In a project I'm currently working on I wrote this.
"With all the billions of worlds out there, and the billions of different beings that call those stars home; somewhere, your name directly translates into A** Hole." Kell Myers 2011
Also, just because a name is good now doesn't mean it will stay that way. Homer was an unusual name beforehand, but when the Simpsons hit it big...no further explanation needed.
The once perfectly acceptable name Adolf will raise quite a few eyebrows now.
In the realm of funny coincidence, there was an important goblin NPC for my group's AD&D game back in the 90s named Barrak. It's a different spelling than President Obama's, but similar enough.
Make sure you know your kid something a teacher can pronounce easily, or else they will never get called on. There is actual research that shows that students with difficult to say names do worse, because teachers don't engage them as much, disliking to bother with their names.
I would rather be named after a cereal Like one player for the Oakland Atheletics.
http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=424825&c_id=mlb#sectionTyp e=career
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.
Just because a name is often or originally for one sex never stops anyone from using it for another or it becoming more common for the other sex in places then the sex it was meant for..case in point Shannon is a male name, yet in the US it is commonly used as and thought of as a female name.
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What irks me the most is people who give their children an otherwise-not-uncommon name, but insist on giving it a unique (read: retarded) spelling. You know what I mean- Cristyl, Lyndzee, Awstyn, Alyx, Adym, Alyvia (yes, I've actually seen all of those)- mainly anything that throws in Y's instead of I's, Z's instead of S's, things like that. Most people think they're doing something to help their child stand out and be unique, but what it's really doing is making it so that nobody will ever be able to remember the spelling of their name (or worse- make them look uneducated). If you want your child to have a unique name, at least go with an intuitive spelling.
I'll bet in five years there will be a classroom somewhere with four Aidens in it, except their names will be Aiden, Aidan, Aidin, and Ayden.
That's it. If I have a kid, I'm naming it Slappy Finkelstein. Especially if it's a girl. Ought to toughen her right up.
Make sure you know your kid something a teacher can pronounce easily, or else they will never get called on. There is actual research that shows that students with difficult to say names do worse, because teachers don't engage them as much, disliking to bother with their names.
Sorry, Pres Man, I'm going to have to call BS on this. Can you cite your sources?
I am a high school English teacher, and the majority of names in my classes (about 70%) come from a language that is not my native tongue (English); I have never let the fact that I can't get a name right stop me from calling on a student. Most of those I teach with are in the same boat, and while I don't doubt there are those lazy enough to not want to bother with the unusual, I can tell you it isn't true in my experience.
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Someday when I have kids, they will have normal-ish first names. But I'll make sure their middle names are as AWESOME as possible. Then I'll always call them by their middle name. My first son will have Dresden, if I have a daughter she'll get Shepard and I'll need a third kid to name Kylar.
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.
Yikes. Sorry man.
I have a friend whose parents wanted all their kids name to end with the sound -ary. But the grandparents stepped and said NO!
The boys: Gary (aka Junior because his dad was named Gary), Jerry, Kerry, and Terry (was actually supposed to be Barry).
The girls: Diane (originally was supposed to be Shari) and Diane (who was actually supposed to be named Teri).
Thank god for the grandparents.
Hey, everyone on my father's name of the family starts with the letter G. I'm a Gary, and my father is Gerald. My wife and I will probably name our child Gerald George or George Gerald. I'm hoping a daughter might be named Giselle.
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I don't know whether the fellow who draws the XKCD web comic reads these posts, but...
Nah, for an xkcd pull, I would have run with this one.
As to unusual names, my first name is Dain. Growing up, I had the usual naming teasing, as well as the expected "Great Dane" and then "Dain Bramage" by the time I hit Jr. High, etc.
By the time I hit 5th grade, I was pretty much immune to any kind of attempted taunting that had to do with my name. To this day, one of my main means of introduction when someone mishears my name initially is "Dain as in 'Great Dane', a person from Denmark or Thorin's cousin from the Hobbit."
The other issue with unusual names is that many folks do not recognize them for the actual name and superimpose a name they are familiar with that sounds a bit like it. Over the years, I have learned to answer to Dan, Dean, Dale, Dave, etc. If it's not someone I am expecting to have to deal with in the future, I rarely correct them.
