# 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:** 12
### Author:  [@general\_hubbub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/general_hubbub)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/221 "2004-12-02T14:06:47Z")
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> oh my goodness, is that common?! how can an educator be so prejudiced? :rolleyes:
Well, it was the South in the early 90’s, before lawsuits for such behavior became a staple, and this man was really old, in his late 80’s at the least, so I think he was initially trying to be polite or something, but in the end, he was just determined to get away with it. I figured he was old, and if playing his little game made him happy, then playing along was the least I could do.
---
### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/222 "2004-12-02T14:20:17Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> You can be “YOOONIEEEK” without going all out. Alternative spellings? Why not Elisabeth instead of Elizabeth? Or instead of Elizabeth, Elsbeth, Lizbeth or Bethany?
There must be limitless variations on Elizabeth. Two of my favorites are Lis (Danish) and Liesbeth (Dutch). And there’s nothing the matter with just Beth as a given name.
> [@](#):
>
> Want something truly unique? Why not a Biblical name, like Noah or Miriam? Something different but still not outlandish? Sebastian. Veronica. It’s still different enough that they won’t be one of ten Sebastians or Veronicas in class, yet they’re still names that won’t get a child picked on.
>
> How about something old-fashioned? Bring back Adelaide or Walter.
In the NYC area, all the above antitrends seem to be locally popular…perhaps as an expression of a back-to-the-classics, Restoration Hardware-type esthetic. (Yes, this too can get precious if not done with care.) 2 couples I know have children named Charlotte, 2 others have Olivers, 2 others Isabellas.
I don’t notice a lot of shorter old-fashioned names coming back (Paul, Albert, Jean, Helen). Youniqueness is still the rule. You get your family heritage in there thru a middle name (often two).
> [@](#):
>
> Remember-this isn’t YOUR name. It’s your child’s. He or she is the one who will live with it for the rest of his or her life.
Spot on, **Guin**. This can’t be stressed enough.
---
### Author:  [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/223 "2004-12-02T16:38:47Z")
> [@missbunny](#):
>
> I went to high school with two sisters named Luscious and Precious. They had a couple sisters more with unusual names but I can’t remember them. I believe their brother was Benny or Bernie. Guess he lucked out.
I think I remember - one other sister was Velvet and I think the fourth was Honey.
They were pretty tough girls, so nobody was about to tease them. I guess you’d have to be tough, in their situation.
---
### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/224 "2004-12-02T17:18:21Z")
> [@missbunny](#):
>
> I think I remember - one other sister was Velvet and I think the fourth was Honey.
>
> They were pretty tough girls, so nobody was about to tease them. I guess you’d have to be tough, in their situation.
Ah, yes - the Boy-Named-Sue Syndrome.
Maybe stupid names are having a positive efect on society after all!
---
### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2004, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/225 "2004-12-02T19:05:47Z")
> [@general hubbub](#):
>
> Well, it was the South in the early 90’s, before lawsuits for such behavior became a staple, and this man was really old, in his late 80’s at the least, so I think he was initially trying to be polite or something, but in the end, he was just determined to get away with it. I figured he was old, and if playing his little game made him happy, then playing along was the least I could do.
oh, that changes everything. suddenly it’s cute now. the student is more mature than the teacher. 😃
---
### Author:  [@dancefan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dancefan)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/226 "2004-12-03T02:56:33Z")
> [@wring](#):
>
> If you’re joking, fine.
>
> however, if you’re not- you, too, can share in the “FUck you” I gave out the last time some one (falsely) claimed that I’d called some one a liar.
\_\_\_\_\_\_F\_U yourself.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_I am NOT lying. FWIW the child was African American. I work in Northeast OHIO in a CATHOLIC hospital.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Raven\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Raven_1)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/227 "2004-12-03T06:04:03Z")
::streaks across the sky in a _Jetsons_ car, making a terrific whooshing howl above the heads of the multitude, and fully dressed, goddamnit::
😃
-Rav
P.S. **wring** was ripping **Fear Itself** , for saying **wring** had previously, and perhaps correctly, called someone _other than you_ a liar for telling the internet legend known as “the Shithead story”.
