Not long ago, an interviewer quizzed me on camera about whether there's such a thing as a "bad" name: one that would mess up a kid's life. He wanted examples. Staring into the lens, I did my best to evade the topic, as I usually do. It's serious business, telling some real-life kid that his name is horrific. And yes, that includes children of celebrities, whose names are routinely put through the wringer of public scorn. I do my best to keep Baby Name Wizard a scorn-free zone.
But are there limits? Can a name be so terrible that it violates fundamental societal standards and demands condemnation? That question is raised by the big baby-naming story of the week. In Southern New Jersey, a supermarket bakery refused to make a personalized birthday cake for a young boy solely because of his name. To the outrage of the boy's parents, Heath and Deboarah Campbell, ShopRite determined that "Happy Birthday, Adolf Hitler!" was inappropriate to render in icing. (The Campbells got their cake at Wal-Mart instead.) The dispute made headlines around the world.
Question: what is remarkable about this story? Is it that a three-year-old American child is named after Hitler? Frankly, I don't think so. In this nation of 300 million people you can find every point of view, including Nazi sympathizers. (While the parents insisted that "a name's a name" and they chose it just because "wanted their children to have unique names," their lifestyle, including another child named JoyceLynn Aryan Nation, makes the situation pretty clear.) Then is the remarkable part that a store censored a birthday cake? Again, I think not. In fact, the same supermarket had turned down a previous order from the Campbells for a swastika cake. To me, the most fascinating part of the story is that the parents seem to expect public sympathy for their birthday cake plight, on the grounds that names should be above censure.
Mrs. Campell complained to a local newspaper reporter that "ShopRite can't even make a cake for a 3-year-old. That's sad." Mr. Campell said "Other kids get their cake. I get a hard time....It's not fair to my children." Both parents insisted they don't expect the names to cause their children any difficulties in life, saying "How can a name be offensive?"
Despite the Campbells' protestations, the mere fact of "namehood" doesn't magically render words inoffensive. If you named your child...er..."%#$@!," you'd have to be prepared to bake your own birthday cakes. Similarly, the names Adolf Hitler and Aryan Nation aren't just names, they're declarations of contempt for broad swaths of your fellow citizens. So yes, they can be offensive. I'll go a step further and suggest that the names disturb us not merely because of the opinions they represent, but because the parents bestowed those names on children who have no say in the matter. By choosing pariah names, the parents set their kids up for a lifetime of conflicts. Age three at the neighborhood ShopRite is likely only the beginning.
Thinking back on the filmmaker in search of "bad" names, it seems I could now give an easy answer: Adolf Hitler is a bad name. But that answer isn't just easy, it's facile; it's a cop-out. If names are "bad" because they're likely to cause children problems, where do you draw the line?
- At Adolf's sister with the innocuous first name and Aryan Nation middle name?
- At their other sister Honszlynn Hinler, apparently a "kreative" fantasia on the name of Nazi Heinrich Himmler?
- At the kind of names that economist David Figlio has found likeliest to get you left back in school?
- At a name that marks you as a foreigner or outsider in your community?
The extreme case everyone agrees on is fine and well. The tough part is inching in from that edge and still knowing where you stand.
The elusive "bad" name
12/18/2008, 10:21AM
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Comments
I think that if you meet someone with a name that *could* "indicate that toxic level of derision for fellow humans" or be offensive or even stupid, it is probably best to give the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Stallin's mother's thoughts were as far as possible from Joseph Stalin. Maybe Cohen's dad has no idea that his son's name could offend Jewish folks. I do not include the Campbell family since I think that Aryan Nation and Adolph Hitler make it obvious that it was not just coincidence.
As for other names, it is much about style. It is just as likely for the parent of Jayden or Lexus to hear a mom call little Stella or Hugo and think "How could a parent saddle a child with that name?" (My point is not to belittle any of the above names, they are just a matter of style difference.)
Jessica- Congratulations on Alexa Noelle- very elegant name! Wishing you health and happiness!
The Dugger family had their 18th child! Jordyn-Grace Makiya Dugger joins Joshua, twins John-David and Jana, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, twins Jeremiah and Jedidiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah and Jennifer.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20247340,00.html
Jordyn-Grace is not bad really. I'm not loving Makiya though.
