I have very much enjoyed reading through the baby name site. I have a couple of comments:

1. While I am a goofy white guy, I have a name that sounds black. Prospective employers, girlfriends’ parents, etc. have all gone through this hem-haw well, could I see a picture song and dance, which is sometimes funny but most often just annoying. I find myself thinking, “They wouldn’t like me if I were black?” I’m confused, they are confused.

I knew of a woman in college named Terrell Jackson — people (teachers, etc) expected a big black man and got a very petite white woman. I don’t have a proposed rule — it’s just something to look out for.

2. Names that actually appear in your family are not somehow made OK. I have ancestors named Otis, Selton, Oscar, Cordell, Vivette, Bess, Lois, Myrtice. These are real names, just ugly ones (though Otis and Vivette have kind of won my heart . . . ). Will future generations look back and say: “I named her Madysin after her grandmother”?

3. My mother taught in the public schools, and the craziest name she reported was a little girl whose last name was Beloved — yes, you guessed it, first name Dear. Not Dearly, though — that would have made too much sense.

4. Don’t name girls after men. I’ve met a Garvisa, a Richenda and a Sparky (named after her father’s NICKNAME — he was an electrician).

Thank you for fighting the good fight against the tyranny of evil names!

-Carlton