# You're naming your baby what!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [November 29, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202 "2004-11-29T20:06:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 10
### Author:  [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/181 "2004-12-01T06:01:57Z")
> [@cher3](#):
>
> I know a little girl called Tahoe, for the same reason. I was too polite to ask “Lake or Chevy?”
My son once had a girlfriend whose name was Koa, because she was conceived on a camping trip. (For you non-USA people, there is a chain of campgrounds called Kampgrounds of America, or KOA for short.) I always figured that was the last thing any kid wanted to know or think about. Why would you want your child to be stuck with the everlasting reminder that “Mom and Dad had sex. EEEWWW!”?
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### Author:  [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/182 "2004-12-01T06:03:17Z")
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> would you rather be the third ‘ **Jennifer** ’ in the office or _makesupaword_ the only ‘ **Jenne** ’?
Is that pronounced “Jen”? If so, when someone yells out “Phone call for Jenne!”, will the Jennifers-who-go-by-Jen be able to hear the extra ‘n’ and the ‘e’? When she does finally get her call, I wonder how many times the caller will be saying “Hi Jen! I think there’s something wrong with your email. [Jen.Surname@Yourcompany.co](mailto:Jen.Surname@Yourcompany.co) keeps bouncing”.
Why not plain, simple Jen? How is it better to have to constantly correct the spelling and pronouciation of your name and yet still have the phonetic equivilant of a common name?
I don’t like McKenzie for the simple reason that it’s my cousin’s grandfather’s name. I have a hard time adjusting to the idea that people think it’s a good name for a little girl when I have such a crusty old man image attached to it. Ditto my great grandfather’s name and my father’s middle name - Sydney, which is currently enjoying a rebirth as a girl’s name.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/183 "2004-12-01T06:32:33Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#):
>
> You seem pretty het up about all this. Do you actually disagree that it’s NOT the brightest idea ever to name your kid after a soap opera or a kase of kute kree8ivity? (Sorry about the double negatives…)
I do think it is silly to name your kid something they will spend forever spelling or explaining. Whether that be traditional but hard to spell (Siobhan) or non-traditional and hard to spell (Mykal). But what gets up my nose is people who seem to think that their personal taste or social conservatism is an objective basis for being het up about what people are named.
> [@Excalibre](#):
>
> How could there be an objective basis for a preference?
Quite.
> [@](#):
>
> By the way, “please” doesn’t have a U or an H.
Well sheeit, Genius, coulda fooled me.
> [@](#):
>
> They would be simply pretentious if they were rare - “Mackenzie” sounds like the name of a soap opera character. Except that once they get picked up by the suburban SUV crowd, they sprout like mushrooms after a rainstorm and don’t stick around for much longer. These sorts of names seem sorta pathetic to me because they seem like a sad attempt to sound refined that fails when three other kids on the same block have the same name. They lack both the dignity that a traditional name bears from its association with historical figures or Biblical characters, but they also show an inability to come up with something unique or particularly fitting for the child. “Mackenzie” is too common to be interesting or unique, and too new to have any gravitas or dignity associated with it. And, in my opinion, most of the trendy names of the moment simply sound ugly. “Kayla” sounds like baby-talk. “Mackenzie” sounds like a Scottish guy in a kilt (not that they don’t have their own charm, mind you.) “Kaitlyn” sounds hyperfeminine and twee - it just doesn’t evoke the kinds of things I’d hope my daughter grows up to be.
Sounds like you’d better not call _your_ kid Mackenzie then.
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### Author:  [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/184 "2004-12-01T08:16:02Z")
My ex’s sister is named Chrystinue, pronounced “Christine.” In her parent’s defense, they were recent immigrants and didn’t know how to spell in English. She says that she used to want to change it when she was little, but that she loves it now.
I like unusual names myself. The name on my birth certificate is plain, common, and boring. I vastly prefer Ava because when called in a crowded room, it is unlikely there will be another one around. (although it is gaining in popularity lately grrr.)
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### Author:  [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/185 "2004-12-01T11:18:29Z")
> [@catsix](#):
>
> Wouldn’t it be funny if kids were named after where they were conceived?
>
> Sure you’d have a lot of kids named ‘bed’, but then you’d get the ‘car’ and ‘washing machine’ and ‘coffee table’ also.
I hope I’m not getting whooshed… but I don’t find what Posh and Beck’s called their kids funny at all :rolleyes: 😛
The last thing I wanna know is where I was conceived, and that the whole world knows too.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/186 "2004-12-01T11:22:06Z")
I know someone who named her daughter Talulah.