Note that every thread re: strange baby names I’ve ever seen, whether it be the [about.com](http://about.com) (note to self: what the hell was it called before that? miningco or something?) Urban Legends forum, snopes, fark, here, there, everywhere has had someone claiming a FOAF who claimed the Shithead story was real. If it is indeed true that you are the genesis of the Shithead story, I stand in awe. If not…
:dubious:
-Rav
---
### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/228 "2004-12-03T17:31:23Z")
> [@threemae](#):
>
> > [@Hamlet](#):
> >
> > Give me made-up names over consumeristic marketing names anyday. I can live with parents naming their kids Kaden and Mattison, but the ones who name their kid Lexus or Armani should be sterilized.
>
> Cite? Seriously, has anyone actuallly used that?
According to [here](http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/) Lexus was the 888th ranked name in 2003, after peaking at 465 in 1996. Armani was the 932nd ranked name in 2003, after peaking at 765 in 2000.
---
### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/229 "2004-12-03T20:57:19Z")
> [@dancefan](#):
>
> \_\_\_\_\_\_F\_U yourself.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_I am NOT lying. FWIW the child was African American. I work in Northeast OHIO in a CATHOLIC hospital.
as **The\_Raven** already pointed out - my post was directed at **fear itself** for predicting that I’d come call you a liar.
I also echo **The\_Raven’s** other comments.
---
### Author:  [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/230 "2004-12-03T21:42:48Z")
> [@dancefan](#):
>
> \_\_\_\_\_\_F\_U yourself.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_I am NOT lying. FWIW the child was African American. I work in Northeast OHIO in a CATHOLIC hospital.
Oh, it was a _CATHOLIC_ hospital. Well, then, that’s altogether different now, isn’t it?
---
### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/231 "2004-12-03T22:32:35Z")
AND the child was African-American no less. Well, that explains _that._
:rolleyes: because no white person has ever given their child a stupid name.
---
### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/232 "2004-12-03T22:42:22Z")
> [@FaerieBeth](#):
>
> Teria (pronounced Tiara) This name has almost driven me to distraction. I have threatened to give a phonics lesson of how /Tee-air-uh/ can not be achieved by the spelling of Teria.
I almost think the parents must have been semi-literate, and were using the letter T to make the entire _Tee_ syllable. Then the _eria_ part was added; the letter I is there because the parents knew that it belonged in the word somewhere but couldn’t figure out where.
It’s odd that you mentioned this, because not long ago my wife showed me some of my stepdaughter’s very early school assignments, from like the second or third grade. She had to write out and illustrate the (very simplified) Oddysey, and there was a picture of the Cyclops, eating the men and saying “Yum-yum”, and the men were crying out, “HLPE…HLPE!” I haven’t asked my SD about this–if she would even remember! But I think she must have been using the “L” to make the whole “EL” sound; then just tacked the E on the end.
---
### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/233 "2004-12-03T22:50:12Z")
What bugs me, and I don’t know why, is the ongoing pre-empting of boys’ names for girls. Tristan, Bailey, Ashley, Madison, and many others used to be boys’ names exclusively.
Why this is happening I don’t know. I’m sure it hadn’t started by the late 1960s, when I saw _Gone With The Wind_ as a youngster. For those who don’t know, one of the supporting characters is a man named Ashley, and nobody thought it was a feminine name then. A little old fashioned, maybe, as befits a Civil War drama, but not feminine at all.
---
### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/234 "2004-12-03T23:21:45Z")
\*‘girls can wear pants but boys don’t wear dresses.’ \*
thus you can name a girl Ashley but not a boy Elizabeth.
---
### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/235 "2004-12-03T23:37:06Z")
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> \*‘girls can wear pants but boys don’t wear dresses.’ \*
>
> thus you can name a girl Ashley but not a boy Elizabeth.
My point exactly. I don’t think you can name a boy Ashley now, it’s pretty much for girls only, now. If you named a boy Ashley now he’d be headed for sorrow on the schoolyard.
---
### Author:  [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/236 "2004-12-04T00:17:02Z")
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> also, i read somewhere (perhaps from here), that it is the the adults that have a problem with these names, fearing name calling and such; whereas the children have no problems with it, especially since it is common to have these ‘weird’ names.
