I forgot one; in high school, I knew a girl named Januari. Never had I heard of another person with that name until this year…
My cousin dated this woman ( in her early 30’s) named January (or Januari or Janyouaree or whatever spelling, I dunno). Interesting.
Some interesting names I’ve come across:
Mickey Mao ( first grade Girl from Taiwan)
Conway Twitty LastName . ( He went by “Bucky” for reasons I’m not sure how he got to that name.)
Skip Park
Once, a logn time ago when I worked in micrographics, I did a quality check on some film containing Visa bills.
(personal, not business accounts)
(real names)
“Princess Beavers”
think she may have been, um, “in movies”?
I grew up in the Deep South, where it is common to give the oldest child the mother’s maiden name as a first name. I went to school with kids named Henderson, McNamara, Wilson, Peters, Bridges, and Dyer. No one thought anything of it, but in the Midwest, those names would probably raise some eyebrows.
When I lived in Slovakia, I was told that the only names available for children were the ones on the calendar. Every day has a name on it, sometimes with alternates for ethnic Czechs or Hungarians. In addition, there are some names that are traditionally associated with certain ethnic groups. Children also tend to be named after their parents. One side effect of all this is that there are about half a dozen names of each gender that seem to cover 90% of the population. The Slovaks I talked to about this were appalled at the chaos in American given names.
One friend of mine was determined to name his daughter Eunika (Eunice - pronounced ayOOnika). This name, although an old one, had been removed from the calendar. He went to court about it, and got an excemption because it is a Biblical name, but the judge lectured him quite sternly because she won’t have a name day like everyone else. Everyone else I knew thought he was nuts to pursue it, and thought that, at the least, it was unfair to the child to both saddle her with an unusual name and deprive her of a name day.
I’m just boring old Rob, but the strangest name I’ve come across is “Petroula”, which is invariably pronounced as “Petrulia” or “Petrolia” (a nearby small town).
And as for repeated names, we just use the last name, i.e. “Hey, Potter!”
And why hasn’t anybody mentioned Bruce and Demi? Rumer and Scout (You may like To Kill A Mockingbird, but it was a nickname!), IIRC. And wasn’t there another one, as well?
Actually, now that you remind me, Andrew Cassels’ (Vancouver Canucks player) daughter is also called Scout; I think I was reading in the paper.once that he got it from To Kill A Mockingbird.
I believe Bruce and Demi did have another child, but I dont’ know what his or her name was offhand. Anybody?
As for weird names, I don’t know many, but there is a girl in my school named Channa (a pseudo-French spelling of “Shawna”, I guess) which is invariably pronounced by substitute teachers like “channel” without the final l-sound.
My own name is Levi, a rather odd name, which I’ve encountered twice (well, one was a dog). I’m not quite sure why I have this namen. It’s Hebrew, but I’m an atheist of Irish-British-French heritage.
Then there’s Alia, whose name is pronounced AH-lee-uh, which is often corrupted to ah-LEE-uh (like the Esperanto word alia, ‘other’).
I’ve heard that Vagina (vuhg-EE-nuh) is a name sometimes used by Russians, whose word for ‘vagina’ is not a cognate, I hope! Then again, the Russians are notorious for selecting names from a pool of about a dozen for each gender.
I also remember reading some while ago that a couple in Norway wanted to name their kid something like “Xegu9egujcqkfmx7qxvwmorcj3”, pronounced “Albin” but the Norwegian government wouldn’t allow them to use numbers on the birth certificate.
In the third grade, there was a Chinese immigrant named Wang Yu, who was not teased probably because our slang vocabulary was small back then.
I figure that if I ever decide to contribute to overpopulation, I’ll name my kid something made up but pronounceable to the people of whatever country I end up in.
P.S. I don’t see why Zork is regarded as a cruel name. I’d love to be named Zork! But alas, I’m too attached to my current name.
“I AM ZORK, YOUR OVERLORD. BOW BEFORE ME BEFORE I BLAST YOU TO SMITHEREENS WITH MY LASER GUN!”
My son had a girlfriend several years ago who was conceived while her parents were on a camping trip. As a result, she was named Koa. (Kampgrounds of America, known as KoA, for those of you who don’t live in the States)
Minor Irritant: I think the other Bruce Willis/Demi Moore child is Tallulah something. Don’t know if she was named for Ms Bankhead.
Flamsterette_X: Was the Merlyn you met an older woman? I had an aunt named that, so maybe it used to be more common. Of course this is the only other one I’ve even heard of. And…The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. One of my favorite books as a child. The family name was Pepper. I’m not sure how “Sophronia” got in there with Ben, Polly, Joel and David. 
Not really weird, considering his heritage, but a Yugoslavian guy I know’s name is Zenja, pronouced gen (as in ‘massage’) - ya (as in ‘ya’)
Yeah, I remember hearing about that one. I think the mother spent a lot of money to try and get it overturned, but no go.
That’s it! Tallulah Belle or Tallulah Rose… one of the two, I think.
Yes, she was an older woman; she had at least one teenage boy when I met her.
That’s the book; indeed I remember it now. Maybe it was the appeal of a “fancy” name to sort of counteract all the “traditional” names? Who knows…
Ah yes… those Russian/Yugoslavian names… as you said, not really weird, considering their heritage and all…
There was a kid in my Gr. 6 class with the name of Wojtek, pronounced “boy-tech”.
