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posted by Jimbob 19 January | 05:30

Okay, how about "Zeus"? "Z" names are always cool, and I don't think we use enough names from mythology, even here in Greece. We do have quite a few that are very common - "Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes," but there are some that are quite rare.

posted by taz 19 January | 06:54

You misspelled misspelled ;)

I may be the only person in the universe who likes the baby names Apple (Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin's baby) or Coco (David Arquette and Courtney Cox's baby). I think they're both sweet baby names, although I don't think either of them necessarily translate well into adulthood.

Overall I like unusual names pretty well, and I like names that used to be traditional but fell into disuse, like Bartholomew and Aloyisius. What I dislike are "modern" (popular) conventional names that can be spelled 5 trillion different ways. It must be a drag constantly having to spell your name for people.

Crystal Cristyl Kristal Christle Krystle Krystal
Kaitlin Caitlin Katelynn Katelyn Caitlynn Catelynn
Ashley Ashlee Ashleigh Ashlei Ashlie
Mary Anne Maryanne Marianne Mariann Mary Ann Maryann Maryayn

Like that. Apologies to all the Crystals et al.

posted by iconomy 19 January | 07:04

Some of my faves (and yes, I am a name nerd):
Birdie
Edie
Georgina
Imogen
Linden
Siobhan
Sunday
Talula

Asher
Beckett
Ezra
Harper
Lachlan

posted by jaksemas 19 January | 07:45

When I was a family lawyer I was consulted by some clients who wanted to sue the local Registrar, who'd asked them to give serious thought to what they were intending to call their new-born daughter. They thought they should get damages because they'd been asked to take 24-hours to think about it.

They wanted to call her Labia.

I sent the boyfriend out of the room and explained to this woman (well, girl really, she was just 18) what 'labia' were - bearing in mind she's just had a baby you would think she'd have some knowledge of her own anatomy.

After consulting with the boyfriend, they decided to name her Venetia instead.

Sigh ...

I also had a client who had 5 sons and a daughter named Lane, Kane, Duane, Shane, Wayne and Jane.

And another one whose son was named Conan. I secretly wished he'd grow up to become a librarian.

Oh, I could write a book on unsuitable names given to kids ...

posted by essexjan 19 January | 07:59

Yep. The female genitalia seems to present an irresistable lure for unwitting babynamers. My friend had a neighbor named "Vagina", or maybe "Vegina" - either way, it was pronounced as expected. My friend's father always said that he could barely resist telling the husband of the couple, "Good to see you, too - and be sure to kiss Vagina for me!"

On the other hand, you never find boys named "Scrotum". At least I hope not.

posted by taz 19 January | 08:14

I love Daisy Boo (and Jamie Oliver, in general) and, like ico, Apple. But, again, like ico, agree that they're no good for a adult, young or otherwise; Apple sounds like a working girl's name.

I reserve most of my pity for those babies named after lame-ass "celebrities" like Brooklyn, Jordan, Paris, and other such fluff. Every registry office should have a taste panel, who have the power to veto lame-ass baby names, for the damage caused by tasteless parents is unbounded.

And don't get me started on the name "Fanny".

posted by flopsy 19 January | 08:22

I love my husband's name "Evangelos". The "Ev" part means "good" and the "angelos" - obviously "angel". So, "good angel" (he is!), or angel of good news. In Greece this name is almost always shortened to "Vangelis" (yes, like the musician) for daily use. The stress is on the second syllable, and the "g" is hard in both forms.

posted by taz 19 January | 08:28

Oh, and the feminine form is "Evangelia" (with the stress on the fourth syllable).

posted by taz 19 January | 08:29

My oldest is named Orion, a fairly common name in my mother's family. We pronounce it like the constellation (with the emphasis on the 'i'), however the family name is pronounced OR-ion (emphasis on the 'r').

My youngest is named Silvan Ray, maybe that's silly. We wanted to pick a boy's name that started with 's' (after my wife's mother) and didn't like any of common ones.

posted by danostuporstar 19 January | 08:49

A friend wanted "Pluto" for his son, but the wife vetoed.