More celeb news:
"Angie Harmon and husband Jason Sehorn welcomed their third daughter Thursday, a rep for the actress tells PEOPLE exclusively.
Emery Hope Sehorn is "a healthy baby girl," according to the rep. The newest addition joins sisters Finley Faith, 5, and Avery Grace, 3."
I think Emery and Avery are way too close!
Angie Harmon had said previously that she was scanning baby name books to make sure her choice for the third was *not* listed.
Tirzah, that first para made me think initially that the baby's name was Thursday! (In Australia we would say they "welcomed their third daughter *on* Thursday".) I think Thursday would make an attractive name (I like Sunday too).
Emery and Avery are nice names, but yes, a bit close for sisters I think.
The parents of little Adolph Hitler are on welfare. We are paying for little Adolph's parent's moment of glory, which has gone on far longer than it should have.
I have a friend with a granddaughter named Ryan. Spelled Ryan. The mother has unilaterally decided that it should be pronounced Ree-ann because this is a girl. The rest of the world be damned. This is a relatively innocuous name, which is transformed intoa bad name because this girls first encounter with new people in her life will always be to correct them in the pronunciation of her name.
If you must be wildy creative in the spelling or pronunciation of your child's name, that is your privilege. The problem is when the parents also teach (by example) the child to blame the world for not knowing how to pronounce or spell their wildly creative name.
In regards to people thinking British names are childish, surely thats just because at the moment the main generation who are called these names are children??
When you're a child you can never imagine an adult having your name, unless you happen to have a name that is reaching the end of its popularity and so you already know of adults (or older children you see like adults) with your name. Nowadays I know pleanty of 18+ year olds named Sophie, Katie, Lucy ect and it doesn't seem wierd in the slightest. Likewise I would never think of Debbie or Jenny as childrens names at all.
There is also a large amount of so old its new again with names, particuarly boys, so that names like Alfie and Charlie, 1940sish names I see them as, have become popular. And seeing as how my noyfriends dad is named Charlie I have no problem at all seeing it as a grown mans name. Ditto Alfie, as the name really took off following Eastenders (a soap) character Alfie Moon, who was a grown man.
Finally there is, as I think Riot Delilah mentioned, a sense that Charles, Catherine and Elizabeth sound boring and upper class. I have infact never met a Charles who goes exclusively by Charles. While this may seem in complete contrast to all the American parents who are determind their child should be called their full name, British parents are more than happy to just give children the version of the name they are always going to be called. Plus it saves the hassle of girls called Katie trying to decide if they should write Katie or Katherine on forms, or having to explain to any new teachers that your name is Libby not Elizabeth.
Yes, exactly...the comments we often get on this board about "Can you call a child X if you want the nickname Y" seem very strange to a British ear - we'd mostly just go straight for the nickname.
Keren/Heath - this is true.
I've noticed that Americans say things like "I named her Lourdes but I call her Lola" whereas Brits say "she's called Katie." So for the Brits, there's less of a, or indeed no, difference between what a child is called and the child's legal name. With this thinking, why would you name a child Catherine if she's permanently going to be called Katie?
I do think Americans like to have more options though when it comes to how you can present yourself with your name. A Katie can only be Katie, whereas Catherine has a lot of options.
While naming a child Adolph Hitler is cruel and wrong, it is also (most likely), the product of plain stupidity and ignorance. Stupid people also have to pick names for their babies, and they elect, through their choices, to display just how stupid they really are. The cruelty is just a by-product.
It is unfortunate with little Adolf, as well as his sister Aryan Nation.
Interesting thing though is that in the recent years at least in Eastern Europe versions of name Aryan became reasonably popular. Problem there is that while people are aware of the nazi=bad, they do not link aryan=nazi. Since aryan race theory is not something that people there are very aware about either (it is more along the lines "I heard name in school, can't remember the context"), some mix it up with more contemporary indo-european origin theories, as well as mix it up with local spellings of Greek god Ares, which in some translations appears as Aryan.
