of calling my eldest Anne. Perfectly ordinary name you think. WRONG! A Belgian Boy band once had a song called “Anne” and now everyboy thinks I named her after that song.
Weirdest name to date: Brieuc pronounced “Bweurk”.
And also : Lucky Bird.
Yep. He is a nice guy actually…
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I absolutely loved reading this. I am a teacher and we teachers have this discussion every year when the new crop of students come in. Some kids can handle an odd or attention worthy name because they are ingrained with a personality to so, but think of the poor middle schooler who wants to remain completely under the social radar!when your little sweetie is in utero you have no idea which category your will be in! Do your research and think of middle attendance roll call on the first day. Do not which to offend anyone but some of the worst I have heard are the hyped up urban names. Starquasia is one that comes to mind, and I personally hate the name Declan. I think it is an ugly name and invites people to change it to duck land. Stop using it!
I find criticisms of “urban names” to be racist. There are good reasons why African-Americans have veered off into invented-name land. At first I too was skeptical and annoyed, but now I like them because I find them to be rather clever, like hiphop or rap.
I happen to love ” urban” culture and hip hop,and my white daughter was named after Maya Angelou. Anything and everything can be taken to extremes. The extremes are what I am referring to, extreme names can have consequences in the real world and make a child’s life difficult. Just telling it like it is, not being racist. This entire thread is about criticizing names….
Um, naming twins “Dark Chocolate” and ”
“Light Chocolate” as the one black mother did…seems a LOT more racist than criticizing her for it…
Ronica with an R. That’s how I have to introduce myself to people. Hi, I’m Ronica with an R. Not Veronica, not Monica, not Rhonda. Ronica with an R. When I go to pick up my prescriptions, “(Jones), Ronica… with an R”
And unfortunately I did it to my own daughter. After vowing all my life not to, I spelled her name Joselyn. Because I wrote it out over and over and just didn’t like the spelling “Jocelyn”. But again, there are so many different ways to spell all the names. Even if I spelled it right, I’d still have to spell it out because no one else knows how to spell it. There’s Jocelyn, Joscelyn, Josselyn, Jocelynne…
Even though I spelled her sister Mackenzie’s name perfectly, I still have to spell it every time I say it because people want to spell it Makenzi, or Mckenzy or whatever! So I guess it wouldn’t matter anyway.
I had three rules when choosing names:
1) You had to be able to know how to say it (right) just by looking at it.
2) You had to be able to tell if it was a boy or girl just by reading it.
and 3) Other people had to be able to spell it fairly easily just by hearing it.
As I said above… No one knows how to spell names anymore, so they ask anyway. So #3 is kind of a moot point. But I’d still say Joselyn and Mackenzie fit those criteria for the most part.
There are so many different spellings of Mackenzie. A friend of mine named her son Mackenzie. He has been teased about having a girl name pretty much since birth. They did not do research. I thought everyone knew about the female actress Mackenzie Phillips??
This type of thing kills me. ‘Mac-’ and ‘-son’ are male prefixes and suffixes. Brainless parents who don’t do their research are naming their girls masculine names and crying foul when they see boys with the name. And, the poor boys who are named correctly bear the brunt of the teasing because of other people’s stupidity.
i have a very unusual name and its a french name to boot. so NO one can pronounce it and spelling it for them does NOT help…unless they know french phonetics’ rules. i have never met anyone with my name. i have lived 48 yrs now with this name. i still gave my 5 kids unusual names (including one with a hyphenated first name… -Blue), albeit following english phonetics lol. everyone deserves to have a unique name IMO. and u always have a convo starter/ice breaker, always!
Let me start by saying I love my name. I just don’t understand why NO ONE can pronounce it properly. Lara – like Sara. I get every thing from “Larrrah” to “Laura” to “Leerah”. I named my son, now 5, Cole. I wanted Colm, but my last name starts with M, so it was just too many m’s.
I think Jermaine Jackson should be given a smack for naming one of his kids Jermajesty. Really???
When I was teaching we had a preschooler who was named “Love,” not so bad except that her last name was Cox. That poor girl will go through life with the name Love Cox. How messed up is that!!
There is actually a “Love” who is a moderator on the Scary Mommy boards! :)
HA! Love Cox. Now that’s funny. And just plain cruel from a parent’s point of view!
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I agree with this post 100%!! I just can’t imagine naming my kid something so odd that I know they would always be questioned about throughout their life. I only have one so far and his name is Jonas. :)
Sometimes having a perfectly “normal” name is bad enough. My name is Megan, pronounced meg-an. I’ve been called mee-gin and may-gen most of my life. I have to spell my name for everyone.
My middle name WAS Jean. Perfectly respectable, until you factor in that I was born in Vermont and most of the time my relatives hyphenated my first and middle names. “Megan-Jean” UGH! I dropped my middle name when I got married.
Totally agree with people thinking your normal name may be something unusual, thanks to this trend. My husband’s name is Brian, and he is frequently asked “Is that with a Y or an I?” The trendy spellers have effed it up for him!
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Bryan isn’t a weird spelling. I believe it’s the Irish version. I would have been Bryan with a y if I’d been a boy and that was back in 1973!
This is awesome. Last 3 baby names I have heard: Twins Willow and Olive (gag. why don’t you just shout to the world that you’re a pot-smoking hippie), and Tagg. Yup. T-a-g-g. As in, you’re it! Stop trying to be cool and name your child as if you want them to be successful someday. Not on a stripper pole.
And, yes, my name is Falon. And, no, it’s not a family name. Came from Dynasty. And it’s only spelled with 1 “L”. Thanks, Mom and Dad.
Falon recently posted..A Case of the Mondays
Try saying this middle name Amandalanese…that is the name I was blessed with and while I find it to be a pretty name, no one could ever pronounce the name and I ended up being called Amanda through grade school and all girls in the 80′s were named Amanda back then, so I changed to my first name Yvonne. *sigh* a better name, but one that still gave me trouble in school, because no one seemed to know how to pronounce that name either. I swear I was surrounded by idiots.
Believe it or not, I have a friend named Falon. Also named after Dynasty. She seems about as excited about her name as you do about yours!
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I don’t mind it now, but as a kid I hated it. As a professional, if I get called Falcon one more time in an email, or referred to as Mr., I might go postal. I blame Jimmy Fallon for the male connotation that now comes along with my name, eventhough it’s his LAST name. People are idiots.
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I really like your name!
Best i ever heard was twins named O’rangelo and L’mongelo. Yes, she got the names from orange jello and lemon jello.
Oh sweet Lord
better than having a brand name in your name, at least!
My husband asked our twin daughters what we should name our baby and they suggested Spongebob Sinjen…um No, but thanks for the suggestion kids.
My sons name is Mattox, It may be a bit of an odd spelling but I am okay with my reasoning and do own it. I wanted a Matt but I didn’t want Matthew or Mathius or any other Matt name so I took Maddox which I enjoy and changed it so he could be Matt. May be weird but I love it and my son seems to be alright with it too.
Oh I forgot to mention the charm my parents gave me…. I am Andrea…Not aandrea, Not Andreea, more like Aundrea. No one can pronounce my name and they instilled in me this injustice if people mispronounce. It’s Awesome…
Yes,Yes, YES!!! I love you Miss Samantha-you have read my mind almost verbatim!! Could not agree more :-)
My grandmother gave me a Cherokee first name, which sounds rather…..ethnic. I was teased for my name and decided to use my middle name in middle school. I like the meaning of my first name, just not the name. Even now, when adults hear my name, they laugh and say, “It’s so ghetto!”
My husband is a junior, which he feels was arrogant of his dad, so he gave his first son the middle name, but not the first. Plus, his first name is Ronald and he has red hair. Imagine growing up with that.
When I was pregnant with my son, I liked the name Aiden, but it was the #1 name that year. We called him “Quarter Pounder” for a while and then as he got bigger, “QP”. It was better than just “the baby” and everyone else used “peanut”. We settled on naming him Quinn Patrick when he was born.
We called our 1st son Kimosabe while I was pregnant with him, and he loves westerns, his name is Zander Quinn. We called our 2nd son Octavius Maximus and convinced our family that was his name, it’s actually Oliver Augustus.
I love Quinn Patrick
Growing up I never really liked my name as it was uncommon and old fashioned. I wanted to be a Crystal, lol. I also found it hard to find anything novelty with my name on it :( I had someone ask once if it was spelled with a “y” or an “ie”. My middle name got the most mistakes though, Jeanne (jean) but people would pronounce it Je-Anne. ANYWAY, i wanted something unique-ish for my kids (forgetting about the lack of novelty items they would find :S ). My son is Marshall, with traditional middle names, David Richard. My daughter is Hallie (hay-lee), my husband insisted on that spelling of it, and yes people pronounce it (ha-lee like Halle Berry) and write it wrong. With a traditional middle name also, Elizabeth. We wanted to play on the fact that his neice is Shaeleigh and a cousin is Kayley :) If we have another child, regardless of the sex, it will be Mackenzie :)
I’m Maggie, short for Margaret, and I don’t like it. However I appreciate it because I went.to school with a lot of Kellys, Jessicas and Rebeccas and have only ever met maybe 5 or 6 Maggie’s and 2 of them were little girls.