Ezra is great. I know a guy named Ezra who goes by "Bud" instead - tragic.

posted by Wolfdog 19 January | 08:58

I know a guy named Lockhart, Lock for short, which I think is way cool. He was named after his uncle, but the only other Lockhart he's ever run across is this guy.

posted by JanetLand 19 January | 09:03

And this one's only weird because of how you say it -- my mom knew a girl named Yvonne, but the girl said it, "why-vonney." My mother concluded that her parents had seen it written somewhere and liked it, but never heard it, so didn't know how to pronounce it.

posted by JanetLand 19 January | 09:05

When I had my kids there was a rumor going around that a woman in a hospital in Philly had given birth and had seen the ID card on her baby's crib, which said Female Johnson (or whatever her last name was). The rumor was that the woman, who was not very smart, thought that the hospital had named her baby for her, and that it was pronounced fah-mah-lay, and she thought it French, and pretty, so she kept it.

posted by iconomy 19 January | 09:13

I had a friend in my graduating class named Wynter. : )

posted by sisterhavana 19 January | 09:19

Saga (she who sees far, a godess in norse mythology who seemingly knew everything), Reidun (rei = nest/home + dun = love), two names competing for the top spot that lost to Perle (pearl). ;)

posted by dabitch 19 January | 09:23

When I was a kid I kept naming my (toy) horses names like: Benjamin, Sebastian, Maxmillian, and Webster. I still liek those names I just wonder why I fancied so many syllables....

posted by dabitch 19 January | 09:31

My two favourite girls names (apart from the ones we have already handed out - Sophie and Evelyn) are Veronica and Lily.

Somewhat disappointingly, I tried Veronica on Ev, but it just wouldn't stick. And, as my surname is Tomlin, Lily is out.

posted by richat 19 January | 09:43

..."there was a rumor going around that a woman in a hospital..."

That's a well-known and ubiquitous bit of urban folklore. That doesn't mean that it didn't happen sometime, someplace—but it does indicate that it likely didn't actually happen to "a friend of a friend".

I spent so much time on alt.folklore.urban that I have a bad reaction whenever I see a "funny names" thread. Over there, they had a sort of a ban on them because about 75% of the names people report are the same names mentioned any time the subject comes up and are obviously ULs, part of the remainder aren't very interesting leaving a few that haven't been seen before.

"Funny names" is a distinct genre of urban folklore. There's a few things which most ULs have in common. They're usually stories told as if it happened to a friend of a friend, there's something clever or funny about the story, and—an important point for serious folklore study—they usually have buried within them an unconscious cultural message about fears and prejudices. The funny names ULs have all three characteristics and the last is especially important. Most of the time when stories about "Vagina" and the like are told in North America, the ignorant parent is either explicitly or implicitly black. As such, these types of ULs are certainly racist and are transmitting an example of a culture's particular racist beliefs. In this case, the message centers around a cultural viewpoint of, or belief in the existence of, ignorant and/or stupid young black mothers.

So that's another reason I dislike funny names threads.

posted by kmellis 19 January | 10:23

Some friends of mine know a family who named their son Lothario.

posted by matildaben 19 January | 10:24

kmellis, I find it difficult to make the leap from some anonymous woman calling her child Female to the assumption that she was black, somehow. I didn't make that assumption. Did you?

posted by iconomy 19 January | 10:42

The story is told that way, usually.

posted by kmellis 19 January | 10:51

dabitch, I love your horse names! I love the names Sebastian and Maximillian especially.

posted by iconomy 19 January | 10:54

More on the baby naming urban legend at snopes.

I had a teacher in primary school who named his kids Falstaff, Sebastian and Romeo. None of them bad names per se, but in rural New Zealand it's gonna get you a lot of shit.

posted by gaspode 19 January | 11:07

Blahblahblah, kmellis. Remember Bee Gee? You know how she got her name? Her folks couldn't decide on one, and B.G. (Baby Girl) was on her hospital bracelet for a week, and it kind of stuck.

Check your email and perhaps we can go back to being civil.

posted by go dog go 19 January | 11:25

My favorite name for a child is Xanthos. But since it means "yellow" it has to be a blonde child. Or a jaundiced child, I guess. Oh! Or a cowardly child?

posted by agropyron 19 January | 11:27

P.S. Lothario and his parents are white.

posted by matildaben 19 January | 11:34

Jerel has intrigued me for some time, I know it has nothing to do with Superman's father (Jor-El), but other than that, I'm not sure. The "meaning" is the kind of thing you'd think people would want to know about before passing it on...but in some cases I guess not.

posted by safetyfork 19 January | 11:37

My grandpa's name was Merlyn, which I love. He didn't though, and never used it.

When I had a job cleaning up a city health database I ran into really cool names, the only one of which springs to mind right now being Aquanetta.

The early (still enthusiastic) Soviets named their kids things like Tractorina and Electrostanzia. I love those.

posted by small_ruminant 19 January | 12:12

On the subject of Russia, voksal - meaning station - is said to be derived from Vauxhall station. Many other delightful examples on the linked page.

