I had a co-worker who had a son named Sam. He and his wife came very close to naming their daughter “Ella” until the day they happened to say the names together: “Sam and Ella”. 
Good thing they figured this out before she was born. 
Ha! As I was reading this thread I turned to my husband and said ‘Remember that character in Catch 22?’
My daughter was in school with a kid named Isis. Unfortunately it was a boy.
I worked as a machinist for 5 years, and it was always spelled “gage”, even on the packaging the gages came in.
I had a Sam and Ella in my preschool class this past year. Took me till nearly Christmas to make the connection. :smack:
Shannon use to be a not that uncommon Guy’s first name.
Kinda like Beverly, Shirley, Evelyn and Kim
There use to be an NFL football player (Minnesota?) who was named Shannon Something. Retired due to a neck injury.
Billy Ray Cyrus named one of his daughters Noah, which really bothers me for some reason.
In knitting you always check your guage. (Brit Knitting it is tension)
Shannon Sharpe. Brother of Sterling Sharpe.
What’s wrong with Noah Cyrus? I have a Jewish friend that has a daughter named Noa; I think it’s not uncommon in her faith.
The best source of bad baby names (and comments):
The only one I can think of is Shannon Sharpe, who played for Denver and Baltimore, and he didn’t retire because of a neck injury. He played until he was 35, which is about as old as receivers and tight ends get.
ETA: Beaten to the punch.
Billy Ray Cyrus is jewish?
I’ve never encountered a Noa/h in the female sense.
It was Sterling Sharpe who had the neck injury. Out of Green Bay. ( Close and yet, so far.)
Noa is a Jewish name that is spelled differently than Noah, both in English and Hebrew. I have never met a girl named N-O-A-H.
Also, Yonah (Jonah) is usually male, while Yona is usually female. I think. They’re identical in Hebrew, though.
Right, Noa (with three letters) is a Hebrew girl’s name. I’ve known several Jewish girls with that name.
A friend of one of my children had a baby recently, and named her Cadence (or so I thought). My first reaction: that’s stupid. But then… it does trip nicely off the tongue. And I like marching bands and drum lines…and it makes me think of marching up to the stadium with the Cal Band on football game day. (dat dat dat. Dat-ta-da-dat-dat-dat.)
(It turns out that it’s spelled “Caydence”, which just ruins the whole thing for me.)
I like the name Gage. If I were going to have a boy I think I would name him that. Can’t think of a middle name to go with it though. It sounds good by itself.
Deepender is an Indian name? Then why did that guy include it in his list? Names from other cultures are exempt from being called “stupid.” Apologies for insulting the name–if I knew the guy was a Sikh, I wouldn’t have given it another thought. (I knew an Anandeep. Anyone know what that one means?)
You know what I dislike most about these “unique” spellings? So many of them just don’t make phonetic sense. A non-current example that I think will illustrate the point: There there 3 girls named Alyssa in my high school. They were all pronounced the same. One was Alyssa–the classic spelling. One was Elissa, which makes sense if you pronounce the E like in Elizabeth. One was Ilissa. Ilissa? That would be pronounced “ILL-issa” or something. It’s just not right.
(Again, foreign names are exempted from this.)
:rolleyes:
I used to work in a job scheduling patients for a clinic. We had a number of different ways to look people up: SSN, Name, date of birth, patient number, etc. One day a girl called and I could not find her anywhere. Her name was “Elizabeth.” After much frustration I ask her how to spell it.
Her: ::heavy sigh:: A-l-y-z-
Me: :rolleyes:. Here is your patient number. Please refer to this when you call.
Anand means “happiness” or “joy”. Amandeep is a girls’ name, and means peaceful light or something like that.
The following is a list of male first names that I can personally vouch for as being authentic. The spelling is as found on government documents.
I’ve excluded the more typical first names from the african-american community, foreign first names which are combined with foreign last names, and most others which didn’t tickle my fancy.
OKEYTHANN
HUK
FENTRIESS
LAQUEITON
LERVON
MENDELL
ROBRESE
ACE
TRIRU
ANTWARN
LAROYMEL
SCHEROCKO
MONTREAVOUS
ANTAVIUS
SHYWAN
HORACTIO
CARNELLIUS
DIONICIO
JUBA
TILAN
SYMWONE
JOREL
KENYACIES
TERION
OLU
VERSIE
AUNTRAY
TREVOCEAN
TARRICK
DEZMEN
DENERAL
TREON
DERMITRE
ORLIN
LEVAVIUM
ALGENONE
ODIA
TRAMMELL
ORAN
Oh, and who can forget one of my faves, OG?
I’ll bet the heavy sigh was directed toward her parents. 
My first married name was unusual, and I just automatically spelled it or pronounced it when appropriate. I figure why waste time waiting to be asked, when I know they’re not gonna get it right?