# An outbreak of silly names
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 9, 2001, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791 "2001-02-09T15:21:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2001, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/141 "2001-02-23T20:05:52Z")
What about, um… “Fortunate Hazel?”
-fh
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### Author:  [@TiffTZell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TiffTZell)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2001, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/142 "2001-02-23T20:46:50Z")
My family is full of unusal names-and my home town
Uniquashakira is the name of a poor little girl that is about 5 now in my home town
Jhveontray Marquis Dupree Jashond- all i have to say is yikes( this is my poor cousin- I can’t wait til school starts)
My own first name was Tiffany-Nicole and my last name started with a t so my initials would be tnt- I have my brother and sister and my not quite there from just giving birth mom to thank for that-Plus it was a pain every school year telling people my name is tiffany-nicole- not tiffany
My personal fanve story though is my niece’s name
LaVella- we were all at my grandmothers house one day and one nosey aunt wanted to know why my brother nnamed her that. He started to tell her but he was cut off by Aunt nosey telling him how is was demeaning to the child to give them rediculous made up names and that only a fool would name their child sucha name as Lavella, and the she asked My grandmother to agree with her
Gran: can’t agree with you Aunt Nosey
nosey: Why not
Gran: because my name is Lavella and I happen to think it is a lovely name
Nosey: oh…well of course it is (run away)
My grandmother went by Hazel because everyone made fun of her name so no one knew except a few of us.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Pinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Pinky)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2001, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/143 "2001-02-23T23:15:33Z")
Nosmo King is probably in Jr. High about now.
As far as ethnic dissonance, how does Izzy Christenson strike you?
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### Author:  [@Dr.Pinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Pinky)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2001, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/144 "2001-02-27T18:02:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Green Bean \*
> **And what kind of a name is Dene’ anyway?**
It’s the name of my ex-es tribe. They’re located (vaguely) to the east of Alaska.
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### Author:  [@Ooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ooner)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2001, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/145 "2001-02-27T20:34:13Z")
I don’t think their “silly” names, but I’ve always been partial to uncommon biblical names:
Able
Isiah (sp?)
Ezekial (bad spelling again, but Zeke would be used)
Cain
Noah
and Job (though that one is an easy joke set-up)
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### Author:  [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/146 "2001-02-28T04:21:09Z")
I have to plead guilt here - we named our daughter Tasman, which is of the “last names as first names” variety. But we love the name, it’s not difficult to spell (although we do get asked “Tasmine?” occasionally), I have several generations of Aussie ancestry, and she was probably conceived in Tasmania while we were vacationing there.
And although you don’t see it as a girl’s name here in the US, you do see it occasionally Down Under. We didn’t know that at the time though.
Flay away.
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### Author:  [@mfield31](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mfield31)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/147 "2001-02-28T05:48:51Z")
Growing up Margaret with three good friends named Jen made my really appreciate the fact that there aren’t too many of us out there. I get so sick of saying last names or being confused during a conversation because I am thinking of the wrong Jen. However, no one can spell my name right.
I have friends named Tanya and Jason who named their son Tanson. It was a little strange at first but I have grown to like it.
What I wanna know is how people come up with nicknames that are nothing like the real names. I can’t count how many people have asked me if I go by Peggy! NO…my name is Margaret which is nothing like Peggy. Or like how peole get Dick out of Richard. Someone please enlighten me! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/148 "2001-02-28T06:42:16Z")
My daughter’s name is unusual, though not as much as I thought when I named her Shannara. I liked it when I read it in a book ages ago and it just seemed right when she was born.
My Mom _swears_, as did my Grandmother, that there was a couple who worked on the family farm in the Fifites who had a daughter named (Pronounced) PAJ-ah-may. When my grandmother asked them where the name came from, the mother said she saw it in a Sear’s catalog and it was spelled P-A-J-A-M-A. Can you imagine? Pajama.
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### Author:  [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/149 "2001-02-28T21:19:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by mfield31 \*
> \*\*Or like how peole get Dick out of Richard. Someone please enlighten me! 🙂 \*\*
Well, _my_ approach for getting dick out of richard may differ from most people’s…
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### Author:  [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/150 "2001-02-28T21:40:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \*
> \*\*
> Given my job as a sports editor, I have to spell a lot of names right. I find that many common names are more of a problem than the weird ones. I mean, if someone says her name is “Siobhan,” that’s great, because I have yet to encounter that name spelled a different way (and people with weird names will generally spell it for you without you asking). But take a name like Christy … or is it Christie? … or is it Kristy … or is it Kristie? And there’s Katherine or Catherine or Kathryn. \*\*
Damn straight! I work for the sports section of a newspaper, and sometimes I take game results over the phone. All those Meghans and Aimees and such drove me nuts.
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### Author:  [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/151 "2001-02-28T21:48:43Z")
BTW, on the yearbook names–perhaps the yearbook staff put them in as a joke? I was a yearbook editor and we put Alfred E. Neuman’s picture in with the seniors (our theme was magazines).