My 4 year old is Ava, I’ve had “ah-vaa” and yep, “Avon”! Yes. I named my first born after a cosmetics brand! Ugh.
My 14 mo is Lily. We commonly get “Lilly” but I can live with that, it’s also the default spelling on my phone so always comes up that way.
My third girl is due in April and we’ve decided to call her Riley. I always said if I had a boy I’d call him Riley, no this isn’t compensating, and we had actuly chosen Isabelle for this one. Something clicked one day and I just thought I actually really like Riley for a girl. Spoke to OH and he agreed. I’ve told 3 people so far, two of them love it and the third physically turned their nose up and winced. To my face! Fuck you and your kid with a made up name!
I like Riley better for girls than boys. I know a very lovely 13 year old girl named Riley.
I’m the opposite for Taylor, bugs me for girls but like it on boys.
I used to work in data management at a school district and at one point we had several girls whose real name was Princess. One was Princess Stephanie, Princess Jennifer, etc… And one poor little boy named Prince. Seriously people? I just shudder thinking about them in the work place. My best two though, a girl named Hershey and a boy named Big Tex. Their parents should be locked up.
I do sorta like Allandria and Evlan though :)
How about Poland Springs?
not so much, lol. But to each his own :)
I can’t cope with it all either. People are so used to the weirdness anymore that they now start guessing the most unlikely pronunciation instead of the obvious one. My husband rejected 83 name suggestions before he agreed to the one our son now has. It’s the surname of a very famous playwright and a very famous saint. And at least once a week people STILL call my kid “Bucket.” Yeah, Bucket. The fact that they would think anyone could ever name their kid Bucket is pretty telling about our times.
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My youngest daughter’s middle name is Almae (Al from Alice, my mother’s mother first name, and Mae from my mother’s mother middle name). People ask her all the time why I named after a line of cosmetics. Thankfully, she is proud of her middle name since she is named after both great-grandmothers on my side of the family.
On a humorous note, I once threatened to name my oldest daughter Titania … which about gave my mother fits thinking I was going to name after some ship.
My favorite all-time name from working in social services: Furious.
Also, what’s with ESPN (pronounced Espin)? Also am seeing a huge rise in traditional Northern Cheyenne words as names in our area: Wapiti, Mayanev, Wanbli, etc.
Growing up, I hated Sarah because not only was I “Sarah R” because of so many in the class, but because it couldn’t be shortened to end with an i, like Kristi or Jenni (Yep, 80s), and also the Jefferson Starship song “Sara”. I was actually named after Fleetwood Mac’s “Sara.”
Anyway, my kids are Elaina (named after her great-grandma Elaine) and Gus (yes, named after Gus McCrae of Lonesome Dove fame). He’s legally Augustus. Commence eye-rolling! :)
My brother always says when he has a boy, he’ll name him “Peter.” Pronounced “John.” Smartass.
That’s hysterical!
(your brother’s name choice)
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I taught a Majestan & a Majesty (siblings) and a Myracle. My sister went to school with a Foxy. I have also taught kids whose names are hard to pronounce & they get so angry when you can’t get it exactly right! I would have to write the names phonetically just so I could pronounce them!!
Our rules were:
No gender ambiguous names
Had to be a saints name (or derived from) since we are Catholic
Had to sound good when inserted into the Presidential oath of office, or sound good with the title Father or Sister in front of it. Highly unlikely for any of those, but you never know.
Had to be common enough to find personalized items
So our girls are Kathleen and Claire. A boy would have been Samuel.
You sound like you used the same rules I did :)
I have David, Stephanie, Gabrielle, Alexander, Edward, Henry, Nathaniel, Emma, and William .
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Reading the birth announcements in the newspaper both amuse and enrage me. Rhyming twin names, cre8tiv spellings, and using nouns instead of names are a constant source of amazement. And just so you know, there is at least one child out there with the name Anakin Skywalker Lastname. Yep, I read that one a few years ago.
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Reminds me of a birth announcement I saw at my OBGYN – Anakin Maverick! I just about fell over.
I love the name Anakin and always wanted to name my son Anakin and not because of Star Wars just because I liked the name. I knew both he and I would get teased about it, so I didn’t use it but I still love the name Anakin.
My English teacher’s cousin named her daughter Annika Skye. Last name? Walker.
Yup.
My mother has an Anakin in her kindergarten class this year. (And a Riker.) Might not be too bad a thing, were Hayden Christensen’s interpretation of Darth Vader not universally-reviled by all the nerds I know. ;) (At least, those over fifteen. My young nephew thinks the cartoons are awesome, so maybe it’s a generational thing?)
I worked in a hospital and I had patients named Princess Maryann, Princess Alexis and a Prince something I don’t remember. And these parents referred to them as those names. Poor poor children…..
I thought it would be fun to combine two of my favorite names for my oldest daughter’s name-Annakate. I have spent the last 5 years explaining that yes, it’s one word, no, the “k” is not captalized (Hubby’s choice, not mine), no, Kate is not her middle name. Hubby and I wanted to name our son Jackson because we both love the name, but about 80% of the people we know who had boys around the same time named their sons Jackson, so we have a Nathaniel instead. Our youngest daughter’s name is Arianna. Didn’t think that name would have many issues, but we pronounce it Airy-ah-na instead of Arr-ee-ah-na. Before we named her, I thought everyone pronounced it our way-I was wrong! BTW, my daughter has a “Diesel” in her preschool class.
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lol, soon it’s going to be like this…
N8 (nate), K8lyn, Jenni4,
oh my gosh you are so right! I work with a girl who half the words she says are acronyms, such as : jk, lol, omg, wtf, and sometimes she even spells them on paper or in texts like: oh emm gee, or jay kay! i wouldn’t be surprised if she did that when she has babies.
Try having a 3-letter traditional name that almost NOBODY seems to be able to pronounce properly!
Ian …. it’s real simple, right?
Yeah, my parents thought so too.
Unfortunately, people on the phone can’t seem to grasp its simplicity.
I’ve heard it pronounced “Iron” (most frequent), “Eye-Ann”, “Yan”, and “Eon” …. Now you understand why I don’t carry a gun.
My son had two little girls in his class named Tuba and Maha
Tuba is a traditional Turkish name. Not sure if that’s what the parents intended, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt ;)
I grew up with a very very common name and hated it so my girls are Alsatia Dawn (Allie) and Annaliese Danelle (Dannie) … They are different enough to b fairly original without being freakish
NOT freakish? are ya sure??
Alsatia? After the dog, or the French-German region?
I met two adorable little twin girls, both fair skinned with white blonde hair and light blue-grey eyes. They were named Londyyn Fogg and Brooklyyn Fogg! While the names really fit with their looks, what is with the double Y’s?!
my friend name her daughter rain middle name bow
My personal favorites from my many years delivering babies….the BOY named Precious and a little girl named MaRyeA (that’s Mariah for bread makers, I guess).
Anyone ever watch Amy Schrumer? She thinks we should have Google in the delivery room. “I think i’ll name her Tapioca” … “Did you mean, Jennifer?”
lol! thats a great idea! lol
I am an elementary school teacher. I have seen it all…
Diamond Cave
E’Mya (E – MY – uh)
Me ‘Qhi (Me -kie)
Aqilees (yup no u there)
Marcus and Le’Marcus (brothers 4 years apart in age) other siblings… Keshawn, Deonte, Kawan
Jamaijia (Our speech teacher says it looks like Jam-a-ji-a but it is pronounced Jam-age-uh)
Kewinn
Sir’Delyn (Sir – Day- lynn) A coworker said “I will not call a student Sir.” Ha ha ha!!
Davann (David and Ann mixed together)
Quarter Nickledime Penny (Penny was the last name)
and yes there was a Shi’Thead (Shi-TH-ade)
Oh I could go on… but I won’t.
I taught a “shithead” as well! (his was pronounced Sha-heed)
Terrible!
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I had a student who’s first name was Dickland. Dickland. Motherfucking Dickland. Why the hell would you do that to your poor kid? Thankfully during roll call he immediately stopped me when I got to his name and asked me to call him by his middle name.
As someone who grew up with a gender neutral name, I gave my girls the girliest names that my husband and I could agree on. Although, I do honestly regret spelling my older daughter’s name Abigayle instead of the normal way. It has become such a pain with school, even though everyone does compliment the spelling. The youngest is Eleanor, which people either love or really hate, lol.
The funny thing about people who name their kids outrageous names is that their dog is usually named something like Jack.
See: every celebrity ever.
I named my child Ewan (think Ewan McGregor) because both his father and I really enjoyed the name. Plus it helps that his friend is named Liam! Star Wars buddies. ;] Unfortunately he’s always called “E-Wan” instead of “Yew-n”
This made me laugh out loud even though my younger daughter’s name is Aidan. Well, it’s Aidan Storm. Aidan means ‘fire’ and believe me her name fits her personality to a tee! :)
We named our boy Tosh, because we like Peter Tosh and felt it was an unusual, but not weird name. We do not have cable. So yeah, we were totally unaware of the Comedy Central show by the same name. We also gave him the middle name of David, so in the event he wants to be an investment banker instead of a hippie, he can go by T. David.
