Typical Fundie name ?

[Peppercorn]

I noticed on that site under Popular names for Twin Girls http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/twins.html That "Heaven and Nevaeh" was #6. Um...wouldn't that sort of doom one of the girls to being the Evil Twin? :twisted:

Ha! They could marry twins named Daemon and Nomead.

Oh, and just one question: is Judith common in fundamentalists? When you know the story of Judith and Holofernes, it would make me laugh if many girls wear this name.

The baby on The Walking Dead (zombie show) was named Judith. Quite appropriate, given all the skull bashing and beheading with katanas that goes on.

[Tator Tot Tubby]

My name is Paloma (which means dove, symbol of freedom, etc ...), but the Spanish say Palomita..

Completely off topic but I love the name Paloma and have considered it as a potential name for future spawn

I think fundie kids will have the popular names of the time. If fundie women are having babies they're either very young or older but with teenage daughters so more "teen mom" type names are likely. We saw this with the Duggars. When Michelle was having her first few kids they had fairly traditional names (with the exception of poor Jinger) but the more recent babies have been partially named by their older sisters. I don't think Michelle would have chosen Brooklyn as Josie's middle name or spelled Jordyn with a y without her daughters' influence.

[Marianne]

Completely off topic but I love the name Paloma and have considered it as a potential name for future spawn

This is the most beautiful name in the world ! No, for real, it is a pleasure to have this name. It is rare, it is beautiful and has a beautiful symbol (especially for Spanish : Picasso's dove is everywhere in my room.)

I have just another stupid question : there are Duggars names that are misspelled or importable ?

[Salamander]

Thankfully it's a relatively small number of parents actually naming their twins things like that. It's just if you give them names that aren't obnoxiously themey (eg, i dunno, Persephone and Olivier), it's not likely someone else will hit on the exact combination. (That it happens at all, though, does speak to a terrible tendency to treat multiples as a novelty rather than as people.)

On another note, I remember reading (on Nameberry.com, maybe?) that if you add up all the variants on Aidan (including Jayden, Caiden, etc), something like 1/10 boys born in the USA have rhyming names. What's hilarious is when you meet someone who is naming their kid Xaiden because it's unique and they want them to stand out. At this point, John would be a better option for that.

Yes to the bolded. Tweedledee and Tweedledum was only a good idea in fiction. (And they were the most annoying characters in the book/movies.)

[yewchapel]

My name is Jade which is more common in the UK than the US?

I like Aidan because of St Aidan who was a leading figure in the early British church and Celtic Christianity, but the other 'ayden' names are horrid.

And Paloma is beautiful!

[ems]

Anna and Sarah are givens, and there are also a lot of Rebeccas--but these names are all pretty common among non-fundies, too. Esther, Josiah, Caleb, Miriam, and Bethany seem to be more fundie-specific. A name I've seen only among fundies is Alatheia (not sure I spelled that right).

I knew multiple Esthers in college who were Korean-American Christians. Not fundie but usually pretty evangelical. But I hadn't really encountered the name outside the Korean community pre-Free Jinger, and I had wondered if it had a special significance to the Korean christian community. Obviously it's pretty common among white fundies as well. However, I remember my friend and suitemate, a Korean Christian who happened to be named Rebecca, saying that 'when you hear the name Esther, it's either a young Korean or an old Jewish woman.' I wish i thought at the time to ask whether the Biblical Esther had any special significance to the Korean Christian community.

[Syd+Marky]

Anna and Sarah are givens, and there are also a lot of Rebeccas--but these names are all pretty common among non-fundies, too. Esther, Josiah, Caleb, Miriam, and Bethany seem to be more fundie-specific. A name I've seen only among fundies is Alatheia (not sure I spelled that right).

Wow.Thats kinda funny.Four of the above mentioned names can be found in my immediate family.Two of them make up my own given name;both have been mentioned in several posts.Two others make up parts of my mothers and my sisters names.All of the males,but one, have OT names,including my son.My brother that does not have an OT name is called Christian.My family is Catholic.

[bananacat]

I'm also enjoying the link to the SSA's page on popular twin names, though I'm vaguely alarmed at the amount of people that gave their twins rhyming or otherwise highly similar names. Jayden and Jaylen. Jayden and Kayden. Ayden and Jayden. Jayda and Jayden. Jayden and Jayla. Oliver and Olivia. Makayla and Makenzie. Mia and Mya. Jayla and Kayla. Just...why? The kids will grow up and it's not gonna be cute anymore.

And :lol: at the overlap between the baby names fundies give their kids and the ones hipsters give theirs. It's a Venn diagram that's close to a perfect circle!

