Friends of a friend named their son Steel. (not too bad) They plan on naming their next son Titanium. (Tit?) They named thier daughter Sapphire Blue. Also, other friends neighbors have daughters Chablis, Chardonny, Champaigne and Merlot. What are some people thinking? 
Are they, by any chance, fans of the 1970’s UK TV show Sapphire and Steel starring David McCallum (Ilya Kurakin in The Man From Uncle) and Joanna Lumley?
It wasn’t a very good show…
I don’t know what they were THINKING, but I can guess what they’ve been DRINKING…
I don’t remember this poor guys last name, but his first name - really - is: **Conway Twitty **“Smith”. He goes by Bucky.
What were his parent’s thinking?
Along the same lines, I was reading an article on the teenage actress named Poppy Montgomery. (She starred as Marilyn Monroe in a made for TV movie last year.) All the girls in her family are named after fairies, none of which I can remember, but all of them are just silly. The reason I forgot about all of their names is because she has one brother. …named after her parents favorite rock and roll band…brace yourselves: **Jethro Tull ** is his name.
AIGGH!
You’ve just reminded me - one of my former staff was called Ivor Blewett - Ivor Dick Blewett to give him his full name.
And I once knew a kid called Matthew Matthews.
A friend of mine used to be a Hospital Administrator. She saw some doozies! The ones I most remember were 2 boys, twins:
Lemonjello (pronounced Luh-mon-gel-low)
Orangejello (pronounced O-ron-gel-low)
so so sad…
Found the title of the dreadful baby naming book I mentioned earlier in the thread:
Baby Names for New Zealanders (Over 12000 names).
I know there’s not too many Kiwi Dopers out there, but if you are, and you’re naming a poor, innocent, defenceless baby, I urge you to avoid this book. It is, as Dorothy Parker remarked, not a book to be put aside lightly, but one that should be thrown aside with great force.
Just because one can make girl’s names by adding an a suffix to some male names (Robert becomes the quite acceptable Roberta), one shouldn’t necessarily follow the trend for *Gilbert, Hubert, * or Englebert and the like.
I also have serious doubts about the use of Abaddon as a boy’s name. (…and this from someone who uses the greek form as a username).
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Snopes says otherwise.
Worst name I know personally? I went to school with a white middle-class girl called Honey Dorey. She was just peachy keen and hunky dory.
I knew people named:
Rainbow
Sunny & Happy (sisters)
And people who wanted to name their children:
Diamond
Hennesey
Have to tell you the truth though, I went through grades K-8 with three other miamouses in my class, and I HATED it. Always been a fan of different names (anything but John, Bob, etc.) but just not “Diamond”
??? WTF???
And my mom gave me shit about naming my son Sebastien. Give me a break.
Good theory.
You kid will undoubtedly have one of those primary school teachers that will only call him/her by the name he/she is registered by.
Well, pity the poor guy that was attending the same (college) class as my sister:
Last Name: Meoff
First Name: Jack
Apparently, his parents didn’t realize what they had done to their poor kid.
And while my Sis was working at Domino’s, she passed along a few names of customers:
Bob Smith
John Doe
(First words out of her mouth were ‘Are you kidding me?’ And the person who did the delivery reported back that yes, that was their real name, as on their driver’s license…)
Norman Bates (Aiie. He was named after Psycho came out, apparently.)
Me personally, only ‘unusual’ name I’ve come across is someone named: Kathy Kim, who married a guy with the last name Kam. And she took his last name. Uff da. I don’t want those initials embroidered on anything!
<< Don’t die wondering. >>
True Story #1:
Friends of ours named the infant girl they adopted “Leila Mungy Bagby.” Her first name is pronounced like the princess in Star Wars. So why the extra “l”? Just want to guarantee that nobody can spell her name correctly?
And what a delightful middle name! It was apparently a family name. Kind of a cross between “mangy” and “fungus.” That’s one family name that should have been allowed to die out.