Heath, I think the British names sound childish to us because they are nicknames for kids. In the US, children are often called a nickname but the formal name is used when you grow up and want to be taken seriously -- eg. college applications, job interviews etc. (FWIW I always use Catherine IRL, lol). Of course, not true in all cases, but that's where the "childish" comment comes from. I remember being coached by my aunt Sally that if I called her at work I HAD to ask for Sarah. That kind of thing. Some nicknames that are further from the formal name have recently become "stand-alones" here, like Jack and Kate, but almost anything with the -ie ending sounds like something you are called as a child but will grow out of.
Names can be bad. It isn't just something so obvious as Adolf Hitler, it's the parents who named their child Pirate (first name) Jack (middle name). That is a bad name. Actual real case, by the way.
If giving a child a name opens them up to a lifetime of scorn and ridicule, from peers to job interviewers, than yes, there is such a thing as a "bad" name.
Just to clarify my earlier comment--I certainly don't put Lexus, Chyna, Brandy, and Precious on par with Adolf Hitler as "bad" names. Clearly, Hitler is light years worse than the others. No contest. My basic criteria for whether a name was truly bad on some level was whether it made me pity the bearer, or cringe internally for any of a number of reasons. And I'm sure not everyone shares my distaste for pop culture and brand name products--again, it's just my subjective list.
I find the British/American nickname differences interesting. I don't have any problem with calling a grown man Charlie or a grown woman Katie (I've known plenty of these, no big deal)--it's not that they seem infantile or cutesy to me, it's just that they seem incomplete. To me, they are a shortened or familiarized *form* of a name, not a name in and of themselves. Obviously, people use them as independent names, but I wouldn't do it myself. I take this to more of an "extreme" than most people, I think. For instance, DH really liked the name Nora, and I do too, but when I couldn't find any history/meaning for it apart from a shortened form of Eleanora, Honora, etc., I couldn't use it. I liked the long forms, and might've been happy to use them with Nora as a nn, but DH didn't like the longer forms, so it was out.
Sara Ann, I don't think Gevreth is so bad. It doesn't look hard to pronounce to me (I would assume GEV-reth, hard G, soft th--is that wrong?). It either looks ethnic to me (maybe Indian? I had an Indian acquaintance named Ananth, so that's what comes to mind), or like a video game/sci fi kind of name. So if I met a Gevreth and didn't know how his parents got the name, that's what I'd guess. Now, if your cousin came on here before the baby was born and asked, "which do you like better, Gevreth or Garret, we're strongly considering both, and Gevreth is a name we just made up based on a reality show character" I would've definitely said Garret. But now that the kid is named, I certainly wouldn't give them a hard time about it. I actually like it a lot better than most of the "creative" names I see. I'd take Gevreth over Braydin, Jaden, and Raiden any day.
As per NI baby names - having lived in Belfast for 7 years, most of the top 10 was pretty much unsurprizing. That being said, it is really only reflective of one portion of the population. There is a major movement towards Irish names (particularly but not exclusively in the Nationalist/Republican community), which do not feature on the list - mainly because the number of variant spellings tend to "dilute" their popularity ranking. But there is also, to my politicized mind, a very political factor in the list as well, for the above reason. In that sense, the linkages to Laura's post are more obvious: names are as political as they are personal, and to deny on or the other is to miss the point.
As to the popularity of EVA in NI - yes, this is in one part due to the recent Polish influence in the region, and one part the AVA phenomenon from elsewhere, but also as an Anglicization of Irish names such as Aoife, Aoibhe, Aoibheall, Eibhlinn, etc.
Guest from NI -
I have posted at length on this board about how Irish names are hugely political in Northern Ireland. In a way it's kind of appropriate on this thread, as I know many people in Northern Ireland who believe a name that identifies them as being of one persuasion or the other as 'bad'.
The example I always think of is my husband's roommate when they were in cheap student digs, regrettably in a hardline Protestant community. Her name was Bernadette, so she was known as Barbara (she made a drunken confession to them about her real name the night before she moved out). It's no exaggeration to say that if some of their neighbours had learned a Catholic was on their street she would have been attacked and the house burnt out, or worse.
