I fall into the “Guy With A Girl’s Name” category. Oh yea, it sounds sweet to the parents, but when you have to listen to “So why do you have a girl’s name?” every day…when you constantly get mail addressed to “Ms.” EVEN WHEN YOU CHECKED “Mr.” on the form…
Oh yea, let me tell you, I say, “Oh, thank goodness my freakin’ parents thought this was a nice name.”
Ahh, see I was thinking that it was more acceptable to change the spelling than to omit the accent. After all, “Renae” would be pronounced Ren-ay, but Renee looks like it should be pronounced “Ren-nee” (unless you’re going for the Ree-nee pronouciation). I have seen the “Renae” spelling many times, and thought it a common alternative to “Renee” or “Renée” - just like Mathew/Matthew or Conor/Connor or Tanya/Tania… etc.
Of course, I am the same Cazzle who wants to scream whenever she sees the girl at the department store with a nametag that says “Maranda”. Ugh! That one letter makes all the difference in the world…
Statistics:
1038 girls named Miranda born in my state between 1929 and 2000
12 named Maranda in the same period - 1.1% according to Mr Cazzle
3788 girls named Renee born in my state between 1929 and 2000
2 named Reneè
1 named Reneé
1 named Renèe
1 named Renèe
1 named Renée
2 named Renée
1 named Rene’e
765 named Renae in the same period 16.7%
Gee, I hope this isn’t against the rules of the Pit!
I’d swear someone around here has a niece named “Crystal Jade” or somesuch. Heh.
They claim my name is still ranked in the top 50- “Eric” was ranked 14[sup]th[/sup] for the 70’s, now dropped to 43[sup]rd[/sup], but growing up there were never more than two of us in any one place (neighborhood, class/grade, soccer team…) so I’m not sure where all the others were hiding.
For fun (parents in italics):
Dads side (Italian)- Rose, Elizabeth (Liz), Joseph (Joe) John, Josephine
Mothers side (Dutch)- Elizabeth (Ellen) Cecil, Karen, Ledewyda, Roland, Saskia
My sisters (Monique) boys- Tyler, Nicholas, Joseph
If anyone is interested, Cecil dropped off the Top 1000 in 1997 with a final (listed) rating of 1001 out of 1000. The name has powers, I tell ya.
This reminds me of a Mormon friend of mine whose parents gave each of their nine children a name beginning with a K and including a Y. A few I remember are Karyn, Kym, Kerry, Kory and Kyle. I always wondered about the significance of KY. Jelly? (How DID they have so many kids?)
I knew a man named Equinox Tetrachloride. But he changed it himself so I don’t think that counts.
Like many of you, I too hate the name Kayla with a passion. Not because it’s a stupid name, but because people address me as such constantly! AGH! Typical conversation:
Me: Hi, I’m Kyla, nice to meet you.
Person: Hi, Kayla.
NO! That is NOT my name!
Stupidheads.
Anyway, you can mock my name all you like. My parents picked it from the New Age Baby Name Book after my aunt stole their first choice, Maya, for her dog. I know it’s kind of odd, but at least it’s not trendy. I’ve only met a couple of other Kylas in my life. Both were my age, oddly. It doesn’t appear to be popping up in kindergartens everywhere, at least.
Umm, dude. The name Kathleen is the name Caitlín. Kathleen is simply the anglicized respelling of Caitlín.
The problem with Americans is they have no clue how to pronounce Irish Gaelic.
Earlier generations of Irish-Americans like the Kennedys were content to use the anglicized spelling so at least Americans would know how to pronounce it.
But with the Great Celtic Revival of the late 20th century, anglicization was out, authenticity was in. Nothing short of the original Irish spelling would do. Too bad for “authenticity” if you omit the acute accent in Caitlín, which is crucial to its pronunciation, let alone pronounce it as “Kate Lynn.” In Gaelic it’s actually pronounced Kathleen (or in some Irish pronunciation, Kat’leen, according to ruadh), but anyway to pronounce it “Kate Lynn” is entirely bogus and only marks you as a would-be Irish who has failed, failed utterly. A terrible error is born.
Well, I guess we could have named Apollyon Jr. Software Analyst. 
'Course, his surname starts with D, so that might not have worked out too well. 
Oh, yeah. A name that sounds like “Vulva.” You could name her sister “Vagina.”
How about “Aqua Vulva”?
Whodathunkit?
adds Jomo Mojo to the list of People Not to Make Oblique Seinfeld References Around
OGDEN SMASH!!!
I’m just glad that my mom was able to dissuade my dad on the naming of either of my sisters. Both times he tried to get the new baby girl named “Ida Mae”.
If I was to have a boy, he’d be Arthur. And since my last name doesn’t sound like ‘Itis’, there’s no joke to it.
One of my coworkers was named Brea. One of my neighbor’s kids is named Breja. I still can’t figure out where the J came from, since they’re pronounced the same.
Leaving that aside, whose bright idea was it to name their kid something that’s Spanish for “tar”?
I hope you are not implying that there is anything wrong with the name Haley. Because I personally think that Haley is the most beautiful name ever. (Though, I may be slightly biased.)
My sister has an original name–Jasie. Pronouced J.C. I’ve never met another Jasie in my entire life. (She was originally going to be Chevy Chase, but she wasn’t a boy.) Somehow my mom took the “ase” sound and the “ie” sound and figured “ch” was close to “j”. Or osmething.
If I had kids, I plan on naming them Angel Lennon, McCartney Lynne, Jakob Toiyabe (unless it’s a girl, in which case it would probably be Jacqueline Toiyabe), and Ashley James.
The first two are probably pretty obvious. My husband’s name is Jaime Toiyabe (and Jaime is James and Jacob) and the last becaues, well, I like it.
LMAO! The Beansprout’s name is Arthur. I’ve been calling him “Arthur Itis” all day!
My best friend’s Mom got remarried when my friend was in her 20’s. She married a man with the last name Huckenphaler, they named their son Barron von Huckenphaler. Poor kid, imagine what they’ll do to him at school!
I have a file in my desk for someone named “Velvet Bush”.
Not as catchy as Ghengis Kahn, Jr. …but a good effort none-the-less.
(Yes…have files on both these people)
Phuc Long - got a file on him too.
My friend named his daughter Madison five years ago, and I immediately thought of Tom Hanks looking up at the Madison Ave sign in New York.
Paraphrased from an SNL or MADTV sketch from a few years back:
[quote]
Character: SO, how do you spell your name?
Little boy: Q-apostrophe-u-a-y-v-h-a-y-n-n
Characer: Wow! How is that pronounced?
Little boy: “Kevin”
[quote]
Here’s a good one…Latrina…better than “Shithouse”. “Shaka” seems like a cool name to me. Or “Murphy”
My last name is Potts. My grandmother’s sick humor was at work when she suggested Flower as my name.
What about the name Loren?