Contemporary names

[Declaration Day]

Another thing that irks me is parents who give their kid a normal name, but with an outrageous spelling, just to be different.  In my experience, this phenomenon tends to manifest itself in the, um, trailer-dwelling crowd. 

One of my in-laws, who is in that crowd, named her kid Caleb, but spelled it "Kalib".  I usually call him "Kah-leeb".  His mom gets pissed when I do that, but I've never liked her anyway. 

The worst I've seen is Austin spelled "Awstyn".  Yep, also in a trailer park.

[Nightfall]

There's a joke about Hooked on Phonics somewhere in that one, Declaration Day... 

[Tallpine]

There was a couple in Colorado who named their daughter "Crystal"

Sounds really nice, doesn't it?

Her middle name was "River" 

(the Crystal River is near Aspen, CO and Crested Butte, CO )

[Werewolf]

There was a couple in Colorado who named their daughter "Crystal"

Sounds really nice, doesn't it?

Her middle name was "River" 

(the Crystal River is near Aspen, CO and Crested Butte, CO )

Heh-Heh...

That's way better than Dusty when your last name is Rhoades. I'll bet more than one of us here has know a Dusty Rhodes.

[Twycross]

I'm with cosine: I go by either Andrew or Andy.

Morwyn

Morwyn? I'm pretty sure that's not spelled correctly.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Scots-Irish lineage here.

Named my son Julian (family name) Gregory (ditto), but if I had been thinking, the middle would have been MacGregor, since we have a confirmed lineage through that clan.  .  Goes by Greg.

Daughters are Alyssa ('cause it's pretty) LeAndra (mom's name).  Goes by Alyssa.

and Sarah (biblical) Marina ('cause it's pretty). Goes by Sarah.

[wingnutx]

A friend of mine in the 80's who was a Lord of the Rings freak named his three daughters Arwen, Branwyn and Morwyn. Arwen is OK - I guess but the other two??? I cannot imagine the crap they got in school and now that they are adults I sometimes wonder what they're called.

They should name one of them Cirith Ungol.

[Mannlicher]

I like the new names.  In this age of PC in regards to the news media, knowing the name tells us the ethnicity of the perp.  If he is named "LaDewan" or something like that, you now know what the media won't print.

[esheato]

No joke here people...

I have a friend who named his three Birch, Spruce and Cedar. Cedar is the only female..the other two are males.

Take a guess where his interests lie?

Ed

[mustanger98]

I once met a girl named - are you ready for this? - Rebel.  And that's just an hour west of Saint Louis.  I expect there's a lot more girls of that name down South.

I live in Georgia and this is the first I ever heard of it.

[Iain]

Another thing that irks me is parents who give their kid a normal name, but with an outrageous spelling, just to be different.

In their wisdom my parents coupled this rather less common form of Ian/Iain to a surname that is unspellable to many, and unpronounceable to a good few.

Middle name is George and have considered going by it, got called it a lot when I was a kid, in fact being called 'Iain' meant I was usually in trouble.

[charby]

If I was ever to have kids the names I picked for girls were Margaret or Catherine, boys were Matthew or Jonas. I bet you can guess I'm Catholic too.

An interesting take on kids is that my birth name is Christian and people either call me Chris or Charby. When I was 12-13 I was worried that no one would take an adult seriously that was named Chris because I didn't know one single male adult that was named Chris until I overheard a old guy in a store call an even older guy Chris. I figured I was safe then.

When I was growing up there were at least 10 kids in my class that went by Chris so we all go nicknames from early on.

-Charby

[mfree]

My last name is, obviously, Free. I have a WORLD of comedic availability at my fingertips

Although, I dare say that whoever becomes my wife and has those children won't agree to first names of Tax, Sugar, Salt, Caffeine, or Annuity.

Anne Ewity Free?

[Dannyboy]

I've already got the names of my first boy and girl picked out.  Of course, this very thing could keep me from getting married at all because I don't see me negotiating on these.  Catherine Victoria and Liam Patrick.  The future Mrs. Dannyboy will have to suck it up and drive on and maybe try again

[Vodka7]

I worked with a guy named Joel.  Nothing weird about that, right?  Not an easy name to mess up.

Unless, like he did, you pronounce it Joe-El.  Maybe he was related to superman?

[LadySmith]

Got all of y'all beat. Some fool woman in our area named all 5 of her kids after diseases. The girl in my class was named Leukemia. Thought it was a pretty name back in 4th grade. By 5th grade I wanted to slap that child's mama. By 6th grade, Leukemia would've helped me do it. I can't remember her siblings' names.

[thumbody]

When my aunt was in the hospital (in a large city in central MI) having her triplets. She met a young mother in the nursery. My aunt asked :Which one is yours"? The young woman replied "That little girl over there". When asked what the baby's name was the young woman said (Fem-ah-lee).
My aunt said that it was a different  name. The young woman said "I didn't have a name picked out when I came in and told the nurses that,after I delivered her and came to the nursery I saw that the nurses had named her for me"
"Well how do you spell her name "asked my aunt"?
"F-E-M-A-L-E " she answered 

Fast forward about 22 yrs
The house next to us was purchased by a jail psychiatrist from Oakland County MI
We were talking about the oddities that went through the jail system when he said "Last week I even had a young woman prisoner whose name was Female and she pronounced it (Fem-ah-lee)".

[Stickjockey]

Okay, just gotta throw this in here. Long ago, when I was in Elementary school, I knew a Michael Hunt.

























He insisted, for some reason, that people call him Mike-

[Monkeyleg]

thumbody, that must be the 1,000th time I've heard the fem-ah-lee story.

As for "Liam," that's a good, solid Irish name.

Stickjokey, I don't get the joke.

[grampster]

You'd get it if you're mind slipped a bit into the gutter.

[lee n. field]

Branwyn and Morwyn.

Hmm.  I don't recall those names from LOTR.  Welsh mythology?

[cosine]

Stickjokey, I don't get the joke.

Say "Mike" and the guy's last name together quickly (do it softly).  It took me several minutes to get my mind down into the gutter too and get the joke, probably because my mind normally doesn't reside down there. 

[charby]

Stickjokey, I don't get the joke.

Say "Mike" and the guy's last name together quickly (do it softly).  It took me several minutes to get my mind down into the gutter too and get the joke, probably because my mind normally doesn't reside down there. 

or watch Porky's

[Stand_watie]

"B-R-I-A-N", pronounced "Bry-an", right?  Unless you can't spell, and you're too ashamed to admit you mis-spelled it to the hospital registrar, in which case you wind up with a kid named (phonetically) "Bry-an" who spells his name "Brain".

My mother-in-law was the registrar when that particular doozy came through. Poor kid.

[Perd Hapley]

Another thing that irks me is parents who give their kid a normal name, but with an outrageous spelling, just to be different.  In my experience, this phenomenon tends to manifest itself in the, um, trailer-dwelling crowd. 

I've always associated that with the upper-middle class.    The trailer-types I used to know (all white folks) usually had names like "Lafonda" for the girls and something either normal or ridiculously masculine for the boys.  

My mostly-white church has a largely-black Sunday School population.  One of the boys was attending for a few years when they realized that his name was not "Leshawn," but "Lil' Shawn."  

They should name one of them Cirith Ungol.

 Why not go all the way and call one Shelob?  Ooh.