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I knew a girl whose last name was Boling. She was gonna marry a Ball and almost kept her last name until someone told her she would from then on be a Boling-Ball

Gilliatt wrote:What I don't like is people who name their children on legendary or novel characters, like Achilles or Apollo, because they want to show others that they have some "kulture". (Victor Hugo made fun of that in Les Misérables with the Thénardiers.)

Don't know that this is still the case, but in many cultures that has been a standard approach to naming children, rather than an attempt to make parents look learned. For example, the ante bellum South was filled with people named Junius Brutus, Augustus, Vitella, etc. I suppose it went hand in hand with the idea they had that the South would restore dignity and letters to the US. (HL Mencken had a field day with this idea back in the 1930s when he wrote a celebrated essay entitled "The Sahara of the Bozart.")



I am pretty sure there are some Bilbos, Terminators, and D'Artagnans in the world.[/QUOTE]

Humphrey doesn't sound bad to me, it reminds me of Humphrey Bogart.

Achilles is not uncommon in my country (Greece), I know two guys with that name (but with the greek pronounciation) and they don't have any problem. It actually is very good. But Apollo (Apollonas) would be peculiar.

The worst name I can think of is Paris Hilton... I think you know why...:laugh:

A name I would want to change is also Cornelius (the name at my signature)

Gilliatt wrote:What I don't like is people who name their children on legendary or novel characters, like Achilles or Apollo, because they want to show others that they have some "kulture". (Victor Hugo made fun of that in Les Misérables with the Thénardiers.) I am pretty sure there are some Bilbos, Terminators, and D'Artagnans in the world.

When I was teaching, I had in class, brother and sister named Strider and Galadrial, and another family, both boys and girls named Brooke, Berry, Meadow, Sunshine, Eagle and Glade, and yes their parents were what you would call old hippies.

What about virtues and vices? Prudence, Grace, Faith, Vanity--I would just as soon chuck all those names overboard.

fable wrote:For example, the ante bellum South was filled with people named Junius Brutus, Augustus, Vitella, etc.

This just reminded me of someone I heard today who thought Latin was the official language of the Latin Americans. :laugh:

Andurbal quote:

Achilles is not uncommon in my country (Greece), I know two guys with that name (but with the greek pronounciation) and they don't have any problem.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that name has probably been common in your country for centuries, so that would make it a different thing from what I talked about.

BlueSky quote:

When I was teaching, I had in class, brother and sister named Strider and Galadrial, and another family, both boys and girls named Brooke, Berry, Meadow, Sunshine, Eagle and Glade, and yes their parents were what you would call old hippies.

I know a guy who named his son Elric, and when I told him about Micheal Moorcock, he had no idea who the guy was and had never heard of Elric the Necromancer... but I don't think that was the case with the parents of Strider and Galadriel.

Gilliatt wrote:This just reminded me of someone I heard today who thought Latin was the official language of the Latin Americans. :laugh:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Gilliatt wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but that name has probably been common in your country for centuries, so that would make it a different thing from what I talked about.

I'm not sure if it was common throughout all the centuries of my country's history. And a lot of ancient greek names are not in use in modern Greece.
I just wanted to show that it depends on where you live (and in which time period).

In Norway, like I've said somewhere else, girls are mostly named after various shrubbery nowadays, while boys are named after apostles or saints. Go figure. The least Christian nation in the western world.

NOTHING beats the names of the children spawned in the love triangle between Sir Bob Geldof, washed up rock star Michael Hutchence and junkie former groupie Paula Yates. Their kids are named... wait for it....

Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Little Pixie. In 1996 Yates gave birth to a daughter named Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence.


:speech: :speech: :laugh:

I can see the teacher in Junior High reading the names in the morning...

"Fi.... erm... is that.. Fifi Trixibelle? Could you raise your hand, please?"

Clue five seconds of complete silence, and then pandemonium erupts.

@fable: I'm with you on virtues and vices. I also am not fond of seasons and/or months. Well, I say I'm not fond of it, when really what I mean is that they sound like stripper names. I'm not necessarily unfond of that in the proper context, but it's akward in elementary school.

@Andurbal: Yeah, I hate that name too. Do you think her parents know that Paris is a man's name?

Hm, this may or may not fit in here, but there was somebody at my school with the first initial of P (I won't say the name for privacy sake) and the last name of Enis.

P...Enis. How unfortunate. I would have changed the first name to anything as long as it didn't start with a "P". Even Englebert.

[QUOTE=cathycf]Hm, this may or may not fit in here, but there was somebody at my school with the first initial of P (I won't say the name for privacy sake) and the last name of Enis.[/QUOTE]

That poor person..... :speech:
I bet they cursed their parents each and every days for such total lack of thought

[QUOTE=Jopperm] Do you think her parents know that Paris is a man's name?[/QUOTE]
Ah...that explains everything... Now we know the true reasons for Paris Hilton's behaviour. She's just trying to prove that she's *really* a woman.

@Moonbiter,
ROFLMAO!!! :laugh:
You just have to wonder what was going through their minds! Or maybe those names were inspired by some kind of a narcotics-induced trip.. much like when Coleridge wrote his poem Kubla Khan.

