Bizarre kids names?

[Axver]

I went to college with a girl named Unida Mann.

Under normal circumstances, I'd suspect anyone who posted that of being a liar, but you seem to be a trustworthy sort of person, so I'll take your word for it and just laugh and feel sorry for that poor girl.

 

[maycocksean]

Under normal circumstances, I'd suspect anyone who posted that of being a liar, but you seem to be a trustworthy sort of person, so I'll take your word for it and just laugh and feel sorry for that poor girl.

I thought people might think I was making that up, but I promise I am not.

I'm not sure what prompted the parents to do such a thing.

 

[maycocksean]

[B but in most cases--and I'm guessing it's likely the same on Chuuk?--the parents likely held little or no associations with the word, phrase or name in its 'original' context.

[/B]

I think the parents know the context as the people in Chuuk seemed to be VERY aware of Western pop culture (although the extent to which pop culture reflects actual life in the West they weren't so clear on. Many people assumed that I, as a black man, played basketball in the NBA, was a gangster, and knew how to rap and dance. I'm not exaggerating). I think in Chuuk's case it was not knowing the associations of the name. I think (and I'm just speculating here) that it might be that the norms for naming a child are just different in Chuuk. Perhaps a parent liked Al Pacino movies and so it seemed logical to so name their child. Or they liked "Ice Ice Baby" and there were no cultural contstraints to naming the child that way.

 

[yolland]

Ha, the first time I was in India (caveat: this was 15 years ago) I ventured out once with some fellow homesick American students to what was at the time the only place in town which passed for a Western-style 'nightclub' (and as such, was widely perceived as sleazy by locals despite being located in a very posh hotel) and all I remember about the experience was that they played 'Ice Ice Baby' over...and over...and over. There too--though this is certainly changing, especially in the cities--it isn't uncommon to encounter people who are under the impression that most African-Americans are criminals, or can only muster giggles in response to Western female travelers' complaints of being groped in the street (because everyone knows that's how male-female relations work in our part of the world, right?). Over the years my response to this kind of thing has shifted from uncomprehending incredulity, to grudging anticipation, to slowly coming to grasp that like anyone else, they may interpret the behaviors (and 'subtler' stuff like implied archetypes, etc.) seen in foreign films and TV in light of what such behaviors and archetypal associations might signal in their own performative culture. A kiss is not just a kiss, a nuanced exploration of some 'social pathology' may be interpreted as a slyly winking celebration of it, and so on.

I don't think this has much to do with naming customs in the aforementioned tribal regions; those tend to be much less 'cosmopolitan' in terms of their exposure to Western pop culture. And as I said, like everything else in India, such perceptions are changing and changing fast. But for better and for worse, it's one of those things a traveler ought to come prepared for some possibility of.

 

[corianderstem]

One of the favorite parts of my job in the past years has been sorting through the mail sent out to our employees that comes back to our department as undeliverable ... and seeing the really bizarre or unfortunate names that some of them have.

My favorite is "Honey Love."

 

[Teta040]

There is a black girl at my job called Kizzy. I thought she was African, Ghanian maybe (if her name says anything), and she has the small-boned, unnaturally thin frame of an African--you have to see her-- but she has a completely American accent. I wonder though, if her mother just loved Alex Haley, or if she's really from Ghana? I feel funny asking her..I wonder if she knows what her name means.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I read this this morning-now people are paying professional consultants to help name their babies

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118247444843644288.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_weekendjournal

"What's in a name?

Stress.

Sociologists and name researchers say they are seeing unprecedented levels of angst among parents trying to choose names for their children. As family names and old religious standbys continue to lose favor, parents are spending more time and money on the issue and are increasingly turning to strangers for help.

Some parents are checking Social Security data to make sure their choices aren't too trendy, while others are fussing over every consonant like corporate branding experts. They're also pulling ideas from books, Web sites and software programs, and in some cases, hiring professional baby-name consultants who use mathematical formulas."

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

(AP) Knock-out name for baby girl

Sat Jun 23, 9:50 AM ET

Baby Autumn Brown has a name to live up - in fact she has over 25 of them.

The little girl's mother Maria, in keeping with her boxing-mad family's bizarre tradition, decided to give her 25 middle names - all culled from the greatest exponents inside the ring.

Her full name, which left register office staff in Perton, Wolverhampton reeling is: Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown.

Maria told the city's Express and Star: "The whole thing came about because both my mum and dad are obsessed with boxing and have a bit of a daft sense of humour.

"When I was young I couldn't ever remember my name. It took me to the age of 10 to memorise it all."

The 33-year-old mother added: "I'm hoping Autumn has a good sense of humour with her name. It's never done me any harm though."

 

[Axver]

Her full name, which left register office staff in Perton, Wolverhampton reeling is: Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown.

This reminds me of when I was little and wished my middle names were all the names of Thomas The Tank Engine characters. I grew out of thinking that's a good idea by the time I was six.

