Tyrion was my first thought as I was reading the column.
Psh. There are people naming their baby girls Khaleesi, and that’s not even a name, it’s a title.
I was an English major in college, and the professors referred to plays as literature.
In “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, isn’t “Brick” supposed to be a nickname or short for something else? Back in the 1950s when the play was written, I can’t see anyone naming their son simply “Brick” unless it was a Southern thing.
I bet it’s Ignatius. Poor kid.
I think i would be upset too, if you wanted to name a boy Hermione :eek:
Dear Parents
Give your children normal names.
Your personal feelings really dont really matter, it’s a child not property.
You dont have to grow up with the name, they do.
If it wants a crazy name, it can grow up and Happily change it’s name to one.
It can NOT on the other hand get a time machine and try to erase a childhood of being picked on etc because mum or dad insisted on chain the kid down with a ludicrous name.
If you are not sure if the name you pick is bad or not, go ask people.
Preferably people you do not know you and will have no qualms about hurting your feelings.
Back in the eighties there were supposedly people naming the sons Rambo after the Stallone character. I’m assuming they were unaware Rambo was the character’s last name; his first name was John.
I disagree with all of this but I’m not going to get into this because I don’t want this to be yet another thread about weird names and the awful parents who choose them.
I just want to employ the collective cultural expertise of the Dope to try to solve this little cultural puzzle. Keep it fun, I plead.
I know someone who had an “Uncle Brick” who was really Darrell, or something, but he had brick-red hair. Apparently for people who were anywhere between about 5-35 in the 50s, “Brick” was the go-to nickname for a redhead. For men, anyway. I wasn’t around then, it’s just how “Uncle Brick” was explained to me.
People are naming their kids Brick now, though. I know a guy with two boys named Brick and Oscar.
The name couldn’t be Oscar, could it? It’s literary, after Oscar Wilde, and TV has had Oscar the Grouch for nearly 50 years. Is there another Oscar on TV now? It’s actually a name that people have been using. I know 3 Oscars under the age of 18. One is in high school, one is my son’s age, and one is a preschooler.
I also immediately thought of Samwell. Tyrion was my second thought. And I have Game of Thrones on the brain. I read that there was a large uptick (probably from zero) of girls named Khaleesi. I bet all their mother’s names was Sussudio.
Mackenzie.
How does Mackenzie fit the parameters?
Right now I see Brick and Samwell as the front runners. Quentin might have got, but it seems rather innocuous to me and unlikely to engender hatred.
Just chiming in to say that I personally know someone who named their now-teenage daughter “Hermione.”
It used to be a relatively common name, and now the preschools are full of Stellas, Emmas, Louises, Graces, Sadies and Sophias. Hermione isn’t that out-of-place.
Gotta be “Hannibal.” 
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I feel it’s a poor fit. Oscar Wilde was an actual person and the woman referred to the namesake as a character.
Dumbledore? “Dumb” for short.
Regards,
Shodan
Spelled “Damien,” it was also the name of the little-boy-Antichrist in the Seventies movie The Omen. Also no particular literary tie-in that I can think of.
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