# Stupid Baby Names **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 7, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273 "2009-07-07T23:45:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/181 "2009-07-13T23:35:44Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > I haven’t checked to see if this is an urban legend, but there’s the email floating around about a mom who [named her baby Le-a](http://community.babycenter.com/post/a4719585/just_for_grins..._worst_baby_name_ever)(It’s pronounced Ledasha, the ‘dash’ isn’t silent). Snopes says as far as they know, it’s a load of baloney. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/182 "2009-07-13T23:44:56Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > That dictionary also was my first introduction to my favorite long word. I had always heard that “antidisestablishmentarianism” was the longest word, but it had one so long that it had to be set in smaller type to get it on one line: “pneumonoultramicroscopicvolcanoconiosis.” Oh, sure, it looks like they just ran a bunch of words together to make one gigantic word, but that’s what they did to antidisestablishmentarianism, pretty much. It’s a lung disease, similar to black lung but much harder to spell. You mean pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis . ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/183 "2009-07-14T00:07:57Z")
My personal favorites: for a boy, the name “Er”. (Hebrew, means ‘guardian’.) Er. 😕 for a girl, the name “Cunegond” (used in the Dark Ages, but that all I know). Cunegond. ☹ Worst. Real. Names. EVER! Hopefully not given to any baby on the planet. Bear Grylls named his newest “Huckleberry”. I like it! “Huck” Grylls… ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/184 "2009-07-14T00:09:42Z")
Er is a biblical name, if I recall correctly. One of Judah’s sons who died for not consummating his marriage with Tamar. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/185 "2009-07-14T00:57:07Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > My son’s soccer coach named his two daughters My husaband went to high school with the Morning sisters … Misty, Sunny, and Stormy. I went to junior high with a girl name Whiskey. My brother’s friend had two sisters … Amber Dawn and Autumn Fawn (they were twins). My best friend’s nephews are Xeo - maybe it’s spelled Xao - (pronounced like ZAY-oh) and Dante. I swore up and down to my friend that if she named her son Chaise (just an alternate spelling for “Chase,” you know) that I was going to call him “chaise lounge” for the rest of his life. They picked a different name. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/186 "2009-07-14T01:22:44Z")
> [@Avarie537](#): > > My husaband went to high school with the Morning sisters … Misty, Sunny, and Stormy. That’s actually kinda cool. I mean, probably not the names you’d want to have in real life, but as characters in a novel or a stage name they’d be great. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/187 "2009-07-14T04:35:34Z")
This bloke’s name was pronounced “Seen” [http://stats.rleague.com/rl/scorers/players/Sean\_Watson.html](http://stats.rleague.com/rl/scorers/players/Sean_Watson.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/188 "2009-07-14T04:40:31Z")
Another teacher checking in. My all-time favorite for the WTF? quality was a boy named Lyndon B. Johnson II. He’s still not even in high school, so it’s not like this was decades ago (that, and I’m not that…erm…seasoned). Seriously, parents, WTH? Then there was Bladimir. I’m pretty sure his Spanish-speaking parents misheard the name and didn’t know how to spell it; B and V are commonly confused. I had a girl named Joseph. (She went by Josie, though.) Last year, I had a boy named Anibal. I had fraternal twins (a boy and girl) both named Angel. I will say those Angels were an exception to a rule I have learned on the job: Any child named Angel is almost guaranteed to be a hellion. I’ve had 6; the other 4 were the worst behaved kids of their respective classes. Being preggo with child #2, and married to a teacher, means finding names is a collossal PITA for us. I like Ethan, he cringes…“Ooh, Ethan so-and-so.” Of course…_he_ likes the name Cosmo. COSMO. I still can’t tell if he’s kidding, but it didn’t stick with our first child, and it won’t be happening with this one either. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/189 "2009-07-14T05:25:13Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > You mean pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis . Sorry, I didn’t take that dictionary with me when I left the job. (I think I did good to remember as much as I did.) I _thought_ it looked kinda short. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/190 "2009-07-14T15:40:10Z")
One I encountered personally: a woman who named her two daughters Eboknea (eb-oh-NEE-uh) and Ivoreah (eye-voh-REE-uh). Really. Ebony and Ivory. And my wife oversees a probationer whose daughter is named, I swear to FSM, “L-a”. You’re supposed to pronounce the dash. “luh-DASH-uh”. How the hell do you fill that in on a Scantron? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/191 "2009-07-14T15:47:57Z")