 

[Sister Moon]

Well my Granny is from the South. Her name was Ruby, not unusual but her cousins were named Opal, Emerald, Pearlie (a boy) and Silbert and Bronzel. I just learned we have a cousin named America. Sad.....

 

[bonocomet]

I know someone named America also. She's from Mexico.

 

[Axver]

Well, that would give a whole new meaning to being anti-America now, wouldn't it?

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I think America is a pretty name, probably since I'm such a fan of America Ferrera. I wouldn't want it for my own name just because it's so unusual and because some people could be jerks about it, but it has a positive connotation for me because of her.

 

[redhotswami]

I know someone named America also. She's from Mexico.

She's a Mexican America

 

[shart1780]

I think it's hilarious when the parents give their kids first names that, in themselves aren't really bad, but when paired with the last name looks horrible.

The name Harry isn't too horrble. But what if his last name is Dick? See, that's just cruel. Can you imagine being in the doc's waiting room and having the nurse come out and say "Harry Dick? The doctor is ready."

My friend and I were looking at these names in the online phone books and we were laughing our heads off.

 

[CTU2fan]

I'm a big fan of Michael Hunt, personally.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

@


BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese couple seeking a distinctive name for their child settled on the e-mail 'at' symbol—annoying government officials grappling with an influx of unorthodox names.

The unidentified couple were cited Thursday by a government official as an example of citizens bringing bizarre names into the Chinese language.

Written Chinese does not use an alphabet but is comprised of characters, sometimes making it difficult to develop words for new or foreign objects and ideas. As of last year, only 129 names accounted for 87 percent of all surnames in China, Li Yuming, vice director of the State Language Commission, said at a news conference.

The letters 'a' and 't' can be pronounced in a way that sounds like the phrase "love him" in Chinese.

The father "said 'the whole world uses it to write e-mails and, translated into Chinese, it means 'love him,'" Li said.

Li did not say if police, who are the arbiters of names because they issue identity cards, rejected baby 'at.'

 

[U2democrat]

Well now that's interesting.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I'm a big fan of Michael Hunt, personally.

don't forget Hugh Jass

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

September 23, 2007

CHICAGO --His parents say he can go by his middle name when he's old enough to decide.

For now, the newborn will be known by his first name: Wrigley.

And his last name: Fields.

His parents are Paul and Teri Fields of Michigan City, Ind. They are -- no surprise -- fans of the Cubs, who have played at Wrigley Field since 1916. The Fields planned the name for years before their son's birth.

Wrigley Alexander Fields was born Sept. 12 at an Indiana hospital.

Cubs spokeswoman Katelyn Thrall said the name may be a first. The team has no record of other children named Wrigley, although there have been some children names Zambrano and Ryne after Cubs stars Carlos Zambrano and Ryne Sandberg

 

[anitram]

My mom sent me an e-mail the other day saying she'd just evaluated little Julius Caesar (8 years old) and his younger brother, Jesus Jr. (6).

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Julius Caesar? Wow. Is the Jesus Hispanic or the carpenter who wore sandals?

 

[Irvine511]

My mom sent me an e-mail the other day saying she'd just evaluated little Julius Caesar (8 years old) and his younger brother, Jesus Jr. (6).

Giuliani has more kids?

 

[anitram]

Julius Caesar? Wow. Is the Jesus Hispanic or the carpenter who wore sandals?

They were Filipino.

 

[sweetie]

For you Italians out there..I had the joy of dealing with a client named Genoa Minchia

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

NY Times

March 11, 2008
Findings

A Boy Named Sue, and a Theory of Names
By J. MARION TIERNEY

During his 1969 concert at San Quentin prison, Johnny Cash proposed a paradigm shift in the field of developmental psychology. He used “A Boy Named Sue” to present two hypotheses:

1. A child with an awful name might grow up to be a relatively normal adult.

2. The parent who inflicted the name does not deserve to be executed.

I immediately welcomed the Boy Named Sue paradigm, although I realized that I might be biased by my middle name (Marion). Cash and his ambiguously named male collaborator, the lyricist Shel Silverstein, could offer only anecdotal evidence against decades of research suggesting that children with weird names were destined for places like San Quentin.

Studies showed that children with odd names got worse grades and were less popular than other classmates in elementary school. In college they were more likely to flunk out or become “psychoneurotic.” Prospective bosses spurned their résumés. They were overrepresented among emotionally disturbed children and psychiatric patients.

Some of these mental problems might have been genetic — what kind of parent picks a name like Golden Rule or Mary Mee? — but it was still bad news.

Today, though, the case for Mr. Cash’s theory looks much stronger, and I say this even after learning about Emma Royd and Post Office in a new book, “Bad Baby Names,” by Michael Sherrod and Matthew Rayback.

By scouring census records from 1790 to 1930, Mr. Sherrod and Mr. Rayback discovered Garage Empty, Hysteria Johnson, King Arthur, Infinity Hubbard, Please Cope, Major Slaughter, Helen Troy, several Satans and a host of colleagues to the famed Ima Hogg (including Ima Pigg, Ima Muskrat, Ima Nut and Ima Hooker).