And the inter-language corruption examples are both sad and beautiful.

posted by flopsy 19 January | 12:30

My partner's name is Cinnamon.
Our friends named their daughter Hazle (a variant spelling).

If I ever have a son, I want to name him Mercer.
And we've decided upon Jin Ju for a girl.

posted by me3dia 19 January | 12:33

Hey, kmellis is right; race is usually part of the "woman gives birth, names baby ______" stories. Just like in athletics, seeing all-name college basketball teams (Scientific Mapp and his brother Majestic come to mind) -- race and ridicule are a big part of it. I happen to like names like Plexico and Exree, and raising eyebrows at "unusual names" like Tobin Doda (where was he from, Senegal?) is at the very least a rather provincial attitude. Laughing about "Female" (how do you feel about "Eve?") is like laughing about "Takeshita" (hey, it looks like "Take a shit!") You have pity for someone else because of their name? Shame on you, it's their name. It's the second thing their parents gave them, after life. And yeah, when race is cited so often in these stories, it haunts every instance when it isn't. So even if that ain't where you're coming from, it shouldn't be surprising when someone brings it up. Naive or disingenuous, take your pick.

Anyway, I love the name(s) Emmanuel/Emmanuelle. And Felix.

posted by Hugh Janus 19 January | 12:54

Yeah, but your name is Hugh Janus.

posted by agropyron 19 January | 13:04

I'd forgotten about Exree (pronounced xray) Hipp. That dude has the coolest name ever.

posted by danostuporstar 19 January | 13:04

"Her folks couldn't decide on one, and B.G. (Baby Girl) was on her hospital bracelet for a week, and it kind of stuck."

Well, she was my under-10 girlfriend for two years which means we were like best friends. Sleepovers and the like. And her mother told me that BeeGee was named after the disco band.

posted by kmellis 19 January | 13:05

Kmellis and Hugh Janus are right about the race thing.

And I've always been partial to "Dammet".

posted by puke & cry 19 January | 13:16

Yeah, but your name is Hugh Janus.

I don't understand how that undermines my point.

Would it be better if I was named Drew Peacock?

posted by Hugh Janus 19 January | 13:17

There's some interesting stuff on race and names in the book Freakonomics, for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

posted by matildaben 19 January | 13:34

Yeah, have you seen the lists of recent names given by that socioeconomic group that are the bleeding edge? It's back to the past, baby.

posted by kmellis 19 January | 13:52

My best friend and her husband will be including "Persephone" as part of their new baby's name.

posted by chiababe 19 January | 15:49

It's notable that where I come from, "strange" baby names as associated with white trash and no-one else, but anyway we'll leave kmellis alone because he knows best. I wonder who's making cultural assumptions now. Cheers for the ideas, though :)

posted by Jimbob 19 January | 16:56

Anyway, I love the name(s) Emmanuel/Emmanuelle.

WhooHoo! Props to my Grandpa Otto Gustav Emanuel. Otto is cool too - if I have a boy his name will be Otto and when I give him his first car I'magonna name it Ottomobile. Yesiree, that's the plan.

posted by dabitch 19 January | 17:01

See, the wife and I have been discussing this at length, with the baby on the way. I've almost got her convinced to let me slip "Texas" in there somewhere if it's a boy. Finley Texas, aka Tex.

Don't mock me.

posted by Jimbob 19 January | 17:10

Yeah, but your name is Hugh Janus.

I don't understand how that undermines my point.

Would it be better if I was named Drew Peacock?

I just found it mildly eponysterical that a guy (ostensibly) named Hugh Janus was posting a rant about how mean it is to laugh at someone's name. Of course you feel that way!

But yeah, it might be better if your name were Drew Peacock.

posted by agropyron 19 January | 17:54

Well, again I wasn't making an assumption, it's a fact about this common UL. Read the Snopes page about it, it's interesting.

posted by kmellis 19 January | 18:47

If I ever have a daughter I want to name her Hero after the character from Much Ado About Nothing.

And about the race issue - has anyone heard the bit they do on Loveline when David Alan Grier is the guest? Dr. Drew will give him the name of a drug (Citalopram, for example) and DAG will pretend it's the name of a black kid and do an impression of a stereotypical black mom yelling at the kid. It's hilarious.

posted by mullacc 19 January | 20:53

If it's a girl, Jimbob, you could name her Texarkana, Tex for short.

posted by JanetLand 20 January | 12:56

19 January 2006