Could have been worse: had he been a girl, we were floating the name “Shaquilla Tequila” for reality show potential. (um, not really but ain’t that a funny name?)
T. David.
This is responsible parenting.
I went to school, in the 80′s, with some oddly named girls. Crystal Chandelier and Spring Rein (who’s sister’s name was Benji), tragic really. As well as two other sisters, November and Tuesday. I grew up in a small town in Alberta, Canada which is redneck central so you can imagine the teasing these girls got.
Which town? I was from Olds and we had a Sunshine there.
I once taught two siblings named Levi and Denim. (I’m not joking!)
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My husband and I joked about about naming our son after both of his great-grandfathers; Ebenezer Chartreuse. We conned many people saying we would call him Ben For short!!
I worked as a paediatric nurse and had a little guy as a patient named ‘Simba’, poor kid. He also had a cleft lip and palate just to make things even more difficult for him.
excellent post!
I couldn’t agree more!
While working in a special needs school, I actually had a student in my class named “Shithead” pronounced “sha-heed”. Terrible!
http://whosays8isenough.org/2008/02/08/poor-shthead/
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LOL
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It’s Katie…
Not Catie, Kady, Katy, Kadee, Kaydie… or Caydea… or whatever else.
Ha ha I have the same issues people seem to write down Katy
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See above. To this day, my name still gets butchered and misspelled to high hell. Especially in Asian countries (I’m Filipino). Nothing cracks you up/annoy you like hearing your name called for the doctor/immigration etc and wondering if that was you.
But my husband and I chose not to share our kids’ names with everyone not because we were embarrassed. My ILs are a bit too pushy about things and although I suffered a lot of misspellings and stupid pronunciations of my name, I never hated it. I hated how long my full name was but that was it.
We were lucky that a complicated situation on DH’s side during my first that we were able to pick the name we wanted, which was eventually settled on Amadeus, which meant love of God.
With our second, my DH accidentally slipped out our choice (Astraeus -the Titan god of the dusk/ DH loves Greek mythology) and he got bitched on every time he was on the phone with them (practically every day) about why we were picking that name blah blah, why does it have to start with an ‘A’, it must be an evil plot by me to make the kids closer to my parents and stupid shit. “Why can’t we name our kid ‘William’? Such a good name!” Our last name is Turner btw.
Up till now, I still can’t say that name without DH popping a vein and his blood pressure shooting up. Such a shame because I really loved the name Astraeus.
So if we ever have any more kids (HA!), no one is knowing the kids’ names until they’re on the birth certificate.
Astraeus…really?
Why don’t parents just change their OWN names and live with the consequence of “just loving” a name as weird and difficult as that, rather than inflicting it on an innocent child?
This entire post was for you and other parents who love a crazy name more than they love their child. Your in-laws were only trying to save your poor offspring from your looney name choice.
With William Turner aka Pirates of the Caribbean? Likely story. That’s the first thing anyone asked me when I wouldn’t mention the name was, “You’re not naming your kid William are you?”
Again, my name is weird already, and that’s not my full name either. I never resented my parents for my name, which is dang long and difficult and the closest meaning to it is an Irish name. (I’m Asian).
What is an acceptable “normal” name anyway for kids whose parents come from different sides of the world? It’s typical for our culture to have names from the Bible or from our grandparents but unless we wanted a football team of kids, one side will be favored over the other. And FIL didn’t want us to name a kid after him. And the acceptable names on his side just didn’t sound right, especially when you add in their middle names (Chinese, MIL’s side is Chinese.)
If we chose from each side, we’d get a hard time either way so we just chose names that my DH and I agreed on. If they resent it later in life, then they can change it. It is their name after all.
This article is funny!! I like uncommon and unique names but not outragous ones!! My best friend in 5th grade was Crystal Clear Waters and she was teased so bad about it, and then in HS there was a Sparkle Cupp in my class, she planned to change her name the min she turned 18, because she hated it so much.
My family has some uncommon but normal names, my mother named me Brandy and although I hated it as a kid because I was teased so much I have mostly warmed up to it. I haven’t come across to many Brandy’s spelled with a Y in my 32 years (although I did run into a man named Brandy). My sister is Brooke and I have always loved her name, I think its such a pretty name. My mother was Glenda although she HATED her name I love her name I think its really pretty. My Grandma’s was name is Lowes (thats right like the store) but she HATES it and has not gone by it since she was 4, she goes by her middle name Jean.
My sister she like named her two kids after characters in movies my nieces name is Kaydence (little girl in burn unit from Shallow Hal). I love my nieces’ name uncommon but pretty. Her new baby she named Draven (from her favorite move Crow) my husband calls him Dreray (because its Draven Ray). I like his name but most people who hear it hate it!
I let my cousin name my son because both names I picked out I didn’t think fit him (Jayden and Josiah). She named him Kyler and I LOVE the name and it fits him perfectly!! When she first told me the name I never had heard of it and I was a little ify and almost went back and changed it. I have heard the name several times in the last 6 years though but still not that common. The only problem we have is that when we say his name most people think/assume we say Tyler or Skyler and it make my son mad! He will scream at anyone who calls him Tyler and Skyler ITS KYLER WITH A K!!! My adopted daughter’s name is Aspen and I just absolutely love her name! Its another name I never heard of before but have heard since, but still not all that common.
Naming kids after characters in pop culture media has been around for hundreds of years. Pamela was a made up name popularized in an 18th century best selling English novel.
And you wouldn’t believe how many Elvis’s there are in Latin America. Also Heidi’s, spelled Haydee and other variants.
In my post-childbirth exhaustion, I accidentally gave my son the initials B.S. That should have been my warning that parenthood would not be what I expected.
Hopefully when he’s in school and the teacher wants him to put initials on something he can use his middle one too. lol
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Ya i had a brain fart as well when i named my son. Marshall David Richard Head. Sounded nice to me as well as honoring my Parents brothers who passed away. Those who dont know, Dick is the short form for Richard, sooo needless to say he does not use his second middle name :S
Classic! :)
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I’m with you on this one. I do however, get really pissed off at the handful of people who gave me a hard time for naming one of my children Jasmine. Apparently black people “own” this name. Makes for good arsenal to point out some ridiculous racism though.
No way, Jasmine is a princess of Agrabah. Or a geisha.
My cousin subjected her poor little guy to the moniker “Exodus Purred.” “Purred” is because her favorite color was purple and the father’s favorite color was red. :-( He is almost three and I shudder to think of what he will have to endure later in life because she was trying so hard to be creative.
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Yea, you read it right. Tawna. You have what I am assuming to be at least above average intelligence, so I am sure you have the pronunciation down pat. However the rest of society does not. For 35 years… 35 YEARS… I have had to suffer through Tanya, Tawana, Tana, Tona, Tonya, Tawyna, Twanya and shit I don’t even know how they got from my name, so I assume they were so startled but the awkwardness of it they just let sound spew forth with no regard to the name it was making. So in bars, waiting lists at restaurants and Starbucks I am Pam. Which is great because it accomplishes two things: 1) Most everyone can hear it correctly and spell it correctly and 2) I look nothing like a Pam and I love the cocked head, wrinkled eyebrow look of confusion as I just walk away all smug like.
All of a sudden I feel so blessed to live in a country where you can’t just name your child whatever you please!
I’m Danish, my husband is peruvian and we live in Sweden. At first I tried finding names that would work in both languages, but soon gave up and we ended up giving the children old scandinavian names. BIG protest from the spanish speaking part of the family!
Our daughter is named Ellinor Stephanie and our son goes by Sixten Sylvester.
Peruvian names, especially the indigenous ones, are definitely not going to play in Sweden, although it seems rather narrow-minded of them not to acknowledge the right of a parent from another culture to pass along THEIR naming tradition as well. But I know in some countries there are naming laws,particularly Northern Europe where they are very concerned about conserving their language/cultural history.
Preserving culture is a noble thing for a parent to do, but research is necessary as evidenced by the usage of the name Shithead ( Shaheed).
Shaheed is a fine spelling, if that’s what you want people to say.
I always laugh at my MIL who named her daughter Lyndzee because she loved the name, but didn’t know how to spell it so she guessed! Who just guesses? Take some time and look it up!
Lyndzee complained to me that no one ever knows how to spell her name, and during grade school she had two Lindsays in her class, so she was known as “the one who spells it wrong”
Thank you! This had to be said. I completely blame celebrities for starting this fad. When Gwyneth named her kid “Apple,” I knew we were in for an ominous trend.
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Wow! I have all the first three “don’ts” in my name. My name is Joni, but pronouncec Johnny. It’s a nick name, a boy’s name (I’m a woman), AND its spelled wrong.
And let me tell you, it has been tough having this name. Everyone has always pronounced it wrong when reading it, and I’ve even had people argue with me when I try to correct them… Like I’m just being difficult and insisting on being called “Johnny” when my name should OBVIOUSLY be pronounced “Joan-y”!
Or if they accept it, they think it has to be short for something…
This is a funny blog, people, but take it seriously! Names are for life… And mine is a pain in the butt.