The authors also interviewed adults today who had survived names like Candy Stohr, Cash Guy, Mary Christmas, River Jordan and Rasp Berry. All of them, even Happy Day, seemed untraumatized.

“They were very proud of their names, almost overly proud,” Mr. Sherrod said. “We asked if that was a reaction to getting pummeled when they were little, but they said they didn’t get that much ribbing. They did get a little tired of hearing the same jokes, but they liked having an unusual name because it made them stand out.”

Not too much ribbing? That surprised me, because I had vivid memories of playground serenades to my middle name: “Marion . . . Madam Librarian!” (My tormentors didn’t care that the “Music Man” librarian spelled her name with an “a.”) But after I looked at experiments in the post-Sue era by revisionists like Kenneth Steele and Wayne Hensley, it seemed names weren’t so important after all.

When people were asked to rate the physical attractiveness and character of someone in a photograph, it didn’t matter much if that someone was assigned an “undesirable” name. Once people could see a face, they rated an Oswald, Myron, Harriet or Hazel about the same as a face with a “desirable” name like David, Gregory, Jennifer or Christine.

Other researchers found that children with unusual names were more likely to have poorer and less educated parents, handicaps that explained their problems in school. Martin Ford and other psychologists reported, after controlling for race and ethnicity, that children with unusual names did as well as others in school. The economists Roland Fryer and Steven Levitt reached a similar conclusion after controlling for socioeconomic variables in a study of black children with distinctive names.

“Names only have a significant influence when that is the only thing you know about the person,” said Dr. Ford, a developmental psychologist at George Mason University. “Add a picture, and the impact of the name recedes. Add information about personality, motivation and ability, and the impact of the name shrinks to minimal significance.”

But even if a bad name doesn’t doom a child, why would any parent christen an infant Ogre? Mr. Sherrod found several of them, along with children named Ghoul, Gorgon, Medusa, Hades, Lucifer and every deadly sin except Gluttony (his favorite was Wrath Gordon).

You can sort of understand parents’ affection for the sound of Chimera Griffin, but Monster Moor and Goblin Fester? Or Cheese Ceaser and Leper Priest? What provokes current celebrities to name their children Sage Moonblood Stallone and Speck Wildhorse Mellencamp?

“Today it’s all about individuality,” Mr. Sherrod said. “In the past, there was more of a sense of humor, probably because fathers had more say in the names.” He said the waning influence of fathers might explain why there are no longer so many names like Nice Deal, Butcher Baker, Lotta Beers and Good Bye, although some dads still try.

“I can’t tell you,” Mr. Sherrod said, “how often I’ve heard guys who wanted their kid to be able to say truthfully, ‘Danger is my middle name.’ But their wives absolutely refused.”

Is it possible — I’m trying to be kind to these humor-challenged fathers — that they think Danger would be a character-building experience? Could there be anything to the paternal rationale offered in Johnny Cash’s song, the one that stopped Sue from killing his father: “I knew you’d have to get tough or die, and it’s the name that helped to make you strong”?

I sought an answer from Cleveland Kent Evans — not because he might have gotten into fights defending Cleveland, but because he’s a psychologist and past president of the American Names Society. Dr. Evans, a professor at Bellevue University in Nebraska, said there is evidence for the character-building theory from psychologists like Richard Zweigenhaft, but it doesn’t work exactly as Sue’s father imagined it.

“Researchers have studied men with cross-gender names like Leslie,” Dr. Evans explained. “They haven’t found anything negative — no psychological or social problems — or any correlations with either masculinity or effeminacy. But they have found one major positive factor: a better sense of self-control. It’s not that you fight more, but that you learn how to let stuff roll off your back.”

After hearing that, I began to reconsider my own name. Although I’d never shared Sue’s Oedipal impulse — I realized my father couldn’t have anticipated “Music Man” — I’d never appreciated those playground serenades, either. But maybe they served some purpose after all. So today, to celebrate the Boy Named Sue paradigm shift, I’m using my middle name in my byline for the first time.

Also for the last time. As Sue realized when it came time to name his own son, you can take a theory only so far.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

“I can’t tell you,” Mr. Sherrod said, “how often I’ve heard guys who wanted their kid to be able to say truthfully, ‘Danger is my middle name.’ But their wives absolutely refused.”

I'd allow that before I'd allow Satan. But, that's just me.

I used to think I had it bad being named after a month. They never had those little license plates with my name on them. It was quite traumatizing.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I read that Matthew McConaughey wants to name his baby the way his brother did-he named his son Miller Lite after his favorite beer. I think he should just go with Shirtless McConaughey, a tribute to his Dad At least it would be better than bo, since his Dad doesn't wear deodorant. Or bo could be the middle name.

 

[Vincent Vega]

How can anyone say that something with "Lite" in the name can be a beer, let alone the favourite beer?

 

[INDY500]

How can anything in a can instead of a stein be called a beer?

Kölsch