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22 April 2008
Baby name thread! Lots of babies about to be born 'round here. Please provide name suggestions.
"Albania's 1976 constitution banned all 'fascist, religious, war-mongerish, anti-socialist activity and propaganda.' The penal code of 1977 imposed prison sentences of three to ten years for 'religious propaganda and the production, distribution, or storage of religious literature.' Another decree targeted Albanians with Christian names. All citizens whose names did not conform to 'the political, ideological, or moral standards of the state' were required to change them. Lists were published with pagan 'Illyrian' names for parents to choose from. There were also newly created names, for example 'Marenglen,' a word combining the first syllables of Marx, Engels and Lenin."
I think Harley Davidson is just lovely for a boy and Crystal Methedrine is so pretty for a little girl. this is what my ex threatened occasionally to name our kid. That or Adolf Hitler Richard Nixon Pol Pot Brown.
danf, my son changed his name to Hopper when he was three and it lasted for almost six months. I told my mom on the phone and she said, without missing a beat, "As in Dennis or Edward?" "We're hoping for Edward," I said, "But I think we're getting Dennis."
"Albania's 1976 constitution banned all 'fascist, religious, war-mongerish, anti-socialist activity and propaganda.' The penal code of 1977 imposed prison sentences of three to ten years for 'religious propaganda and the production, distribution, or storage of religious literature.' Another decree targeted Albanians with Christian names. All citizens whose names did not conform to 'the political, ideological, or moral standards of the state' were required to change them. Lists were published with pagan 'Illyrian' names for parents to choose from. There were also newly created names, for example 'Marenglen,' a word combining the first syllables of Marx, Engels and Lenin."
I swear I met a person that had a kid with the middle name, "Other". The first name is the same as that Timberlake fellow. As in, Just another insert last name here. Is that funny? Clever? I would have to say no.
My brother is planning on calling his son "kid" until he's 18, which I kind of like, because it makes him sound like he's a character in a western. I've been referring to the guy as "lil duder" because he's not born yet and they haven't let the names slip.
My girlfriend has a friend named "lundee" because her mother's maiden name was lund. This is appalling to me.
I like the name Hank, which as someone pointed out in AskMe awhile back, is like the PBR of baby names.
My wife will not allow me to name our children anything that could be turned into a cruel nickname later. Which means that my big fave, Booker, is waaaaaay off the table.
Well lets spruce it up with some "exotic" names. Swedish old norse girl name Saga which means "she who sees" has become really popular recently (as in you might find almost a hundred girls names saga born between 2005-2008) and was one of the names I considered. The modern word saga means "fairy tale". It's adorable in Swedish but I can't figure out how it would be pronounced in English. Saaaja?
Jason's_planet, it's really funny you posted that; "Marenglen" is the name of the film my husband is working on at the moment, and the story is about prejudice against Albanian immigrants in Greece, with one of the main characters named Marenglen.
I see the name "Marenglen" pretty much every single day, multiple times a day - on his sound reports, the script, scheduling stuff, a folder on the desktop of this very computer where he transfers material... Marenglen, Marenglen, Marenglen.
My wife will not allow me to name our children anything that could be turned into a cruel nickname later.
I love this theory, but it flies in the face of reality, in which any name can be turned into a cruel nickname. Or if not, the other kids will just bestow a cruel nickname. The kid's personality has a lot more to do with whether they get teased than their name.
Make that the kid's personality [and the responsible adults' degree of tolerance/permission on teasing] has a lot more to do with whether they get teased than their name.
Oh, since I've gotten to college, I've met two (maybe three?) people named Thor or Thorson. One of them is from Island, but I don't think the other(s) were.
The ex-student from the other day and his fiancee named their son Dexter Jacob. Of course, the kid will probably end up left-handed and be a sinister Dexter.
I also knew a kid named Huckleberry, which is awesome. I also knew a kid named Prairie, which was less awesome, but maybe I only feel that way because, when I was three, he pulled out a chunk of my hair that left me with a quarter-sized bald patch. (I think my mom is still mad about that.)
