No, no, that’s a bad idea, because they do it in Australia already.
Thus, my kid has had two girlfriends named Tayla already. He’s almost 15. I also know a Jorja, which is wrong on a couple of levels. This because we are a country that eschews the use of the letter “R”.
Although it makes the bogans easy to spot.
They’re suggested spellings.
Tyberious. Terresia. Talley. Those are some I can remember the kids I took care of in preschool/camp having. A few had names that were unusual (Atzimba) but which turned out to be perfectly legitimate in their culture. At my summer camp, we had a LOT of little Marias (as well as Maria Joses, Maria Annas, etc.) which is understandable as probably 75% of the kids were Hispanic.
Can we please stop with the bad place names?
If you’ve never been out of Iowa why the fuck are you naming your kids Brooklynne, Trentyn and Jersee?
You don’t see me naming my poor daughter Desmoiynes or Iowacitee do you?
Plenty of non-Hispanic Marias, too (my mother was named Maria, but she didn’t have a trace of Hispanic, or Spanish, heritage).
Reminds me of someone I used to work with, a secretary named Maria, who grew up in and still lived in Spanish Harlem, in New York, where West Side Story was set. After seeing it (I forget whether it was the movie or a revival production), she said “What? Some guy is running around in the street shouting for Maria, and only *one *girl sticks her head out the window? Whowever wrote this never set foot in Spanish Harlem.”
I don’t really like names with punctuation. I volunteer at an inner city preschool once a week, and the other day I was helping practice the 4-year-old kids write their names.
Poor Mai’Aishah! Cute as a button, but can’t write her name for the life of her.
I used to hate my Mary-Something name growing up, until the summer we went on vacation to the town where that version of Our Lady is the patron saint. Every time Dad called for me, half the street would turn around! The cook at the hotel, her daughter (my age) and her niece who was visiting from another town (also the same age) all shared that same name. Us girls spent a lot of time hanging out at the hotel’s pool and would get into fits of the giggles any time one of our grown-ups wanted to speak with one of us, because they needed to specify which one… good times, good times!
I work with a 34 year old black girl. She is a single mother of two daughters named LaShea and Gennae. Apparently she let her mother name the girls. Oh, and did I mention that she says “OMG” on a regular basis at work while she’s on MSN with her kids?
Similarly, in the Hasidic world, every Lubavitch family has a son named Menachem Mendel and a daughter named Chaya Muske. I’ve long fantasized about pranking a Lubavitch event by getting on the loudspeaker and saying, “Urgent message for Menachem Mendel, please report to the front desk immediately.”
We’ve got a lot of interesting names in our library system. Here are just a few I can recall off the top of my head:
Trinidy (pronounced like Trinity)
Notorious (never met 'em, but they get lots of holds)
Micheal
A lot of the other ones tend to be misspellings or mostly a Latin American cultural variant of an uncommon name over here-- lots of Julisas, etc.
The name Aiden had not blipped on my radar (well, Aidan Quinn, but that’s about it) but by the time my son was 6 months old (he’s 6 now) I had encountered 12 of them from pre natal classes, birth announcements, and kids in his Kindermusic classes and at Dr’s appointments. All boys. (No, my son is not an Aiden, but I am suspecting it will be the Jason of my son’s generation)
Last week someone mentioned their child Aidan, and was VERY offended when I thought it she was referring to a boy. I guess there are girl Aidans too.
Aiden isn’t particularly a weird name, just super prominent right now and I have NO idea where it came from.
Oddly I meet many children with my name, but I was the only one with it in my classes growing up. Fortunately its a sort of timeless name, and even current trendiness doesn’t outwear its welcome. Just odd to hear someone screech my name in a store and ask if I want a “time-out”.
I have to specify which Tony I’m talking about. Is it Big Tony, Little Tony (younger than Big Tony, and somewhat shorter, but he still is over 6 feet tall), Gemstone Tony, or some other Tony? What’s more, I go to Big Tony’s (no relation) restaurant, and also Antonio’s Mexican restaurant. There are a lot of Anthonys/Antonios in my life.
Name your kid what you want, but if you make up a name, check a dictionary after you make up the name.
So you won’t name the poor thing Chimera-
If you want the baby girl to be called Mallory, don’t make her spell it Maleria-
I went to college with a Gennipher. On the one hand, I thought, “really?” As I’ve grown older I’m liking it more and more. It has a bit of an antiquarian vibe to it.
I had one at work the other day. Woman was buying a gift for her daughter Serenity. Except she spelled it Serenati. Which I keep pronouncing in my head as Sayr-en-ah-tee. But it’s Serenity.
I almost asked if the next baby was going to be Firefly.
Is it bad that’s also what I thought? Only I think she might spell it Fayafly.
Those aren’t too bad. A friend has a niece named Janae – is that how Gennae is pronounced?
There are four Kelseys (women) in one of the classes that I monitor. Usually there are one or two Amys or Brittanys or Heathers, but four with one name in a class of 25 is unusual. I’ve been meaning to look at TV shows from 20 years ago to see if there was a popular character named Kelsey.
Hubby’s granddaughter named her baby Kaiden two years ago. She said she chose it because it was different, and now she’s pissed because there are Kaidens everywhere.
The worst name I ever encountered was a guy who named his son Panama Red. It’s a variety of marijuana.
Something happened in the 1990s with “Kelsey.” Not sure what triggered it, but you can see it peak in popularity here:
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=kelsey&ms=false&exact=true
My brother-in-law has a nephew named Alexzander. Or possibly spelled Alekzander, but I really think it’s the former. See, they really wanted to call him Zander (with a Z) but give him options in the future. Personally, they just branded him as having imbecile parents, poor boy.
My cousin named his daughter ShyAnne, yes, spelled phonetically. And he lives in Colorado! If he had to give her a place name, he knows how to spell Cheyenne! He’s having a second soon; don’t know what moniker they’re going to bequeath to the newbie. I’m already in fear for the poor kid.