Where did these names come from?

Factual Questions
81

My wife did not wish to take my last name upon marriage. This puts us in the situation of having to choose both the first and last names of our soon to be born son.

For the last name we have decided on an amalgam of both our last names.

For the first name we have chosen something uniquely American and fairly uncommon.

Soon I will be proud to introduce Sasquatch McSchneidermahon (last three sylables rhyme with “spiderman”) to the world.

You gotta admit that it has a ring to it.

Am I supposed to believe that all this rain was suspended in mid-air until moments ago?

82

I have a second cousin who named his only daughter ‘Jordan Michael Vacanti’. If she had been a boy, she’d have been Michael Jordon Vacanti. Not to take anything away from the man as an athlete, but I think that’s really inappropriate. I don’t think Jordon is a good first name for a girl, (or a very good one for a boy for that matter), and Michael is NOT a good name for a girl, even as a middle name. Yes, I know about Michael Lerned, she is an excellent actress, but she has to be reminded every day of her life that her parents WANTED a boy instead of what they ended up with. Why do that to your children. Also, when I hear someone who has given their child a wierd name and then given the wierd spelling a wierder pronunciation, I think about the Monty Python bit: My name is spelled ‘Throatwarbler Mangrove’ but it’s pronounced ‘Raymond Luxury Yacht’. Then I start giggling and people think I’m making fun of them. And maybe I am, but they’re asking for it. <insert standard disclaimers here>

What do you want for Christmas, Crow? I want to decide who lives and who dies!

83

Gr8Kat: Wasn’t one of those kids named Q-Bert?

84

I think it is nice to instill some kind of other significance to a name rather than just following trends.

I wasn’t always a fan of my name when I was smaller, everyone spells it wrong, but my father named me after my mother who had a lot of trouble in her pregnancy and I was born 2 months early. I guess he just wanted it to be significant.
My mum’s name is Delie Anne
so I got Leeanne. (that’s right, spell it like it sounds) I feel like I will always have a part of my mother because of it.

People have to live with their names, people should put a little more thought into it than following trends.

85

Seeing that I am not having children, I won’t have to worry about this dilemma for myself. However, I have always been fascinated by names in general. That probably comes from the writer in me. I’ve often perused baby name books & guides to play with character names. It can be a lot of fun!

On a personal note, my name means “one who will rise again.” Oddly enough, I was born the same day Mt. St. Helens erupted…a volcanoe that was thought to be dormant, which, you guessed it: “rose again.” My entire life story is that of someone who continually “dies” and then is resurrected - in an emotional/psychological sense.

Oh wow!! I completely took that one across the map!

“I can never give a ‘yes’ of a ‘no.’ I don’t believe everything in life can be settled by a monosyllable” *Betty Smith

86

My former boss’s last name is Leon. He named his second kid Jackson. I tried to warn him that people were going to think the kid’s name was “Leon Jackson,” but did he listen? Nooooo. And now it’s happening. Not only that, but every time he takes the kid to the doctor, the nurse who comes out asking for “Leon Jackson” always looks at all the afro kids first (needless to say, my boss and his boy are quite euro).

Here’s my baby naming rule: Go to the McMegaBooks-O-Rama and pick up two newspapers, one from the smallest heartland city you can find, the other from San Francisco or Los Angeles. Eliminate any name you find in the birth records section of either one.

And always remember, what you think is clever and original, someone else will find strange and incomprehensible, and it will get screwed up frequently and egregiously.

Finally, I can’t believe that no one’s brought up the Utah Baby Namer.

87

Except that Simeon is one of the brothers of Joseph (son of Jacob (aka Israel), son of Isaac, son of Abraham) of technicolor dreamcoat fame and thus, one of the founding ‘fathers’ of the 12 tribes of Israel. (Gen 29:33; 35:23).

Also, in the NT, Simeon is the elderly prophet in the temple who was told by the Spirit that he would not die until he saw the Messiah and then he meets the baby Jesus and utters his own prophesy, known as the Song of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35).

Peace.

The Spirit told me I would not die until I see Van Halen and David Lee Roth reunited on the Late Show with David Letterman.

