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My friend's wife recently gave birth to their first son, and he wanted to name him Aragorn. No kidding. Thankfully, the people who register children names operate under a certain law, one that does not allow for stupid or strange names to be given to children (most of the time, some are still completely retarded, like naming your child after a farming implement). So, they refuse him, and he goes into frenzy mode, going around suing them and writing a complaint to everybody he thinks could do something about it.
Thankfully, he got shot down by his wife, so they named him a normal name after all.
I think that parents shouldn't give their kids some weird/strange names just so that their little baby will be unique. Have they any idea how abused and/or molested and/or made fun of will that child be if it has a name like Gandalf (unless they are from iceland)? Most other kids will not understand why he has a name like that, and when kids don't understand something they abuse it and make fun of it.
My friend was angry at his wife by the way, so i had to sit him down and talk to him...it took me three hours to make him see reason.
So if you are a future parent, please, please name your child a normal, regular name, it will thank you in the future.
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I completely disagree.
My name is Taliesin Hoyle.
My son is Merlin Faraday Hoyle.
My brother is Phoenix Hoyle.
His son is Pippin Demian Hoyle.
I have close friends called:
Zeus Darvall.
Lucifer O'Neil.
Athena Kopteros.
Merlyn Mittens.
All of these names are unusual or distinctive, and we are all glad to have them.
There are swarms of Johns and Peters. There are few of us.
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I have three daughters:
Gwynneth, a nice traditional Welsh name;
Peri, the name of the nymph who cared for the infant Zeus;
Arwen, a name older than Tolkien's fiction...
They're all three doing just fine.
My father, Octavius Robert;
My mother, Anna-Livia Patricia;
My grandfather, Increase;
My grandmother, Prudence;
My grandfather, Ambrosius;
My grandmother, Macha;
My aunt on my mother's side, Morrigan.
My sister, Anna Linnéa, and I have the most normal names in our family; nonetheless, all of us have done fine.
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I don't see a problem with the name Aragorn. There are people with far sillier names out there. I'm more a fan of alliterative names, very superheroic.
Nothing wrong with distinctive.
My name is John Ivica, that middle name there is hardly common in Australia.
One man's fantasy name is just another culture's common name.
I plan on calling any son of mine Drago, because it's my dad's name, and a damn cool one at that.
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My friend's wife recently gave birth to their first son, and he wanted to name him Aragorn. No kidding. Thankfully, the people who register children names operate under a certain law, one that does not allow for stupid or strange names to be given to children (most of the time, some are still completely retarded, like naming your child after a farming implement). So, they refuse him, and he goes into frenzy mode, going around suing them and writing a complaint to everybody he thinks could do something about it.
Thankfully, he got shot down by his wife, so they named him a normal name after all.I think that parents shouldn't give their kids some weird/strange names just so that their little baby will be unique. Have they any idea how abused and/or molested and/or made fun of will that child be if it has a name like Gandalf (unless they are from iceland)? Most other kids will not understand why he has a name like that, and when kids don't understand something they abuse it and make fun of it.
My friend was angry at his wife by the way, so i had to sit him down and talk to him...it took me three hours to make him see reason.
So if you are a future parent, please, please name your child a normal, regular name, it will thank you in the future.
So, some government agent is now authorized to tell parents they CANNOT name their child something?
Hmm...where is this again?
I really don't see the problem with a naming a child after a fantasy character. It's really no different in my opinion then being named after a figure in the bible.
When my wife and I were discussing childs names I very much wanted to name a son Kith-Kanan from the Elven Nations trilogy from Dragonlance. I also like the names Fate and Destiny for a daughter, the latter being a popular female name in my neck of the woods.
In the end though, is there really a differene naming a child Gandalf when they might go to school with a Temperance or Constance?
Not overly well known fantasy names seem fine to me. Very well known may cause grief later in life. I'd shy away from naming kids;
Harry Potter
Voldemort
Professor Snape
Beowulf
merlin
Lady Morgana
Zeus
Athena
Jupiter
neptune
Any of the other greek/roman gods
Green lantern
Superman
Captain America
and I'm sure many many more.
