One of the many sins they point out is people naming babies for some name they think sounds cool from another culture. Generally one that they have no connection to, but they think it sounds cool. Welsh, Irish, generic “Gaelic” of unspecified type (what, Manx? Scots? Irish?) “Celtic” (whatever that means to them, probaby not pre-Saxon Britain and pre-Roman Spain, Gaul etc) and native American (again wildly generic but my own knowledge is limited here) seem to be some of the most often stolen, misspelled, romanticised and misunderstood.
And then in a thread following a perfectly sane OP, someone pointed to one of the worst offending sites: http://www.babynameworld.com/
This one is poorly researched, inconsistent with itself, even, is often outright wrong, has weird categories and made up name meanings… It’s just some list some unknown person made up.
Listen, people, if you must pick a name that is not familiar to you from your own culture, do your damn homework. Don’t choose one from some random internet site.
One day you will discover, after a lifetime of spelling the poor damn kid’s name with all those ys and apostrophes and extra consonants, and finally having them turn on you and rename themselves “Anne” or “Bill”, that in fact it only ever meant “horse’s arse” and not “glamorous mystic” after all.
I tried to pick names so they weren’t all that weird. Not common nowadays but not weird… Amara Siobhan (alright I admit to being influenced by the Celtic thing but at least I’m spelling it right and I can pronounce it!!) and Arthur Duncan…
I never understood the whole choosing names while on some mind altering substances… at least that’s what some parents seem to do. Course I put a lot of thought into it, I’ve loved these names for years.
I never had children but I would have had to have at least two boys to get in all the names I would want. My paternal grandparents gave their kids two middle names. So my kids would have been Thomas Walter Dale and John Steven Desmond.
All were names of people I have known or admired. John Steven was for the Tanzanian marathon runner at the 1964 Olympics, Desmond is for Bishop Tutu, Thomas for Thomas More, and Walter Dale for a history professor and a minister at my church.
Obsidian Flutterby, sounds like you did “do your damn homework”, which is all I ask. I know some of the sites posted will mock you for using names from another culture. I disagree on taking that as an absolute. So many of us are mongrels anyway that it’s not so important. If you have a genuine family, emotional, literary or scholarly interest, then fair enough.
You can even spell Siobhan, not fake it with Shivaun I agree, those names are unusual but not flaky.
But your remark about mind altering substances interests me strangely. Could pethidine be the answer?
Primaflora, that’s so sad. Poor boys. Err, girls? Ummm.
Gosh darn it! I knew as soon as I named the Sprout Arthur, there would be a rash of other Arthurs! Well, okay. I only know one other baby Arthur, and he’s a junior. But seriously, it’s really a terrific name, and has all sorts of good connotations. We get tons of compliments. When people ask his name, they are usually quite taken aback at first to hear that the cute little baby has an “old man’s” name, but then they usually pause and say, “Hey, I really like that!” And Duncan’s a nice middle name–as long as your last name isn’t “Donuts.”
The naming trends seem to be moving more toward “classic” and “old-fashioned” names. That’s good by me. If I meet one more Maddisyn, I’m gonna puke.
Arthur is actually my Grandfather’s name and Duncan is my uncle who passed away this past year. I’ve always liked Arthur in general and don’t see it as much of an old man’s name. I figured we would have enough variations of Hugh and John in the family that I didn’t need to go that route (other Grandfather was Hugh John and the youngest cousins are either named outright after him or the Gaelic version of the name)
Some classic names are really nice I find, but I really dislike my first name. When it’s bashed on Friends as being an old woman’s name you know it’s old sounding! (If you can’t guess what it is then I’ll add another clue. It’s a book in the Bible.) Man I’m still peeved at Mom for that one…
I don’t know whether those twins were male or female but the scary thing is that I can envisage people using those names for either sex and feeling OK about it.
How about Kaillou? Sagacious Star? Timely Rain? Noble Song? Harmony Aquarian?
cajela, I see nothing wrong with the name Gwenhwyfar. Granted, I’m a Celtic language weenie, but the name’s fine. It has a fine pedigree, sounds beautiful, and is easily shortened to “Gwen.”
Now Manx names are truly horrible. They sound fine, but Manx spelling is ridiculous, so you get such abominations as Moirrey, Catreeney, Niglus, and Fer Groamey.
I was wondering that myself, but then I named my son Gawain. Stress on the first syllable, please, and yes I’ll be explaining it to everyone for quite some time, but that doesn’t bother me.
Besides, no one is going to be pointing and laughing at my kids with Atlantis and Azure sitting just a few desks over.
I don’t think people have a complaint with Guinevere. It’s when they spell it all weird just to be original that it gets annoying, because people often try to sound out names and that makes it harder to sound out.
I have a first name that people can’t seem to spell correctly,a middle name that I misspelled until I saw my birth certificate, and a last name that no one can pronounce.
And yet, it’s still a more normal name than a lot that the links and other posters have mentioned…
I’m not knocking Gwenhwyfar either. I think it’s a perfectly valid spelling but I’ve seen other spellings as well (can’t think of them off the top of my head) and it makes me wonder sometimes.
Well, I neither watch Friends or read the bible–so what’s your name?
My Arthur was named for my uncle Arthur and my grandfather Arnold. His middle name is Leo, for my husband’s great uncle, who was a Carpetbagger in World War II. I’ve found that even if people think the baby’s name is odd, if you tell them “he’s named for my uncle,” or “it’s a family name,” they find it more acceptable. Not that it’s anybody’s damn business what our kid’s name is, but you catch more flies with honey, etc.
Besides, people are so sick of trendy names, they’re happy to hear that a kid was given a name for an actual reason. It’s common Jewish tradition to name a kid for a deceased relative, and I think it’s an awfully nice custom. At least I know that my own name has some meaning beyond “My mother just really liked the way Khaddylaque sounded, and she likes unusual spellings.”
I agree, those names are unusual but not flaky.