88

Check out:

The society for preventing parents from naming their children Jennifer:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/7731/

SS data of most popular names for most of the century:
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/NOTES/note139/1997/note139.html

The giant list of baby name links:
http://www.TheBabiesPlanet.com/bbnames.htm

But here is the site you should all see. It discusses the wierd spelling issue, the overuse of Jennifer and Caitlin issue, the really bad name issue (see the link “It came from the Baby Name Book: Names in the Baby Name Book You Probably Won’t be using.” Ack and Thong are my favorite), the names of urban legends (Oran and Lemon Gello); and other good links.
http://haggisbutt.tripod.com/

Peace.

What’s in a name? Possibly a good laugh, Thong.

89

Attention parents:
Meaning is important!
At some point, your child will probably be required to go to a library and figure out what his/her name “means”. He/she will then be required to stand in front of their snickering cohorts and explain what they found out.

My first name is Sarai , it means evil, or wicked.
My middle name is Elizabeth, which is generally taken to mean perfection.
My last name means one who dwells in a swamp or bog.

It took me several years to live down that little high school project.

“If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research.” - Albert Einstein

90

Hmm. Luckily, my family has a tradition where the first boy is usually named after a favorite uncle (my choice is Raymond), which is also the first name of my favorite hockey player. So, I guess that’s kind of a ‘bye’.

I agree with the ‘no porn star names’ for girls. Madison, Houston, Alexis, Savannah, et. al.

Two names I wouldn’t want to name my kids:

  1. Dorkus–from the bible. Had an aunt Dorkus, always felt funny calling her that.

  2. Drory. My good pal Drory B, whose first name means ‘freedom’ in Hebrew. Neat name, but everywhere we go it’s ‘Huh? Can you spell that?’

I plan to keep it simple and traditional-I wouldn’t want to be 45 years old, and be named ‘Scout’, so why would I name my boy that?

-sb

91

No porn star would also knock out “Desiree.”

I actually like the name “Swift” for a boy. Down here, “swift” means smart, sharp, quick-witted, but in that context it’s pronounced “swooft.” (the oo of book, not noose) “He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer” would be expressed “He ain’t swooft.”

Actually, I don’t know who beyond my hillbilly relatives (and me) actually uses that term.

92

My eccentric neighbors gave these names to their unlucky children:

Gerber (from the baby products)
Boone (from the 's Farm?)
Gynifur
Shameka
Marriott
Rut-row
Poohtang

93

Pointless babblings I must share with you all-

Harriet Jacobs used the psedoneum ‘Linda Brent’ in her autobiographical Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1859), and in one passage mentions that Linda was a common name.

A Russian prince named Alexis visited France in the 1700s. His visit was a success, and started a craze for things Russian. Noble French mamas started naming their girls Alexis in droves. Goes to show that there is nothing new under the sun.

The official listing of Cletus’s young 'uns: Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermott, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley (yo, Matt), Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Kendall, Katlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kira, Ian, Lauren, good old Q-bert, and Phil.

His smellhound: Geech

The sisters of my grandmother, Annie, are named Bertha, Erma, and Anrica.

Whoo- I feel better now that I let all that out.

94

SoxFan, it also means “star” in Sanskrit, just to make it nicer. :slight_smile:

I just wanted to drop in a big ol’ counterexample to the trend of being more conservative in naming boys than in naming girls: my cousin’s three sons are called

  1. Dylan,
  2. Dakota, and
  3. Duke.

SweartaGod. And then there’s my other cousin’s son, Tyler Prescott…

Kimstu

95

matt_mcl this is the first time I’ve heard Ruth meaning mercy. (Ruth happens to be my first name and I have looked into it a lot and the general concencus is that Ruth means ‘beautiful friend’ or ‘Friend of Beauty’ something along those lines because of the reference to the book of Ruth of course)

Kat and Mjollnir I think he is making reference to the fact that Ruth when told she could leave and go back to her home once her husband (Naomi’s son) had died she refused and stayed with her saying “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death seperates you and me.” (which when read you can note the similarities with wedding vows “Until death do us part”)

My cousins and us are mostly named nice names that aren’t too trendy though there are a few. There is Ruth Claire (me), James Adam (my brother), Jonathon, David, Brittany, Lucas, Cody, Aaron, Alex, Kenzie, Marinna Jean and the newest addition Rhys (pronounced Reeve) Hugh. I was surprised to learn though that Kenzie is a boys name. But my cousin is female. It is a nice female name I think. I was named after my Grandma’s but I was almost named Mary Rose (which considering my last name I don’t think it works.) I have also met at least one other Mary Rose I’ve only met 2 other Claire’s (that aren’t related) and one other Ruth (which isn’t related). I’ve met a fair amount of James’ I know about 4 of them and one Adam. I’ve never really liked my name though so lately I’ve just been going by RC its a nice name and works good.