Hey, everyone on my father's name of the family starts with the letter G. I'm a Gary, and my father is Gerald. My wife and I will probably name our child Gerald George or George Gerald. I'm hoping a daughter might be named Giselle.I have a friend whose parents wanted all their kids name to end with the sound -ary. But the grandparents stepped and said NO!
The boys: Gary (aka Junior because his dad was named Gary), Jerry, Kerry, and Terry (was actually supposed to be Barry).
The girls: Diane (originally was supposed to be Shari) and Diane (who was actually supposed to be named Teri).
Thank god for the grandparents.
My aunt and her husband did this. Same letter "G" too.
Her husband was a Gary as well.They even gave their dogs "G" names.
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My brother's first name is Kirk and he got tagged with "Captain James T" as a nickname, which he embraced in college.
I met up with him outside a Dead show in the late 80s and one of his friends had fallen behind as we were walking through the parking lot crowd, so he comes running up calling out "Hey Captain! Captain!" That turned some heads in the parking lot, let me tell you.
Make sure you know your kid something a teacher can pronounce easily, or else they will never get called on. There is actual research that shows that students with difficult to say names do worse, because teachers don't engage them as much, disliking to bother with their names.Sorry, Pres Man, I'm going to have to call BS on this. Can you cite your sources?
I am a high school English teacher, and the majority of names in my classes (about 70%) come from a language that is not my native tongue (English); I have never let the fact that I can't get a name right stop me from calling on a student. Most of those I teach with are in the same boat, and while I don't doubt there are those lazy enough to not want to bother with the unusual, I can tell you it isn't true in my experience.
I'll try to track it down. I saw it on a news story so I could be remembering the exact story incorrectly.
Here is a discussion of a study that says "black" sounding names can hinder job options.
I am not saying this is appropriate, merely that it is something to think about when naming your child.
Make sure you know your kid something a teacher can pronounce easily, or else they will never get called on. There is actual research that shows that students with difficult to say names do worse, because teachers don't engage them as much, disliking to bother with their names.Sorry, Pres Man, I'm going to have to call BS on this. Can you cite your sources?
I am a high school English teacher, and the majority of names in my classes (about 70%) come from a language that is not my native tongue (English); I have never let the fact that I can't get a name right stop me from calling on a student. Most of those I teach with are in the same boat, and while I don't doubt there are those lazy enough to not want to bother with the unusual, I can tell you it isn't true in my experience.
I'll try to track it down. I saw it on a news story so I could be remembering the exact story incorrectly.
Here is a discussion of a study that says "black" sounding names can hinder job options.
I am not saying this is appropriate, merely that it is something to think about when naming your child.
Fair enough. I'll try to take a look at the other links before I retire for the evening. Names can have a great affect on a kid; I just don't think (or rather hope) that it doesn't extend to the kid's teachers, who should know better.
I consider it a serious form of repression for the government to tell people what they can and can't name a child - even if it's a stupid name. Really, how is Aiden functionally less ridiculous than Aragorn? They both sound like something you'd call an elf. The only difference is that 99% of boys under 5 are named Aiden right now.
And for the record, I have always hated my name as, unfortunately, the name became more popular as a girl's name when I was a kid which led to me getting picked on mercilessly (children are pure evil, after all). I can't blame my parents since they were naming me after a friend and it was considered a boy's name at the time.
The harmless name you painstakingly chose for you kid might be the name of a famous serial killer in five years and everyone will accuse you of naming your kid after him on purpose and Child Protective Services will show up and taze you. Or maybe you'll end up moving to a new country and your kid's name will mean "toilet seat"... and people will taze you. You just don't know.
But you can change your name or go by a nickname or even a completely different name if it bothers you so much. My aunt Wendy is legally named Hattie May (that side of the family was originally from Arkansas), but she decided to switch her name when she was still a kid. She started telling everyone her name was Wendy and eventually everyone went along with it. Even if you hate your name, it's not the end of the world.
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A funny thing, in Serbia, the middle name is the name of the child's father. So no choosing there, so no release for the crazy...plus, naming a child something stupid or silly, is just mean. Get a dog or cat and name it something ridiculuos.