I have a godson name Perseus Xavier Ficke... He's 13 now (14 in less than a month), and his class is FULL of unusual names, and some old standards... As far as I know (and I am very close with my godson) no one has ever bugged him about having a strange name... And I honestly think it's a beautiful name for him...
Culture evolving in the way it is, strange (fantasy, sci-fi, pop culture influenced) names are not uncommon at all these days... And I am glad that it's not like when I was a kid where in my first grade class there were:
5 Johns
3 Matthews
3 Todds
2 Richards
2 Marys
4 Katherines (various spellings)
I mean, at some point variety is what makes things worthwhile (look at Pathfinder, man!)...
Now, I don't particularly love the name Aragorn, but that has more to do with the way it rolls off the tongue... I say, name your children with meaningful names to you, wherever you find those names.
So, some government agent is now authorized to tell parents they CANNOT name their child something?Hmm...where is this again?
Where I live (Germany) government agents are required to decline names that are VERY unusual or problematic for a child. Or if the name include too many names. Especially problematic are names implying national socialist tendencies, brand names (Pepsi Carola was declined once) or things like Captain America, etc.
In most cases, the man behind the counter has the last word.
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So, some government agent is now authorized to tell parents they CANNOT name their child something?
Hmm...where is this again?
Most of continental Europe operates under such rules. For Americans, yes, it sounds horrendously barbaric and totalitarian.
In practice, most names are perfectly acceptable, and the USA is proof that you can get through life acceptably being named Aragorn. Also, the limitations aren't really particularly strict--most of the time. I mean, heck, nearly one of every ten boys born in America these days has a name that rhymes with Aidan--the USA really isn't the land of originality.
I could talk all day about this, I'll discuss more later.
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... nearly one of every ten boys born in America these days has a name that rhymes with Aidan--the USA really isn't the land of originality.
I could talk all day about this, I'll discuss more later.
10% is a pretty low percentage, relatively speaking...and I can't think of that many names that rhyme with Aidan.
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So, some government agent is now authorized to tell parents they CANNOT name their child something?
Hmm...where is this again?
We have similar "laws" in France, and I don't think we're a banana republic. There are no true laws for this except that you can not name your child with a pun/insut/commercial brand (sometimes two of them, like a "Renault" family who wanted to name their daughter "Mégane", from the Renault Mégane car brand), and this is up to the Civil Officier to decide. Globally, "no name which would be prejudiciable to the child". Justice would not hesit to sue the parents for prejudice to their children in extreme necessity.
Don't mix "unusual" names with rules against "omg your parents are stupid" names, there are limits to liberty when you are f~~~ing with your own son/daughter's childhood.Plus, a lot of current names are already from celtic/mythologic origins... you don't need to open your hyper-fantasy book to find something beautiful once you learn the menaning of some names.
"Aragorn" is really on the edge, I guess in many years this will not be too strange and pretty much aknowledged by global popular culture, geek-generation oblige, but today it is also a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's hard-beating-by-dorks factory.
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... nearly one of every ten boys born in America these days has a name that rhymes with Aidan--the USA really isn't the land of originality.
I could talk all day about this, I'll discuss more later.
10% is a pretty low percentage, relatively speaking...and I can't think of that many names that rhyme with Aidan.
That's just the ones that made it to the top 1000 names in America.
But you're right, 10% isn't bad. Americans have been trying desperately to make sure our children aren't named the same thing for a while now.
Not enough parents look at the national trends for the year their baby is born. They might be of a generation where James was extra popular and know many growing up. So they try and pick something unusual for their generation. Not realizing that everyone else is doing the same thing. So their children have new very common names.