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### Author:  [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/187 "2004-12-01T11:40:35Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#):
>
> And as I noted in the post below, I rather doubt he ever heard of Attila
(Hadn’t seen that. I could have sworn I had read that he liked to see himself as a successor of the Huns (as well as Djenghis Kahn) and assumed some variant of “Scourge of God” – perhaps in John Keegan’s History of Warfare, which has some fairly harsh words on Tamarlane. Have to look it up.)
> [@Tamerlane](#):
>
> 'course the same could be said for me - my real first name is Nikola, which I disliked until I was in my teens, so I really am the pot calling the kettle black when commenting on the unusual names of other folks.
I’ve never met an English speaking person who knew what to do with Rune, they always go “Run-something”, which is strange since there is a word in English “Rune” they could just use. I don’t think Rune is used in Germany, but it’s fairly common in Denmark. But my family is from the Faeroe Islands wherefrom I got the name. Up there they also have the feminine: Runa, which I’ve not seen anywhere else. Nikola doesn’t sound so strange to me. Some Czar or Orthodox Patriarch flash before my eyes, perhaps it’s Russian? I would think about adding it to my (very short) shortlist of male names, should I ever succeed in getting anything but girls. It’s much harder coming up with acceptable male names than female, I think.
> [@Beware of Doug](#):
>
> My big beef with the trendy names of today is that a lot of them seem to come from an unawareness that the child will ever grow up and be anything but (F) sugar and spice and everything nice or (M) snips and snails and puppy dog tails. At least an old-gold name like Laura or Daniel is appropriate at any age. The new names (hell, a lot of names from the 1980s and 90s as well!) have this daytime-serial, Toys ‘R’ Us feel to them. Purple and pink princesses with rhinestones in their hair and white icing on their shoes. Little tawny warrior-lords in animal skins on someone else’s quest for the holy grail.
So true. Children should be given adult names. Little cute names that can’t possible be used by adults in a professional setting are the pits. Whoever can imagine a CEO of Intel called Chastity Bambi La5O’Ru’ise, Professor Amethyst-Klamidea or President Spitfire?
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/188 "2004-12-01T13:37:59Z")
> [@Fionn](#):
>
> My brother knew a woman named Caiman, because she was conceived on the Caiman Islands. Naming a child after the place of conception has always seemed odd to me. Is fucking in an exotic place that much of an accomplishment?
There was a car commercial along these lines a while back… which ended with the daughter realizing what her name meant, and saying “Oh, Mom, Yuck!!!”
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### Author:  [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/189 "2004-12-01T13:50:20Z")
> [@faithfool](#):
>
> Yep. The aunt I previously mentioned who’s name is Juanita, was a favorite of another of the sisters. Said woman is married to Don. They in turn had a daughter. Obvious result? Name her after the beloved sis -and- dad… Donita. Whew.
>
> And as an aside, this _is_ Texas we’re talking about too.
It could’ve been worse, you know. They could’ve had a boy and named him Don Juan.
:eek: 😃
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### Author:  [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/190 "2004-12-01T14:53:22Z")
> [@Fionn](#):
>
> My brother knew a woman named Caiman, because she was conceived on the Caiman Islands. Naming a child after the place of conception has always seemed odd to me. Is fucking in an exotic place that much of an accomplishment?
Could be worse…they could have been named “Dining Room Table”.
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### Author:  [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/191 "2004-12-01T15:06:46Z")
Turns out that people at the start of the 20th century named their kids oddly, too. [According to this](http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/1999/top1000of00s.html), between the years 1900 and 1909 there were numerous boys with names that were just letters:
1. J
2. W
3. C
4. A
etc.
Girls also had their hard to spell names. How about number 109: Genevieve.
Boys weren’t the only one subjected to “letter” names. 138. M.
Near the bottom of the list for girls was “Missouri”, “Virgil” and “Zoila”.
So parents will always be giving stupid names to their children. 😃
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/192 "2004-12-01T15:46:49Z")
I know someone who was named after the place she was conceived. Her first name is the first word in the name for a famous white building in Agra, India.
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### Author:  [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/193 "2004-12-01T15:59:16Z")
> [@El Elvis Rojo](#):
>
> Could be worse…they could have been named “Dining Room Table”.