Hama Dogshead is a good name for a barbaric society, better than Euron Crow's Eye.
Even with regular names there are sayings, ''Marko radi sve naopako'', I've been told.
After 18 you can change it, remember there was a guy who changed his name to Manchester United.
I can see why people wouldn't want government interference in naming their children, but sometimes there is a need for a safety net... because there are some people who probably shouldn't have kids at all, judging by the case here and some of the other names given in the article as examples, both of what was considered acceptable, and what wasn't.
Yes, I am a New Zealander. Sometimes that doesn't exactly thrill me. :-/
That's it. I'm totally naming my kid "Koch'Bloch".
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Many people I have encountered who gave their kids "unique" names were themselves fairly "unique" people. Naming your kid something weird because you want them to turn out a certain way is just wrong. "Merlin" might sound like a cool name on a Pathfinder message board, but do you really think his resume will be taken seriously in 25 years? Maybe he's not going to like fantasy at all; maybe he won't be anything like how you want him to be. Naming him John isn't going to handicap his uniqueness, but naming him after a Lord of the Rings character could certainly affect his chances at being something he might want to be. why potentially burden a child with a weird name simply for your own amusement? That sounds pretty selfish to me. It doesn't matter if you think the world should be a place where people don't get judged based on something like an unusual name. The world is a cruel place, why create one more obstacle to overcome?
The other issue with unusual names is that many folks do not recognize them for the actual name and superimpose a name they are familiar with that sounds a bit like it. Over the years, I have learned to answer to Dan, Dean, Dale, Dave, etc. If it's not someone I am expecting to have to deal with in the future, I rarely correct them.
Ha! That's SO true - in my experience with my own name, at least! But I've never felt that my name was a burden. (It is a "real" & "valid" name [according to various "official" naming lists...], btw: it's just a rare variation from a different culture [Mediterranean European] of a rare Western name that makes it even more unusual to the culture in which I grew up [sub-Sahara African]. And now that I'm living in another country that is even "more different" culturally [eastern Asian], the permutations of my name have rather increased.)
But when someone actually gets my name right, they never forget it! ^^
-- C.
Laws like the naming laws I imagine are in place to prevent truly awful names from happening. I don't mean literary or mythological names, even if they sound pretentious or broadcast "My parents are huge nerds" because you can accomplish that without allusion as well, and ultimately, kids will find a way to adapt.
I mean truly sad cases... things I know my social worker friends have come across for children given up for adoption/foster care. Children named after the first food product they looked at or phonetic spellings of phrases like "I don't want you." I am not making this up. People can do cruel things.
I personally do think calling someone "Aragorn" is a little silly sounding and possibly a little cruel, depending on schoolyard reactions, but it's a name--and a name for a brave, strong individual at that. And it's not my child, so ultimately, my opinion of the matter isn't worth a wooden nickel. I don't see why the law would have applied to that, but I don't disagree with the law being in place for truly extreme circumstances where the parent is intentionally being cruel (or just doesn't care).
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The way I was taught it is that a name needs to pass two specific uses to be acceptable.
1) "MURDER JOHNSON!!! Dinner is ready!!!"
2) "Is it okay if TSA comes out to play?"
Unless a name passes acceptably through these two situations, it is being cruel to your kid to name them so. Having a nice, normal name is a good thing. Then again, having something a little more special is also good, so why not have both?
Personally, the absolute worst is that "Neo" is not a very rare name at all.
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The way I was taught it is that a name needs to pass two specific uses to be acceptable.
1) "MURDER JOHNSON!!! Dinner is ready!!!"
2) "Is it okay if TSA comes out to play?"
Good guidelines.
I think that it's important to remember that you're not just naming a child, but naming an adult as well (eventually). So I would also look at:
Murder Johnson, M.D. (or Ph.D., or Esq.)
Dr. (or CEO, or President, or Senator, or Honorable, or Officer) Murder Johnson.
There are a number of names out there that look oh-so cute on a child that sound ridiculous on an adult. Heck, names that make the transition okay can be a problem if they aren't typically used with a generation; I have a bunch of Baby Boomer coworkers that had terrible trouble with one new team member's name, because they weren't used to the idea that an adult could be named Caitlin.