True Story #2:
Had a coworker named “John Sam.” His father’s first name was “Sam.”
True Story #3:
Had a coworker named “Brady Brady.” Oh how clever!
True Story #4:
Participants in a mandatory training session I was in convinced our idiot instructor that there was a nonexistent employee (who supposedly was absent that day) with the last name spelled “P-i-s-s-a-n-t.” “Piss**‘ant?" he said. “No,” we replied. "He gets mad when you say that. It’s pronounced "pis-sont’**.” This went on for the whole week. We were very amused, especially when he tried to write the person up for blowing off the training.
SNL Joke Story:
On Saturday Night Live a few years back, a wife proposes numerous baby names to her husband, who rejected them all based on how the child will be mocked in the future. The wife asks the husband if he was sensistive about his own name. “Oh no,” he replied.
There’s a knock on the door. “Pizza for Ass-wipe!” The guy replies angrily, "That’s “az-weep**’**ay!”
You should come to my school. We have girls named Wallace, Bradley, Kevyn, Tymothy, Glenn and Marke (I guess the “e” makes it feminine).
The boys all have last names as first names. We have Walker, Briggs, Brooks, Harper, Cameron, Garrett, Riley, Saunders, Pierce, Stratton, Anderson, Tucker…and on and on.
snide remarks coming from someone else whose first name is a last name…Hey, Kinsey, this is the kettle…you’re black!
This is true even if you have a not-unusual-or-unique name, like I do.
My name is Laura Christine. Not too tough. In daily life, I go by a nickname from my middle name. And my mother decided to spell it funny. My everyday name is Cristi.
No one ever spells it right. Ever.
But I don’t blame them, and I don’t get mad about it. It’s my mom’s fault. The only explanation she’s ever given me for spelling my name so differently is that “it was the thing to do at the time.” :rolleyes:
I also just remembered that one of the reservists I served with had the last name of Fuecker (FYOO-ker). I guess he had had enough of the static about it and didn’t want to subject any of his kids to the same, so when he got married, he took his wife’s last name:
Johnson
I don’t know where you live, but I live in Victoria, Australia.
Since 1929, there have been 51 boys named Aleksander born in my state.
Since 1929, there have been 9048 boys named Alexander born in my state.
Until last week, I’d never ever seen the spelling Aleksander before.
Likewise, compare 122 Aleksandras to 5112 Alexandras
I stand by my assetion that no one will ever get the spelling right. If it’s a spelling related to your ethnic origins, that’s one thing. When John and Jane Smith-Jones do it to be “cute”, “different” or “unique”, it’s stupid.
I have a FOAF whose name, poor kid, is Eric Shin.
My father and cousin both have the initials KKK. I might have joined them, too, had my mom gotten her way and named me Kristy.
If we weren’t Asian and lived in, say, Alabama, I’m sure it’d be a bigger deal.
Also:
I’ve heard of a guy named Worldster.
Your guess is a good as mine.
having just recently married, I get to choose between keeping my own surname (which rhymes with some very unfortunate words) or taking up my partners surname. His is European and has the sort of spelling that others can’t pronounce, and the sort of pronunciation that others also can’t spell ! I have witnessed the poor bastard have to spell his name continually.
I am used to my name, (and getting in first with the jokes) and am not sure if I have the inner strength needed to spell my name for the rest of eternity, if I take his surname. Maybe we should just make up a new one and both take that… how about ‘Smith’ ? or ‘Jones’ ? hmmmm
Fortunately, we are not going to have children, so I wont be inflicting either crappy surname on a poor defenceless child…
now, which name to pick…
Christian Clotworthy , an old college chum.
Hardly surprising he joined the army really…lotta anger that boy.
Also knew a girl named Rebeena once, sounds an awful lot like Ribena , a fruit juice drink here.
One of my favourite names though has got to be Sadbh , its pronounced Sive and just about everyone spells it wrong