So 'good' names in Northern Ireland are ones which are not aligned with one community or the other - see most of the top 10. And there is nothing wrong with a name like Bernadette, Malachi, Conor, Dara, Aoife, etc., but people in Northern Ireland are fully aware that if you have a name that's identifiable Irish or a saint's name, it will cause you problems. Hence giving your child a name like that is a political act.
For the repugnant Campbells in NJ to pretend they did anything less with their kids' names is beyond belief. But they remain beneath contempt, and therefore comment.
Anne with an E: Yes, I had a student named Sh@ina whose name was pronounced Sha-nay. It was really hard to remember when calling roll. And kind of made me think the parents had chosen the spelling and then decided on the pronunciation later.
re: Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar: I love Jordan/in/yn on a girl... Makiya is interesting. Wow, the first Google entry I get for "Makiya" is an Iraqi academic. I'd be interested in the story behind that one.
Also, had to mention that I watched The Namesake last night and I need to recommend it for NEs. There's a scene where the parents (recent immigrants from India) are told they need to name their son, where their preference is to wait for the grandmother to send the name when the child is older. There's discussion of what name the son will go by at different stages of his life. I'm sure the book is even better but... doesn't fit into my schedule right now...
Emery and Avery sound too much like Ebony and Ivory for me! All I could think of was Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney when I saw that.
Liz & Louka--I thought the same thing, that the child was named Thursday. (Which is a name I like quite a lot because of the Jasper Fforde books, but I don't know if I'd ever actually use it.)
And re: the nicknames/British tendency to give diminutives as full names; it's kind of funny that this came up because I have a question about one. I like the diminutive Tess a lot, but I'm not sure if I like it as a whole name. Theresa is out of the question for complicated reasons. Is Tess a logical nickname for any other names you can think of?
Riot Delilah,
can you tell me more about the use of the name Dara in NI, or Ireland in general? I have known it as a female name here, and love it (both the sound and its many meanings in various languages, but particularly the "oak tree" connection), so I was surprised to see it listed as primarily a male name in Ireland when I was researching names for my daughter. Do you know if it is primarily male, female, or unisex in usage? And you're saying it's identifiable as an Irish name, right, not a saint's name or particulary Catholic name? Any other impressions of it?
Thanks!
I know Laura has posted about the nickname/full name debate in the past.
I'd love to read more about it, especially given the discussion about different attitudes in other countries. Fascinating!
I understand both sides of the issue, having both a "just Jack," as well as a "Henry,sometimes Hank."
I don't find Charlie or Sophie childish at all, although there is something youthful about Katie-a name I love.
Honestly, though, I find many popular given names much more childish than any of the nicknames mentioned above. Kayla, for example, is a name I cannot take seriously on an adult.
And, speaking of nicknames-as a habitual nicknamer, I think Gevreth is almost crying out to be called Gev or Rhett.
I don't think the name itself is awful, but it's certain to call for lots of explanations. My first impression is that it looks "Elfin."
yeah, the real kicker in the story is wanting to use the whole name.
I mean, it's really awful to name your son Adolf Hitler, but I have to come down on the side of letting parents name their kids what they want (and maybe letting kids change a name with court approval at an early age), but clearly these people WANT the attention and hoopla. No one would've blinked an eye if they'd asked for a cake that said Happy Birthday, Dolf! Or for that matter, even Adolf.
What a disgrace these parents are, using children to publicize their bizarre beliefs.
Jessica-Alexa Noelle is wonderful! Congrats!
Re Duggars: I'm glad they picked Jordyn. I think it was either that or Jocelynn that fit the best.
Re Angie Harmon: I think Emery is okay but a little androgynous for me. Emery, Finley and Avery are also a little sing-song for me.
Oops, forgot to comment on Gevreth:
I think it sounds "Jewish" to me. It's interesting and kind of matches in style to Garrett or Seth. It's also interesting that I can't find any other names with the sequence of "Gev". Miriam, seeing as how I am not Jewish, could you give us some insight as to whether this combination appears in other words or is it just a (mis)perception on my part?
Scanning through the posts, I noticed someone said "Fanny" is a bad name.