Anyone naive enough to believe this apparently does not remember elementary school. I do. My first name doesn’t allow for much creative name-calling, but there were days on which I would have sold the world to change my last name. A lot of kids have to endure a fair bit of torture anyway, especially if they develop uncommon (intelligence, weird hair, whatever) or unappealing (fat, limping, etc.) characteristics. The very least the child’s parents can do is try to minimize the bullying material that the kid carries into school on the first day.
And anyway, regardless of school teasing, think of this: once cute little Kaielyne becomes an adult she will spend her days saying “No, it’s spelled K-A-I…” Do you really think it’s that much to ask of parents to take an _extremely_ quick and easy step (giving the kid a simple name) to minimize that?
---
### Author:  [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/237 "2004-12-04T00:27:44Z")
> [@threemae](#):
>
> Cite? Seriously, has anyone actuallly used that?
I remember reading in the [url=http://www.signonsandiego.com]San Diego Union-Tribune\*\* (feel free to search for the article, I couldn’t find it) last year, an article about the growing trend of parents naming their children after corporate products. Armani, Lexus, Courvoisier, Infiniti, Mercedes (a fine name anyway) and Porsche were all mentioned, among several others.
I’ve also seen stories every once in a while in the sports section of the same paper about couples who named their children ESPN or Espn or Espyn or Espin or somesuch after the popular sports network.
---
### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/238 "2004-12-04T00:39:57Z")
> [@fetus](#):
>
> … Anyone naive enough to believe this apparently does not remember elementary school. …
i do not claim to know one way or the other. i did [attempt](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=289465) to find out here, but my respondents were all cats. 😃
is it that far-fetched to imagine that Kaielyne won’t have much problems with her name when her classmates are named Halee, Keeli, Kaden, Dagen, etc?
> [@](#):
>
> … And anyway, regardless of school teasing, think of this: once cute little Kaielyne becomes an adult she will spend her days saying “No, it’s spelled K-A-I…” Do you really think it’s that much to ask of parents to take an _extremely_ quick and easy step (giving the kid a simple name) to minimize that? …
i honestly don’t get this, why should one expect others to be able to spell your name? it is your name, not theirs.
on preview: i realised an assumption i made was that such names are commonplace now, are they?
---
### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/239 "2004-12-04T00:48:58Z")
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> on preview: i realised an assumption i made was that such names are commonplace now, are they?
They seem to be commonplace. I’ve only browsed a few nursery websites, and it’s about evenly divided between common names (which now includes Heather and Brittany and Tiffany) and the more unusual names.
Parents keep coming up with unique spellings, and I think people have begun to **expect** an uncommon spelling – no one’s going to assume Riley is spelled Riley anymore.
---
### Author:  [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202/240 "2004-12-04T00:58:53Z")
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> is it that far-fetched to imagine that Kaielyne won’t have much problems with her name when her classmates are named Halee, Keeli, Kaden, Dagen, etc?
Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s probably not the uniqueness (particularly of spelling) that gets kids in bullying trouble, it’s having a name that can easily be turned into something nasty. Monica in the late 90s, or Damian, or anything like that. It’s impossible to absolutely eliminate this: no Monicas (or their parents) other than Lewinsky could possibly foretell that people would one day snicker on hearing their name. But you can apply a little thought to at least not sending the child into the world already carrying such baggage. Don’t name your kid Damian, for example, or something extremely, well, dumb or silly. Taking this a step further, there’s probably not as much a playground bully can make out of an innocuous, generic name like John or Sarah.
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> i honestly don’t get this, why should one expect others to be able to spell your name? it is your name, not theirs.
I didn’t say you should necessarily expect others to be able to spell your name. But it’s really frustrating to deal with it constantly, day in, day out. Checks written to the wrong name. Emails sent to inexistent addresses. People who refuse to learn how to pronounce or spell your name. Why set your child up for a lifetime full of that when you can easily cut it off at the knees or at least cut it way down?
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> on preview: i realised an assumption i made was that such names are commonplace now, are they?
I don’t think so. They’re definitely popular, and definitely heading in that direction.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202.md?page=11)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-naming-your-baby-what/277202.md?page=13)