Eye-rolling baby names

HobokensFury

grumbledore said:

eg72 said:

I like traditional names. No unique spellings, locations, or car names. I also say that you should think of the child introducing themselves. Can you really imagine a businessman or woman introducing themselves as "Bentley" or "Brooklyn" and being taken seriously? No.

I am also in the camp that children should be named what they will go by. My name is Mary Emma, I go by Emma. I like the sound of Mary Emma together but I hate correcting people. FI is James, goes by Jay. We want our kids to go by the name they are given.

There are a lot of the names on the "most popular" list that I like but wouldn't use simply because I know 500 Jacksons and Avas. Great names, too popular. even though my name is on the most popular list, I only know 1 other "Emma" that is my age. The others are older and a relative I was named after.

PS, I like biblical and strong names.

I actually disagree very strongly with this.  I hate it when parents give nicknames as full names.  Abby, instead of Abigail, for example.

I agree with you. My son is AJ but I wasn't going to be an asshole and put 2 letters as a first name on his birth certificate.

afox007

FI tutored a student who was actually named La-a pronounced Ladasha. The fact that FSS brings this up to laugh about it years later proves this girl has probably had a really rough time with her name.

I also hate that thanks to twilight there are now a ton of Edwards. Edward is my dads middle name and I had been planning to use it as my future sons middle name since I was in 6th grade. Now it will just seem like I jumped on the twilight bandwagon.

emmaaa

grumbledore said:

eg72 said:

I like traditional names. No unique spellings, locations, or car names. I also say that you should think of the child introducing themselves. Can you really imagine a businessman or woman introducing themselves as "Bentley" or "Brooklyn" and being taken seriously? No.

I am also in the camp that children should be named what they will go by. My name is Mary Emma, I go by Emma. I like the sound of Mary Emma together but I hate correcting people. FI is James, goes by Jay. We want our kids to go by the name they are given.

There are a lot of the names on the "most popular" list that I like but wouldn't use simply because I know 500 Jacksons and Avas. Great names, too popular. even though my name is on the most popular list, I only know 1 other "Emma" that is my age. The others are older and a relative I was named after.

PS, I like biblical and strong names.

I actually disagree very strongly with this.  I hate it when parents give nicknames as full names.  Abby, instead of Abigail, for example.

@grumbledore I get that. My FI doesn't mind when people call him James or he has to correct them but it is a pain for us sometimes so we would rather have our kids go by whatever name we give them. But, FWIW, the names we like for our future children aren't ones that warrant nicknames anyways.

grumbledore

lolo883 said:

grumbledore said:

eg72 said:

I like traditional names. No unique spellings, locations, or car names. I also say that you should think of the child introducing themselves. Can you really imagine a businessman or woman introducing themselves as "Bentley" or "Brooklyn" and being taken seriously? No.

I am also in the camp that children should be named what they will go by. My name is Mary Emma, I go by Emma. I like the sound of Mary Emma together but I hate correcting people. FI is James, goes by Jay. We want our kids to go by the name they are given.

There are a lot of the names on the "most popular" list that I like but wouldn't use simply because I know 500 Jacksons and Avas. Great names, too popular. even though my name is on the most popular list, I only know 1 other "Emma" that is my age. The others are older and a relative I was named after.

PS, I like biblical and strong names.

I actually disagree very strongly with this.  I hate it when parents give nicknames as full names.  Abby, instead of Abigail, for example.

I only agree when you just choose a name that doesn't lend itself easily to nicknames. Nobody's going to call an Emma much else besides Emma. Don't name your kid Susie just so she's called her true given name. And if you don't want your kid to ever be called Becca, don't name her Rebecca to begin with. Pick a different name, or get over it.

True story. My great-grandmother hated that nobody ended up being called their given name, just a nickname, so what's the point? "If I name the baby William, people will call him Bill. If I name him Bill, they'll call him Billy." So did she just choose a name like Jack that couldn't be shortened? Nope, she named my grandfather Billy. What'd he end up going by? Bill. Because Billy is a ridiculous name when you grow up to be a Navy pilot.

Exactly, I don't think this is something you can control.  If you are going to call your kid Billy, just fucking name him William so he can have a real name when he grows up if he wants.

grumbledore

eg72 said:

grumbledore said:

eg72 said:

I like traditional names. No unique spellings, locations, or car names. I also say that you should think of the child introducing themselves. Can you really imagine a businessman or woman introducing themselves as "Bentley" or "Brooklyn" and being taken seriously? No.