Top 10 list for 2010 (US)
Boys' Names
Aiden
Jacob
Jackson
Ethan
Jayden
Noah
Logan
Caden
Lucas
Liam
Girls' Names
Sophia
Isabella
Olivia
Emma
Chloe
Ava
Lily
Madison
Addison
Abigail
James has moved way down to #31
A friend of a friend named her son Willow (after the Nelwyn of the same name). That made me roll my eyes a bit, but different strokes for different folks. At least you can shorten it to "Will", I guess.
Well, your experience is different then most people i know that have unusual names...they didn't have as much fun with them, some even went and changed their names when they got 18.
My guess is that growing up in a nation where there are rules against unusual names, those that slip through are even more noticeable. Whereas, in America, where parents can and do name their kids anything, people pay much less attention to whether or not a name is "odd" and it isn't seen so much as fodder for mockery.
That is, an Aragorn in a classroom full of kids named John, Peter, George, and Steven will stand out more than an Aragorn in a classroom that already has a Plaxico, a Kobe, a Yo, and a Kal-El.
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A friend of a friend named her son Willow (after the Nelwyn of the same name). That made me roll my eyes a bit, but different strokes for different folks. At least you can shorten it to "Will", I guess.
All girls, but had we a boy, his name would have been Rowan.
Edit: ah, I see. Willow as in the movie. Nelwyn is a Welsh name, Willow and Rowan are both trees. The names are sometimes only weird if you're equal to the geekery necessary to see them as weird...
Once knew a Siddhartha, his father was Osiris, and his uncle was Poseidan. Multipantheonic family.
I am resisting the urge to tell the OP exactly what bad word he reminds me of right now.
I will leave it at WRONG, WRONG, f-word WRONG.
First of all, I know a guy named Aragorn and he loves his name.
Secondly, my son bears the name of a character I happened to be writing about when my wife was pregnant. She loved the name, and "stole" it from me. My son happens to be the only person in the world with that name (at least as far as recent internet searches can tell).
My best friend Jim told me the day my son was born that the name was a good idea - that it would always be a conversation starter, and he was right. People ask about it all the time, call it an "interesting," "cool," "unusual," and even "pretty name" and my son has never been treated poorly for it. They always want to know where it came from, and when they find out, they often want to know more about our family. Sometimes it's misspelled, but I think that goes without saying. People haven't seen it before.
There are no rules about this, and I thank Whatever Power Made Me I don't live in some backwards place where they can force you to name your kid John.
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Not overly well known fantasy names seem fine to me. Very well known may cause grief later in life. I'd shy away from naming kids;
Harry Potter
Voldemort
Professor Snape
Beowulf
merlin
Lady Morgana
Zeus
Athena
Jupiter
neptune
Any of the other greek/roman gods
Green lantern
Superman
Captain Americaand I'm sure many many more.
I went to school with an Athena, a Venus, a Zeus, worked after school with an Ondine, and all of them were popular kids.
Morgan is a fairly common name, that comes right from Morgana. We all know Arthurs and nobody is screaming about those.
Incidentally, my name is fairly common, and kids made terrible fun of me. Any kid who wants to be a bully is going to find a way to be, even if your name is Joe.
I had always sworn that I would name my first-born son Funnel. Luckily, Ive only had a daughter.
Willow as in the movie. Nelwyn is a Welsh name, Willow and Rowan are both trees. The names are sometimes only weird if you're equal to the geekery necessary to see them as weird...
I know a willow is a tree. :-) But it's generally a girl's name, not a boy's name.
If I had gone to register my son, Merlin Faraday Hoyle, and some bureaucrat had denied me the right to name my son as I wish, there would be blood.
Now I can understand if somebody had wanted to name a kid blipple whipple nipple fartbottom, that it would be considered cruel, but for a government official to have the power to veto it is outrageous, especially if there is no appeal.
My unusual name is something that has had a deep and abiding effect on me, and has led me to read widely in mythology and faerie tales.
The three meanings of Taliesin:
Radiant brow.
Thing of worth.
Greatest of bards.
in gaelic.
