Totally ditto “soap opera” names. Many of the bonafide white trash I’ve had the pleasure of working with named their chirren after whoever the big heroine or hero was that year. One woman I knew named her daughter “Diedre Marlena” after actress Diedre Hall and her character Marlena Evans from DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and this was the year that Marlena was possessed by Satan.
Boys names I’ve known to be used from soap operas: Drake, Roman, Stefano, Blake, Chandler
Girls names I’ve known to be used for the same reason: Caitlin, Erica, Samantha, Isabella, Ivy
Because the same excuse can (and has) be given for the use of the term “nigger”- as in “I only use that word to refer to the BAD black folk”. :rolleyes:
And of course one can call a “lowlife” a lowlife. So do so. Why bring out the pointless and bigoted point that he/she is also “white”?
OK, I’m not arguing for the use of racial epithets here. But if someone does only use that work to refer to bad individuals, are they a bigot? Clearly they are hugely insensitive, but I’m not sure bigot is the correct term. To me bigotry involves prejudging people based upon perceived shared group characteristics. If one uses an epithet based upon an individual assessment of a person, it isn’t bigotry. That doesn’t make it right, of course.
So, it’s the use of the word “white” that bothers you? What if I just called a lowlife “trash”? As long as it’s individually assigned, what difference does the specific term I use to deride someone make?
I was voting for Tammy and **Chrystal ** and Candyce/Candi.
She’s too young to be a Dakota. MOre’s the pity.
How about a high class name like " Jane Austen Wickowicz" or
(hee) Elizabeth Borden Wonkensteinberger.
But, Vienna could work well. Maybe she was conceived by the Vienna Sausage Factory where her mama met and had a romance with her Daddy, the shift supervisor, whom is naturally married and cannot leave his poor ailing wife.
Simple. Many blacks have names that are associated with blacks (just for example, Latoya). Since my character is white, I wanted to weed out the obviously “black” names
The term “white trash” as well as the closely related term “trailer trash” are commonly used as demeaning epithets for low income whites and for Southerners. They are often applied with little discretion and definitely are not limited to people of a certain “mentality” without regard to economic or social class. At college I heard Northerners refer to someone as “white trash” simply because she spoke with a southern accent. Behind my back, I’ve been called “white trash” by classmates at college simply for listening to bluegrass and old-time country music, and I was called “trailer trash” by a co-worker after mentioning that I had been looking into the possibility of buying a used mobile home. The second time I sat the jerk down with our supervisor and informed him I would file a formal complaint against him if it ever happened again.
Despite what you’ve said here, the term “white trash” has strong connotations of class, racial and ethnic bigotry, and you should not throw that term around lightly.
I’d agree with the daytime-TV idea in principle, but most of those names sound way too upscale, especially with the current vogue among yuppie parents for slightly old-fashioned names.
I vote for naming her after a celebrity who was popular around the time the character was born (I haven’t got the foggiest idea who, of course, since I wasn’t around forty years ago).