I've had the name tucked away as a possible future name or nickname (I love Mansfeild Park). I know it's a term for rear end, but I thought it may be archaic enough to use. Am I totally wrong?
Hyz, you flatter me! (Jessi Ronan's Mum please weigh in as well.)
Dara is definitely a boy's name is Ireland. It means 'oak tree' in the Irish language (so is 'Catholic' only as much as it's Irish) and the 'main' spelling is Dara but there's also Darragh (top 20 with this spelling)/ Darra/Daire. There's a good comedian named Dara O'Briain who has made the name more widely known in the UK as well.
I can easily see that this is a name that could work well for a girl - when names like Ciaran and Fiachra cross over to girls too I don't see why not. Also, it's pronounced flatly, with one syllable, like Dana, not to rhyme with Mara.
Some Irish names just Irish words - Niamh means brilliant and Loinnir ray of light, for example, they are literally in the dictionary. But then there are the adaptations: Killian 'man of the church', Fiona 'fair one', Fionnuala 'fair-shouldered one', Grainne/Grania 'dark one' - although in practice you named your pretty daughter Fiona and the ugly one Grania!
And then you get the Irish version of Bible names - Mairead for Margaret, Sinead for Janet, Maire (pron. Moya) for Mary, Aine (pron. Awn-ya) for Anne, Seamus for James, Sean for John. And then there are the names which confuse everyone non-Irish - Caoimhe for example, pronounced Kee-va up north or Quee-va down south. It's the female version of Caoimhin, which everywhere is pronounced Kevin.
Baby names of Ireland is a pretty good website for this. And the Irish statistics office will be posting their top names of the year pretty soon, too.
CB, in England and Australia, I believe Fanny is slang for vagina, and definitely not a good name/nn (according to previous posts made by some here). I wouldn't even use it in the US--I think "fanny" is still common enough slang here, especially among parents of young kids (i.e. "get your little fanny over here" or "sit your little fanny down," etc.).
CB, here in the UK 'fanny' is a pretty everyday but not remotely polite bit of slang for a particular body part. Only a woman has a fanny, if you see what I mean.
I used the word ONE TIME in front of my husband in the American sense and he laughed till he cried.
So no, I don't think it could be a good name yet.
CB, I agree on the unfortunate teasing potential of Fanny, which is a name I like for its literary pedigree, as well (Fanny Burney is a favorite of mine). I think Frances/Frannie are better choices.
Riot Delilah, thanks for the wonderful explanation! I was hoping (against hope) the internet sites were wrong about Dara being for boys, but alas, I guess they were correct. "Dara" seems entirely feminine to me due to my personal associations, and given my fairly staunch stance on not giving male names to girls, I guess it's out for me (of course, Dara is a feminine name in some cultures, but since I would be using it primarily with the Irish meaning in mind, that doesn't satisfy me). Hmmm, maybe I could consider Darragh for a boy though!
I like the idea of using names of Irish origin--I'm a true European mutt, but am more Irish Catholic than anything else (it beats out German and Slovak by a hair). I don't know about the validity of my "claim" to any of the very obviously nationalist ones, though--I guess I feel "Irish enough" to use something like Dara or Fiona, but not enough to use Niamh or Mairead (or anything not easily recognized by an unwitting English speaker).
I enjoyed your explanations, though, and thanks for the heads up on the upcoming Irish statistics--I look forward to reading those!
:)
Anne with an E:
There is always Tessa. I know a Tessa with brothers Jamie and Tristan.
Otherwise the advanced name finder comes up with Tesla or Gates.
I forgot to say you could always just go for Tess, like Tess of the D'Ubervilles, though Im not so keen on alot of one syllabull girls names. Ive also heard Triss.
Argh, I had a long reply to Sara Ann and I made it disappear. @@
Short version- living where I live, in a metropolitan area with diverse cultures and MANY MANY MANY different names in every small group of childre, Gevreth wouldn't blip a single radar around here. Some of my son's best friends are named Adarsh, Dipti, Nischit, Moon, YounSee. btw, I hope I'm saying Gevreth correctly, soft /g/ and short /e/ sounds. :)
Fanny is going to cause a lot of embarrassment in the UK!