I am also in the camp that children should be named what they will go by. My name is Mary Emma, I go by Emma. I like the sound of Mary Emma together but I hate correcting people. FI is James, goes by Jay. We want our kids to go by the name they are given.

There are a lot of the names on the "most popular" list that I like but wouldn't use simply because I know 500 Jacksons and Avas. Great names, too popular. even though my name is on the most popular list, I only know 1 other "Emma" that is my age. The others are older and a relative I was named after.

PS, I like biblical and strong names.

I actually disagree very strongly with this.  I hate it when parents give nicknames as full names.  Abby, instead of Abigail, for example.

@grumbledore I get that. My FI doesn't mind when people call him James or he has to correct them but it is a pain for us sometimes so we would rather have our kids go by whatever name we give them. But, FWIW, the names we like for our future children aren't ones that warrant nicknames anyways.

Everyone calls me Kate or Katie.  But my name is Katherine.  And when I want to look serious in a letter or email or application or whatever, Katherine looks a hell of a lot more grown up than Katie, even though I have no issue whatsoever with people calling me Katie.  But I'd be annoyed if I didn't have a "full name" to use when appropriate.

cupcait927

grumbledore said:

lolo883 said:

grumbledore said:

eg72 said:

I like traditional names. No unique spellings, locations, or car names. I also say that you should think of the child introducing themselves. Can you really imagine a businessman or woman introducing themselves as "Bentley" or "Brooklyn" and being taken seriously? No.

I am also in the camp that children should be named what they will go by. My name is Mary Emma, I go by Emma. I like the sound of Mary Emma together but I hate correcting people. FI is James, goes by Jay. We want our kids to go by the name they are given.

There are a lot of the names on the "most popular" list that I like but wouldn't use simply because I know 500 Jacksons and Avas. Great names, too popular. even though my name is on the most popular list, I only know 1 other "Emma" that is my age. The others are older and a relative I was named after.

PS, I like biblical and strong names.

I actually disagree very strongly with this.  I hate it when parents give nicknames as full names.  Abby, instead of Abigail, for example.

I only agree when you just choose a name that doesn't lend itself easily to nicknames. Nobody's going to call an Emma much else besides Emma. Don't name your kid Susie just so she's called her true given name. And if you don't want your kid to ever be called Becca, don't name her Rebecca to begin with. Pick a different name, or get over it.

True story. My great-grandmother hated that nobody ended up being called their given name, just a nickname, so what's the point? "If I name the baby William, people will call him Bill. If I name him Bill, they'll call him Billy." So did she just choose a name like Jack that couldn't be shortened? Nope, she named my grandfather Billy. What'd he end up going by? Bill. Because Billy is a ridiculous name when you grow up to be a Navy pilot.

Exactly, I don't think this is something you can control.  If you are going to call your kid Billy, just fucking name him William so he can have a real name when he grows up if he wants.

FI goes by Billy. He and FFIL are both William but his dad goes by Bill and FI has gone by Billy since he was a baby. At almost 28 years old, he's still Billy to his friends and family. However, at work (he's a banker) he goes by Bill and always introduces himself as Bill. To me he'll always be Billy but it's a childish name to go by as a professional adult. If/when we have a son, he'll go by Jack (William John) and can choose if he wants to go by William/Bill/John/whatever when he gets older.

theartistformerlyknownas

afox007 said:

FI tutored a student who was actually named La-a pronounced Ladasha. The fact that FSS brings this up to laugh about it years later proves this girl has probably had a really rough time with her name. I also hate that thanks to twilight there are now a ton of Edwards. Edward is my dads middle name and I had been planning to use it as my future sons middle name since I was in 6th grade. Now it will just seem like I jumped on the twilight bandwagon.

I'm sorry, I really, truly cannot believe this. EVERYBODY claims to "know someone who knows someone" named La-a, Orangejello/Lemonjello, Shithead (Shy-theed), etc. You'd think the schools would be overrun with them, but they're not. They all started as racist email jokes, and don't appear in the actual SSA name database.

