the “backwards” names really get me. Beck already mentioned “Nevaeh;” I remember from some years ago a story about a girl who had died whose name was “Rehtaeh” (“Heather” spelled backwards.)
who thinks of this stuff and believes it’s a good idea?
Sure, I didn’t claim it was. But even if you consider only non-traditional “made-up” names, where are you going to draw the line between ones considered “acceptable” and ones considered “an act of cruelty by the parents”?
There is no way to effectively separate mocking a child’s “weird” name from castigating the child’s parents for having given the child a “weird” name. What are you going to say to the kid, “Oh no dear, I’m not making fun of your name, I’m just denouncing your parents for having cruelly deprived you of your dignity by giving you that dumbass name”? Just cut it all out.
Dweezil Zappa appears to be doing just fine in the entertainment industry, tyvm. And btw, it appears that his name was officially changed to “Dweezil” at his own insistence:
It’s also an obviously Greek name (etymologically), unless I’m missing something. Certainly the eponymous goddess is the first thing that pops into my mind in association with that name.
I remember the old joke about the new hospital section named for Ms. Street. It was the Picabo ICU.
You forgot Raiden. One of my fringe relatives named her twin boys Raiden and Braiden.
So I wouldn’t bully someone over their name (especially a kid) and when someone tells me they are going to name their kid something “weird” I just say “oh, that’s nice” (I may go home and tell my husband with some more judging), but at the same time, there is sort of a line…
We call it Senator or Stripper. Your kid is going to have to go through life with their name, and people are going to make judgements based off that name.
So no, people shouldn’t judge based on name…but parents need to recognize that people WILL judge based on name - and name their children something that will work in the context in which they will live.
Which is to say that I think Jayden is a horrible name, but little Jayden will likely grow up where it is a fairly normal name and won’t stick out. Abcde is likely going to struggle with her name her whole life. The Zappa children are the Zappa children - the live in the context that their father is Frank Zappa and that comes with some privilege in having a weird name that someone born to Jack and Brenda Peterson of Omaha doesn’t have.
Name you kids to not disadvantage them in the life you expect them to lead
And in an example of weird-ass synchronicity, I was discussing this very song yesterday with my coworkers. (The discussion had started because I’d referred to something being “gnarly”, and I did not mean it as a compliment. And then we got into an argument about whether it meant something stunk or was cool.)
yes, that’s all well and good if you’ve got the talent to make it in the entertainment sector, but if you don’t, then you’re probably gonna be “Dweezil the midnight shift 7-11 clerk.”
She did more than ‘die’ - she committed suicide after being mocked/bullied on social media.
One could speculate that her name had already exacted some emotional toll.
Perhaps the trauma of having been raped contributed to her suicide attempt? (It wasn’t solely because people were making fun of her for an unusual name.)
I suspect Frank Zappa’s kids are not likely to end up as 7-11 clerks, regardless of talent level.
The variation I heard was that Picabo (pronounced “peek-a-boo” for those unfamiliar with her) became a nurse working in the intensive care unit, so when somebody called the ICU, she’d answer “Picabo, ICU.” Apparently, there was even an urban legend that she couldn’t answer the phone in the ICU because of the confusion it caused. (Your version is mentioned there, too.)
Raiden is just abysmally stupid. It’s a character name from the “Mortal Kombat” video game series from 20-something years ago.
Still not as dumb though, as those fools who name their daughters “Khaleesi” Naming them Daenerys would be dumb, but Khaleesi is a title, and not even a particularly powerful one at that, as the Khal was the powerful one among the Dothraki.
But yeah, put me in the camp that says that naming your child a reasonably not weird name is one of your parental duties. That’s not to say that it can’t be unique or spelled creatively, although I’m not a big fan. But it does extend to not naming your kid Asswipe (“Oz-weep-ae”- from a SNL skit) Purexo (a name my college roommate swears a high school classmate had) or Abcde. Those names are going to do little other than make your kid the butt of jokes and confuse people.
Or at the very least, confine your “creativity” to the kid’s middle name, where they can ignore it or not at their pleasure.
The category isn’t “weird”. It’s “likely to make your child a target for bullies and assholes”. And any line would necessarily be fuzzy. That said, I doubt anyone would draw that line such that “Abcde” doesn’t fall under “likely to make your child a target for bullies and assholes”.
I really don’t think your use of the word “other” here is fair. I haven’t said word one about traditional names of various religions and cultures. I have been sharply critical of self-indulgent narcissism of burdening your child with “Abcde”, which refers to no culture or religion, and has no meaning.
Your right, of course, that children from one culture growing up in another face pressure, and that giving them a traditional but unusual-to-their-peers name has the potential downside of attracting negative attention. It will almost certainly attract a nickname, and quite possibly worse. Against that, however, the parents can set the fact that their child’s name does have a cultural heritage behind it. It has meaning, and forms a vital link to the child’s roots. Tzipporah had the opportunity to throw nicknames and teasing back in people’s faces by pointing out that yes, it was unusual, but it was traditional and it meant a lot to her, and her family, that they kept in touch with their culture.
What can Abcde do? “Actually, it means…” “My parents thought it was important to give me a name that…” How will she ever finish those sentences? She will have to take this name to school. She will have to apply for jobs with it. She will spend her life explaining it away, even to non-assholes. She will develop stock lines, and learn to recognise all the jokes, and just grit her teeth at every single introduction she ever makes. And for what? Abcde isn’t a name you give your child because of what it will mean to and for the child. Abcde is a name you give your child because you like attention. And your child is not your prop.
Somewhere up in my mom’s side of the family tree, supposedly there were two brothers who always went by “A.B.” and “C.D”. My mom claims to have never know their real names (if any) or if those were initials or what.
At any rate, damn lazy parenting on someone’s behalf.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she quickly went to, “Hi! My name is Catherine.”
No, it’s true. And her siblings are Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva.
River Phoenix’s family were from a weird cult. They named their kids River, Leaf (he changed it to Joaquin), Rain, Liberty, and Summer. The family’s original name was Bottom.
It might be because you live in what I presume is your ancestral home country. I can answer both flippantly and practically with it has too many obsolete geographic and familial references for a typical Westerner. My great-grandparents and half my grandparents were born in a different country and/or dead before I was born, and the countries and territories their great-grandparents lived in stopped existing. Even though my name is a typical Anglo-Saxon one, it would be no more relevant to me to be given an ancestral middle name than to be given a name that references families and clans my great-grandparents belonged to.