When you consider how bad some surnames are (and no one ever seems to think how that's going to affect the poor kid) I think it's pretty funny that people object to creative first names.
I was stuck with one of the common New Testament names at birth that I (with a hearing impairment) can't even pronounce correctly and a terrible last name that was easily converted into all kinds of insults and puns. Even adults liked to make fun of it. There's nothing like having your last name bastardized by a baseball or football coach because he thinks it's funny and having him hollar it out in front of the whole world during a game.
Given all that, I wish my parents had been kind enough to name me Aragorn. As soon as I moved out of my parents house I started introducing myself using a name I made up and eventually changed both first and last names to better suit my personal tastes. My parents weren't happy with me but I think I have the right to my own name.
I totally wanted to name my daughter Imoen. My husband liked it too until he realized where I had gotten it from. My argument was that virtually none of her peers would have ever played "Baldur's Gate" and would have no clue we named her after a video game character.
My two coppers' worth:
My wife and I have no desire to name children - should we ever have any - with biblical names. My extended family is hyper-religious, and there's a lot of Zachariahs, Ezekiels, Josiahs, etc. ad bloody nauseam among their broodspawn.
I'm an agnostic with a love for the folklore of my Anglo-Saxon ancestors, and my wife is a practicing pagan. So it's far more likely that we would select names like Bran or Branwen. (Taliesin is a good one, too, btw!)
On the other hand, I am not a naive person and I know that children like to single out other kids for being "different", no matter what that difference is. I wouldn't want my children to resent me for casting negative attention upon them.
Naming your son or daughter something that's obviously an homage to pulp fiction IS condemning them to a life of ridicule and discrimination, like it or not. Fafhrd, Conan, Aragorn, Alustriel, and Tyrion are best left to the printed page - not your kid's birth certificate.
Our solution will likely be to give any children we have a "normal" first name, paired with a more esoteric middle name, which they can then be embarrassed by once their senior yearbook photo is published with their full name, like every other kid is. =]
I totally wanted to name my daughter Imoen. My husband liked it too until he realized where I had gotten it from. My argument was that virtually none of her peers would have ever played "Baldur's Gate" and would have no clue we named her after a video game character.
Imoen's a very pretty name. And you're right, no one would have ever known unless they googled her.
Perhaps one thing to consider is this: Is the choice of a child's name the results of a parent's reflection on what they want for the child, or a reflection of the parent?
I remember reading a news report of a woman arrested for neglect for leaving her three daughters in a car in a motel parking lot over night while partying in one of the rooms. The girls' names: Champagne, Chablis, and Chardonnay.
I'd say this is the worst case scenario of the latter. However, I think it's important for a parent to think ahead. A name should have meaning. Some people are named for those that have had a great influence on their parents' lives. (This doesn't always work well. I had a friend in high school with a little brother named Quester. I thought it was kind of cool until I found out that Quester was the name of the mother's favorite dog when she was a child.)Myself, I'd rather be named something "normal" because I was named after a person who meant a lot to my parents, rather than be named "Legolas" because my parents thought he was the coolest character in the books/movies.
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Feel free to give children as weird and unusual first names as you like, but at least give them something plain as a middle name in case they ever want to to into an industry where being named Millennium Falcon wouldn't really work.
Heh, what if there is no such thing as a middle name in your country, or if your father's name counts as a middle name?
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My sons..
Bleys Nicholai. that way if he did not like Bleys he could go by Nick of Nicki or something.
and
Dashiell James. That way he could go by Dash, DJ, James or Jimmy.
They like their names. They get compliments all the time.
Dude, you named your son after Jimmy the Hand's grandsons?
Awesome...
What's really funny is all the names people accidently give kids because they're high on pain meds.
Nurse: "What's his name?"
Heavily Sedated Mother: "Mumblemumblemumble."
Nurse: "John! What a lovely name!"
HSM: "MUMBLEMUMBLE!!!"
Nurse: "Oh, of course it's lovely. Have some more vicodin!"
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Feel free to give children as weird and unusual first names as you like, but at least give them something plain as a middle name in case they ever want to to into an industry where being named Millennium Falcon wouldn't really work.Heh, what if there is no such thing as a middle name in your country, or if your father's name counts as a middle name?
