The Weird, the Bad, and the Ugly: Name Discussion - Merge

[RachelB]

A few people have talked about what happens when older siblings get asked to contribute a name. I was asked to contribute one of my brother's two middle names. But I was three-- the only male names I could think of at that moment were Kermit, Grover, and David (the last one after my occasional babysitter). My parents selected the non-muppet name.

[DaffyDill]

A friend worked with a mother who named her twin baby boys Blade and Talon. Mind you, given their mothers prediliction for narcotics etc., their names weren't the worst things in the twins little lives :(

[clicker dies]

There's always twins Vagena and Vadgesty. Seriously. Apparently their middle names are Tamphen Pohtaytar and Foxi Maiden, respectively.

stfuparentsblog.com/post/229983649/halloween-09-i-recognize-the-editing-only-adds (has microsoft paint pictures covering the gorier aspects of a photo of a birth, be warned)

supplemented by this, 3 years later:

au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111022221336AANhE8q

[happy atheist]

On Namecandy (a baby name blog) a mom-to-be asked about the wisdom of naming her daughter Romance Delilah. :naughty:

She was strongly advised against it.

Another mom wanted to name her daughter Henri Etta. But not Henrietta.

And one asked about spelling James as "Gyames" to make it "more feminine" for her daughter's middle name. Ugh!

http://www.namecandy.com/name-lady

[CrazyCatLady]

I know:

Tanyon (boy)

Tyann (girl)

Sailor (girl)

Isiah (boy, pronounced as Isaiah)

Galadriel (girl)

Amaleah (girl, pronounced ahm-uh-lay-uh)

Shakinah (girl)

Blaysha (girl)

Vicca (girl)

Sahani (boy)

Skylana (girl)

Cullen (boy, which isn't so horrible except that i think it was inspired by Twilight)

[Bethella]

I know:

Tanyon (boy)

Tyann (girl)

Sailor (girl)

Isiah (boy, pronounced as Isaiah)

Galadriel (girl)

Amaleah (girl, pronounced ahm-uh-lay-uh)

Shakinah (girl)

Blaysha (girl)

Vicca (girl)

Sahani (boy)

Skylana (girl)

Cullen (boy, which isn't so horrible except that i think it was inspired by Twilight)

While the parents may have been inspired by Twilight, Cullen is a traditional Irish/Gaelic name meaning handsome, good-looking boy. There is a child in my church by that name, in his case it was a family name not Twilight.

[NurseNell]

Mercedes is a common name in Latin America. It means mercies, as in María de las Mercedes, a title given to the Virgin Mary.

[Geegee]

I've met:

Trinity and Destiny (sisters)

Trinyitea (pronounced "Trinity")

Jathan (like "Jason" pronounced with a lisp)

Keevin (not Kevin)

Lillabelle (which is certainly cute, but she won't be three forever)

Aniston (like Jennifer Aniston)

[Rescinded and Mended]

Speaking of Robin Williams, I went to school with her. And also Dawn Johnson.

But unluckiest of all was Pebbles, named by her siblings, natch.

I went to school with a girl who was Kim Basinger's niece. She was a nice person, but sometimes she got teased for some of her aunt's racier film roles. I never thought that was fair.

Just remembered, I once knew someone named Melissa Star. It's a nice name - her parents liked it so much that they gave her younger sister the exact same name. Two girls, both named Melissa Star. That family got some very strange reactions when the girls were introduced to people.

Edit: My name is rather common, particularly my married surname, but I do share my full name with a sanitarium in a different state. :D

[TMS]

:lol: Impressive. :clap:

A (not bright) woman I know named her daughter Moira. Which is fine, except she pronounces it Ma-wry-ah. I think she just didn't know how to spell Mariah.

Was she Jim Bob Duggar's sister?

I know a woman named Naomi but she pronounces it nee-OH-muh

[kitkat]

Bill Lear, of the Lear Jet fame, had a daughter named Shanda, so Crystal Shanda Lear isn't unbelievable to me. That said, until I see a picture of a official document, I'm going to remain convinced that Lemonjello, Orangejello and La_sha are racist myths.

[Bookworm89]

I substituted a lot the last few years and I've seen some crazy names. I wish I had taken pictures of the roll in some classes. There was one girls name that I still have no idea how to spell but it had 11 letters to it and several vowels and other letters together. I got to her name on the list and my face must have said it all because she just said call me Kiki (name started with tsh and went on). She talked about changing her name when she was old enough and I don't blame her.

I have had precious, princess, exavior, slayton, Angela (for a boy...), jesusia (hesusia, was how it was pronounced for a girl), monuiqia (me unique), blue bird (boys name), cassia (boy, the poor child i was looking for a girl and disnt see him raise his hand so asked where she was, several other boys made a bug deal over that) and many other crazy names.

I started each class out with the disclaimer that I would be mispronouncing at least one name and just to correct me as I called on the name.

[patsymae]

In my sojourn into NC one of the princesses--did the "social" page, used to make so much fun of the names of the black women who came in--so many syllables and apostrophies.

And her uncle was Mickey Mantle XXXX--

it's all relative.

[Lillybee]

I forgot to mention.

Kodine 1 Fox, daughter of a client/

[KO84]

Bronx Mowgli is my gold standard for terrible celebrity baby names, Rainbow Auroura is a close second.

Seymore Weiner and Harry Sacks are amazing. They sound like stage names for female to male drag performers.

