Has anyone read the book ‘Freakonimics’? There is an entire chapter on names and their connotations. For example, they’ve researched the name Jasmine and its multiple spellings and ranked them according to the level of the mothers’ education:
Ten “Jasmines” in Ascending Order of Maternal Education
(Years of mother’s education in parentheses)
I had such a horrendous last name that I suffered the torment of the damned all through school, too. I only partially joke I got married to get a nicer last name.
I looked somewhere and read Bertha has not been in the top 1000 girls names in the past 10 years. Actually, a passable nickname for Bertha is “Bertie”.
So? I was called DoNUT and subject to all sorts of variations on scrotum, oral sex, and tea-bagging jokes (when I was way too young to know what “tea-bagging” meant in the scrotal sense) all due to Duncan and Dunkin’ Donuts. Tough cookies! Kids can be shitheads who torment each other, it’s how they learn how to socialize and sort out the pecking order and learn life lessons like “sometimes life isn’t fair and there a mean people out there”.
I had it no tougher than Ian Dick or Greta Fuchs did. Greta’s family could have changed their name to Fox, but didn’t. They just learned the important lesson: deal with it.
You did this right out of college? Man, no wonder I had crappy jobs right out of school.
I read the book. The chapter on names included things that I was certain were urban legends the second I saw them. So, yeah. That was disapointing since I really thought the rest of the book was so interesting.
For one thing, it’s Jamie, not Jaime. Jaime is the Spanish equivalent of James, and is pronounced Hi-may. For another thing, Jamie is a perfectly acceptable name for a boy, and the name James has nothing to do with it. I didn’t want to name my son James.
Take it back, take it back!
Unless you’re really talking about the name Jaime. I don’t see why you wouldn’t like that name either, but I have no problem with that.
Yep. I worked with a Deirdre who pronounced her name Dee-AH-dray, and she’d let you know if you didn’t say it that way. She was 100% attitude (bad attitude). Even her mother didn’t like her. Hmmmmm.
It wasn’t me that said either Jaime or Jamie were bad as boy’s names, it was Yos’s post (which said “Jaime”). I disagreed, since it means James. But if he meant Jamie and that Jamie was bad for a boy, that’s still a head-scratcher because it’s still a diminutive version of James.
Huh, looking it up, it looks like it was adopted as a feminine version of James at some point. Is there any other feminie version of James taht predates the adoption of Jamie, does anyone know?
Ok, then let me qualify that by saying that I don’t personally like those names for boys. They just sound girly to me because of where I was raised. The only male Leslie I know is Leslie Nielsen, and before I saw those Naked Gun movies all instances of the name Leslie were of girls
James is alright, but Jaime is not. Neither is the Spanish version “Hi-mee”
See that’s the problem. You can’t tell how it’s spelled when you hear it or say it. Just let the girls have France(i)s and keep Frank and Francois for the boys
My mother and my cousin’s wife have the unremarkable names Virginia and Gina respectively. They both grew up taunted by whatever version of “vagina” a juvenile mind can come up with.
Only because I was applying to jobs in different areas. I kind of wanted to move to Boston. I probably wouldn’t have been as over-the-top diligent otherwise. So don’t worry, you probably weren’t a slacker.
Edit: when I was a little kid, I had determined that the only important criteria I had for any future child I may one day give birth to, was that it not be one syllable. I figured when you become a rock star or similarly famous, your autograph will look cooler if it’s a multi-syllabic name.
FWIW, I knew a Harvard graduate student named “Precious.” As well as one named “Delight.”
I don’t think you need to think too hard about appropriate names for kids. My last name can be made fun of, and it was for many years - pretty much until HS, and even in college a bit. But then I’ve had people say to me more than once that my name sounds “important.”
A couple of famous people have my last name and none are too embarrassing, so that’s been good as well. Mind you, I have an aunt that changed the spelling of her last name because the taunts bothered her. I never considered it, and am quite proud of my name. I’ve published books, been on game shows, and done all kinds of cool shit with my “funny” name. It means something and I’m proud to pass it on to my kids.
I agree that kids will taunt each other regardless. My middle name (Jason) was mocked once and I was called “Payson, Mason Jar.” Stupid, huh? Most mocked names are.
I’m not so bothered by AAVE-type names if they’re phonetically correct. LaQuinta is fine. Qyntyal, not so much. I personally wouldn’t choose it for my kid, but feel free to do so if that floats your boat.
While I have seen the studies about resumes and “ethnically obvious” names, I also think there’s a mitigating factor if your kids have an education and credentials. I also think it’s worthy to balance an “out there” name with a more traditional middle name. I was called by my middle name and switched to my first when I was in middle school and we moved. Little easier, and only my close friends and family know, or even refer to me by my middle name.
So Qyntyal David Johnson can go by Q. David Johnson if he wants.
I do think that some conventions are fucking stupid. I taught a kid named Sirderrick. I’ve also known of kids named Mister. Very 70s and 80s Black activists who wanted their kid to have respected names. Shit, how about Malcolm? James? Martin? Julian?
There used to be two little girls down the street from us named Bertha and George. My li’l stripper, Amber, was friends with them. No, I don’t know what their mom was smoking.
I have an acquaintance who named her first baby Ezra. Ezra is a girl. Second baby was named Rose. Then a few weeks later when I saw her again, they’d changed it to Buxton. She is otherwise nice, if a little odd, but man do her kids’ names make my slapping hand itch.
My daughter* has a friend named Mathilde. She’s French, so it’s pronounced kind of like “Mah-teeld,” which I guess is nicer than Matilda, but still.
A girl in our neighborhood is named Gunnar. I have a feeling it’s a perfectly legitimate Scandinavian (?) name, but I always picture her in a WW2 plane shooting down Germans.
As for whether to Fight the Power with your kid’s name, I think it’s wrong. If you personally find the discrimination against Jamals and Shaniquas to be reprehensible enough that you want to personally fight it, change your own damn name. Don’t make your kid a culture warrior at the expense of their comfort and social acceptance. My first rule of baby naming is IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU. I happen to think Siobhan is a beautiful name, and it is ethnically appropriate in our family. But I would never do that to my poor kid!
*Chloe, BTW. Chloe, Chloe, Chloe - take that, haters! For what it’s worth, her middle name is Catherine, just in case Chloe was too “out there.” And mispronunciations we’ve seen so far: Clo, Cleo, and Shiloh. I shudder to think what people with more exotic names go through!
