# Why give your child a name like this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 22, 2003, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765 "2003-05-22T07:14:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/81 "2003-12-10T05:37:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by norinew \* > \*\* Here’s the weird thing: people who give their kids really strange names, then criticize other people for doing the same thing. \ > > my MIL said “What kind of name is Millena?” I said “I hardly think anyone who named their son Heru has room to talk”, she said “Well, I had my reasons.” WTF? My friend had her reasons, too! People who live in glass houses and all that. . . \*\* Heh. Friends of mine named their son Kiel, which is one of the grandmas’ maiden names. It’s an unusual name, but it’s not particularly weird, especially since this child has classmates with names like Glary (no, that is not a typo), Briar, and Vail. But… they have a neighbor whose son is named, I kid you not, Ether. When they brought little Kiel home from the hospital, Ether’s mom asked the baby’s name. When momma replied “Kiel” Ether’s mom said, “Whoa! Now isn’t THAT an odd name!” ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/82 "2003-12-10T05:41:57Z")
I went to school with a girl named Jenna Teele. I also went to school with a LaToya Jackson. My brothers name is Will Robinson. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/83 "2003-12-10T05:46:32Z")
My mom has neighbours with a daughter named Aurélie, which is a pretty name in French but has an unfortunate sound in English. A woman in one of my classes was thinking of naming her daughter Alexia. Unfortunately, it means “a pathological inability to read.” Still, not as bad as [amelia.](http://www.ortho-u.net/o2/29.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Astra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@Astra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astra)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/84 "2003-12-10T05:48:27Z")
I went to high school with a girl named Ivy Hickey. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/85 "2003-12-10T05:54:20Z")
Hey, **Sinshine** … take a look at the second post in this thread. There’s another cite for you about the Toughest Contest Ever. 🙂 F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Nvme77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Nvme77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nvme77)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/86 "2003-12-10T06:04:29Z")
One of our customer’s has the name of Major Fagg. Very interesting. My best friend has a co worker who named her son Montgomery and their last name is Ward. While I was visiting an Aunt this summer, I met a lady that takes in foster kids. As she was leaving I asked her (in Spanish) what the baby’s name was. Pronunciation Heno-see- de sounded ok but then I figured out that this poor child had been named Genocide. ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/87 "2003-12-10T06:09:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fnoonf \* > \*\*My full name is Fridrik G. Fridriksson. To other Icelanders this name makes perfect sense, as in our naming conventions a person’s last name is a product of their father’s (or mother’s if the parents so choose) first name, with the appendage -son (for guys) or -dottir (for girls) tacked on. Thus, since my father’s name was Fridrik, I am Fridriksson. > > I went to high school in the United States, where people naturally don’t know the intricacies of the archaic Icelandic naming system. All my life I’ve gone by my middle name, but due to it being almost completely unpronouncable to anyone not born in Iceland, most teachers skipped my middle name entirely. And so I became Fridrik Fridriksson. As you can imagine, roll call was the worst part of Fridrik Fridriksson’s day. \*\* Aw come on! what’s your middle name? My mother’s father was straight from Norway; good old Jakob Jakobson (pronounced Ya-cub)! He had a brother named ? (pronounced Y-air-lif) and a sister-in-law named ? (pronounced Berg-lee-ot). So I’m curious what your middle is. BTW; My sister is named Daaried, pronounced Dorie (it’s the name of the Jakobson farm in Norway), and when she was in college the security woman for her dorm was always saying how she loved that name, so how many little kids do you think there’ll be with miss-spelled names for Dorie? 🙂 PS. Scott Adams did a thing about this in an old Dilbert newsletter; he was in a store and a woman was calling for her daughter; “Ampersand!”… just… just… @\_@ ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/88 "2003-12-10T06:25:50Z")
Mr zoogirl’s mom has a cousin named Peter Dyck. Ouch! I had a good friend named Ann Annette and Mr zoogirl’s sister went to school with Tara Hare. My surname is Middle English. It sometimes is used to mean a butcher, but it can also mean an oafish man… or a lump of fat. (sigh) Some things you’re better off NOT looking up! ---
**Author:** ![Nightingale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@Nightingale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightingale)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/89 "2003-12-10T06:25:55Z")
When I was in grade school there was a girl attending there who was named Candy Kane. . . I kid you not. And the year I graduated high school, I saw mention in the paper of another graduate whose unfortunate name was London England. I swear her parents must have been on drugs. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/90 "2003-12-10T06:36:21Z")
A family in NZ named their child [Triple M Rogue](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&storyID=2848272), short for Mighty Mongrel Mob Rouge Chapter. There was a bit of media interest, as it’s a heavy name to saddle a child with. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/91 "2003-12-10T06:43:28Z")
And more mongrel mob names - Mr MMM Ford (formerly James) has children named Customline, Fairlane and Mainline. [link](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&storyID=3004588) Imagine being known as Mainline Ford. Tho’ if your dad’s the head of the local Mob Chapter, you’d probably have other things to worry about ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/92 "2003-12-10T06:48:06Z")
I really want to name my children River (boy) and Raven (girl). Do you guys think they are excessively weird names? I think they’re fantastic! (Don’t steal 'em!) Mine and my brother’s names both start with a “B” and end with a “ke”–Brooke and Blake. I was so glad that my parents did not name us common names. Well, at least I have only met one other Brooke and never met another Blake. If I meet one more Jennifer or Brian I think I will scream. I know about 10 of each, I think. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/93 "2003-12-10T06:58:02Z")
By some odd coincidence, every American exchange student I have ever met (ok, all four of them), have been called Brooke. I always figured it was a really popular name. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/94 "2003-12-10T07:03:00Z")
I used to work with a guy named “Barry Derrybarry.” In various jobs I’ve had, I’ve dealt with a lawyer named “Slate Stern” and a guy (born in 1976) named “John Holmes”. The guy who founded Leer jets named his daughter “Chanda” and a friend of mine had a teacher who’s last name was “Frankenstein.” Someone posted a phone directory listing of all the folks who had the last name “Hitler” a while back. ---
**Author:** ![Astra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@Astra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astra)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/95 "2003-12-10T08:26:18Z")
I forgot one I saw in a recent birth announcement. The baby girl’s first and middle names were “Ashanti Shakira.” ---
**Author:** ![dakravel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@dakravel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dakravel)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/96 "2003-12-10T08:28:24Z")
Supposedly, the name Adolf has not been used in Germany since WWII. Now, on subject, at my school there were some twins. Their names were Fon and Yen Chen. In Chinese, it sounds more like “fang” (a like ah), and “yuen”. Those actually means Square and Circle respectively. ---
**Author:** ![PalJuicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a8b319/32.png) [@PalJuicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PalJuicy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/97 "2003-12-10T11:19:04Z")
I know a man named Dick Organ. His wife’s name is Jane. (they don’t have a dog named Spot, though). ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/98 "2003-12-10T11:34:44Z")
I know a guy named Frank, who changed his last name to Frankenstein. ---
**Author:** ![Empress\_Jolrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@Empress\_Jolrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Empress_Jolrael)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/99 "2003-12-10T12:01:51Z")
I knew a girl in high school named - watch as I attempt to spell it and fail miserably - Schulyer. Pronounced “skylar.” I think **Paris Hilton** is pretty awful. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765/100 "2003-12-10T12:24:50Z")
I went to Jr. High with Preston P. Preston. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-give-your-child-a-name-like-this/176765.md?page=6)