Are you kidding me with these baby names?

Question

Ok, I know we all want our kids to stand out, but people, it's getting ridiculous! What is wrong with conventional names? Do you think it's going to be funny when the teacher mispronounces the name in front of the whole class? I have had some crazy names come through my office,( I work in a hospital), like tearston, rage and foreign for boys. Not to mention normal names with crazy spellings, like Dannyelle (pronounced Danielle), Kalleigh (pronounced Callie), and Keightl'nne (pronounced Caitlin) Who cares how it's spelled? What happened to Maggie, Ashley, and Joshua? So my question is, are we trying to be too different or am I just too conservative?

Mariposa, My name is not PJ, it's my initials, and what I name myself online is a little different than naming a child for the rest of their life.

And I'm not saying all children should have the same name, I like names like Isabella and Catherine. But I'm talking like crazy names and spellings. I agree that being one af many mikes would be a pain. But so would being the only Agamemnon!

Answer 1

PJ, a lot of parents don't apply what I call the "schoolyard rule". That is, when naming your child, remember that he/she is going to have to carry that name through the school system for TWELVE LONG YEARS! Any name that could subject your child to undue ridicule or embarrassment is not a good choice.

Like for instance that famous rock star guy who called his kid "Pilot Inspektor"

Or a guy I know who named his SON "Gabrielle" (yes, his SON is named "Gabrielle" - he might as well his named his son Gaylord or Quentin, for God's sake!)

Or my mom, who named my older sister Parke (my sister got it legally changed to Patricia on her 18th birthday - I mean my sister was literally standing in front of Queens County Family Court at 8:30 AM on her 18th birthday to get her name changed - she hadn't let anybody call her "Parke" in years, but she wanted to make sure that she was legally named "Patricia" as soon as she could)

Creativity is good for many things - naming a kid is NOT one of them

There's nothing wrong with John or Jane, Maria or Mario, Steven or Elizabeth, Karim or Malika, those are NORMAL REAL NAMES that will not subject your child to abuse or ridicule or school yard beatings or years of therapy as an adult!

Answer 2

I agree. I have a daughter named Emily (not Emmalee, Emiliee, Emaleigh, etc.) I don't want her to have to spell it for the rest of her life. I was looking at baby name books tonight and they were called things like "15,000 baby names" I'm thinking who needs 15,000 baby names? We are expecting a son and I think a book of the 500 most common names would suffice for sure. We will probably use something from the top 100. Being Mike R. isn't the end of the world. It's way better than Agamemnon or some other such weird name. Also I don't like it when parents try to make a statement with their kids' name. If it's obvious what your interests are from the name of your child, that's not cool. Your child might not share your interests. A child needs a good, sturdy name that won't raise too many eyebrows. I betcha people with strange names have trouble getting jobs. Another trend I don't like is people using boys names for girls. I see girls named Hunter and Jordan (neither of which is even a name, but if you're going to use it at least don't use it for a girl)

Answer 3

I agree to a point. I like different names but not those where you dont know how to pronounce it. I recall some wanting to name their child Jeffinda after his and her names. I thought that was awful. I like names like Sage, kaelyn, Alexa. I believe Maggie should be left in the 80's and Ashley in the 90's. Now I love Madelynn and Ashlynn to take their place. And enough with every little girl being named Caitlin. Its not cute anymore. But Joshua and Michael will always be a classic in my mind.
I wonder why some many are using Y in their child's name.....Wynter, Nycole, and Mychelle. I know I would hate to be a teacher these days.

Answer 4

I agree, sometimes people can take a bit far with the spelling of their childrens name. It's not their name or spelling that will make them unique, but the person they are.

Having said that though, I am currently 38 weeks expecting a boy, and when my partner and I were deciding on names we did look for ones that were not as common as names like Thomas, Joshua, Lachlan etc. (these names are popular in Australia anyway)

We both agreed that it would be good if our little man had a name that no one else in his class was likely to have, and one that was hard to rhyme with. (prevents teasing!)

In the end we decided on Zachary - hopefully he suits it! And as you can see its not way out there!