It's interesting that - I generalise wildly - British parents are happy to call their children by 'childish' names, but much less comfortable calling their daughters by traditional boys' names than American parents are.
"Oops, forgot to comment on Gevreth:
I think it sounds "Jewish" to me. It's interesting and kind of matches in style to Garrett or Seth. It's also interesting that I can't find any other names with the sequence of "Gev". Miriam, seeing as how I am not Jewish, could you give us some insight as to whether this combination appears in other words or is it just a (mis)perception on my part?"
Zoerhenne, I don't really understand your associations here. Seth is a biblical name. Garrett sure isn't. Gevreth doesn't sound remotely Jewish/Hebrew to me. Maybe you are thinking of Gavriel when you think Jewish?
To me Gevreth sound like something Ursula LeGuin would name one of her characters (she did name what is probably her most famous character Ged). Or Gevreth could be the forgotten one of the Arthurian Orkney brothers--Gawain (Gavin), Gareth, Gaheris, and Agravain. But Jewish, no.
I'm sure little Gevreth is a darling and precious infant. His name IMO not so much, although it is lightyears better than Adolf Hitler, which is pretty much the bottom of the barrel.
Which reality TV contestant is Gevreth derived from? I agree with J&H's mom that it sounds elfin. But I think Gev is kind of nice for a boy.
I love the name Tess and think it works on its own. But you could also use it as a nickname for Thomasina or Theodora. It depends on your style. I personally think Theodora nn Tess would be clever and classy.
The college I went to in Texas prints a monthly alumni update. These are the babies born last month:
Alexandra and Sydney (twins)
Wesley (b)
Carsyn Emery (g)
Sofie Louise (g)
Reese (b)
Emily & Chloe (twins)
Brooks Winthrop (b)
Landry Ramelle (g)
Sawyer Molly (g)
Bennett Charles (b)
Alysse Suzanne (g)
Grayson Walker (b)
Hadley Margaret (g)
Avery Bartlett (g)
Holland Carter (g)
Harper Wiley (g)
Hill (b)
Madden Parker (b)
Zoe Jane (g)
Also a multiple Lukes, Liams, Lillians, Jacks, and Carolines
Just an FYI for those who are curious. Holland, Harper, Hadley, Hill... H names must be all the rage.m
Anne with an E-- "Tess" is one of the few nickname-names or diminutives that I absolutely love as an independent name. It has both strength and playfulness.
It has also been a short form for "Theodosia", which believe it or not, I also like! I could also see Tess as a nickname for the wildly diverse monikers "Taliesin", "Temperance", "Teasdale", "Thalassa", "Tennyson"; so you have lots and lots of options.
Hey, I haven't finished all the entries, but has anyone alluded to the fact that we discussed the whole reprehensible Campbell thing in the previous thread? Introduced by Miriam, I believe. Doesn't anyone else feel all puffed that we (or at least Miriam) are so in tune with our mentor Laura that in this case, we actually anticipated a blog topic?!
Laura, I want to say thank you so much for facilitating the fun and intellectual stimulation your site provides. I'm thinking about names so differently these days than if I were just ruminating by myself or with one or two others about them...
Of Irish names, I have to proffer my favorite, the Old Irish/Gaelic "Banbh" (pronounced "Banff", like the resort town in Alberta). I love the quirky spelling. And the fact that some authorities give the meaning as "an unplowed field", and others as "piglet"! Love the ancient agrarian overtones of that...
Gevreth: I read it first as jev-reth and girl. It struck me as being a poosible Middle Ages verion of Genevra.
Tess: I once met a Jessice who went by Tess.
From the Texas list: I have been contemplating the name Brooks. I wonder what you all have to say for, against and about it. ?
Brooks seems very preppy to me, like Brooks Brothers. I think the -s gives it that feel too, like Giles, Jeeves.
Oh, forgot to mention this, in light of the many recent discussions of "Jennifer" and possible nicknames: I came across "Jensie" in a decorating magazine. Don't like it as well as "Jinx", but it has possibilities. Jensie, Jensy. Reminds me a little of the "Patsy"s I knew in my Baby Boomer childhood. Charming. Does anyone still go by "Patsy" who isn't Irish? I'd like to see a revival of both it and even "Betsy".