The sort of names that would send me running to the registry office if I was a girl would be of the Stephanie, Roberta, Georgina variety, all of them have the same meaning 'Damn we wanted a boy'.

AS to Paris being a boys name, gender confusion seems to be quite common in the US, boys called Tracy girls called Robin etc. egad I'd hate to think of the torments that a guy called Tracy must go through. I blame Johnny Cash personally.

clearing up a misunderstanding

Paris Hilton's father owns big hotels in many big cities. All of these hotels are named Hilton. The Hilton hotel in Athens (capital city of Greece) is called Athens Hilton. The Hilton hotel in Paris (capital city of France) is called Paris Hilton.

@Andurbal,
yes, that is indeed true... But, there's truly something disturbing about naming your child after a hotel... Think of the possible implications....

dragon wench wrote:@Andurbal,
yes, that is indeed true... But, there's truly something disturbing about naming your child after a hotel...

Yep, it truly is, and they did that with full knowledge. I don't remember her sister's name, though...

dragon wench wrote:Think of the possible implications....

Check in...check out... Check in...check out:laugh:
Oh, there are SO many implications... I don't want to think of all of them, I want to preserve the remains of my:speech: brain function...

Her sister is named Nicole. I superb name in my humble opinion.

Maybe she was named after where she was conceived? As in at the Paris Hilton.. that would explain that stripper I met named Impala...

jopperm2 wrote:Have you ever noticed how people tend to fit their names? Kind of weird huh? Some cultures would say that the name shapes the person. I'm not sure that's precisely it, but people seem to fit their name.

I used to hate my name -- Josh, for those who don't know it -- but not any more.

I knew a Dusty Rhodes, she went to elementary school with me. BlueSky reminded me of that.

Actually, some studies indicate that people tend to grow into the societal image of the name they are given. Berthas tend to be trucks, as it were. However, the societal implications of a name change with time, so while at this time a name like 'Cedric' might create an oily pouf, and some other time, it might have created a sophisticated gentleman.

I did, however, note that "Ruby Lipps". Good lord, I fear what that might do.

There are also some just slightly off names. The coroner on CSI-Miami? Khandi Alexander (her real name). Brandi Alexander would have been a coup. Just two letters...

Jhereg wrote: However, the societal implications of a name change with time, so while at this time a name like 'Cedric' might create an oily pouf, and some other time, it might have created a sophisticated gentleman.

That is a very good point. Bertha is a good example of that, and the name in German means bright. People may also hate their name as a kid, but grow to like it when they get older. I never liked my first name "Kathleen" because all the Kathys in my grade at school were Katherines and I was the only Kathleen. But as an adult, I like it because it is a little more unique (although Katherine and all it's variations--Kate, Kathleen, Kathy Cathy ect...are still pretty common at least in the US)

I tend to really dislike when people name their children for geographic locations. China, India and Asia spring to mind and it really annoys me to see "Chynna". Misspelling something doesn't make it more "cool".

It seems to me that parents used to name their children to honor a relative, or a saint. They named them something that had meaning, and now they name them things like "Apple" which only seems to honor the parent's ego.

I must say though that one name I would change would be Eccentrica Gallumbits .

Jhereg wrote:Actually, some studies indicate that people tend to grow into the societal image of the name they are given. Berthas tend to be trucks, as it were. However, the societal implications of a name change with time, so while at this time a name like 'Cedric' might create an oily pouf, and some other time, it might have created a sophisticated gentleman.

Excellent point. This gets into an area of potential interest, namely why do names become more popular or less so over a lengthy time in a given culture? It's easier to determine the rises to fame. Dwight, for example, though in my opinion a terrible name, suddenly experienced a brief burst of popularity in the 1940s and 1950s, thanks to the national US prominence of General, later President Dwight David Eisenhower. But what makes a name fall from favor? That's much more difficult to figure.

It seems to me that parents used to name their children to honor a relative, or a saint. They named them something that had meaning, and now they name them things like "Apple" which only seems to honor the parent's ego.

True, Kathycf. My parents named me after a dead great-grandmother and a dead great-uncle. That was customary in Ukrainian culture, and her parents were from the Ukraine: honor the dead by giving their names (or forms of their names) to the living. Other cultures prefer to pass on names of the living to the newborn, so that the name itself becomes a continuing family legacy. Though I've never liked the idea of giving a child an exact copy of a parent's name, so that "Fred II" has a son, "Fred III." That seems self-indulgent, as well as saddling the kid with all sorts of potential conflicts.

fable wrote:Though I've never liked the idea of giving a child an exact copy of a parent's name, so that "Fred II" has a son, "Fred III." That seems self-indulgent, as well as saddling the kid with all sorts of potential conflicts.

Agreed. I think some parents do it to continue a family tradition, but it does certainly smack of egotism. I think there are a lot of people who need to consider their children as individuals, not as some extension of themselves and name them accordingly.

I am surprised some celebrity or another hasn't named their kid "Tabula Rasa" for crying out loud. :laugh: