# Weird, pretentious, or bizarre names... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 26, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566 "2014-08-26T16:34:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/61 "2014-08-27T23:31:15Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Although, in an ever more Americanized and anglophone world, I wish parents would at least check to see if their kids’ names are usable in English, or at least that they don’t sound completely silly. Maybe we can outlaw the use of all other languages while we’re at it ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/62 "2014-08-27T23:34:58Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Maybe we can outlaw the use of all other languages while we’re at it Hey, I’m speaking as a non-American. English isn’t even my first language. But the world is what it is, and having an internationally usable name just makes the kid’s life easier. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/63 "2014-08-28T00:05:06Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > I also know a German Annette (pronounced Annett) who gets just as annoyed by being called by the English variant, because… well… that’s not her name. > > Someone’s name is what they say it is, whatever you think it _should_ be. I knew a Finnish Ritva (reet-va). She often got “Oh, I can’t say that, can I just call you Rita?”. No. Stretch yourself, people. It’s not that hard. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/64 "2014-08-28T03:07:39Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Obama’s mother’s name is Stanley. My grandmother’s name was Charlie. I used to work with a woman whose kids were named Pi, Zeno and Moby. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/65 "2014-08-28T05:55:35Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Hey, I’m speaking as a non-American. English isn’t even my first language. But the world is what it is, and having an internationally usable name just makes the kid’s life easier. My wife is an elementary school teacher in the Bay Area, California. It’s a very multicultural area, there are especially a lot of Indians, Chinese, and Vietnamese here. She.gets kids with the strangest names in her class; many sound very foreign indeed. (To our English-speaking ears.). But I’m sure within these kids’ families their names are perfectly normal. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/66 "2014-08-28T06:03:50Z")
> [@Turpentine](#): > > Hmmm, if you Google it, a lot of people think that former teenybopper names like Tiffany and Brittany are now stripper names. Heh. I may be unusual, but the first person I think of with the name Tiffany is the figure skater Tiffany Chin. She is now 46 years old, according to Wikipedia, so definitely too old to be a bimbo. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/67 "2014-08-28T07:18:33Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > My wife is an elementary school teacher in the Bay Area, California. It’s a very multicultural area, there are especially a lot of Indians, Chinese, and Vietnamese here. She.gets kids with the strangest names in her class; many sound very foreign indeed. (To our English-speaking ears.). But I’m sure within these kids’ families their names are perfectly normal. Heck, I don’t really mind foreign-sounding either. A lot of my favorite names are foreign-sounding. I’m just saying that in today’s world, it might be an idea to check with someone who speaks English before you name your kid Supaporn, Odd or Semi. Or, for that matter, something both unpronounceable and unspellable in English, like Åslaug or Ørjan (yes, I’m looking at you now, any number of Norwegian parents, who should damned well know better, since you’re almost certainly already communicating in English yourselves on a more or less daily basis). ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/68 "2014-08-28T08:49:33Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Just so this isn’t a total hijack, I attended college with someone named Precious. I believe that’s quite a widely-used female given name in some black communities – maybe British Commonwealth more than USA. In Alexander McCall Smith’s series of mysteries set in Botswana, his detective heroine is called Precious Ramotswe. (These tales have millions of devotees; I personally can’t stand them – to me, they’re sickeningly arch, camp goo-and-mush.) Precious as a given name is ruined for me anyway, thanks to my unshiftable refex association of the word, with a certain hapless Tolkien character… ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/69 "2014-08-28T10:58:48Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I really think it’s cruel to give children cute widdle names they’ll have to contend with as a 30yo rising professional. I knew a woman born when _Family Affair_ was on TV. Grew up to be a corporate attorney. Buffy Cohen. > [@Omar\_Little](#): > > The whole variant spelling of otherwise common names, I find boring and attention seeking. It backfires. If parents think their little darlings will get extra attention in school, or something, teachers just see them as providing extra grief. I saw a kindergarten teacher almost weep when her AM class had a Brittany, a Britony, a Britney, and a Bretagne, as well as a Brianna, while her PM class had a Britni, another Brittany, another Brianna, but pronounced differently than the first one, and a Briyona. There was also a girl named Bretta, and a boy named Brian. She was supposed to remember all those names, and which one went with which child. > [@suranyi](#): > > She.gets kids with the strangest names in her class; many sound very foreign indeed. (To our English-speaking ears.). But I’m sure within these kids’ families their names are perfectly normal. **English-speaking ears?