As for people with names of the approximate phonetic pronunciation of “Jenya” (if I’m reading it right… kind of hard to tell at 12:30 AM), I’ve known at least three:
one of my sister’s elementary school friends was actually named Jenya… I don’t think she was of Slavic heritage, but maybe she had some European Jews in her heritage… who knows?
a guy in high school whose nickname was Genya… I think it stood for “Evgeny” or something like that
a girl in high school whose nickname was Genia (with an “i”)… I believe it stood for “Ivgenia”.
No, we didn’t necessarily confuse Genya and Genia, although it was sort of hard to tell which one we were talking about without a “he” or “she” thrown in! 
For what it’s worth, Albin and his parents are Swedish. Last I heard the stand-off continued and the boy still does not, officially, have a name.
There’s also a boy in Denmark whose mother wanted to name him Christophpher. That’s not a typo. The Danish registrar’s office said that the name can begin with a “Ch” or a “K”, and the /f/ sound can be spelled either “ff” or “ph”, but no way he was going to register it as “phph”. She appealed and lost the appeal. Again, last I heard neither side was willing to budge.
My mom told me about a FOAF who named her kid Lexus. Nothing like naming your son after a yuppie car and a female porn star.
Wanna impress Zenja? Next time you write his name, put a little caron over the “Z”. It looks like a miniature ‘v’. Here’s a picture:
Judging by the pronunciation, I’m pretty certain that’s how they would spell it in Yugoslavia.
They obviously let the older children name her. That’s usually a mistake (I loved those books).
flodnak, I heard about that case… it’s sad for these kids, I guess. If nobody’s willing to budge, that can be devastating. I mean, who wants to go through the formative years of their life without a NAME… something that identifies you to the world? And the thing is, the kids may not understand why Mommy and Daddy are being so stubborn about thier name! (and when the names in question are sort of odd, that’s another thing altogether)
red_dragon60, there are people who name their kids Alexus… including these parents who were going to the hospital to deliver their baby, but it came too fast, so they had to go to the local Lexus dealership’s parking lot to do so. When I heard this story a while ago, I heard the father say that the kid’s (middle?) name was going to be Alexus because of the “graciousness and generosity of the Lexus dealership”. Hmm… somehow that reason for giving your kid that middle name just doesn’t fly with me, but hey, it’s not my decision, and I’m lucky I wouldn’t have to regulate naming practices in the States! (like I’d want to, anyways; too fraught with peril, perhaps)
InternetLegend, who knows? It may be that the parents let the older kids name her; next time I get around to my brother’s, I’ll see if the reason is in the book. (if I remember in two weeks, that is) It may not be (probably not), but it’ll be fun to read that book again. I swear I still have it somewhere there…
Oh, I just remembered what my sister’s friend told me quite some time ago: apparently, her cousin is named Jupiter! :eek: To my way of thinking, Venus seems better than that! (I’ve even met at least one or two, but that doesn’t affect my decision) Of course, it’s not so bad as Uranus; the poor kid who gets saddled with THAT name is going to have to endure a LOT of jokes and teasing!
I have a friend named Cinnamon, and I think it’s quite pretty. My name, Bethany, was often messed up. I got stephanie, biffy, brittany, tiffany… No one had that name when I was growing up, but I hear it more frequently now.
Not to offend anyone, but I absolutely hate the name Jennifer. It sounds weird to me, and reminds me of someone sticking their finger in a jar of peanut butter.
My sister went to school with a girl named Snowdell. I had student workers with the names Torsha and Sheveeta. I met a guy at an amusement park named Vermeil. I’ve also met Latrena – that’s not so good, it sounds too much like latriene, or however you spell that toilet word.
My aunt grew up with a girl named Fairy and two girls name Reeble and Kewple. I went to school with a girl named Na Na Lastname. It was pronounced Nay-Nay. I met a girl through work with the name Mei-Mei, pronounced may-may. I taught a class with a student named Lemon. Not LE-mon, but Lemon, just like the fruit. He was cool. My sister used to work in the lab at a hospital and she did some work for two newborn twins, Lemonjello and Orangejello.
Two names I really liked for a long time but are now basically ruined because of the celebs they are now attached to are Rush and Julia.
If I had kids, I love the girl’s name Mary Celeste. But because of people’s accents, Mary gets turned into MAAAY-re, which I hate. So I feel tempted to use the name Merry. But I probably wouldn’t. What do the teeming millions thing? Is Merry Celeste too retarded?
For a boy, I love the name Leo. Not short for Leonardo, just Leo. Also, a cool name that I’ve heard for a boy is Roman.
Sheeeeeez… that’s supposed to be “think”.
Mama Crease was a teacher for 32 years. The most unusual name she came across was Doctor. He had a brother named Majestic.
As far as myself…
I had a college class with a girl named April May January.
An old girlfriend knew a guy named Rice White. In the phone book his listing was “White Rice”.
Back when I worked as a restaurant cook, I had 2 waitresses who were sisters. One’s name was Rainy Summer, the other’s was Bright Autumn. Their last name was Day.
And I bitch about my name…
I had a good friend named “Maxie LaVonne Lastname”. He was known simply as “Max”.
There’s some guy in Australia who is (self?) titled “Eon Balmain” who sold some (innocent) photos of himself and Sophie Wessex to Woman’s Day shortly before her marriage.
Freaky. He’s also a Googlewhack…
There is another guy there called Siimon Reynolds who works in advertising etc. He added an extra “i” to his name after a numerology expert told him it would increase his chances of wealth or some such. He is very, very far from being a Googlewhack, there’s about billion hits for him.