The matchy names are cute, but I decided long ago that if I ever have twins, I will make a point to give them completely different names, and to do whatever I can to allow them to develop individually. They'll face enough pressure to be treated like a single unit from the rest of society. Maybe I'd go for something like Octavia and Jill. Or Brandon and Penelope. I don't know, just seemingly random names that have nothing to do with each other, even more different than I would give to non-twin siblings.

[Cannelle]

Bethany is a huge evangelical name. Every Bethany I've ever met has come from a heavily evangelical family.

My name is Stephanie. And since I live in the south, half the time when I introduce myself, people scrunch up their face and go, "Bethany?" I don't know if they can't understand my flat Midwestern accent or what, but plenty of people have done this.

[Verin Sedai]

Names that look like they came out of Pilgrim's Progress or are abstract attributes or concepts: Justice, Liberty, Charity, Greatheart (no really, I know one). Knew a family whose girls were all attribute names and whose boys were Christian or American heroes... a name in their pattern would be something like Elizabeth Faith, or Abraham Lincoln [Last Name].

I am not much one to criticize, however, as my daughter has a very obscure Aramean name taken from the Gospels.

[Verin Sedai]

Oh, and I have heard Neveah before but never among fundies. I feel like the fundies I know would consider it too "low-class" or possibly (le gasp) "ethnic".

[bananacat]

Completely off topic but I love the name Paloma and have considered it as a potential name for future spawn

I think fundie kids will have the popular names of the time. If fundie women are having babies they're either very young or older but with teenage daughters so more "teen mom" type names are likely. We saw this with the Duggars. When Michelle was having her first few kids they had fairly traditional names (with the exception of poor Jinger) but the more recent babies have been partially named by their older sisters. I don't think Michelle would have chosen Brooklyn as Josie's middle name or spelled Jordyn with a y without her daughters' influence.

I actually think the older Duggar kids' names are also super trendy, only they don't stand out as much because we've had ~20 years for them to go from trendy to just common. Except for a few Bible names for the boys (and of course naming one after Daddy Dearest), they've all been pretty trendy for their time period. We just look at them through different filters.

I have an older brother who was born in the early 70s and his name is Chad. It seems like a pretty standard name, but it was super trendy back then. I was born 13 years later in the mid-80s and I got a then-trendy name, Megan. Both of these names seem pretty mainstream now and in 20 years Jayden will also be perfectly unremarkable.

[Cheetah]

Oh, and I have heard Neveah before but never among fundies. I feel like the fundies I know would consider it too "low-class" or possibly (le gasp) "ethnic".

On a similar note... that poor girl in (Canada?) who killed herself recently after having her sex assault photos texted all over the school... her name was Rehtaeh... which is Heather backwards... is this becoming a real name, too?

[niagarahauls]

I've never met a fundie Nevaeh. However, judging by Facebook, it is a popular name among the children of my high school classmates, who by and large are working-class Midwesterners. (Personally, I am not a fan.)

I work in a methadone clinic and have several clients recently who have named their baby girls this name name. I am also not a fan either.

[yewchapel]

Anna and Sarah are givens, and there are also a lot of Rebeccas--but these names are all pretty common among non-fundies, too. Esther, Josiah, Caleb, Miriam, and Bethany seem to be more fundie-specific. A name I've seen only among fundies is Alatheia (not sure I spelled that right).

Aletheia is Greek for truth, hence the aletheiometer in the His Dark Materials trilogy.

[Kira]

To FJers interested in the popularity of names, a really handy site for US baby name data is the Social Security Administration website: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/ You can see the top 1000 names given to babies each year, top names given to babies in each state, track the popularity of individual names or see the 200 most popular names per decade. For someone interested in the study of names it's a fascinating resource.

The data there confirms that biblical male names are very 'in' at the moment, but biblical female names less so.

This seems to be the rule for many fundies. Biblical names for the boys and Greek, virtue or trendy names for the girls. 8 of the 10 Duggar boys have biblical names. Only 2 of the 9 girls have biblical names.

[DrWhat]

I am actually somewhat curious about this observation. According to Freakonomics (how to underline on mbile device?) people tend to be more trendy with girls' names and more traditional with boys' names. Why is that?

[yewchapel]

I think maybe a 'fancy' name is seen as more feminine, and while people will give girls unisex or more masculine names (like Mackenzie and Riley sound very masculine to me) they are less likely to give a boy a 'frilly' name. Girly = not as good, like with most things.

[alba]

I'm surprised at all the people saying Bethany is a fundie name; I've met two Bethanys IRL, and both came from normal, mainstream families. This was in Canada, though, so perhaps it's a regional thing.