** I want to hear those ears speak. I hate, and I speak from experience, when parents give children names from other cultures, that contain sounds that don’t exist in the majority language. My mother says if she had spelled “Chaya” “Haya,” pretty much they way everyone says it, people would think it was HAY-ya, like what you feed horses. I think that’s better than going around trying to teach goyim to make a glottal fricative just to say my name. Or, they could have given me Vivien as a middle name. Means the same thing. My favorite bad name is Neveah, “Heaven-spelled-backwards.” Umm, maybe you should have filled that out before they gave you the pain pills. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/70 "2014-08-28T11:58:30Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > I also know a German Annette (pronounced Annettə) who gets just as annoyed by being called by the English variant, because… well… that’s not her name. In grade school, my daughter had a friend who was born in France. Her name was Chloe. If I addressed her as “Clo-E” she did not respond, not at all. Her name was “Clo-A”. Kid wasn’t being a smart-ass (she was seven) but when she heard me say “Clo-E” she did not recognize the word. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/71 "2014-08-28T12:13:48Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > \*\*_Umbrage_ \*\*- a warrior’s name! Not to be confused with [Umbridge,](https://www.google.com/search?q=umbrage&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=oxz_U-n-HOOjigKF3oCABA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1152&bih=500#facrc=0%3Bumbridge&imgdii=_&imgrc=_) which is completely different. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/72 "2014-08-28T12:48:54Z")
Obligatory [Key and Peele sketch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODZzSOelss). ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/73 "2014-08-28T13:52:53Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Obligatory [Key and Peele sketch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODZzSOelss). 😃 Whenever I watch player introductions in any sport, that’s exactly what I hear. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/74 "2014-08-28T14:28:27Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > My favorite bad name is Neveah, “Heaven-spelled-backwards.” Umm, maybe you should have filled that out before they gave you the pain pills. And, why would you wish the opposite of heaven on your child?! ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/75 "2014-08-28T15:07:34Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > And, why would you wish the opposite of heaven on your child?! Yeah. The worst one for me is “Rehtaeh.” I’m sorry, really sorry, that the only person I know of who had this name was a young girl who killed herself for horrific reasons…I’m not making light of her at all. But that is really a _bad_ name. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/76 "2014-08-28T15:12:55Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > Yeah. The worst one for me is “Rehtaeh.” I’m sorry, really sorry, that the only person I know of who had this name was a young girl who killed herself for horrific reasons…I’m not making light of her at all. But that is really a _bad_ name. For those not playing the home version, it’s Heather, spelled backwards. And I agree that it’s awful. And RE: my earlier post, that wasn’t a typo. People are naming their kids Neveah, which if you look carefully, is _ **not** _ heaven spelled backwards. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/77 "2014-08-28T15:25:59Z")
There’s the practice of adding “De-” or “Ja-” to the beginning of names, e.g. “JaMichael,” “DeMarcus,” or sometimes even both: “Jadeveon.” ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/78 "2014-08-28T15:54:19Z")
I’ve said this before. If you’re going to make up a name for your child, write it down and look it up before the kid is born. I once met a girl whose name was pronounced Shuh-mare-uh. It was spelled Chimera, however. Other spellings and names I have encountered that just seem wrong are Lovey and Dovey (twin girls), Lavoris and Travoris (twin boys), Maleria (pr. Mallory), and Euretha. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/79 "2014-08-28T16:30:41Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Other spellings and names I have encountered that just seem wrong are Lovey and Dovey (twin girls), Lavoris and Travoris (twin boys), Maleria (pr. Mallory), and Euretha. Rhyming names for twins - sure, it seems like a cute idea at first, but seriously, why would you do that to them?! Or for that matter, why do that to yourself?! 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Tremblay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e56c9b/32.png) [@Tremblay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tremblay)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/80 "2014-08-28T16:38:42Z")
> [@PeskiPiksi](#): > > Some of these are more out there than others, I admit. I’m dying to meet Ripley (is that a girl?) and find out if she’s named after the character in the Aliens movies. (Kinda cool, actually, IMHO.) That might be a mom I could be friends with, even if I did go with normal, non-trendy, old-fashioned names for my own kids. > > Anybody else have some good names to contribute from the back-to-school lists? A girl named Ripley played on our local youth hockey team. I’m not sure how her parents came up with that name. We used to do garnishments at my firm and came across some wacky names. If it wasn’t for client privilege, I’d divulge. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566.md?page=5)