Ps- I’m a terrible speller, and I’ve always told my mom it’s because of what she named me. How could I learn to spell if my own name is spelled wrong? :p
I’m going to check Snopes regarding Orangejello and Shithead. There is a very funny video series on YouTube by a woman calling herself Shithead, no idea if it’s her real name or not, but clever as hell (in my opinion).
http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp
Check this out if you care about what people really mean when they criticize names and pass around “urban legends.”
Years ago Oprah devoted an entire show to odd names. I specifically remember a woman named Vagina, and one named Clitorus.
I wouldn’t even name my kid Greg b/c it sounded too much like Craig and then I ditched Addison b/c I didn’t want her to spend her life saying “no with an A, not an M”.
My daughter goes to school with a kid named Marcus. Except it’s spelled Marquis.
I always thought Marcus and Marquis was pronounced differently – hmm..
and Addison means son of Adam.
I went to school with a Jenny. Her mom was extremely ESL (Asian first language) when delivering (had only been in Canada for a few weeks I think) and had just seen the Disney movie Cinderella. That is what she wanted to name her daughter: Cinderella. However, she could only pronounce it Jenny. Thank god for small miracles!
I just have to say, My name is Ecco. Yes, you read that right, Ecco. And to make matters worse my maiden name is McNutt. (real fun when your 6) but on the bright side as an adult: I love my name. It starts up conversations and really is unique. No complaints here. (ask me that twenty years ago and yea, school was interesting. eggo mcnugget, echo..echo..echo…,Lego my Eggo, Lego my mcnutts, my favorite, “if McDonalds sold calf fries what would they be called? : mcnutts!) ive heard it all. but as you mature and get over the stupid crap people say because they can, it is fun to have a unique name!
I agree that there are some perks to having a unique name. Plenty of conversations have been begun with my maiden name, which is Cappuccino. Really. Cappuccino. But man, if I had a nickle for every coffee-related joke I’ve heard…”Is your middle name Mocha? Is your mom’s maiden name Espresso?” Oy.
Damn! I should’ve mentioned this in the post!
realmomofnj recently posted..The Claim the Name Game
also, my doctor told me when I was pregnant about a mom who had just given birth earlier that day and named her child Cocaine… so, I want to clarify that there are some people out there that shouldn’t be so cruel to their kids.. I just happen to be happy with mine.
Ugh. Alas, in my vulnerable, hormonal (straight bitchy), exhausted pregnant state I acquiesced to my husfriend’s love of the goofy name spelling. I caved. And I regret it. It’s a total “kill me now” moment when I have to tell a doctors office or what have you how to spell my daughters name. It is Kasadee. ( Cassidy is the common) In my husfriend’s defense, he was just trying to circumnavigate having the word “ass” in the spelling of his first borns name. Bless him, he is a good man. But. It got way out of hand. BE STRONG my pregnant sisters! Don’t give in!!
LOL. Only men think of things like “there’s an ‘ass’ in the middle of my kid’s name…”
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What I can’t understand is when people name their child Analise, Analynne, Analee, etc. People, how you not see the word ANAL?!
Not to mention they’re all shitty (no pun intended) misspelled names in the first place!
My son’s name is Redding (like Otis). But I started to freak out right before he was born that he would have red hair. That would just be too cruel. He’s only 4 months, and doesn’t really have much hair yet. Thankfully, what he does is brown!
It’s fun reading all the comments about names. Hubby and I thought long and hard about the names of our 4 kids. The naming criteria that we came to was `unusual but simple’ so we chose names that weren’t common, but were still known, and kept with the simplest spelling. We love names that are NOT on the rack of `name license plates’ and personalised mugs, but not so `out there’ as to be a burden to our kids. So we ended up with Thea, Maeve, Ada and Jonas. We love these names and think our criteria has worked well. :)
such nice names. I love them.
My parents thought they were being original by naming me Jennifer. In 1984! It was a top 10 name from like 1968-1999 or something. When I became pregnant with my baby, he had no name. My husband was all for naming him Jane (after a character on Firefly). However, on the recovery room bed, several hours after he was born, he finally had a name: Eli. You see it now and again, but it’s a simple name, easy to sound out and spell, and it’s a hard name to f*** up.
What do you think of the name Sloan?
I named my son Alexander. I actually say to people now “Alexander, spelled the normal way” lol. After so many “How do you spell it?” You would think a classic like Alexander would be left alone but apparently not.
Ruined my little girls life by letting my husband convince me this spelling was best.
Valynne pronounced VayLin
Now that she’s a year old and I’ve got three different versions that my family uses I wish I could go back and pick a different spelling. So sorry baby V!!
Beautiful name!! She’ll do just fine, at least it makes sense.
I agree with some of these “out there” names and spellings, but some of them aren’t too bad. I have twins, my sons name is Kaeden, and my daughters is Kaitlin. Yea I changed them up a bit, but thought “Kayden” looked to feminine. Besides, my brother named him, and he’s the ONLY nephew so I let him go. When we named him Kaeden it was original and unique, now 3 out of 5 kids are Kaeden lol. But I was all for Tristin (boy) and Trinity (girl), or Madison (girl) Mason (boy) or Alexander (boy) Alexandria (girl) but decided on these names.
I’ve worked in childcare for 7 plus years and some of the names I’ve come across make me want to hurt the parents. Like Diesel. I will never understand that one. I keep wondering if his parents were trying to be all trendy and name him after Vin Diesel or if his dad was a trucker and they thought it’d be a great way to honor a career that certainly won’t outlive their kid having to put up with that name.
I’ve also had the parents who give their kids longer names that are acceptable like Zachary or Joseph, and then get all offended if I called their kid Zach or Joey. Lord forbid I want to finish the kids name before he falls off the shelf I’m trying to tell him not to climb. It wouldn’t be bad at all if they had a different nickname they preferred, but when they do that air of superiority thing as they say, “It’s Joseph, not Joe or Joey”, it gets me grumpy. And kids with long names come up their nicknames for themselves anyway. My niece is Jacquelyn, we never call her Jacky, we call her Jac or Jac-Jac. She has a friend she brings over all the time. What does that friend call her? J.J. That one totally didn’t come from us.
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I know a gal who gave her boys long names and gets uppity if you shorten them (like your Zachary never Zach example). Then she had a girl and gave her only the baby/nick name instead of a name she can still use when she’s no longer a baby (think Maggie as a “name” instead of Margaret). People make no sense.
My mom was ahead of the curve. Early 60′s, I have a cousin named Melissa. I can’t pronounce it, call her “Denissa”. Guess what my mom names her newborn daughter? She’s had problems ever since.
My son’s name is Tadd. We hated Thaddeus, which is the long version, but loved Tadd. Added an extra “d,” in the hopes of avoiding the “tad bit, tadpole, etc.” Doesn’t work, but we love his name. I’ve only met a few Tadd’s in my life, and they were all cool. Funny part about mine is that he’s 14 months and 3 feet tall, with a personality to match. Nothing small about my Tadd. :-)
When I met my husband he was a single dad raising his son and daughter on his own. His daughters name is Neidra ( apparently her mother read a book whose main character’s had the name) and her name is always being mispronounced. Usually she gets ‘kneedra’ when really it’s ‘nydra’. She’s never been sassy about correcting people.
His son’s name is Arl (he wanted to name him after Arlo Guthrie!) and we call him Arley. Which I think is a great name!
We had a baby last year and named her Felix. It’s not very feminine but I love it. We call her Fe for short. She could potentially be teased with the whole Felix the cat thing but her generation will probably never know that cat existed!
Lastly, I have some friends who named their son Moon Hawk. Just that. Nothing else. She’s expecting a baby girl in April and is between the names Welcome or Harvest Moon.
I love the name Felix.
Katie recently posted..Today
I love the name Dalilah, but my husband comes from a very uptight christian family and they hate it. I don’t want to name her something she will be teased about either. So yes or no on the name Dalilah?
Beware the Tom Jones song :D.
Ugh. No.
It sounds like a mispelling of the English name
“Dahlia”
I think it’s beautiful! Your in-laws can call her Lila for short (or even Lily) but you have to be the one who names, and lives with, the name you choose. :)
I really like it! I think of the lady on the radio who I usually listen to during Christmas music time. But she is always so sweet and has a great energy and optimism. The name is feminine yet not overly common (that I’ve heard so far, I only know a hand full and don’t know them personally)
From a British perspective, a lot of the names in the preceding comments described as relatively normal or common are anything but in Britain! I’ve never even heard of some of them :).
In any case, in reference to the original post, I think there is a bit less of tendency to weird names here in general, although it does still happen. There was a guy on the radio yesterday called Elvis McGonagall, and there was the story of a poor kid in Glasgow called Pocahontas McGinley.
One that went through a bit of a phase was Senga (Agnes backwards, since Agnes went out of fashion). It has a pretty trashy reputation, on the whole. I was reminded of that of comments referring to Heaven spelt backwards, which I’d not heard of before (nor would hazard a guess as to how to pronounce!). Oh, and MacKenzie here is pretty much exclusively a surname (and masculine – Mac is, in Gaelic, “son of”, whereas Nic would be “daughter of”, but you don’t see that in English).
I had a student (who went by “Robin”) who was named after her mother, Rhonda – they did what seems like a cool thing – took mom’s name and added something to it…………until you realize you’ve named your daughter Carhonda…..and then you realize that is reads Car Honda
I’m a woman who’s name is Grady, which is technically a man’s name.