Most of the bad names I've come across are just the standard McKennistonlynleigh or Blaydenmchunterson nonsense. Just regular uninspired bad, not fantatically so-bad-it's-awesome bad like Aquanetta or such.

[Kira]

Mercedes is a common name in Latin America. It means mercies, as in María de las Mercedes, a title given to the Virgin Mary.

I believe the guy who invented the Mercedes car named the brand after his daughter.

Eta: His name was Emil Jellinek and his daughter was named Mercedes.

[Lillybee]

We were doing a presentation to a group. One woman's last name was Pussey. So we said is your name Pussai, no she said it was pronounced pussy like a cat. She would up sitting next to a guy named Randy Dick.

[Trick468]

There was a little girl named Thumper who used to do pageants. Apparently she "thumped" a lot in the womb?

[Mrs Ms]

Zelda Williams is (was?) now working on the newest Zelda game in some way. Can't remember if it was "just" voice-over acting or if she actual helped create the game.....

Re Twilight and names. I was mortified when I realized that 5 or 6 names that were on my short-list when I was pregnant are in the book series- including the exact combination "Isabelle Marie"! Doh! Even worse, I found out I had been pronouncing one name totally wrong. Double Doh!

The worst RL name I've come across recently is a beautiful little girl called "Ilah". (Both her parents are even worse spellers than me and didn't realize it is normally spelled "Isla")

[Triplet3]

I wonder, is Apple truly such an usual spin on a fruit name? I have heard of women named Peach, Plum, Pear, etc. Is Apple really that different? Many Americans thought the name to be odd, but since Paltrow has a British husband, maybe it is more acceptable on his side of the pond?

Nope, Apple is an extremely unusual name in Britain.

[Triplet3]

I know 2 girls named Freya/Freyja (Fray-ah)

Freya is really common in England and Wales at the moment (don't know about the rest of the UK). According to official statistics it was ranked at no. 19 in 2011, one position under Sophia and one above Daisy.

[Flossie]

I may have mentioned this before, but a friend of mine in high school swore she often babysat for a couple who named their daughter Punkin (a play on Pumpkin). Their son was named Capital, because the proud parents were sure that he was conceived the night they had drunken sex on the steps of the state's capital building.

This same friend said her great-grandmother named her daughter Clora. Seems the mother was quite young and not very bright, as after the birth the doctor asked her what she wanted to name the new baby. The new mother was astonished because she thought that the doctor would provide the name. (WTF?) When he refused, she panicked and noticed a bottle of Clorox in the room. The rest is (supposedly) history.

I went to college with a girl named Tawny, so named because her mother saw a billboard advertising Tawny Port, a port wine.

I once watched a martial arts movie and in the credits one of the actors name was Wang Hung Lo. I was drunk at the time, so take that with a grain of salt.

A man I worked with proudly announced that his new daughter was named Tigerlily Sunshine.

When I worked in a call center, I talked several times with a man who had changed his name to 'Swami'. JUST Swami.

A few years ago I read in the local newspaper that a couple whose last name was Hunter named their new son Bowen Arrow.

A well-known example of how NOT to name your baby was Ima Hogg. Born in 1882 to a Texas politician, it was often surmised that her father gave her the name as a publicity stunt during a hotly contested election. However, Ima spent her life insisting that her father gave her the name in tribute to his brother, who wrote a poem about a girl named Ima. Daddy was at first unaware of how the name would sound to others. There are also stories that she had sisters named Ura and Hoosa, which is not true. Also, neither Ima nor her imaginary sisters ever married a man with the last name of Pigg.

According to United States Census records similarly unfortunate baby names include Ima Pigg, Ima Muskrat, Ima Nut, Ima Hooker, Ima Weiner, Ima Reck, Ima Pain and Ima Butt.

As you might have guessed, I'm not impressed when parents give their children 'joke' names. If you want it so badly, one of the parents should change their own name. Don't stick the joke on a helpless infant.

[Flossie]

I know a person whose parents refused to name him (he was born with significant physical and cognitive disabilities, and they were told to leave him in the hospital at birth). He kept the name Baby Boy well into adulthood, when his caretakers decided he deserved a "real" name.

That is so sad, but it was common way back when to tell parents not to get too attached to babies that weren't expected to live. It was considered to be kinder to the parents.

[Marianne]

I don't have time to write all the WTF names that i have heard, but i just want to share it :

http://liguedesofficiersdetatcivil.tumb ... 3526638145

Here, we really don't know how write american name

(a little translate : "Djüliann (for the english name Julian) is born the 12th of june. He's the son of Laëtitia and Eddy, and the brother of Stécy (fort Stacy), Killian, Nolann and Kétline (for... hum... catelyne ??)")

http://liguedesofficiersdetatcivil.tumblr.com/ all this site is so funny.

[Triplet3]

As are "Latrina" and "Shithead." Come on, FJ, we're better than this.

Latrina isn't an urban myth. I checked the SSA official data, which records names given to 5 children or above each year, and Latrina popped up for several years. I checked for the last couple of decades:

2009 - 5 children

2006 - 5

2005 - 17

2004 - 8

2003 - 9

2002 - 9

2001 - 13

2000 - 8

1999 - 10

1997 - 13

1996 - 9

1995 - 18

1994 - 18

1993 - 29

1992 - 24

For those interested, the page for names outside the top 1000 is http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html. Open up the 'national data' file and it'll download the data for 1880-2012 onto your computer.

ETA: I've done a bit more research with the SSA data and it looks like Latrina reached its peak of popularity in 1974, when it was given to 138 girls.