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp

JCbride2015

lolo883 said:

afox007 said:

FI tutored a student who was actually named La-a pronounced Ladasha. The fact that FSS brings this up to laugh about it years later proves this girl has probably had a really rough time with her name. I also hate that thanks to twilight there are now a ton of Edwards. Edward is my dads middle name and I had been planning to use it as my future sons middle name since I was in 6th grade. Now it will just seem like I jumped on the twilight bandwagon.

I'm sorry, I really, truly cannot believe this. EVERYBODY claims to "know someone who knows someone" named La-a, Orangejello/Lemonjello, Shithead (Shy-theed), etc. You'd think the schools would be overrun with them, but they're not. They all started as racist email jokes, and don't appear in the actual SSA name database.

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp

God I hope you're right.

VulgarGirl

The cute spellings drive me nuts. 

I had someone ask me how spell my name. My name is Fiona. They did not know how to spell Fiona. So I spell it out F-I-O-N-A, and I'm told "Oh, I've never heard it spelled that way before! My best friend's daughter is named Fiona but she spells it P-h-e-e-o-n-h-a" what the the fuck? Why? Why would you do that to a kid? I also had someone ask me if I did it with a y or an e or an i. My parents were nice, they made spelling easy on me.

I generally stand by the rule that if you want to give your kid a weird name, do it to the middle name. People can get by without using their middle names socially. I have a friend whose middle name is Adolf. It's a family name apparently and he tells very few people what it is. He just uses his initial most of the time. My middle name is Dove. Love it for a middle name. Not great for a first name.

So far my friends who have had kids have been well behaved in the name department. Noting too trendy or too unique. Though one friend did Ellie. Which is a fine name, but that's the full name. Just Ellie. Kind of sucks if she wants something more "grown up" when she's older. 

VulgarGirl

lolo883 said:

Oh man this list is fantastic.

http://www.stfuparentsblog.com/post/79164903260/yoonique-baby-names-2014-edition 

STFU parents is the best blog ever and we should all be reading it if we are not.

theartistformerlyknownas

MagicInk said:

lolo883 said:

Oh man this list is fantastic.

http://www.stfuparentsblog.com/post/79164903260/yoonique-baby-names-2014-edition 

STFU parents is the best blog ever and we should all be reading it if we are not.

Totally agree. It's one of my faves!

doeydo

I have a name that isn't very common, but when you hear it it sounds familiar and isn't unheard of, if that makes sense.  Like, I had never been in a class with someone who had the same name as me.  There are also several ways of spelling it.  
For example, let's say my name is Rebecca.  What bugs me is whenever I meet people, they always say "Do you go by Becca or Becky?"  Neither, my name is Rebecca, thank you very much...

emmaaa

ckel24 said:

grumbledore said:

lolo883 said:

grumbledore said:

eg72 said:

I like traditional names. No unique spellings, locations, or car names. I also say that you should think of the child introducing themselves. Can you really imagine a businessman or woman introducing themselves as "Bentley" or "Brooklyn" and being taken seriously? No.

I am also in the camp that children should be named what they will go by. My name is Mary Emma, I go by Emma. I like the sound of Mary Emma together but I hate correcting people. FI is James, goes by Jay. We want our kids to go by the name they are given.

There are a lot of the names on the "most popular" list that I like but wouldn't use simply because I know 500 Jacksons and Avas. Great names, too popular. even though my name is on the most popular list, I only know 1 other "Emma" that is my age. The others are older and a relative I was named after.

PS, I like biblical and strong names.

I actually disagree very strongly with this.  I hate it when parents give nicknames as full names.  Abby, instead of Abigail, for example.

I only agree when you just choose a name that doesn't lend itself easily to nicknames. Nobody's going to call an Emma much else besides Emma. Don't name your kid Susie just so she's called her true given name. And if you don't want your kid to ever be called Becca, don't name her Rebecca to begin with. Pick a different name, or get over it.

True story. My great-grandmother hated that nobody ended up being called their given name, just a nickname, so what's the point? "If I name the baby William, people will call him Bill. If I name him Bill, they'll call him Billy." So did she just choose a name like Jack that couldn't be shortened? Nope, she named my grandfather Billy. What'd he end up going by? Bill. Because Billy is a ridiculous name when you grow up to be a Navy pilot.

Exactly, I don't think this is something you can control.  If you are going to call your kid Billy, just fucking name him William so he can have a real name when he grows up if he wants.