I love it, though, because it’s just different enough to stand out, but not so obviously masculine that I have to go around correcting people all day.
Plus, my parent’s gave me a very common middle name (Katherine) so that if I hated my first, I’d have something else to go by! I love it!
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last night!)
Thank you!
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My mom is a kindergarten teacher. This year’s group includes River, Forest, Meadow, and Sky. There’s also a Riker and Anakin. Hipster and nerd names may seem cute and not TOO bizarre (at least they’re spelled correctly, right?), until you factor in all the other hipster/nerd progeny. Then the class roll sounds like a Wordsworth poem or a Comic-Con panel.
Granted, I’ve got a nature-y name myself (Heather). But none of my six siblings have themed, misspelled or particularly unusual names, and mine is the most “trendy” they ever went with. It IS possible to be unique and perfectly normal at the same time. ;)
Hi. So I’m having a child in 2 month. I am very having. I will be naming my son Zahmar Lou Jenkins, or may Zahmar Levi Jenkins. Levi is not after the pants. LOL. But I don’t know now after reading this post. Its was very funny. I’m naming him because I like how it sound and its my husbands and my name together. What do you guys think?
It’s unusual and kind of neat, although you may want to consider Zander as it’s close to Zahmar and will be easier to pronounce!
The worst name I’ve seen was a family whose father’s name was DeWayne. They named all of their children with the De prefix. Most of the names seemed very contrived but were all well and good until they got to their last one (that I saw). DeMerit. Poor boy. I guess they thought “Oh cool, Merit is a good thing!”
“He’s a Southerner. No further comment necessary?”
Eat dirt, douchebag.
I definitely feel the pain of having a “weird” name. My name, Terra, means earth in Latin, but my mom found my name in the credits of a movie she watched while she was pregnant with me. The thing I hated most about my name was the pronunciations. “Tierra” and “Tara” were the most common. I just never understood how you could mess “Terra” up! I gave my children simple, classic, yet different names. I chose their names based on whether I ever met someone with the name. If I found a name I liked and knew someone with the same name I didn’t use it! My oldest is “Lily Korynn” (weird spelling of the middle name I know….blame her father) and my youngest is “Layla Rose” They have flower names because flowers come from the earth :P
Yes, I want’ed to be that asshole to name my firstborn daughter like 5 different WHOLE names. I was torn between.
Aoibheal(pronounced ahh-veal)Aoibheann(ahh-ve-ann)
Hattie Joon(until I found out my husbands shitty birth mom had not only a hattie ancestor…but also a joon. SMH)
Fayth Marie-Ann.
AND then we found out our precious girl was actually a boy. Joshua John-Michael it was.
I AM that parent….But atleast the names I chose are REAL names.
My name is Kaitlan, pronounced “Kate-len” (but that’s because of my accent). My dad decided that it would be easier to spell it with a K and an ‘an’ so that people could pronounce it. This was never a problem, except for the spelling and nowadays I don’t even mind it being misspelt, but a few years ago I moved to a different country and the spelling is getting better, but now it’s the pronounciation! I’ve been called Kathleen, Kaaaaaiiitlan? and Kathlyn, which I don’t mind, but there’s one pronounciation I really don’t like: “Koi-tch-lyn”. It does my head in! Now my friends think it’s hilarious and called me “Koitch-lyn” half the time! But I don’t mind anymore. I love my name and that it is spelt a different way, but that’s just me.
I wish I was making these up, but I have met an Al-ia (Al dash ia) and the even more “creative” Pimptarius. I so badly want to be making up the last one, but he nearly ran me over in the orthopeadist after I had shoulder surgery.
I named my daughter Aeris. I got the name off a video game, but it was beautiful sounding and unique. The woman who had the name on the game was a kind, innocent flower girl so it made me love the name even more.
If I have a second daughter in the future, her name will be Celes, it is from the same video game series, but I think of it as short for Celestial, or ‘heavenly angel’. and again, the woman who had the name was a beautiful kind woman. :)
Everyone LOVES my daughter Aeris’s name, I always get asked where it came from, and when I tell them the truth (which I always do) no one says a bad word about it, just that it’s very beautiful.
The only person who has a problem with the name Celes, is my grandmother, but it’s because she knew someone named ‘Seles’ who was not a very good person, but you’re right, forget her. Everyone else loves the name and so do I and that’s the name I will give my second daughter :)
My youngest son is D’Artagnan Mercutio Zayn Kole… Not only did that boy get f-ed up names, he has 3 middle names… AND he is now 10 and I couldn’t imagine another name that would fit him better :) His names were all picked because they were caricatures in books I read while I was pregnant with him and that boy is the smartest kid I have ever met, and he loves his name. We call him Kole or Dart.
I LOVE the name D’Artagnan!! I always wanted to name a son D’artagnan, but my husband was not on board with that.
….And I say, some kids need 2 middle names, because they are just too awesome to be identified in 3 names.
I love my name, not very common at all, although I was named after my uncle and I’m a chic. I have two boys and wanted names that were uncommon but not outlandish. My 1st born is Zander Quinn, his middle name was the only thing we could agree on at first and my husband insisted on Zander and it grew on me. Now I can’t imagine him with a different name. My 2nd born is Oliver Augustus, again his middle name was the only thing we could agree on. I lost a bet on his first name though. I have Irish ancestors and wanted to name him Declan but the hubby said no and wanted to name him Ollie. He won the bet, but I couldn’t name him just Ollie so the hubs compromised and he’s an Oliver now. My full name is Leslie Da-She’, my middle name is a combination of my Dad’s (David) first name and my Mom’s (Sherron) maiden name. My husband is Lance Steele, he says his parents named him after his falls, long as a lance strong as steele. His Dad denies it.
I have three kiddos. The only one who has a truly unique spelling is my middle daughter. We thought she was going to be the last (little did we know we would have a surprise 2 years later!), so we combined the grandmother’s names for the spelling… otherwise, we’d have a Caucasian girl with an Asian-sounding name. So… here goes– We liked Cadence for a girl’s name. We were going to use our maternal grandmothers’ middle names, and our mothers’ middle names for her middle name and the spelling of her first name. It would have been Kaydence Lynn-Sue or Kaydence Sue-Lynn. Uhm… no offense to my Asian friends, but no. Kay was my husband’s grandmother’s middle name making Cadence, Kaydence (obviously, right?). We opted to use my mother’s first name and my grandmother’s middle name, which happened to be my MIL’s middle name, too, to make Delynnda. My mother’s name is Delinda (rare as it is already). So, Kaydence Delynnda it became. Everyone at church hated it, but that’s their problem, not mine. Everyone in the family loves it. The other two are John Charles (the third), and Lillyan Jayne (named after a great aunt and my great-great-grandmother).
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I’ve always liked my name – Haylie. It’s popular now, but usually with different spellings…. Haley, Hayley, Hailey… etc. I’ve never been bothered about spelling my name though; I had no idea it’s such an issue for some people!
And no, I could never find any of those keychains or necklaces in the store with my name on it… but they always have a custom order option!
I like somewhat unusual names, but not crazy. The worst one I’ve heard is Rayce Karr. Yep, Race Car. Personally, I think it’s a security issue: if you lose your son in a store and ask them to page “Race Car,” they’ll just laugh at you!
I actually LOVE my name, Olivia LeeEtta. My mother spent hours working it all out and picked one extra special. Olivia is for Olivia De Havilland (Melanie in Gone with the Wind) since we have a generational thing of naming for actresses (my mom is Angela for Angela Lansbury). My middle name comes from a great aunt named Lee Etta. Her name was made into a middle name for my favorite aunt, and then my mom passed it on to me. I always wanted to name my daughter LeeEtta Danielle or Anastasia LeeEtta. I like the really feminine names.
On the other hand, I’ve known people with some weird ones too. I intend to take extra special care when naming my kids. Right now, my imaginary children are: LeeEtta Danielle, Anastasia Antoinette, and Ophelia Isabelle.
Ophelia Isabelle is lovely.
Nice post, but you lost me with this:
“…don’t also be the guy who refuses to share the name because you’re afraid of negative commentary or feedback.”
We kept our first child’s name secret, even though it is very “normal” name (Benjamin, Ben for short). It was just hard for my husband and I to agree — it was *literally* the only name we agreed on. It was exhausting to come up with the name I just didn’t have the energy to hear people’s opinions about it. Also, I was suffering from hyperemesis the entire 9 months of my pregnancy, so I threw up constantly. Everything was so hard at the time. Yes, I should “own” my choice, but I didn’t want to have to defend it. When you are still pregnant, people think they can change your mind about the name. After the baby comes, all they say is “Oh, how nice.” Is there something so terrible about not wanting to hear people’s lame-ass opinions about your choice?
