My first name, while not an obscure one, is a favorite for mispellers. I’ve seen a half dozen or so varients, all caused by people who couldn’t spell.
My middle name, once a fine Scottish surname/male first name, has been appropriated by hundreds upon hundreds of five-year-old non-Scottish girls.
My last name, finally, is unheard of in the country (except in areas with a large German-American population, such as the Midwest), which results in no one being able to pronounce it.
Hee, yep, Eve said it way back in post #66. But in fairness, it was nearly two years ago! Personally my first thought upon seeing the thread title was “what, people are naming their kids ‘Zoltar’ now?”
When I was born waaaay back in 1966, my parents had a fetish for “K” names. They gave my three older siblings normal names, but for some reason I was yclept “Kira” by my Pop – who thought he was making the name up. Now some people tell me that it’s a pretty name, and “Kira,” “Kyra” & “Kiera” are moving up in the popularity scale. Back then, I might as well have worn a sign that said “Hi! My name is Mxyzptlk!”
Seriously, as a kid I hated having a “bespoke” name instead of one that was “off the rack.” No one knew how to pronounce the name correctly, including teachers. (And for some reason their errors made me feel embarrassed, like I was abnormal or something. Admittedly I was a very neurotic little kid!) So “Kira” just seemed ugly to me.
Anyway I wonder if kids today are so used to having somewhat “unique” names that being different doesn’t bother them? All I know is that in the early/mid-1970s Long Island suburbia, being different was very very bad. (Of course, nowadays when I post on TV-related message boards using my real name, everyone thinks it’s an homage to Star Trek:DS9’s “Major Kira” – especially when I used to post on an AOL board devoted to writer Ron D. Moore.)
Micaela, btw, is the name of the secondary female character in Bizet’s Carmen. A related name that I’ve been seeing a lot online these days is “Micah.” I have no idea if it’s a guy or girl’s name, or if it’s pronounced “meeka” or “my-ka.”
Yep, I had the same problem. My first name is “Arlyn”. Originally, it was gonna be “Arwen” after the elf princess in LOTR but my mom changed it. (OK, everyone on earth knows what LOTR is now but in the 70’s only the hippie weirdos and my dad had ever heard of it ) I hated it and when I started middle school, I switched to my middle name.
I wonder if people are more comfortable with "unusual"names now because we have so many more ethnic kids around now. In my high school, the only other “weird” name belonged to the asian boy called “Joon”. Now days, I see lots of kids who keep their ethnic names and don’t adopt a more English one…
I think a name should have meaning. Name the kid after a saint, an admired historcal figure, or use a word, a real word, that has a special meaning that you want attached to the child.
African Americans are the worst offenders when it comes to meaningless names. I’ve heard the word “neologisms” used, but what it amounts to is a bunch of syllables strung together in a way that the name sounds Arabic or African, but is really just a meaningless string of sounds. Sheesh. If you want to give your kid an African or Arabic name, do a little research and give the kid an actual African or Arabic name.
Of course, white folk can do this, too. Fr. Francis once got his knickers in a twist when a couple brought their newborn daughter tohim for baptism. They wanted to name the girl Celladoor. Because they thought the phrase “cellar door” had a neat sound to it. In the Catholic Church, we have a strong tradition of naming kids for patron saints, and Fr. Francis is a very traditional Catholic. So, when he poured the water on the kid, he baptized her “Celladoor Marie”
I called my daughter Siobhan - she was born in Wales and I was homesick for Northern Ireland. My landlady’s daughter liked it - she had a baby a couple of months later and called her Shevaughan Pity she didn’t ask me how to spell it first!!
My name is Samantha. My brothers name is Brandon. I really like the name James. I’m not into those “hip” names, since kids teachers NEVER say the same right. Like a poor guy name Tejas pronounced “tay-jas”. I have been in the same class with him since kindergarden (sad, ain’t it), and EVERY YEAR, his name was misspronouced.
When she was carrying me, my mother searched high and low for an uncommon name that began with the letter T.
She went through a phase of making up names (Talana, Teodora, Taquaya) until one fateful day. She was watching the Lawrence Welk show was my great-grandfather and saw a name in the credits. They had a young Russian violinist named Tanya perform that day.
How sad is it that I thank Lawrence Welk for giving me respite from a potentially horrid name?
My kids have some very different class mates names such as Princess and Luxury.
I met a woman in New Mexico who had taken in a foster child - a baby girl named Genocide. It actually sounds almost pretty in spanish but I was mortified.
When my grandparents on my dad’s side were on their 2nd or 3rd child (I forget which), they really thought they were going to have a boy. They were going to name him James, after my grandpa.
Well, out comes the kid, and it turns out they had . . . a girl! Instead of picking a new name, they come up with the following gem:
Jamet. JAH-met. Hmmm.
Back in the day, we had a neighbor who was having a daughter. She decided that she liked my name so much (Janelle), that she’d name her daughter that, too.
Only she spelled it “Ganyle.” Oh yes.
I also went through elementary school (all five years of it) with my vice-principal completely unable to spell my name correctly. Since it was a small school, she did things like assign lockers and put masking tape with our names on it, typed up the awards list things, etc.
For FIVE years, no matter how often I or my mom corrected her, I was “Janielle.” Where the hell did that “i” come from?
If I ever have children, and get a girl, I want to name her “Laylah Moon Irish.” Is that too weird?
Maybe she wanted the girl’s Welsh teachers and classmates to be able to spell it.
Damned speakers of different flavors of Gaelic who can’t standardize their spelling! Though I have long suspected those who first established the spellings had only the vaguest notions of what letters were used for.
Back to the topic, I have known personally a Latrina and a girl named Gregory (named after daddy’s football coach). And my moronic SIL named her son Jake (not Jacob, just Jake).
Put “Doctor” in front of it. Would you have faith in this doctor? “Doctor Tyffanie.”
For the love of god, stop with the i and y craze! Really! gnaws off my own arm to escape
Show the name to someone. If they can’t pronounce it, toss it. Yes, Gaelic names are lovely, but nobody SPEAKS Gaelic over here. At least, not enough people to compensate for the years of “Coug . . . cah . . . coo . . .” “It’s Conner.”
Be aware of naming possibilities, but it’s not a deal-breaker.
A strange friend of mine recently had a daughter. I remember having IM conversations with her where she’d spell out Gaelic names for me, and I’d just stare and go " . . . wha?"
If she’d had a boy, she would’ve named him the Gaelic spelling of Conner. Anyone know that word? It looked like a mush of gobbletygook to me, and it was about 2-3 times as long as “Conner.”
This girl (Jenni) spent many years of high school signing things “Djighnie.”
Thankfully, she had a girl whose name is Constance.
My mom’s an OB nurse. One of the more memorable names she told me was “Sir.” “Ain’t nobody ever gonna call my son ‘boy.’”
I go by my last name. Not because I don’t like the rest of my name, but I got tired of a) answering to Danielle, Michelle, etc; b) Nobody mispells Irish; and c) People have no problem remembering my name now.
Personally my first thought upon seeing the thread title was “what, people are naming their kids ‘Zoltar’ now?”
) I hated it and when I started middle school, I switched to my middle name.
Pity she didn’t ask me how to spell it first!!
Though I have long suspected those who first established the spellings had only the vaguest notions of what letters were used for.