Then I cannot help you.
I don't see anything wrong with naming your child something different or at least out of the ordinary, no matter the source, as long as it's not too far out there, or will cause your child problems down the road.
My friend named his daughter Madrielle, after one of the Goddesses of the Scarred Lands campaign setting, and our first real D&D game. The name turns out to have real-world connotations too, so his wife ok'ed it. I think it's a very nice name, and the history of it is pretty cool. I would not, however, see fit to name a child something like Erythnul or Hextor.
I have to be especially careful when I get to name my future child, as my surname is Money. I have to be careful not to pick anything that could rhyme with a joke about Money. Blah.
"Merlin" might sound like a cool name on a Pathfinder message board, but do you really think his resume will be taken seriously in 25 years?
I think this is huge.
Having a unique name that may cause a child some grief in school is one thing, but you also have to consider the ramifications once they are in the working world and applying for a job. Although it's completely unfair, arbitrary, and may screw over the potentially best candidate, I am certain that if a hiring manager or HR professional has a stack of resumes and only a few minutes to go through them, the guy named Merlin is probably going to end up in the discard pile relatively quickly, perhaps with his resume not even having been read.
This may not happen every time or even very often, but as a parent, I want to give my children every advantage they can in the real world and not give them a name that furthers my personal amusement, but hinders their prospects even occasionally.
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What's really funny is all the names people accidently give kids because they're high on pain meds.
Nurse: "What's his name?"
Heavily Sedated Mother: "Mumblemumblemumble."
Nurse: "John! What a lovely name!"
HSM: "MUMBLEMUMBLE!!!"
Nurse: "Oh, of course it's lovely. Have some more vicodin!"
I'm not sure that happens as much as it used to, at least in canada you have a fair bit of time to register your child, long enough to become less hallucinogenic.
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Someone commented above about names in an international context. I've always marveled at one of my wife's stories, she was studying at a friends house with a group of people, the friends name was ethnic, and they had all long since reached some pronunciation of the syllables which she could tolerate, or respond to, or was to polite to correct. While she was out of the room, her sister came in and ripped them all a new one about how they were staying something horrible and insulting when they mispronounced the name, something like whore or slut.
What has always boggled me, is that I can't imagine naming your child Pristitute, or some other near miss to a vulgarity.
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Someone commented above about names in an international context. I've always marveled at one of my wife's stories, she was studying at a friends house with a group of people, the friends name was ethnic, and they had all long since reached some pronunciation of the syllables which she could tolerate, or respond to, or was to polite to correct. While she was out of the room, her sister came in and ripped them all a new one about how they were staying something horrible and insulting when they mispronounced the name, something like whore or slut.
What has always boggled me, is that I can't imagine naming your child Pristitute, or some other near miss to a vulgarity.
You'd be amazed at some stuff stupid people are able to pull off.
"Merlin" might sound like a cool name on a Pathfinder message board, but do you really think his resume will be taken seriously in 25 years?
Any job that won't hire my son Merlin Faraday Hoyle because of his name, doesn't deserve him.
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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.
Your friend named their child Indiana after the dog, right. Indiana was the dog's name.
Really? No one else was going to jump on that.
I worked with an Aquanetta which is definitely an odd name, but she swore she would never have wanted anything different than that. Unique names can seem odd and out of place but at the same time they are UNIQUE.
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That's something like a half dozen digs on Merlin so far--it's not a particularly odd-sounding name; just one extra sound from Merl. I doubt, seriously, that many HR administrators would even notice it, at least not in the US. 'Svifneblin Fyyvathuddrist'rathiaset', however, is another thing altogether...
I had a lit prof at UNC named Merlin Southerland. He obviously did fine.
Mountains and molehills, guys.
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For all those people who name their kids something unusual:
You don't have to live with it, they do.
A friend of a friend named his kids after Marvel comics characters. Logan was passable, Electra less so (read the original legend moron) but his third child?
Blade
Yup that's right, Blade. Boy, that kid had better be able to chew razor blades by the time he starts school. Because let's face it kids are evil.
A name is a gift you give your child. You have a responsibility to your child to give him/her a name that won't get him/her teased and won't give them self esteem issues in later life.
If you want to be creative, start a life drawing class.