Benjamin is a great name, but the friend I can think of who was super-mysterious about her baby name saddled her daughter with a real ugly clunker of a name. She would have done well to get some feedback (of course I wouldn’t have said “real ugly clunker” — I just wouldn’t have said anything nice besides “Oh, that’s interesting!”).
my parents named me Darah, and our last name was Vater. yep, Darah Vater. you can imagine all the star wars jokes i heard. my parents didn’t even know about or like star wars, though the first movie had come out a year or so before i was born. i used to tell people, “Yeah, my dad’s name is Darth, and my mom’s name is Ella…” and see how long it took them to get it.
i hated my name for a long time. it was uncommon, no one seemed to understand it rhymed with Sarah, and the endless star wars jokes were tiring. (i love star wars, though, so at least it didn’t ruin me!)
my parents came up with my name because i was the 4th and last child, all daughters, and my dad’s name is Darrell, so i got a combination name of Darrell and Sarah. (Sarah was too common a name when i was born.)
all that to say, i love my name now. in college, i finally began to own it. now that i’m married, i miss my maiden name, and have thought to add it back in as a second middle name. my name is as much a part of me as anything and i have made peace with it. i’m thankful i have it, and that it’s uncommon. though when i named by boys, i kept their names ‘heard-of’ but not ‘every day’. :)
I love my name, even though I usually got the “are your parents hippies?” question. I was sad when I was a kid that I could never find any of those name things (keychains, hats, etc) with my name on it…but I have gotten a few items that were special ordered with my name. I still love it, but my son’s name is as “normal” as you can get (James) due to DH picking it. The next kid I get to name, so we’ll see where I end up. I’m sure not going to be as off the wall as “le-ah” though!
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I have a colleague with a middle name that is just a letter, like an initial. he says it’s very annoying when people try and talk him into spelling out his full name multiple times. he also dislikes when people put a period at the end of it, since it’s not short for anything. in telling the story, he refrained from saying whether or not he likes or dislikes it as a name, but I have my suspicions!
Have a friend whose daughter is named Shyane (like Cheyenne) and she, the mother, complains that they never have name-y keychains for it, wut?! She also complains that people mess it up to call her Shayne (which to me is a too-trendy spelling of Shane), but I feel like if she wanted to avoid that she should have gone with a double “n” so it’s easier identified as having the “Anne” pronunciation.
I’m pregnant with my first, a boy. I want a unique-but-not-crazy (or trendy) name for him, but I see so many better unique-but-not-crazy-or trendy names for girls than boys. This is going to be hard!
My Father wanted to name me Stormy…I have no idea why. My mother should have been off the good stuff before naming me but oh well. That (He’s a Southerner) comment though, not funny,at all. Do you have any idea how annoying that stereotype gets?
my son’s name is kye. you should be very proud of your name. it has several beautiful meanings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_(name)
I found out I was pregnant a week after my best friend. What an emotional time for our husbands that was *sigh* As a Katie with at least three Katies in my graduating class and many more everywhere I go, I decided I wanted to be different. The more I looked at names though, the more I realized classic names were more unique than the actual unique names. So my husband and I named our baby boy Sebastian Kyle, Kyle being my husband’s late brother’s name. We love it and I know all the nicknames that can come out of the name, including the litte red crab from the Little Mermaid. My best friend named her daughter Aurora Marie. Sebastian and Aurora are getting married. We’ve decided for them *giggle*
My mother-in-law insists that boring names are the way to go, though both her son and daughter complain about their top-ten names and having to go by nicknames/middle names/last initials all through school. I like that my name is unusual, kind a of a boy’s name, and slightly misspelled so it’s more feminine. Yeah, it gets spelled wrong a lot, but people also apparently have trouble with “Susan.” And I always felt bad for the two Jenny T.’s in my elementary school classes.
My kids are going to have plain names in a time when weird names are normal, but we’re making sure they’re not common names. I really love the name Max, but I get the feeling he’d be one of five Maxes in all his classes.
I had a friend well ex friend now who named her kid Fox Danger. Just so he could say danger is my middle name. All I am saying is when people pick names for their children really think. They are going to have them for the rest of their lives.
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My mother decided to name me Tessia
Doesn’t sound like TessEuh, Tessaiuh, or tessha
Nope just Tessa is how you say it.
Now why do we need that i in there? Why?
I’ve been called TessEuh my whole life. Every single time i need to correct whomever reads my name. I’ve actually just given up recently.
My fiance and I have decided our future children will not have bizarre names. He’s the oldest and saved his siblings from his mother’s traditional mexican names. Not that they aren’t nice, but Luis (fiance) said he didn’t want his brother and sister to be made fun of. Children don’t understand traditional mexican names. Luckily Luis isn’t a bad name. He told me what his mom wanted to name his sister and brother and they were too foreign i can’t even remember.
In a nutshell. Kids are cruel. Parent’s need to keep that in mind.
Several years ago I met a guy called Mike Hawk.
and I can’t get that picture out of my mind…..
My name is Arina (pronounced A-REE-na (with ‘a’ like the ‘a’ in father)). It’s a (fairly) common Russian name (top 100 in 2012, rarer when I was born). People often say ‘Alina’ (or Arina with ‘i’ like in ‘pit’, if they’re reading it) on their first try and I usually have to spell it, but it integrates well enough into English phonemes and it’s not a big issue. No problem, right? Except, my dad’s name starts with S and Russian names typically use patronymic middle names and my last name starts with S so you get ASS. And my parents didn’t notice until ten years later. I often lie about my middle name, if asked (I say Ashlyn because I like it and it makes my initials stay a triangle congruency test (nerd power) and if I used a Russian name someone might remember the thing about patronymics). I went through a period of hating my name when I was 10 or so years old, but then, when I was 10 I watched to much anime and thought Kai and Yuko were the best names ever. There’s also the thing about how my mom is names Marina and my grandma Irina, but people usually think it’s cute or funny. And my dad wants me to name my first daughter Rina and she to name her first daughter Ina. Dad, naming people is not a joke, enen if they are real names.
What irks we is people trying to give their kids ‘unique’ names like Unikk (pronounced ‘unique’) and ending up sounding just stupid. I also have a feeling that giving kid specifically ethnic names from an ethnicity you do not belong to is really uncool. If you live in the country or you emigrated from it, it’s fine, but two US parents with vaguely European or African roots naming a kid an asian or Native American name or something like that with no reason is just going to make them have to spend the rest of their lives spelling it and explaining that no, their parents were American.
Here is the best trick for choosing a name. Ask yourself “Would I go to and trust a doctor named ______________?” If you wouldn’t be comfortable going to see Dr. Moonunit Zappa, then don’t saddle your child with it. Names are a powerful thing, people will judge you just by reading your name. Someone introduces herself to me as Kandy? She’s a stripper. I don’t care what she does in life or how much schooling she has, she will forever be a stripper in other peoples minds.
I have 2 boys. One is named David, the other is named Kevin. They both went through grade school with no one else of the same name. In middle school, one other David showed up. In high school, there were just the 2 David’s in the entire school. Kevin is a junior. He has yet to have another Kevin show up. In a school of 972 kids.
Most common/traditional names fall on a popularity cycle. Just pick one that isn’t due to cycle again for 20 years or so, then your kid will have a “unique” name.
This article is terrible. Just rehashed BS from the internet. What tipped me off? The lie about Lee-dash-ah. Anyone who “has a friend” who knew a La-dash-a or Lee-dash-a is full of it. That is an urban legend that I wish would die already. Seriously, anyone that didn’t roll their eyes while reading this either has a BS claim that they “had a friend who knew a La-dash-ah” themselves or is a gullible idiot. That also goes for all the idiots that also know a “Female”, pronounced Fee-mall-ee.
I just posted about this! Not so much the internet BS, but the pronunciation – and the article writer is wrong about it.
My name is Katrina. People often ask if it’s with a C or a K, but that’s not really a big deal to me. However, I have literally had people pronounce is “Cat Reena”. WTAF? You would think after the famous Hurricane Katrina people would know what’s up.
I also knew someone in school with the middle name Hamilton. She was a girl…
My son’s name is Nathaniel Xavier-Glenn.. my ex wanted it to be Xavier but i couldnt do it lol…and no one calls him Nathan or Nate.. its Nathaniel*
No, the pronunciation IS Lee-Uhh (Leah). That is my mother’s name, so I’m confident that’s the correct pronunciation!
So, it could be said like “Lee” but more than likely, it’s NOT unless spelled “Lea”. So there you have it! :)
My daughter’s name is Michaela. My husband and I were both adamant that we spell it the traditional way instead of what we call the “ghetto” phonetic ways (MaKayla, McKayla, etc.). I know we made the right decision by keeping with the traditional spelling, but I still feel bad that everyone tries to spell it the “wrong” way and when we explain how to spell it their first question is if we named her after someone named Michael. No, we just like the name. What really got me, though, was when my mother in law scoffed at the name saying that our daughter will never be able to spell it because it’s so long. I looked her in the eye and said “How many Michael’s never learned to spell their name? It’s just one extra letter.”
My aunt that I always looked up to couldn’t stand our son’s middle name “Monty” when I told her about it while I was still pregnant, she said no way, thats a horrible name and my child would hate me, but the only explination she gave when asked why, was that her ex husband’s name is Monty.
Even after I let her know it was extremely important to my husband, being the nickname of his beloved grandfather that had pasted, she still asked several times if we “came to our senses”.
It really upset me that she was acting so childish since I had held so much love and respect for her my whole life!