Now if some christian cretin in 1973 had told my parents that they could not use that name, I would have lost something startlingly irreplaceable.
One of my cousins is named Loki :V
My friend was angry at his wife by the way, so i had to sit him down and talk to him...it took me three hours to make him see reason.
He wasn't angry enough. Aragorn is a fine name, from a book that has had an incalculable influence on modern literature.
Please tell us what name the child bears now.
My son's middle name is "Fox" after Fox Mulder, one of my co-workers named his son "Phileas" after Phileas Fogg, and one of my other friends named his son Indiana after... well you could probably guess that one. Pretty cool names all around I think. Needless to say, I also disagree with the the OP.
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My friend's wife recently gave birth to their first son, and he wanted to name him Aragorn. No kidding. Thankfully, the people who register children names operate under a certain law, one that does not allow for stupid or strange names to be given to children (most of the time, some are still completely retarded, like naming your child after a farming implement). So, they refuse him, and he goes into frenzy mode, going around suing them and writing a complaint to everybody he thinks could do something about it.
Thankfully, he got shot down by his wife, so they named him a normal name after all.I think that parents shouldn't give their kids some weird/strange names just so that their little baby will be unique. Have they any idea how abused and/or molested and/or made fun of will that child be if it has a name like Gandalf (unless they are from iceland)? Most other kids will not understand why he has a name like that, and when kids don't understand something they abuse it and make fun of it.
My friend was angry at his wife by the way, so i had to sit him down and talk to him...it took me three hours to make him see reason.
So if you are a future parent, please, please name your child a normal, regular name, it will thank you in the future.
Better "Aragorn" than "Strider"...
Seriously, I knew someone once who referred to her daughter as "Winnie", usually short for Winnifred or something. It turned out that her daughter's name was Éowen (accent included) after the LOTR character. She said at the time that I was the first to recognize the source of the name. Given the current popularity of previously unusual (especially Celtic) names (Oonagh, Celidh etc.) I see no trouble.
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I am resisting the urge to tell the OP exactly what bad word he reminds me of right now.
I will leave it at WRONG, WRONG, f-word WRONG.
First of all, I know a guy named Aragorn and he loves his name.
Secondly, my son bears the name of a character I happened to be writing about when my wife was pregnant. She loved the name, and "stole" it from me. My son happens to be the only person in the world with that name (at least as far as recent internet searches can tell).
My best friend Jim told me the day my son was born that the name was a good idea - that it would always be a conversation starter, and he was right. People ask about it all the time, call it an "interesting," "cool," "unusual," and even "pretty name" and my son has never been treated poorly for it. They always want to know where it came from, and when they find out, they often want to know more about our family. Sometimes it's misspelled, but I think that goes without saying. People haven't seen it before.
There are no rules about this, and I thank Whatever Power Made Me I don't live in some backwards place where they can force you to name your kid John.
Then worst thing a parent can do is give their kids a stupid name. Some names a cool, but some names the parents think are cool but aren't. But the poor little devil has to live with it until, at least, they can get it changed if they haven't come to terms with it. So I'm with Hama on this one. I think society is a bit freer on this but you still have to be careful. Give kids a half-decent reason to tease and they will take it with both hands, and that is no fun for the recipient. It's also partly cultural: call your kid "Randy" in Britain and you might as well not have bothered.
It's a pain in the ass. Until you'r 20, and then people think it's cool, and you don't give a crap about that stupid crap any more anyway.
Heath aka Heathen aka Heathcliff aka Heath from Big Valley aka Heath Bar aka Heath Pencils aka David.
nearly one of every ten boys born in America these days has a name that rhymes with Aidan--the USA really isn't the land of originality.
+1
I like names that are "non standard" or ones not in great use, anyway. However, I personally balk at just "making up a name" that has no meaning or significance behind it. A friend of mine AND her sister named their kids after their old D&D characters, complete with silly, confusing spellings. I could never do that to my kid.
