Phinneaus is a Biblical name. He was the son of Elazar, grandson of Aaron (Moses’ brother). Pinchus (the name from which Phinneaus is Anglicized) is a common enough Hebrew name.
My own kids have only Hebrew names - specifically -
Avraham Yosef Dovid
Chaim Shmuel
Tzivya Machla
And that’s how it’s spelled on their birth certificates.
Zev Steinhardt
Gotta wonder what Momma Burress was thinking when she named her son Plaxico.
Which is precisely how my sister spells her name. Doesn’t help - everyone still gets it wrong.
My mother was one of 4 Margarets on her street. That’s why our names are “different”
I know a real life Phinneas. Yesenia is a popular female Hispanic name (at least, out here in California it is).
Howyadoin,
Isn’t Yesenia just a tad close to Yersinia, as in Yersinia Pestis (black plague bacteria)?
Oh, and zev, you might want to frame those birth certificates, cause it’s a fair bet that that’ll be the last time those names are spelled correctly on a document not written by one of your family! 
-Rav
I don’t mind any of the one’s on the OP’s list. But some of the ones on the Baby Name website that someone linked to in pregnancy chatrooms thread.
Come on…a lot of those were just WRONG. Pure D Wrong (and no, I have no idea what that means :D). What was the one name the website moderator was making fun of?
Rodana? Something about her destroying Tokyo? And that was far, FAR from the worst one.
I think that when a name goes so far over the edge in an attempt to be trendy, cool and different it really shows, and then the poor kid has to grow up with some monstrosity of a pretentious name, until he or she is old enough to think of a liveable nickname, or is able to change it legally.
I’d sure be interested in what some of these kids do upon reaching 18, regarding changing their names.
I just can’t hear the name Phinneas without thinking of poor Phineas Gage so I don’t think I could use that as a name!
I have an unusual name and although I like it, I do get tired of having it constantly misspelled. The only time I really disliked it, though, was when a poor congressional intern of the same name went and had an affair with her congressman, got kidnapped and was later found dead. I really got tired of the “We found her!” jokes. That’s really not funny and it’s in quite poor taste to make jokes about someone who’s missing.
Sorry, can’t get on your bandwagon. When my son was in 5 th grade, (class of 20 children) there were two "Nick"s. two. So it was always “Nick with the round face” or “skinny Nick”.
I’d rather have a variety to avoid calling out “hey Bob” in a room full of 40 year old men and having 1/3 of them respond.
an old boss of mine used to complain at length about ‘made up names’. I found it highly ironic since her name was a combination of her father’s first syllable and her mothers second syllable.
and, in closing, let me point out that the fact that the name doesn’t mean anything to you, doesn’t prove that the name means ‘nothing’ to the person selecting it.
I will however, acknowledge that I ruled the following options (posed by my now ex husband) as names for our son: Ryder, Austin, Boston, Denver.
Hmm, I knew a girl named that when I was in high school. I thouht it was a gorgeous name. I have a feeling that some of these people choose, however misguided, these super duper hyped up respellinated (not a real word, of course) baby names in a desparate attempt to not have their child be one of several dozen "Brittneys’ in the class.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, who is now 25, every pregnant woman my age that Iknew, and plenty I heard about (news, that sort of thing) was naming their little girls some “ney” name. Whitney, Brittney, Courtney, Tiffany and Jennifer. Little boys were Michael, Jordan, and Joshua, or Jeremiah/ Jeremy.
There is nothing wrong with those names. Other than, as some said in the other thread, your poor kid being known as Brittney R for 12 years out of her life. I didn’t try to respell the name I chose, but no other pregnant women I knew or had heard of were planning on using it. Nor had I seen any little girls or baby girls with the same name.
I knew one adult woman with the name, and she liked it.
So, I named my daughter Scarlett. She loves it now, and the name does suit her, she’s a very determined and tenacious young lady, and she’s very beautiful and ornery as well.
But, seems that Ms. Johanssen musta been tucked away thinking the same thing all those years ago when She was preggers. 
Sigh, well you do the best you can.
I thought about starting a thread once on the names of pro football players. Off the top of my head and parts of the NFL players list:
Champ
Deltha
Tatum
Quentin
Raylee
Kenoy
Kendrell
Deshea
Keydrick
Kimo
I don’t mean to single any particular name, nationality, or race out. I’m sure that some names are more common in other parts of the world. But for whatever reason, there seems to be a predominance of somewhat-odd names in sports, especially football.
Actually, you’d be surprised how often it comes out wrong even among other Orthodox Jews. Considering that they are really just transliterations of Hebrew names, there is no “official” spelling.
As a result, Avraham often comes out as Avrohom. And don’t ask how many different ways “Tzivya” can be spelled…
Zev Steinhardt
Not only the first names. Football players have some really unusual last names, too, or at least it seems that way to me. Not necessarily truly bizarre, but a lot of the time, a football player’s last name is the first time I’ve ever heard it.
I worked with a Jaycie once, (and damn, was she ever a bitch!), but it was short for Jacqueline.
One can name one’s child something unusual without it being totally off the wall. (And let’s face it-a lot of those “unusual” names are being used by every mom who bought “What to Name Your Baby” from Wal-Mart!)
It’s not a choice between Jane and Madacynn Sunbeam! Why not something like say, Olivia, Audrey, Genevieve or Ramona for a girl, or Philip, Oliver, Lucas or Gabriel for a boy?