I don't think you are being to conservative at all, I know alot of people who share your opinion - and like I said before some people are taking the names/spellings a little too far.

Answer 5

What is wrong with parents naming their children what they want to? I hated going to school with 5 other Melissa's (in my class). If the child doesn't like it, then they have every right to change it once they are legal age, but i wont let someone who thinks everyone should have conventional names, name my children for me. Granted, some parents may go a little over board (thinking Apple and Suri) but that is the parents right. If you can't pronounce the childs name, then ask the parents before addressing the child. I named my children Zachary (which wasn't TOO common at the time), now there are Zachary's all over the place, and my youngest son's name is Zalen (pronounced Zae-lin). I doubt we will run into to many others named Zalen. I'm not asking you to name you child something off the wall, so what gives you the right to put down anothers creativeness?

Answer 6

Keightl'nne!?

I saw one almost as weird as that. It was Khate-Lhynneh.

People use kreeativ spelengs because they want to seem hip and trendy, so they LOVE Katelyn or Brie or whatever the current fad is, yet they want to be unique. Heaven forbid you should spell your name the same way as someone else. People who are that preoccupied with being 'cool' and 'popular' should not be having children. They should try high school instead.

Acadia is considered a 'weird' name by many people. Some close friends call me Cady and that causes even more problems when someone overhears it, misunderstands it as Katie, and then tells someone my real name is Katherine or Kathleen.

That being said, I am glad that it's my name. It IS a real name even if people are too uneducated to know it. And the educated people I have met do not hesitate to spell it correctly ... if they're college graduates they don't even bat an eye. It's 16-year-old kids looking for a sugar daddy who say things like "Man, yo momma couldn't come up with NO good names, huh?" that annoy me.

Which leads me to my pet peeve. Made-up names. My nephew's name is Davin. This is a real name; it's Scandinavian and means "Finnish person". But my sister-in-law did not know that. She thought she was a genius for making it up. I was the one who suggested she play with sounds and letters to decide what SORT of name to choose. But then she refused to tell anyone that Davin was a real name. He is 3 and to this day she tells everyone that it's made up.

If they turn out to be real, or at least SOUND like a name, that's cool with me. But Dha'Liyyah? Balanish? Tryneeka? I have met people with those names. I have NO idea how anyone could think they sound like good name choices. I mean, think of it. Dha'Liyyah as a lawyer? I wouldn't hire her.

My all-time most hated kreeativ speleng was a butchering of my fiance's name, Damien. Some people spell it Damian, sometimes Damion. Sometimes people think he's a girl and spell it Daymienne. Which is really ... original. But when we got digital cable the tech guy was NOT the spelling sort. He said "Oh, my sister just named her baby that! D-apostrophe-A-Y-M-Y-O-N-N, right?"

Yep. That's right. D'Aymyonn. WTF was his mom THINKING?

Answer 7

I see what you're saying, but uniqueness is a good thing, but too much of a good thing is bad too. I named my daughter Sydney. Personally I always hated my name(Laurie), because I grew up in a world full of Jennifers and Ashleys(nothing wrong with those names, but too common). There was no one with my name, not even a laura until I met my BFF in High school. My middle name isn't too common either, unless you've seen Silence of the Lambs(I was born way before this movie, my middle name is Clarice). I like the middle name much more than my 1st name.

Answer 8

I don't think there are problems with all interesting and newer names. However I do have issues with the ones where they're heinously misspelled. I had issues enough with the 3 spellings for Ashley. Our daughter's name is Ariana, Ari for short. And although some people think that's a little weird we like it just fine.

Answer 9

I love unique names and spellings. My mom named all of use with different names, and yes teachers will say it wrong, but kids will get used to it. I had teachers say my name wrong all the way up until I was in college, and its not going to ruin their self esteam if a teacher does this in front of a class. People want to be different, some people (or at least myself) find normail names like Maggie, Ashley and Joshua boring and dull.

Answer 10

I once read a snippet written by a lady who said she was considering off-the-wall names for her first child. A friend advised her that before she named the child, she should stand at the front door and yell the name repeatedly, because that's the way she would be hearing it for the next 10 years.

The lady gave her children conventional names.