Completely off topic but I love the name Paloma and have considered it as a potential name for future spawn

I think fundie kids will have the popular names of the time. If fundie women are having babies they're either very young or older but with teenage daughters so more "teen mom" type names are likely. We saw this with the Duggars. When Michelle was having her first few kids they had fairly traditional names (with the exception of poor Jinger) but the more recent babies have been partially named by their older sisters. I don't think Michelle would have chosen Brooklyn as Josie's middle name or spelled Jordyn with a y without her daughters' influence.

I think you're onto something here about fundies in general, but I disagree about the older kids having traditional names. I have a baby name book from around the time Jessa was born, so out of curiosity I looked up her name, and it's not even listed. Jana is also not what I'd consider traditional for mainstream Americans, as it's Eastern European and, I believe, usually pronounced "Yana" (but the Duggars couldn't have that, could they? Then *gasp* one of their kids would have a name starting with a different sound o_O).

I am actually somewhat curious about this observation. According to Freakonomics (how to underline on mbile device?) people tend to be more trendy with girls' names and more traditional with boys' names. Why is that?

I think it is, as yewchapel said, because the feminine is considered the lesser. I wonder if maybe part of it is also that boys need strong names that look good on job applications, whereas girls can have frilly names because the poor dears aren't ever going to do anything important with their lives. Obviously this is more prominent with fundies, but even in mainstream culture there's still an idea of women existing as decoration, and part of that decoration is a pretty name.

This is also why it's not uncommon for boys' names to become girls' names but it never happens the other way around (and even traditionally male names like MacKenzie become rare for boys after a while).

[Salamander]

Socially acceptable gender performance for boys is more limited; the box they're put in is more restricted. Girls can have either "traditional," feminine names or "modern," masculine or unisex ones and nobody would think twice. As well, girls are encouraged to aspire to certain traits that are coded masculine (assertiveness, sportiness, confidence, etc.), whereas boys are hardly ever encouraged to take on feminine-coded traits (passivity, demureness, etc.). Hence more parents experimenting with the names they give their daughters. A fictional girl named Taylor can be assumed to be sporty, confident, or fun; the fictional boy named Sue, subject of a Shel Silverstein poem and a Johnny Cash song, is bullied and tries to kill his father, the man who named him.

Also, what yewchapel said.

[Syd+Marky]

Names that look like they came out of Pilgrim's Progress or are abstract attributes or concepts: Justice, Liberty, Charity, Greatheart (no really, I know one). Knew a family whose girls were all attribute names and whose boys were Christian or American heroes... a name in their pattern would be something like Elizabeth Faith, or Abraham Lincoln [Last Name].

I am not much one to criticize, however, as my daughter has a very obscure Aramean name taken from the Gospels.

This is off topic, but I had to say I love your user name Verin Sedai:-) The Wheel of Time series is a fave of mine.

[moodygirl86]

I'm surprised at all the people saying Bethany is a fundie name; I've met two Bethanys IRL, and both came from normal, mainstream families. This was in Canada, though, so perhaps it's a regional thing.

Alba, same in England! I've met a few Beths the same age as me (born in mid to late 80s) and all have Bethany on the birth certificate. If somebody my generation was originally called Elizabeth, I'd be more inclined to think fundie parents, or at least old-fashioned ones.

[salex]

I've never met a fundie Nevaeh. However, judging by Facebook, it is a popular name among the children of my high school classmates, who by and large are working-class Midwesterners. (Personally, I am not a fan.)

My husband's niece was a nurse i a small KS town and said that there were probably 14 babies named Nevaeh in a year a couple of years ago-- in a town of 20K near another town of 15K.... she also said there was one woman who wanted to be different, so she went wtih

Nevaehly.... apparently thinking that was Heavenly, backwards....

Locally, Nevaeh is the name of a nail salon as well....

That said, I saw the name "Rocksanne" yesterday. :think:

[itaintmebabe]

Nevaehly.... apparently thinking that was Heavenly, backwards.... :

Because Ylnevaeh seemed, I don't know...too weird? :lol:

[Cheetah]

My husband's niece was a nurse i a small KS town and said that there were probably 14 babies named Nevaeh in a year a couple of years ago-- in a town of 20K near another town of 15K.... she also said there was one woman who wanted to be different, so she went wtih

Nevaehly.... apparently thinking that was Heavenly, backwards....

Shoot me now! I'm sorry, gonna snark here (on the snark board, go figure), but even Nevaeh is a silly name... can you imagine the 1st grade class in a few years... Nevaeh H? Nevaeh C? Nevaeh S? Nevaehly? Oy.