Something in the middle, people. A name that’s recognizable but not been done to death, like Jane or Bill. And uncommon but not outlandish like Kylei Marysca or Jaycen Mykal.
not to single you out, but…
what exactly is your damage here? in what way does some one else’s name cause you trouble?
the clients I work with often have ‘non standard’ names, spellings. I routinely ask “how do you spell that?” and I don’t consider it a huge burden to me. My son has to routinely spell his last name for folks 'cause his father’s last name is a non standard spelling. So what?
I chose to revert to my maiden name after I divorced my son’s father. Guess what? folks had to not refer to me as “Mrs. son’slastname” poor dears. I chose to keep my name when I remarried. Wow. Folks then had to keep referring to me the same way they had for years, instead of learning a whole new name. gasp.
There’s another thread in the pit about folks getting on others cases for things that arent’ their business (their weight, hobbies, hair color, style of dress etc.). suggesting that if it isn’t your business and it’s not causing you difficulties, then STFU.
There’s a long list of things I’d care about other people’s parenting: if they physically abuse the child, refuse to feed the child, sexually abuse the child, allow them to play with matches, poisonous snakes, alligators etc.; left them alone in a car in summer heat, left them unattended at young ages, deprived them of sleep, love, attention etc etc etc.
naming them something that the parent likes doesn’t even come up on the radar screen.
YMMV
Heh.
I have a good friend who worked in a PICU, and had to work to convince a new mother not to name her little girl Klamidea.
She thought it sounded pretty.
Jeez wring, chill out. It IS a thread where we are discussing wierd kid names and what we think of them, not trying to rank the world’s parenting problems in order of importance. Thread title seemed to cover it for me.
NFL players- don’t forget the cutie twins, Tiki and Rondell Barber!
My goddaughter is named Frankie Sage- after her grandfather (Frank) and the abundant flora in the canyon where they live. Her brother is named Jean-Luc Patrice- after the captain on Star Trek and his grandmother. Their little sister is named Chani Paris- after the character in Dune and the city where she was concieved!
The Frank story- he wanted a grandchild named after him pretty desperately, but his kids were adamant- nobody liked the name Frank for a boy! So when Frankie was born, they named her after him. He couldn’t have been more proud! And as you might expect from her name, she is independent, rebellious, smart and a tomboy.
If they’re named after Spears who sang ‘Baby One More Time’, it’s ‘Britney’.
Or a “Grill”?
I had a friend once who named her cat this. I thought it was cool as all get out.
Ok, now for the rest… (I don’t know why I always post in these threads, but here goes throwing caution to the wind.) I have an unusually spelled name. When I was younger, I truly only remember a single other kid making fun of it and I’ve now had it for 36 years. One problem I did have with it was thinking all sorts of things must be made with strange spellings. Of course, there are Kwik Kleaners and Handi Whipers (or some such), so I suppose they’d get that idea wherever they looked.
I was kinda proud of it. I wish it sounded more mature, but that had more to do with using the nickname version (which I still do – long story) than the long form. As an adult, it just is what it is. Not very sophisticated, but seems to fit my personality. Hey, what’s that you’re saying?!? 
It is NEVER put down on paper correctly, even when someone is reading it straight off an official document (like my driver’s license) or it is for something important and I’ve explained it very s-l-o-w-l-y. However, I know it’s whacked, so I just make jokes about it and am patient and amused. I usually tell them that literally everyone does it and that my mom, being probably hyped up on good delivery drugs, just couldn’t spell in general. Or it was the 60s. 
As for reserving tables or getting hair cuts, why bother? Make me a plain ol’ Kimberly like everyone else. Ain’t like I’ll be honor bound to keep it that, even if anyone remembers it again.
However, despite all the supposed uproar, I absolutely love ‘different’ names. Now I’m not so fond of bizarre spellings to the nth degree, like Raighaynne or Tymathie. But taking something more common and transforming it into Carley is cool by more. And actually, what I’d have preferred if I’d ever planned on having children of my own is a surname as a first. Oooh, things like Cooper, Gehrig (for a boy and as a baseball fan/former first baseman, that rocks!), Spencer and Sloan (for girls – tres awesome, and I’ve adored the latter since Ferris – which I like too, by the way). So I say to these folks… go for it! I’d rather have something that I’ve never heard or seen before than to deal with another John (my Dad) or Juanita (my aunt, which is a very lovely name, but went through a period when its truncated version wasn’t identified with a very nice individual who had a similar first -and- last) and finally my mother (Margaret, who also chose to go by another moniker). Therefore, I really, truly get it. We always could use more variety in the world, right?
Also, I wouldn’t mind my name being some a little more creative. I’ve always wanted the name Keaton. Add McKenzie (in whatever form) and just add water. Voila! A new faithfool.
P.S. I liked most the ones mentioned too. Does that make me really goofy? I mean, more so than usual.
I’ll answer for my parents. They both have names that aren’t made up, but have never been in the top 100. They chose to give me a name that they made up (a few other people also managed to make up the same name, so there are a few of us out there). Yes, I have to spell it but I don’t mind. No, I’ve never been teased about it. My kids will probably have a traditional name. Not because there’s anything wrong with new names, but to prevent people from judging them and their background based on what they’re called. As far as I know, this has never happened to me, but after the thread where the guy mentioned tossing out applications that had made up names, I’m not going to take a chance.
so it’s not ok to disagree that the OP is worthy of pitting? I missed that rule change.