Here’s another great name. There’s a basketball player here at Syracuse name Kueth (kweth) Duany. He has a brother who used to play for Wisconsin named Duany Duany. Our women’s basketball team also has a Leaf and a Chineze.
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### Author:  [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/152 "2001-03-01T03:41:38Z")
SO’s cousin just had a baby boy. This latest addition to the family will be known as Grady.
Not a name I’d have thought of, but there you go.
🙂
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### Author:  [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/153 "2001-03-01T14:35:38Z")
A local newswoman here just named her son Race.
I wonder how all these kids will feel when older;" hey Martha! Hi Chase!"
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### Author:  [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/154 "2001-04-03T03:58:45Z")
Here’s a site of Utah names [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/3450/](http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/3450/) Check out the “best of” list. What is it about those Utahns?
We have a family legend about a woman who gave birth while crossing the Rappahannock river on a raft. They named the baby “Merciful Deliverance Upon the Rappahannock” and called her Mercy Hannah for short.
Along the lines of the Yuri/Yuuri thing… I met a Korean family that had two girls named Hana and Hanna (vowels are the same, N sound is doubled).
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### Author:  [@exchicagoan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exchicagoan)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/155 "2001-04-03T06:12:47Z")
Hmmmmmm? I always thought SHAWN was the IRISH spelling and SEAN was the SCOTISH spelling. Oh well.
My blood nephew has an Italian last name–he married a girl who is 1/2 Italian-----they named their daughter KELLY. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!
A cousin married a man named RHODES----four kids—ROCKY(ROCCO), SANDY(SANDRA), DUSTY(DUSTIN) and when we got the announcement for the 4th one we went, “oh my God, here it comes—Gravel”. Not to worry–nice normal first name; which I don’t remember, but her middle name is RAYLE. Which is what she’s called.
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### Author:  [@VitrolicBump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VitrolicBump)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/156 "2001-04-03T06:44:15Z")
Megan Duran. That is my name. Irish and Spanish put together, but easy to remember and spell. Of course, my mother was reading “The Thornbirds” at the time, so who could help it.
A friend of mine has a niece named Kinley. Sounds like a former president. Yeah, supposedly named after the neighbor’s dog. I believe it was the husband’s choice. ☹ Their second daughter was named Macy. Much more common but it reminds me of the department store.
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### Author:  [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/157 "2001-04-03T07:33:07Z")
I use to work at a university handing out ID cards.
one day I guy walks up to get his, and I broke down in tears about 5 seconds after he walked away.
His given name was
wait for it
Dikshit Patel.
I always have the feeling that Brits were really cruel bastards when suggesting names to folks in India.
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### Author:  [@Theobroma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theobroma)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/158 "2001-04-03T07:39:05Z")
I work in a large hospital, and I have been saving funny/unusual names for 15 years. Unfortunately, I can’t name most of them outside my department for fear of violating patient confidentiality. However, I can verify that we did have a female patient named LaTreen. We’ve been snarking about that for years. (Did she have a brother John? ho ho ho.)
We also had a Vietnam-born student working with us. She was great, intelligent, beautiful, etc…but had the unfortunate name (here in the US) of Mai Duong. The operator refused to page her.
I went to school with an April Showers…my sister went to school with twins Ricky and Vicky Ricketts. Not Richard–Ricky. One of those “what were they thinking” things.
I have an old pal named Kandy (named after Kandy Kane, the stripper, according to her mother) who married a fellow named Steve Ash. She now happily goes by Kandy Ash.
Frankly, I grew up with a pathetically common name, and I got really tired of being one of four girls in my class with the same name. When I chose my son’s name, I got a great book that ranked the top 500 names for boys/girls, taken from a database including 13 states from around the US in the previous year. I purposely chose a name that had a standard spelling and pronunciation, but was not common, and was undeniably male. The winning name = Bennett. Imagine my shock to hear of a female Bennett somewhere…geez! I was kind of surprised that Morgan is a female name now! (I had been considering it…)
By the way, someone here had pointed out that parents who choose common surnames as first names (as I did) generally use British names, no matter their ethnicity. (As I did, and my husband & I are not British.) The reason? Those names are so common in the US, they are easy to pronounce and spell, even if they are relatively uncommon as given names.
Last thought: It is not quite fair that unusual spellings of common names drive me crazy, but they do. (Krystle, Jazzmyn)
…at least they aren’t LaTreen!
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### Author:  [@Jenericho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenericho)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/159 "2001-04-03T22:51:44Z")
I went to school with both a Thor Wyndham-Wright and a Tara MacAdam.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2001, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-outbreak-of-silly-names/53791/160 "2001-04-04T04:28:53Z")
I was in the Army Reserves and we had a woman in my unit who had an odd name. Her folks had hoped for a boy, which isn’t necessarily a problem if they get a girl. I mean, Victor can become Victoria, Eugene can be Eugenia, Thomas can be Thomasina. But this gals folks should be locked up. When she turned out to be a girl she became Floydene Earlene. Ugh.
About mixing ethnic names. What if the parents are from differing backgrounds, and they want to honor both? I don’t see a problem.
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