# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/161 "2014-09-03T14:25:09Z")
My favourite pretentious names are those I read in a newspaper profile of a graphic designer, who had named his three daughters Perpetua, Helvetica and Clarendon. This was a few years ago, so they may well have welcomed little Comicsans into the world by now. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/162 "2014-09-03T16:22:06Z")
Came across this relevant article today: [Who Wins in the Name Game?](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/who-wins-in-the-name-game/374912/) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/163 "2014-09-04T06:45:13Z")
> [@Tremblay](#): > > A girl named Ripley played on our local youth hockey team. I’m not sure how her parents came up with that name. They couldn’t believe it when she was born. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/164 "2014-09-04T07:00:38Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Not to rehash this, but what do you mean by excessive inflection? I just say the words normally and the vowel sounds are different. Do merry and Mary sound really different to you? Because while I can hear the difference in someone who pronounces them differently, they seem pretty similar. Now marry is completely different. Harry Potter sounds completely different from the guy who left some hair in my clay pots. (a hairy potter). ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/165 "2014-09-04T10:01:42Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Do merry and Mary sound really different to you? Because while I can hear the difference in someone who pronounces them differently, they seem pretty similar. They sound totally different to me. Not just when someone’s enunciating clearly, but in any casual conversation. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/166 "2014-09-04T14:09:24Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > They sound totally different to me. Not just when someone’s enunciating clearly, but in any casual conversation. There is a comic song called Mary Mack based on the subtle difference in pronunciation of marry, Mary and merry. Sung fast, as it usually is, it is a bit of a tongue-twister. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfI9rJ0toWA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfI9rJ0toWA)😉 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/167 "2014-09-04T14:19:12Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Do merry and Mary sound really different to you? Because while I can hear the difference in someone who pronounces them differently, they seem pretty similar. > > Now marry is completely different. Harry Potter sounds completely different from the guy who left some hair in my clay pots. (a hairy potter). Just so you will have seen the proper pronunciation of **Mary** , note that it’s [Mayreh!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUDh_ajCHzQ) ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/168 "2014-09-04T14:36:43Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Hispanics come in all colors, including Han, black, blue-eyed blonde… Hispanic does not equal mestizo. Hispanic and white are not different “nations”. Very true. I met a pasty-white woman one day and was a bit puzzled at how hard she was struggling with English. I couldn’t quite place her accent, and suspected that she might be a French speaker (we get _a lot_ of French Canadian tourists here - busloads and busloads every summer). It turns out that she was from El Salvador! ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/169 "2014-09-04T15:19:48Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > They sound totally different to me. Not just when someone’s enunciating clearly, but in any casual conversation. Depends on who is speaking. I my dialect, they sound exactly the same, because I’m not taking any effort to make any distinction. Hairy and Harry are exactly the same word. Now I can hear someone pronounce merry, Mary, and marry differently if in their dialect they are pronounced differently, and I mentally map them okay. Vowels are evil things. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/170 "2014-09-04T15:48:56Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > Personally I like the first names of the Hogg twins… > Ima and Ura Legend and not fact. Ima Hogg is a real person, the daughter of Jim Hogg an Attorney General of Texas. She was born in 1882 and lived to be 93. She had no sisters only brothers and was never married. There was no Ura. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/171 "2014-09-04T16:17:16Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Do merry and Mary sound really different to you? Because while I can hear the difference in someone who pronounces them differently, they seem pretty similar. Yes, they’re similar but they are different enough that I can hear it, and my mouth is shaped differently when I say one versus the other. Merry is like Meh, yell, yep. Mary is pear, tare, care. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/172 "2014-09-04T16:19:43Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > They sound totally different to me. Not just when someone’s enunciating clearly, but in any casual conversation. I have a friend from Ohio who says them all the same. For years she would refer to what I thought was her friend Kerry and finally it comes out it’s her friend Carrie. Totally different! A Carrie has a different personality from a Kerry. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/173 "2014-09-04T23:54:11Z")
I wanted to name my kid after one of the twelve apostles (Mathew Mark Luke John Peter Simon Judas BArt), because those names are normal in any european country, or in an country that was a european colony. But when I google my Dad’s full nsme, using “quotes”, I get 990,000 hits. My name is probably on a “no-fly” list just by default. My brother got stopped at an airport because he was on an FBI wanted list. It took them an hour and a half to decide that if he was a local criminal, he probably wouldn’t be flying in from Aus. And that he isn’t black. I comprimised with a less common name for my kid. But I totally understand the desire to have an unusual name, or an unusual spelling. And if I thought I was normally being treated as a member of a group or a block, I imagine I’d be even more attracted to the idea of having a unique name. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/174 "2014-09-05T01:24:56Z")
I don’t know if [this](http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=&sw=both&exact=false) has been posted here, but I find it endlessly fascinating. When I enter my given name, it makes a huge spike/bulge right at 1955, my birth year. My chosen name, however, maintains a steady low popularity through the years. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/175 "2014-09-05T03:01:29Z")
> [@Arrendajo](#): > > I don’t know if [this](http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=&sw=both&exact=false) has been posted here, but I find it endlessly fascinating. When I enter my given name, it makes a huge spike/bulge right at 1955, my birth year. My chosen name, however, maintains a steady low popularity through the years. Heh – Tiffany doesn’t show up till the 50s and peaks in the 70s. That was my dream name when I was little. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/176 "2014-09-05T03:07:07Z")
Harry/Hairy Grew up in Chicago. Never made a distinction between the two pronunciation-wise; can hear it but feel like a fool trying to produce it. Went east to college. Discovered that lots of people in the east make a distinction. My sister is three years younger. Also went east to college. Brought with her a large stuffed frog. Its name was “Harry.” I said, “I guarantee you that within three weeks someone will come into your room and say, ‘What’s the frog’s name?’ You will say, ‘Harry.’ The other person will say, ‘But frogs don’t have any hair.’” “Har har,” she said. “Trust me,” I said. Two weeks after she moves in, I get a call. “Guess what,” she says. “You were right; it’s happened twice already!” ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/177 "2014-09-05T10:42:01Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > 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). An april fools joke on the news once when I was a kid was that names with æ, ø and å were now off limits for naming your kid. This is the first time I’ve encountered someone holding that opinion for real. The problems my name being unspellable in English have caused me are barely worth mentioning, the benefits are too many to mention. Signed Bjørnar aka Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Alphabet (knight of alt.fan.monty-python) PS I’m gonna name my first son Odd Even, perfectly good Norwegian names, and likely a good way to encourage an illustrious career in mathematics. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/178 "2014-09-05T10:51:16Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > I love the name River. I would totally go for that. Mal, not so much. It’s French for “bad” or “evil”. Also, it makes me think of Mal from _Inception_. In-show, River pointed out this interpretation of the name Mal. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/179 "2014-09-05T13:32:03Z")
Yeah, I’ve never been a fan of the name/nickname “Mal” because I come from a French-speaking area and I know what it means in French. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/180 "2014-09-05T13:47:26Z")
The other day I met a woman named Mylove. Did her parents like Paul McCartney? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566.md?page=10)