Don't mix "unusual" names with rules against "omg your parents are stupid" names...
I would simply paraphrase this to "don't confuse literary or traditional cultural names with 'are your parents insane' names". Hollywood, in particular, seems to have a pathological need to make a child's name unusual and unique that it sometimes results in "names man was not meant to have."
Examples: Kal-el Cage (marginal)
Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa
Pilot Inspektor (poor kid)
Literary names are fine: I named my own youngest daughter Juliet, and I once attended school with a Thorin (named after that Thorin). I also went to school with a girl by the last name McMinnamon, whose parents named her...wait for it...Cinnamon. Yes, Cinnamon McMinnamon.
In the end, though, I have to agree with those who have already stated that, at the very least, if the kid can't stand the name, he/she can at least change it at 18.
By 18 they won't give a s!~#.
I think if you're going to saddle your kid with a goofy ass name, you should
put on a nametag that says "Hi! My name is Korkie!!!"
put on a beany cap with a propellor on top
put on some Mork from Ork rainbow suspenders
walk around like that in actual public for 3 months.
this will give you some sense of what it's like, and hopefully help to lead you to an informed decision.
Shanda Lear. L-A (LaDashAh). Shanda I knew personally. A friend of mine teaches school and that was one of his students.
Plays on words are sometimes the worst. My wife knew a family while growing up with the surname Heinie (high-knee) who named their oldest son, yep, Buster. Buster Heinie. But I would almost (almost) rather have than name than to be one of the six "Lisa" names in one class I had in high school.
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The worst thing a parent can do is give their kids a stupid name. Some names a cool, but some names the parents think are cool but aren't. But the poor little devil has to live with it until, at least, they can get it changed if they haven't come to terms with it.
You gotta admit, 'The Malformed' is a cruel burden to lay on a kid.
And I know for a fact that there was once a Captain America serving in the U.S. armed forces, though he was later promoted to Major America.Anyone remember Major Major Major Major, from 'Catch 22'?
+1
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My friend was angry at his wife by the way, so i had to sit him down and talk to him...it took me three hours to make him see reason.He wasn't angry enough. Aragorn is a fine name, from a book that has had an incalculable influence on modern literature.
Please tell us what name the child bears now.
Marko...which, if english speaking people would read it would be spelled marco.
I am from Serbia, and trust me, kids here are CRUEL, especially to different ones, no matter in what way. You are really doing your child a disservice by naming him/her something unusual, and here i am not referring to literary names from different cultures.
So you would be ok if he named a child Shovel? I find that retarded thank you very much. A name is a very stupid way of trying to make a child unique, when it is already unique just by existing. All it will do is give it grief untill he/she makes 18-20 and either stops caring or develops disorders.
Aragorn is a fine name on middle earth, not on earth, especially when most of other names in the country are slavic in origin.
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Heh, it's interesting that you should post here where your most likely to get opposed opinions to yours. I suppose it is a good thing, as you can see that perhaps it's not always the best policy to 'Assimilate' to the norm, and to see that there are several people that feel strongly about it.
I LOVE interesting names, I doubt I'll name my children anything outlandish, I fully support those who name their children unique names.
I really am curious as to what country that you are from that has such power to tell a father that what he can or can not name his child. (-insert edit - I just read your post, Serbia, I in no way mean to insult your country of origin... it's just surprising to me - end edit) That sounds very restricting to me. I can hardly imagine standing quietly by for that breach of personal freedom.
Anyone know of what countries might impose such restrictions? Arragorn isn't even very outlandish!
And what about cultural expression? To some, Lakeisha might sound outlandish, and to others the most beautiful name in the world... what government agent has the right to deny a parent the right of naming.
That said, I wonder how I would feel about extreams to my stated stance... what if a father was a real dirt bag and wanted to name his son or daughter a curse word... I wonder if my OWN country has some rule preventing such a thing... interesting rabbit hole.
But Still, to have A LAW enacted mandating control over the naming of children... parish the thought.