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!”?
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 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.
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.
Quite.
Well sheeit, Genius, coulda fooled me.
Sounds like you’d better not call your kid Mackenzie then.
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.)
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.
I know someone who named her daughter Talulah.
(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.)
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.
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?
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!!!”
It could’ve been worse, you know. They could’ve had a boy and named him Don Juan.
:eek: 
Could be worse…they could have been named “Dining Room Table”.
Turns out that people at the start of the 20th century named their kids oddly, too. According to this, between the years 1900 and 1909 there were numerous boys with names that were just letters:
- J
- W
- C
- 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.
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.
Could be worse. How about: "Broken Condom” or “He Promised He’d Pull Out” or “Dad’s A Loser” or “Doggy Style” …
Nothing surpasses Governor Hogg naming his daughter Ima.
Nothing.
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.
If they had a second son, would he have been Don Two?
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.
It’s an even better thing that they didn’t choose “Vi” (or “Vye” if you will).
Was it Quasar whose slogan was “Out of our Minds and Into your Hands”? Or was that Minolta?
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
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.