Could be worse. How about: "Broken Condom” or “He Promised He’d Pull Out” or “Dad’s A Loser” or “Doggy Style” …
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### Author:  [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/194 "2004-12-01T16:10:15Z")
Nothing surpasses Governor Hogg naming his daughter Ima.
Nothing.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/195 "2004-12-01T17:08:56Z")
> [@cazzle](#):
>
> … Is that pronounced “Jen”? … Why not plain, simple Jen? How is it better to have to constantly correct the spelling and pronouciation of your name and yet still have the phonetic equivilant of a common name? …
yes, it should be pronounced similarly. maybe it’s because i do not hold the expectation that others should be able to spell my name by default. i feel the onus is on _me_ to inform others of my personal particulars.
it’s also handy to have a name you can register online without fuss.
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### Author:  [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/196 "2004-12-01T17:10:19Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#):
>
> It could’ve been worse, you know. They could’ve had a boy and named him Don Juan.
>
> :eek: 😃
If they had a second son, would he have been Don Two?
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### Author:  [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/197 "2004-12-01T17:23:19Z")
> [@cazzle](#):
>
> … How is it better to have to constantly correct the spelling and pronouciation of your name and yet still have the phonetic equivilant of a common name? …
Not necessarily better, but sometimes what has to happen. I was stuck with my odd ass spelling (for whatever my mother’s reasoning had been), which took a really common and popular name at the time, then mangled it all to hell.
So, Kimberly became Kembrly. Like Barbra who’s missing her extra A, I’m constantly on a quest for my E. And therefore when I became saddled with my nickname, my only way to personal, since they refused to call me Kem (which I was _so_ grateful for later because of my mom’s horrid personality and any way to not be confused with her was a huge plus), I took Kemmy and changed it to Kemi. Yeah, not a big deal and obviously all pronounced normally, but it was a big rebellion for me at the time. That’s why then, some of the time at least.
To those who noticed my aunt’s sister’s name faux pas and added their own… you guys are hilarious. I never thought of that, but I’ll have to share the next time I see her. She’ll fall out of her chair laughing. Which is definitely a good thing. 😃
Also, why does McKenzie have to be considered too trendy? Like I said, I’ll never have children but I’d LOVE to use that as a middle name. Why? Due to heritage and a distant relative who I would’ve liked (but long since deceased, before my time even) having been named that. Sometimes things just coincide and people make automatic assumptions based on their personal experience that may not be true. Or I’d rather give someone the benefit of the doubt. YMMV.
> [@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker](#):
>
> I know someone who was named after the place she was conceived. Her first name is the first word in the name for a famous white building in Agra, India.
It’s an even better thing that they didn’t choose “Vi” (or “Vye” if you will). 😛
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### Author:  [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/198 "2004-12-01T17:49:38Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#):
>
> So, will she be changing his name to Nextel now? 😉
>
> We met a young man of nine months at Thanksgiving whose name is Quasar. According to him mom, the name has no meaning for her, it was just something that came to her. (My husband asked me if his middle name was Motorola.)
Was it Quasar whose slogan was “Out of our Minds and Into your Hands”? Or was that Minolta?
> [@thirdwarning](#):
>
> Okay, I have a question. What do you guys think about naming one twin after the father, like a junior or III, and the other just a regular name?
Why not 2.0 and 2.1?
Or Alfred John Jacob Jinglehammer and Bradly John Jacob Jinglehammer?
Or name one twin after the mother, and one after the father?
Or swap out the names:
Jacob John Jinglehammer
John Jacob Jinglehammer
or
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### Author:  [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/199 "2004-12-01T17:54:01Z")
> [@Indygrrl](#):
>
> Oh yeah, and I read recently that Jermaine Jackson named his daughter Jermajesty! Now, come on, that is truly bad.
She’d bettern never try to get a driver’s license in Florida. The DMV can’t handle a simple space in a name, much less an exclamation point.
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### Author:  [@davmilasav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davmilasav)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/200 "2004-12-01T18:05:23Z")
> [@Mynn](#):
>
> She’d bettern never try to get a driver’s license in Florida. The DMV can’t handle a simple space in a name, much less an exclamation point.
The US Gov’t can’t handle spaces either. When I took the ASVAB test I wrote my name correctly and the proctor insisted I either put in a hyphen or use part of my first name as my middle name. I told her, “I’m 24 years old. I think I know how to spell my own name.” Her replay made is clear that the USG begged to differ. :wally So all my government docs forevermore hypenate me against my will.
Thanks, Mom.
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