I also like flipping through name books and searching for names online. (usually by meaning). Since I role play I like to pick names I think will be appropriate for my c’s. Like Radinka (means ‘Full of Life’) or Pheonix Starwalker (who is a werewolf) or Kay Faline Meira (which means pure, catlike and light respectively.) I don’t know if I will have kids but whatever I name them it will be something interesting and not to weird at least.

just realized she has probably hijacked the thread and closes here

Oh and these are good Baby Name sites as well

www.babynamer.com

96

I have a sick fascination with names, and have for years come up with names I’d give my hypothetical offspring. Some of these I have abandoned. So, starting with the truly scrapped and working to the still thinkable (for the moment), here goes:

BOYS:
Chance–got way too common.
Aloysius–thought it was really cool 'til I found out it was pronounced “Aloe-iscious.”
Inocent–misspelling of “Innocent”; thus a doubly bad idea?
Daphnis–oh, yeah, let the kid be called “Daft” & “Daffy” all his life.
Seraphin or Serafin–eh, maybe, but that angelic thing (comes from “seraph”) may be a bit much.

Pelagian–Yes, like the Pelagian heresy; you got a problem with that?
Tempest–maybe too silly and too sinister.
Swift–As in Jonathan Swift, Tom Swift, or a bird that lives its life on the wing. May use as a middle name.
Gawain–“guh-WAIN”? “GAW-en”? I think “GAH-wain” is appropriate, but that’s not a normal English-speaker rhythm (unaccented long syllable).
Gilbert Sterling–He’d have three last names (Gilbert Sterling Wilson); why do I want these two names together?

GIRLS:
Gynx–pronounced “Jinx”; don’t even ask.
Euphemia–I liked the nickname “Effie”; but “Euphemia”? ew.

Boadicea–Yeah, I know it’s pronounced “bo-Add-ih-SEE-ya”, but I want to pronounce it as if Italian: “bo-Ah-di-CHAY-a.”
Euphrosyne–“you-FROZ-inee” in English pronunciation; means “joy” in Greek; can be called “Effie”, “Roz”, or “Fozzie”; I like this.
Aglaia–if I have a Thalia (a name I really like) and a Euphrosyne, then Aglaia naturally follows; is that too precious?

And if any of you like these names–even the ones I got sick of–and give them to your kids, go ahead, more power to ya. Not everyone likes the same names, so not every kid gets named the same thing; that’s the beauty of it.
Or would be, if people wouldn’t keep sticking to whatever naming practice it is they stick too.

97

Looking at the OP, I noticed my daughter’s name there: Ashley. I can assure you she was born much later than 1988, and can hardly remember the plot to GWTW, let alone the names of the characters.

I have noticed that a couple of celebrity names are puzzling. For example, Brooke Shields sounds like a contraceptive device, and Morgan Fairchild sounds like the name of a large multinational corporation in fnance or IT.

Anyone else got similar thoughts?

98

Hey Uke…that was me! :slight_smile:
Rose

99

OK. The name Ruth doesn’t mean mercy, but the word ruth does (as in ruthless).

“And Ruth said [to Naomi], Intreat me not to leave thee, [or] to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people [shall be] my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, [if ought] but death part thee and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17)

Quoted in many straight marriage ceremonies without realizing that it’s a woman saying it to another woman!

Aimée is not an aberrant spelling; it is in fact the original French version of that name. It’s the feminine form of the adjective meaning “loved”. The name Esme (there’s another good one!) is another form of this name.

100

I notice you’ve already gone through the Graces, so for your reference here are the Muses: Erato, Euterpe, Thalia (yes, again; she temped as a Grace), Melpomene, Terpsichore (good one!), Clio, Urania, Polyhymnia, and Calliope. (Respectively, the muses of love poetry, music, comedy, tragedy, dance, history, astronomy, hymns, and epics.) Their mother was Mnemosyne, the muse of memory.

Then there’s the Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who are not asked out as often.