> [@Ruffian](#): > > Last year, I had a boy named Anibal. What’s weird about that? It’s the Spanish transliteration of Hannibal, and it’s not that uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/192 "2009-07-14T15:51:45Z")
Because in English, Annabelle/Anabell/however-you-spell-it is a girl’s name. A girly girl’s name. Most non-Hispanic Americans, when they hear those syllables, aren’t likely to think “It may be a Spanish form of Hannibal”. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/193 "2009-07-14T15:55:20Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > And my wife oversees a probationer whose daughter is named, I swear to FSM, “L-a”. You’re supposed to pronounce the dash. “luh-DASH-uh”. How the hell do you fill that in on a Scantron? If you really have proof that you know a L-a, contact [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/194 "2009-07-14T16:04:24Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Annabelle/Anabell/however-you-spell-it is a girl’s name. It looks like “Annabelle” in print, but they’re not pronounced the same way. ---
**Author:** ![SweetLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@SweetLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetLime)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/195 "2009-07-14T16:18:10Z")
I knew a guy named Gay. I always thought it was Gabe and I was mis-hearing it. Then I saw it in print. His sisters were named Happy and Joy. So apparently his parents were just hippies and not actually trying to get him made fun of on the schoolyard… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/196 "2009-07-14T16:28:36Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Because in English, Annabelle/Anabell/however-you-spell-it is a girl’s name. A girly girl’s name. Most non-Hispanic Americans, when they hear those syllables, aren’t likely to think “It may be a Spanish form of Hannibal”. Florida Marlins pitcher Anibal Sanchez doesn’t seem to get any shit over it. It’s pronounced quite distinctly from the superficially similar girl’s name, anyway: _ah-knee-baal._ Plus, it’s gonna be paired with a Hispanic surname. ETA: Many people have also seen [this guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An%C3%ADbal_Acevedo_Vil%C3%A1) in the news recently. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/197 "2009-07-14T17:17:35Z")
Well, the Hollywood kids with the weird names will all be in kindergarten together. They will point and laugh at the kids named Stephen and Emma, whose parents didn’t bother to think up a new name that nobody had ever had in the history of the world (like Moxie Crimefighter). Football players named Anibal and Fran also probably don’t have to worry. I once had a hair stylist whose name was Latrena. If it put people in mind of “latrine” that didn’t seem to bother her (she pronounced it “LaTRAYna”). At the same salon was a woman whose mother had been an Elvis fan and who named her Elvisa. She introduced herself by saying, “Yes, my mother was a big Elvis fan,” but she also had the emphasis on the middle syllable, so her named sounded more like a bank card than a rock star. **SweetLime** , I also knew a guy named Gay. And I had a roommate who married a guy named Coy. Both these guys were from Texas and were kind of cowboy-culture (by profession, Coy was a teacher; I think Gay did some kind of construction, but they both did rodeo stuff in their free time). ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/198 "2009-07-14T17:21:58Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > One I encountered personally: a woman who named her two daughters Eboknea (eb-oh-NEE-uh) and Ivoreah (eye-voh-REE-uh). Really. Ebony and Ivory. > > And my wife oversees a probationer whose daughter is named, I swear to FSM, “L-a”. You’re supposed to pronounce the dash. “luh-DASH-uh”. How the hell do you fill that in on a Scantron? A Children Services worker here told me about A-a (Adasha), Oranjello and Lemonjello, and Shi’thead. I still don’t believe them, until I see documentation. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/199 "2009-07-14T18:08:41Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > There are two sets of twins in a local preschool named… > > Mia and Mya. (Mee-a and My-ah. It is still a bit MUCH, dontcha think?) > > Maverick and Dakota. My real name is Maverick and I always loved it and lots of other people say they do. I have never met another one though. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273/200 "2009-07-14T21:00:08Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > If you really have proof that you know a L-a, contact [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp). My youngest kid is Dashiell. I’m gonna start spelling it -L! (We usually jest calls him Dash.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-baby-names/502273.md?page=11)