I went to school with a guy named Antjuan. He was not of hispanic decent. I live in WI, and I knew him long enough to know he was born here.
On a quirkier note, my name is James, and I go by “Jim”, and have been questioned at least 10 times on how you get an “I” in Jim from an”A” in James. I gave up by the time I was in college, and explained simply that I didnt name myself, nor did I create the most common nickname for James, and perhaps the internet could help them with their connundrum. I am still wiping the moisture from my eyes over Le-ah, Shithead and Asshole.
Thanks for the fun
Here in France Renault – as in the make of car – is a surname. Monsieur et Madame Renault tried to call their daughter Megane Renault. Now, Megane is a perfectly traditional first name here, but really, naming your daughter after a car???
I am a nurse and as a student spent a lot of time assiting with deliveries. Often to kill time you’d chat with the couple about what names they had picked out. One couple were Mr and Mrs Russell and they were having a boy. They said they wanted to use the name ‘Ben’ but the next door neighbours just named their dog ‘Ben’ so they thought they’d name their son ‘Jack’. I looked at their faces to see if it were a joke but no, straight faces. They were naming their son after a breed of dog (Jack Russell). Scary!
My name is Leah (pronounced Lee-ah), and I never got any flak about it until I met the woman who is now my sons’ stepmother-the first thing she said to me was “So were your parents big fans of Star Wars?” Um, no…. LOL
When my brother was born my dad desperately wanted to name him Byron, but my mom refused to let him saddle an innocent child with such a horrible name. Fast forward about 25 years, and I meet the man of my dreams and marry him… his name is Byron!
I named my twins Cole and Mason, wanted them to have nice, normal, obviously-these-kids-are-boys but not matchy-matchy obviously-these-kids-are-twins names. Now they go to school with a girl named Mayson. Sigh.
They also go to school with a girl named Julylah… and went to summer day camp once with a girl named Shellsea.
I disagree with you in one regard. Psychometric research over quite a few years has shown that girls with “crossover’ (traditionally boys’) names are more successful, on average, in school and careers. We don’t know why, but it may be that teachers and employers are subconsciously conditioned to be more positive toward males, and it translates to male names on applications and papers.
My youngest daughter, age 18, is named Ethan. She likes it, her teachers like it, her friends like it, and she certainly gets her share and more of positive attitude when she applies for colleges or jobs.
Regrettably, the same does not apply to boys with traditional girls’ names. Still a bunch of sexists, aren’t we?
i know of a few men named shanon and a couple named francis
Loved this article! I agree with the comment that this should be handed out at birth classes or delivery rooms ;) we could notcome tto an agreement after 9 months sadly. He wanted Abel, from the Bible for as long as I’ve known him, ironically his sis named her boy Kane and that would have just been weird. We still didn’t have anything chosen the day I went in to have him, he was born on a Friday (11/11/11) veterans day and wasn’t named until Sunday. We decided on Levin Bennett Lynn B***. I was reluctant at first hut began to love the sound of Levin, and the story of his birthday was fitting. I was comforted by that fact that it isn’t uncommon as a last name. It is also pronounced the way it is spelled, not Leveeen. I do worry how it will be received when he is older, but at this point it seems perfect for him. Most of the family will say, yeah he was born 11/11/11 and is named Levin. But I don’t usually explain that to people because they tend to think we named him Eleven unless you emphasize it. So if there is ever any confusion I say it is like Devin or Kevin with an L. Hopefully we don’t live to regret it!
I wanted my kids to have names that hardly anyone else would have, but that were also real names with real meanings, because I couldn’t stoop so low as to make shit up and call it a name. I also wanted my son to have a bit of beauty in his name, and my daughter’s name to have some toughness and spark in it. So we chose Caspian and Zinnia. We get the eye roll now and then, but I’d say 90% of the time people commend us on the names we chose. And the kids themselves love their names, which is a relief.
I feel bad for their teachers. Out of 25 kids in my little girls class there are only about 5 traditional names. The rest are very different. Even my daughter’s name isn’t traditional but it is spelled exactly like it sounds – Janaya.
I’m a Leah forever being called Lee or Leia.
For our baby yet to be born we’ve decided on Liam Ray for a boy; and Gemma Rose or Isadora Mae for a girl. Nothing crazy.
growing up in the late 60′s and 70′s i was the only girl i ever met named Shawn. at home i was Shawn-Marie which i HATED. My father was irish (John Michael) and my mother was french canadian. not bad enough having a “boy” name but when the whole thing WAS used i had to explain the hyphen…and argue with people that i really was spelling MY name correctly. on the brighter side(for me) my sister got saddled with Michaelanne, which no one ever spelled properly and at home was dubbed Mike. yeah…no issues for us lol. after all that you would think that we would cut our kids a break but NOPE i named my daughter Alexis and called her Alex, and Mike named her daughter Danielle…who now calls herself Dani. my daughters friends started calling her Lexi all the way back in kindergarten and at 27 she is now Lexi…..and neither she nor i really like it. oh well. our youngest sister was named Tamara with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable which again no one ever pronounces right.
I am so tired of reading articles or posts where people think it is fine to insult 1/4 of the nation. I am southern. My children have traditional names. I can read, write (have an MFA to prove it) and find my way home in the dark. I have seen the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Really, there is no room to point fingers. Thanks for ruining what would have been an entertaining article by insulting me, all my friends, and family (except for my husband, who is a New Yorker).
I’m a new mom and we decided on an odd name for our son: Dracen (pronounced “Dray sun”). Its an olde english form of Dragon and considering we’re both fantasy-loving nerds and our heritage includes irish and japanese (both dragon-loving countries), it felt right for us. The most common dissent we’ve received has been “he’s going to have to explain the spelling etc all the time.” Well, my husband’s name is Timothy but goes by Tim. EVERY TIME we order something and they take a name, the conversation goes like this “And your name?” “Tim” “Jim?!” “No, Tim, as in Timothy.” A 3 letter name and my husband has to spell it out. I say, might as well have a cool name if you have to do the work anyway! Plus, Dracen has a “normal” middle name (William, after my grandfather) so if he really hates his name, he has options.
However, we also acknowledge that there will naturally be misspellings and mispronunciations of his name (and the upcoming nicknames… just waiting for the “Dr. Dre” to be tossed around soon). What i hate is when parents give their kid an unique name, then get pissed off that its mispronounced/misspelled. Ugh. Did you really not see that coming? *rolls eyes*
you guys kill me. all names are “made up”… that’s how names come about. people make them up… like language lol. if no one had ever invented new names god only knows what our names would be today.
also, i do hate my name. not because of it’s popularity or uniqueness, i hate my name because of the way it’s pronounced. i generally go by “leesha” because no one ever says my whole name, and if they have i feel like i must be in trouble somehow. no one ever got my name right in school. i was never alicia. infact, most of the time i was ashley (go ahead, try and figure that one out….). it was always either alisha or alissa or aleecia. my name isn’t a new name, it’s german name.
my son’s names are kye and asher. i chose the name kye because it has various meanings, mostly all good. the particular meaning i liked the most is “keeper of the keys” which is germanic in origin. and not by any means a “new” or “made up” name. just spelled differently from the traditional “kai” to make it easier for others to pronounce. his nickname by the way is kyper.
asher is also a very old name meaning “happy” or “blessing” and it’s hebrew in origin.
While I don’t have any children, a lot of my friends do and one put a link to this page for something-or-other and I got way sidetracked and ended up here reading all your comments about names and I’m sitting in my office at work laughing out loud.
I’m 29, female and my name is Elya-Jon. Yup, Jon. My mom claims putting it together means “the highest of God’s gracious gifts”. Personally if I could lose the Jon altogether, that would be awesome but I would also feel bad because it means something to her. Anyway, Elya is pronounced Ee-lee-yah but after 12+ years of new teachers and new friends, as long as it’s in the ballpark I will respond and probably not correct you. My mom corrects people like it’s going out of style…still! I like my name but yes, unique names while being cool are difficult to explain sometimes…and you’ll never find it on ANYTHING. I’ve checked.
I also have a friends who choose odd names. Here are some examples (not all the same woman, obviously): Lemuel, Esias, Procorus, Epic, Adi, Britta, Vitali —- just to name a few!! I love my friends but if one more tells me they’re naming their kid something odd, I’m going to gently say something and there had better be a really good reason for it.
Keep the laughs coming ladies :)
I totally agree with you naming DON’Ts! I cringe when I hear about people naming their kid something dumb. I’m glad I have a pretty normal name, Kathleen, that can be shortened in several ways.
My brother’s name is Talon (wtf, mom? The rest of us have normal names) My husband’s name is Zed (nope, it’s not short for anything.
We just had our first baby, and named him Elijah. People kept telling us to spell it in a “youneeque” way. Um, no.
I had a friend in middle school named La-ena and I know someone who named their kid Maverick.
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My name is Butter.
No, I am not joking.
Butter.
Our last name is Green, so my parents thought it was ‘quirky’ to call us things that are typically other colours. There’s me, my sister Rainbow (we call her Bowie – I get called Butt a lot) and my brother Salt. Rainbow, Butter and Salt. WHY WHY WHY.