I like the previously mentioned Violet and Hank (which yeah, is the PBR of baby names). I also like Rose, Jasper, Pippa, Esme, and Nathaniel.
Jason's_planet, it's really funny you posted that; "Marenglen" is the name of the film my husband is working on at the moment . I see name "Marenglen" pretty much every single day, multiple times a day - on his sound reports, the script, scheduling stuff, a folder on the desktop of this very computer where he transfers material... Marenglen, Marenglen, Marenglen.
Huh. What a weird coincidence. I've been reading a book on Albania and first encountered that name last night.
Current baby names I have had friends name their kids:
Sofia
Sophia
Milena
Maria Cecilia
Mae
Douglas
Lucas
Tatum
Henrique
Felipe (Felipe has become one of the most popular names in Brazil these days)
My fave: Cauã (it's a boys name, and nearly unpronounceable)
Iceland shares a common cultural heritage with the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and its crown dependency the Faroe Islands. Icelanders, however, unlike other Scandinavians, have continued to use their traditional name system, which was formerly used in all of Scandinavia. The Icelandic system does not use family names. A person's surname indicates the given name of the subject's father (or mother in some cases), that is, it is a patronymic (or matronymic).
There's a horrible trend in the UK to give boys diminutive names - Billy, Alfie, Jamie, Timmy, etc.
If you're thinking of doing that, I'd urge you - please - to put the full William, Alfred, James, Timothy, etc. on the birth certificate. Call your son by the short name if you wish, but remember that, whilst Timmy might be cute on a six-year-old, it'll sound stupid as shit when he's 46.
My friends have named their kids Morgan, Imogen, Leo, and Kieran. I know someone named Serena who pronounces is Serenna, and I think it's lovely.
Not just potential bad nicknames - be aware of bad combinations of initials. A friend of a friend changed their would-be baby name when someone pointed out that the little tyke would have been stuck with a nasty monogram. I wish I could remember what it was.
Apparently, after my impressive "how much vodka can a jello shot hold" experiment, I started muttering about how I wanted a kid so I could name it "puddin' pop" and dress it like prince.
Bassjump... did your friends mr and mrs smith want to name their baby alexander samuel? ;)
I like floral names for girls: Daisy, Fern (my middle name), Rose, Violet. Old fashioned names are good too: Rachel, Elisabeth, Jane, Alice. Boys should have names like: Sebastian, Alexander, Theodore, Balthazar.
I narrowly escaped being named Iolanthe (Greek for "violet flower"), pronounced "ee-oh-LON-tha". I'm glad for that, but the nick name would have been Io, which would have been pretty cool.
Boyfriend is insisting on Ramses III. I may have to drug him when it's time to register the kid. But then, I've loved the name Blaise for years so who am I to talk.
Stella for a girl, after my grandmother. I also like Ilse.
Recent babies are Jessica, Erin, Esta (yes, I know), Daniel, Aisha and Monty.
In real life, I like girls' names that can be shortened to be masculine sounding (for example, Samantha, Alexandra).
I'm against the last names as first names trend, although atypical ones might not be so bad - I have a friend who wants to name her daughter Murphy, which is sorta cute.
I am naming my firstborn son Durendal, and training him to be a superhero.
(If I ever have a child, which I won't, but say I steal one and raise it as my own, I'm naming him Jack Aubrey, and I don't care who laughs, cuz that's a cool fuckin' name.)
For kids, I wish I had got the chance to use:
Veronica, Grace, and Lily (except, when your last name is Tomlin...Lily is a couple generations away from usable). I could have named Evelyn Veronica, but dammit, it didn't suit her. It still doesn't.
I had a great uncle named Wilbur, but he was always called "Wib", which I thought was pretty cool. Also, Walter, but...I would only like it if it was shortened to Walt, and really...you can't control that. So, no way was I gonna raise a Wally. I also toyed with the idea of a young Joe to hang around with, but in the end, I was pretty sure the only Joe I would know was a Josephine.
Oh, and any dog we EVER get will be named Floyd. Just saying.
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