Jessica, people have complained on this blog before about "Brooks" sounding too preppy. I like it, since it's a surname-name which HASN'T become too trendy. But then, I tend to like the "--s"-ending names like "Miles", "Giles", "Piers".
I like "Jones" as a nickname for "Jonah", and of course nicknamed my own little guy "Banks". So I'm biased in that direction!
But I think "Brooks" sounds crisp, smart, and like an interesting individual...
Ha, RobynT, I didn't see your post before I did mine!
i dont see anything wrong with "names that are made up", or foreign names that may sound offensive to other cultures. we are supposed to teach our children diversity, and love. its just a name. i have known ppl who have had a child,and who wanted to honor more than one or two family members by naming the child after them. so, rather than giving the poor kid a super long name, they only took a few letters from each and created quite lovely names.
there is also nothing wrong with alternative spelling whether its "correct" by any standards.
i spell my daughters name Jordyn and i dont see how this should pose any problems. it doesnt suggest that i cant spell. jordan seemed too masculine to me. nothing wrong with giving your child something unique. i also have a friend who has the name unique. she wasnt ridiculed any more or less than the richards, or mikes or what have u.
on a side note, adolf hitler is probably poor taste for the time we are in, and the intent of the parents while choosing the name. adolf in itself isnt that bad. i had a great great grandfather named adolf. it was a popular name for its time.
anyway, eventually the name can be legally changed.
side note: what about Dava? I like that name for a girl. Davi seemed too cute, although if i named a child Dava, she would most likey end up going by Davi at least while she is young.
Jessica: I know two guys named Brooks, both from the same town and in their late 20's. One comes from a decidedly wealthier family than the other, and I have to admit that IMO, the name fits the wealthier of the two much better. But maybe that's just my bias, because I do think that many names ending in -s sound a little uppity.
Louise: To me, Sunny is sort of a personality-based nn so I wouldn't expect it to have anything to do with the girl's real name. So I think you can name your daughter Sarah or anything you'd like.
RobynT: I love The Namesake and agree that any NE would find it interesting.
In response to the whole "Katie", "Kate", "Katherine" issue - my parents named me Katherine with the intent of calling me Katie. Growing up, I always assumed I would go by Kate or Katherine as I matured. As it turns out, I am a Katie through and through and it would seem ridiculous for me to go by anything different! I figured if Katie Couric could pull it off- I certainly could too. However, I am glad they at least gave me the option.
It seems that the consensus is that most "bad" names aren't bad in themselves so much as the intent with which they are given makes them bad. (Adolf Hitler excepted, of course, which is just plain awful no matter how you look at it.)
In Category 1 of bad names I would place names like Adolf Hitler, Aryan Nation, Idi Amin, etc. These are names that clearly signal an intent to honor a public figure whose life was defined by cruelty.
Category 2 of bad names might contain names like Fanny (it's a shame about that one), Pansy, or other nouns that commonly and vulgarly refer to things for which a child will unquestionably be teased.
Category 3 is where the gray enters in. This is, I think, where the parents' intent determines whether or not the name is bad. Claudia is a great name. Most people don't know and don't care that it means "lame." But a set of parents who deliberately names a child with a leg deformity Claudia are cruel, and hence in this situation, Claudia is a bad name. I knew a couple who was considering naming their child Grayson. Fortunately they realized before his birth that since the mom is African-American and the dad Caucasian, that the name would set their child up for ridicule. They named him something else instead. Grayson on another kid is not a bad name, but on this child it would have been.
Other names, like Gevreth, are not names that I like, but I would just say that they are not names that meet my own sense of style. They're not bad names.
I read that Bristol Palin's due date is tomorrow, December 20th. I can't wait to hear the name!!
re: Dava: Are you pronouncing it to rhyme with Ava? Something makes me want to pronounce it Dah-va... maybe fava beans? lava? Anyway, Dava is nms but fine I think.
re: Pansy: do you think it would work on a girl? I never considered it before and probably wouldn't use it myself. Just wondering.
Tess can be a nn for Elizabeth maybe. Tessica?
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