FI goes by Billy. He and FFIL are both William but his dad goes by Bill and FI has gone by Billy since he was a baby. At almost 28 years old, he's still Billy to his friends and family. However, at work (he's a banker) he goes by Bill and always introduces himself as Bill. To me he'll always be Billy but it's a childish name to go by as a professional adult. If/when we have a son, he'll go by Jack (William John) and can choose if he wants to go by William/Bill/John/whatever when he gets older.

Fi has a cousin who is Edward James, and has always gone by Sam. The looks he gets when he explains that to people are funny! But it's an inside/family thing so it works for him.

theartistformerlyknownas

So just for funsies I downloaded the actual SSA database, which lists every name given to more than 5 people in any given year. Last year, there were actually five unlucky little boys named "Trystian." Ugh.

emmaaa

I can see that it really isn't plausible to use only the names children will go by on the birth certificate. I guess I was thinking more of my personal name choices. But what everyone brought up makes a lot of sense.

BTW, I like when a female name does not end in the "long e" sound to sound more grown up. Like Katherine instead of Katie, or Elleanor instead of Ellie, so that certainly proves the point.

cupcait927

@eg72 Oh I'm sure our kid will have people who wonder why he's called Jack and not Bill/Billy/William lol. It's so confusing sometimes to be at FIL's house and her FMIL call out "Bill!" and both FI and FFIL answer. Plus FI and his dad are always getting the other one's mail and more times than I can count has someone added FFIL as a friend on FB when they meant to friend FI (or vice versa).

@doyedo I know what you mean about the nickname/shortened version thing. I have a very common name that has a very common shortened version. I haven't gotten asked in the last year or so if I go by the shortened version or not but when I was younger, half the time people wouldn't even ask, they would just assume I went by the short version and call me that. Now, I absolute hate the shortened version of my name and have gotten a little snappy on more than one occasion with people who insist upon calling me despite knowing my preference.

theartistformerlyknownas

eg72 said:

I can see that it really isn't plausible to use only the names children will go by on the birth certificate. I guess I was thinking more of my personal name choices. But what everyone brought up makes a lot of sense.

BTW, I like when a female name does not end in the "long e" sound to sound more grown up. Like Katherine instead of Katie, or Elleanor instead of Ellie, so that certainly proves the point.

If I have a daughter, I want to name her Jocelyn (to pay tribute to my grandmother Joyce and my sister whose middle name is Lynne, but I'm not a big enough jackass to make it Jocelynne) - she could go by Josie or Jojo when she's little, and still have a grown-up version to fall back on. I wish that the "end all the girls' names in 'lyn" craze would go away within the next year or so though.

whitjoy

lolo883 said:

afox007 said:

FI tutored a student who was actually named La-a pronounced Ladasha. The fact that FSS brings this up to laugh about it years later proves this girl has probably had a really rough time with her name. I also hate that thanks to twilight there are now a ton of Edwards. Edward is my dads middle name and I had been planning to use it as my future sons middle name since I was in 6th grade. Now it will just seem like I jumped on the twilight bandwagon.

I'm sorry, I really, truly cannot believe this. EVERYBODY claims to "know someone who knows someone" named La-a, Orangejello/Lemonjello, Shithead (Shy-theed), etc. You'd think the schools would be overrun with them, but they're not. They all started as racist email jokes, and don't appear in the actual SSA name database.

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp

SSA only shows the top 1000 names in the past few years, and FI is friends with them on FB, not made-up.

sweetwisconsin

Oh man I can totally hop on this topic. I work in the lab at a hospital and I test the cord blood on the newborns. When I see some of the names I personally want to go up and punch the moms. I wish I could tell you guys some of the most ridiculous combinations of first and middle names I have seen.

Some of the dumb ones people I know have come up with though include; Masyn, Lyric Rayne (barf), Acacia, Grayley, Berkeley (with no ties to the school or city), Arian (not particularly bad, but my fiance thought they meant it as in Aryan race when they told us his name.) Also mom's name is Kristin and kids name is Tristan. Another moms name is Becky and kids name is Beckett (they call him Bex. So it is Becky and Bex).

That's all I can think of right now.

beethery

I went to school with a girl named Loreal (her mom was a hairdresser), and my mom went to school with a girl named Aquanetta. I have ALWAYS wondered if Aquanetta was Loreal's mom, it wouldn't be that far of a stretch, because I met more than a few kids in school that actually attended high school with my parents.