Me and Bowie called out kids ‘normal’ names, but Salt took it upon himself to call his kids Henny and Boomer Green. I swear there must be a defective gene that just makes people in our family give their kids names that get them bullied at school (‘Hey! Butt! I’ll be the cup to your butter if you want!’).
I am laughing so hard right now!!
I’m a bit old for this site, not being at an age to have or name a child anymore, but couldn’t stop reading once I got started. I have a name I never liked, “Beatrice”, and shortened to “Bea” by the time I got to Jr. High. We named our oldest daughter for my grandmother, whose name I thought the prettiest I’d ever heard, “Brita”. I am still amazed at the number of people who pronounce it “Britta” with a short i sound. When you see “Rita” you don’t say “Ritta”, same with Anita and so on. This follows English spelling and pronounciation standards as some others have discussed. She had some problems with the name such as the first day of high school when a typo showed her name on the class lists as “Brito”. The positive on that is she needed to speak up right from the start to correct the error and a bit of self-confidence was added each time.
The biggest problem I have had reading these posts is the mistakes in spelling and grammar of the writers. How can anyone expect children’s names to be spelled traditionally or what we consider “correctly” when both the traditional and non-traditional writers ignore their spelling errors and don’t bother to run through a spell-check program before posting. Again, it may be my age, but it is also difficult to read and try to understand the shorthand texting abbreviations. I realize that texting is affecting everyday writing and I find that a bit sad. And I do wish I would have known what some of you were saying, but not being fluent in texting dialect limited my understanding.
But this has been a fun read and provoked some out-loud laughter!
When naming our second son, my husband fell into wanting a unique name. I told him that if we chose a normal name and spelled it correctly that he would be the only one in the class. Even into the 8th grade, there have been VERY few other boys named Matthew. He is a Matthew, not Matt, it makes me crazy.
I can understand, as I’m one of those folks going through life with an unusual name… but in my case, it’s a very much old family name (named after my maternal grandmother who was named after a great aunt who had no kids). Even then, it’s sometimes frustrating to correct the pronunciation – it is in NO WAY pronounced how it’s spelled – as Day-EH-tah almost every day. I tend to let Day-Eh-tee-ah and Day-EE-sha slide at my office, but I got some whoppers in school:
Day-tee-ah
Day-eh-sha
and amusingly, Day-TREE-na
If anyone can find the “r” and the “n” please let me know…?
Even funnier for me: I’m very much of Irish-Germanic descent with the last name of Butler. There were a lot of teachers surprised when I raised my hand when they called my name (incorrectly).
When I was pregnant with my little girl, I told a friend that I was naming her “Hayley Siobhan” which, I think, is a pretty mainstream name. Her response was a very loud, aghast “Sha-Voooooon? Why would you DO that to her?” A few weeks later, the next season of American Idol started up with Siobhan Magnus as one of the competitors, and I knew that my friend was an avid AI watcher, so I felt some satisfaction from that. I think she had no idea that Siobhan is a very common Irish and Scottish name.
My grandfather and several others in my family have/had 2 letter names. Mississippi has something in the water….
I spent way more time reading the comments than I had originally intended but I found it fascinating that there are so many people who are so interested in this topic. First of all, I’ve never in my life disliked my name. I have never met another Yana but have heard rumors of their existence. I was named after my grandmother’s first daughter who was a premie & passed at 3 months old.
I was never upset that I couldn’t find a trinket with my name on it, I never cared. I just thought it was pretty & have had people ask me if I minded that they name their daughter Yana. Don’t see why I would? Its not like I can stop them if I wanted to. My brother – who was given the very common name of Robert- actually prefers to go by his middle name Guido. Seriously. Our dad was Costa Rican & Italian and Guido is a family name. Our dad hated his name (Fabio) so decided not to carry on that tradition & went with (what he felt) a very American name for his son. The only slight annoyance with my name is when people call me Yani (or Donna – easy mistake) but it’s usually because they just met me & can’t remember my name so I help now by saying there is a trick “it’s Yaw-na” & I’ll pretend to yawn. Works every time.
My BF & I are having boy #3 & we are at a loss for a name. I’m pretty adamant about Lincoln but I think he has doubts. We named our first son after his great-grandfather (Damon Siris) & let our family help name our 2nd son (Jayden) I like to call him Jay. I had no idea Jayden was such a popular name but it’s ok. He is stuck with the family middle name Guido, hopefully he’ll grow up & appreciate the family tradition & not be concerned with silly television stereotypes etc. I won’t be hurt if he decides not to continue that if he has children one day – totally on him. Lastly- I do agree with your list – there are some really crazy names out there but the great thing is people can change their name to something more “normal” if they want to. Or they could be looney-tunes like a family friend who decided Tim was too normal & legally changed his name to Timinator. Not joking. He’s crazy but we love him.
I agree that using weird spellings or odd names for your baby is setting the child up for teasing and stress the rest of their life. It just isn’t worth it.
My husband is a Marvel comics fan, so our son is named Logan (after Wolverine), but I drew the line when he wanted to name our daughter Jean Grey (Phoenix).
My mom gave almost all of us kids Bible names. I’m Mercy Ruth, and I have brothers Joshua Joseph, Steven Paul, and Ezekiel John. My sisters thankfully ended up with other names. So with my kids I wanted to find something not Bible related.
I have Logan Gregory, Lila Chanelle, and Scarlett Kate.
Oh, and for all you wondering about names like Shithead and Dickshit, these are real Hindi names and are not pronounced the way they are spelled. I live in India, and many times have had to force myself to not laugh at how funny the names looked in English.
Mercy recently posted..Lila’s Fourth Birthday
This is absolutely true. My uncle was a school teacher. He had a student named Female (rhymes with Tamale). When he asked her why her parents named her Female, she replied that her parents had intended to name her something else but when the nurse wheeled the baby into the room, her parents realized that the hospital had already named her – Female!
my german friend (hope she never reads this), once had a boyfriend called “brain”. i got to know about him through a text message, and later on told a friend that we had in common, of this funny mistake, where our friend accidentally had written her boyfriend’s name as “brain” (and not brian).
she then goes silent, and says “… no, it wasn’t a mistake..” (so glad i didn’t point this out to the girlfriend!)
apparently, it was considered very cool in the former east-germany to give your child a western name… (too bad the appropriate english skills didn’t follow the fascination..;) )
I think some of the problems come from people asking stupid questions too. I personally love my name. It is Hebrew meaning “peace”. It’s always been different, but not so different that it drives me crazy. The biggest problem is that people always ask me “So, are you named after the dog?” from the book “Shiloh”. I nearly lose it every time. Seriously? No, my parents did NOT name me after a beagle! Ugh. Plus, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie named their daughter Shiloh, everyone freaked out saying it was so weird. I had been named Shiloh for 15 years before that kid came around, and no one had thought my name was weird! But seriously, uncommon names are nice, just don’t overdo it, I think is the main point. Personally, I named my daughter Lydia because I have loved it since I was little. Old fashioned and not too common, but not uncommon enough for people to think it’s weird…
Um…yes. And please keep away from inserting a “y” just to make a perfectly good name more special. Please avoid the following as a start: Maddylyn. Maddyssyn. Emmytt. Kamryn. Etc.
My brother’s name is Gerry R. Gerry… his first name is pronounced Jerry and last name like Gary… poor dear. What was my father thinking when he named him!
Normal names can go oh so wrong sometimes too. Went to school with a kid named Michael. Last name was Hunt. Think about that one….
I just met a baby named Briar Rose. I’m guessing she’s going to like her name starting at about 3 when she sees the movie, and then once she hits school age and Disney princesses aren’t cool anymore, she’s going to hate it!
I girl I went to highschool with named her 3 girls Lilly Snow White, Aurora Rose White, and Cindy-Ella Queen White. A bit over kill if you ask me
I grew up disliking my name, just because I could never just be “Amy” there were ALWAYS at least 2 of us in any given class, so we had to be stuck with first name, last initial…. and there was the year where there were TWO Amys. BOTH with the same initial. Thus there was Amy Bo and Amy Bu. Yeah, B-O doesn’t get kids to snicker AT ALL. So I was always adamant that my kids would have names they wouldn’t have to “share” in a classroom. My husband grew up with a VERY unique name and so he always wanted to name his kids VERY basic names (Ann, John, Jane…..) Our daughter wound up with a name I invented (though I’ve since seen it elsewhere) and a nickname that sounds more traditional and basic. -And we all are very happy with it.
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I am glad my mom went with the simple Rachel but I hated it as a kid. I thought it was boring. Now I will take “boring” over ledashah any day. I named my daughters classic names as well. Audrey Avery and Cara. Although hated taking the twins around in public and people sayin, “Audrey and Avery a boy and a girl?” my response yes the one in the yellow sundress is the boy because the pink dress is to girly for my SON Avery. I guess I was meaner to my boys. Fletcher Finnley and Collin. I had a problem with Collin and cara (they are twins and are now 2) when I would go out and people asked if Collin was a girl? I was unaware it was unisex. I also have unisex Finnley but I call him Finn so it works out. Fletcher is the hardest though people always stare at me and ask me how I could do that to him. I once had a mom of a boy Lucky tough go do you hate him?? NO you named your kid lucky. I guess I didn’t realize that these names had been shunned until I used them