Same here. Oh, the terrible, terrible things my friends and relatives have named their children! I was in the grocery store today and a woman was making a call, and said, “Hi, this is Treasure…” (I’m not sure how she spelled it.)
She said it with a straight face, I’ll give her that. I’m glad she wasn’t looking at me when she did.
My dad worked with a lady named Montreville (first name). She was named after her mom’s obgyn.
Crap. ETA: @Chingon a few posts up
Sadly it does for some of us, and it does not for the other assholes amongst us. Who overwhelmingly work for corporate America.
I’m as cool w Sue as I am w LaShaunda. Lotta jerks are not.
Let’s just say I’m dubious of claims that one won’t let it creep into their decision making processes. The prejudice is there.
Afro/american-centric names are much more common in the South where I happen to live.
It’s all ok with me. It’s their right to name their kid anything they want. I have zero problems with that.
My issue is the nickname naming. The initial naming. The cutesy names of toys or popular culture being stuck on a kid. The odd spelling. Numbers. Totally made up words for names.
I know a lady. Wanted to name her baby son after All 4 of the grandparents. She took the first letter of their names. She had 2 Es, 1 P, 1 L.
The kid was named Pele
Not pay lay. He was called pelly. Horrible.
I can’t say that I agree with you there. Vice Versa is a terrible nickname for Alexander.
I did not like long names, such as 4 syllables. They immediately turn into nick names.
You are certainly able and maybe even entitled to entertain whatever preconceived notions you have. Well-founded or otherwise. And I accept over your posting history that you’ve accumulated a lot of unhappy evidence.
Suffice it to say I break your averages. Believe me or no as you will.
I find your reflexive hostility a bit off-putting but am willing to overlook that within reason. If you find that patronizing I’m not sure how we move forward. Your move, Sir.
I was stuck watching the first seasons of Big Brother with someone. There was some single mother on there that named her son Justus because it was “just us” (meaning her and the child being a family alone). I thought that was a sad and depressing name to give a child.
Que sera, sera
It’s a cute name, and I love the origin story. But, yeah, it’s a bit of a pain-in-the-ass in that it’s not obvious from the spelling how it should be pronounced. But “pelly” I do find quite nice as a pronunciation – it’ll just take a lot of correcting through life.
There was a guy named Ron who named his son Byron, like he was made by Ron.
Not every person is prejudiced about everything about persons.
Sure there are those that are.
I can separate my judgement, good or bad and decide anything I want about a person.
As a person who’s been judged. Overtly, meanly and without compunction, I full well know what it feels like.
As an adult I have this right. And they do too. Just don’t tell me about it. You don’t like me? Fine. Move along. I’m very ok with that. I’ll do the same.
Or in the case of some diminutives, they prefer the diminutive. I mean, I know a couple of Jacks who were named that because their parents liked that name. Like naming your kid Peg instead of Margaret, for example.
But I feel like that’s a little different than when the diminutive is literally a contraction of the actual given name, like Pete/Peter, Alex/Alexander, Ben/Benjamin, Matt/Matthew, and so forth. There’s no real reason I can think of why parents wouldn’t give their kids the long-form for those names, as they can always call them by the diminutive, but still give their kids the full option, or the option to choose a different diminutive.
For example, one of my sons is named Benjamin. I always assumed he’d end up as a Ben, but it turns out his preferred name is Benji. So I’m glad I didn’t just name him Ben, and that he got to choose. I feel like Alex vs. Alexander is the same way; he could choose to be Xander or Alex. Same with Andrew- could be Andy or Drew. Choosing the diminutive seems to rob the kid of choice- either as a kid or later in life- maybe they grow up and choose to be Alexander when they grew up as an Alex.
On House Hunters a few weeks ago, a woman had a son named Havoc. I had to rewind to make sure I heard her correctly. Havoc. Poor boy.
I didn’t get to choose my name. My parents did.
I hear there was a big bruhaha over my first name. So I got a diminutive of my middle name, as a call name.
I had absolutely no choice. I’m called who I am called.
I say that if someone wants to name their kid Chungus B.* von Motorcycle, that’s between them and the kid once they reach the age of reason.
(B., of course, standing for “Buy or Rent the Acclaimed 1999 Blockbuster The Mummy Starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz on the Streaming Service of Your Choice Today!”, of course)
My great-uncle was James, known as Jim, and called Jimmy when he was little. My grandmother thought that naming a child James, when they would be called Jim made no sense as the name James would only be used for legal work.
So my dad’s legal name is Jimmy, and he answers to both Jim and Jimmy. And he has a story to tell every time he has to explain that his legal name is Jimmy, not James.
He likes telling stories, and he likes an excuse to tell a story. So he’s good. And he’s not any Tom (Thomas), Dick (Richard) and Harry (Harold).
Of course, he and my mom made sure that I have a story to tell with my name as well. 
Because that’s not the name the parents liked. You name your kid the name you want them to be named. You don’t name them something longer just in case they don’t like the name you picked.
My name has no shorter or longer version. Should my parents have named me something else so that I’d have had a choice?
I’m not sure I follow. Do you have a problem with the names Alexandra and Maxine? Or is it the nicknames Alex and Max? I can’t figure out why any of those are problematic. I’ve known girls with those names my entire life. They’re classic names.
Ever heard of Rex Harrison? Another classic name.