Aquanetta's parents were foreign and they liked how the words sounded. I also have a friend who's dad REALLY wanted to name her 'Crystal Clear' because it sounded cool (her parents are eastern european and had very little grip on the english language), but her mom would not allow it.

KPBM89

A kid I went to high school with was named Richard Burns.  For short, that's Dick Burns.

JCbride2015

KPBM89 said:

A kid I went to high school with was named Richard Burns.  For short, that's Dick Burns.

Ouch.

My mom went to school with a kid named Donald Ducque.

grumbledore

<<<<<<-------- is now addicted to STFU, Parents.

sweetwisconsin

My grandparents only had a boy named picked out. So when my mom was born she went nameless for a few days. My grandmother got a nightgown as a gift while in the hospital. On the tag it said "Adonna" and they thought that was pretty. My poor mom. It is still a brand in JC Penny's today. My mom has a robe with the tag "Adonna" in it and jokes it already has her name sewn in. 

MrsMack10612

I will never understand all the crazy names and spellings.

I used to work in a drs office and had to do insurance confirmations, I came across a brother and sister named Casanova and Tapioca.  Oy.

My name is Kristina, I have spent almost my entire life stating:  My name is Kristina with a K and an A.  Everyone always assumes CH and that it's TINE, not TINA.

jdluvr06

I don't like names that sounds made up. Like Braleigh and Shayden. I don't unsual spellings. If you want to name your kid something unique then do it. Don't pick a normal name and then butcher the spelling.

theartistformerlyknownas

whitjoy said:

lolo883 said:

afox007 said:

FI tutored a student who was actually named La-a pronounced Ladasha. The fact that FSS brings this up to laugh about it years later proves this girl has probably had a really rough time with her name. I also hate that thanks to twilight there are now a ton of Edwards. Edward is my dads middle name and I had been planning to use it as my future sons middle name since I was in 6th grade. Now it will just seem like I jumped on the twilight bandwagon.

I'm sorry, I really, truly cannot believe this. EVERYBODY claims to "know someone who knows someone" named La-a, Orangejello/Lemonjello, Shithead (Shy-theed), etc. You'd think the schools would be overrun with them, but they're not. They all started as racist email jokes, and don't appear in the actual SSA name database.

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp

SSA only shows the top 1000 names in the past few years, and FI is friends with them on FB, not made-up.

The lists that are published in the media are only the top 1000, but the full database includes every name which was given to 5 or more babies born that year. It's updated yearly. Smarter people than me have done much broader analyses of these and not found those names. If as many people as claim to know these people actually did, there would be far more than 5 babies in any given year. Maybe there are 1 or 2, but my default setting is disbelief.

FiancB

I know way too many Liams and Lilleys. I like both names and would probably use them, but sheesh when you know a dozen kids with the same name, pick something else already. 

I know a James Bond. He's a little younger than me, so it's not like he was born pre-franchise. He said a place called him for a job interview and then they said they didn't really intend to hire him, they just wanted to see if his name really was James Bond. 

My sister went to high school in the 90s with an Arwen, Eowyn, and a pair of brothers named Bilbo and Frodo. Unrelated other than the brothers. I can deal with Arwen and Eowyn but the brothers, not so much. Bilbo went by Bill, idk about Frodo. Not sure where the sudden fad of small town Oregonians naming their kids after LOTR characters came from seeing as they were all born in the late 70s, so long after the books and long before the movies. 

I have a friend named after a dog and my boss named her kid after her favorite horse, but they are pretty normal names so it's okay I guess. 

thisismynickname2

Fully agree with the "don't give normal names weird spellings" views.

I have a Biblical name that can't be shortened but people do anyway. It's not a William/Bill nickname thing, just using the first four of six letters. People call me the short version for verbal laziness, so I like that no one can screw up my name.

My sister's name is Joanne.  It's normal enough now, but I wonder when it was created--- were people like, "By golly, they shortened Josephine and Anne into 'Joanne'- the horror!"

Luckily, the only face-palming I had to do on Facebook anytime recently was seeing someone's little boy named "Knollyn".  Because Nolan isn't good enough, you had to give him a name like, "Don't the loadies prefer that grassy knoll over there?" << Clueless reference

NavyBlue143

Uniquia and Dude.