Author Archives: notwithoutmyhandbag

I worked at a mortgage company some time ago and came across the name of a customer:

Manly Eaton Cox.

I really really hope this guy’s a porno star that changed his name and bought a house.

-J.

My cousin’s first son is named Terra, as in the Earth. Since the couple is not married, they wanted to give Terra the mother’s last name (Rist). Thankfully, someone pointed out that living life as “Terra Rist” would be a bad idea (especially after 9/11). He has his father’s last name (Fleischer).

-D.

My father is a High School teacher, and in the 70’s he taught a family of kids with the last name McLean (pronounced MacLane) The children were, unfortunately, named Duane, Shane, Wayne and Lorraine.

*sigh*

My only experience with the dreaded yuppy name was a duo of sisters named Pepper and Brie, known more commonly to almost everyone as “Cheesy” and “Sneezy”.

I also just wanted to mention that here in Australia, the only time I hear the names Kayla, Jayden or Brayden they are being shrieked at children being dragged through a parking lot. There also seems to be a trend of apparently naming children after soap characters… Storm, Ridge, Tayla, Alexis etc. Usually people seemingly destined for the most singularly un-glamourous lives imaginable.

A friend of a friend named her daughter Ampersand, just because she said she thought it sounded really purty. O. K.

-L.

Here is my contribution. In 1976, my first school counseling job was at a middle school in Tucson. In my caseload was a seventh grade girl named Rotunda. And was she, um, large, you might ask? Well yes, she was. What in the name of God were her parents thinking?

-L.

My (relative or friend) plays lacrosse for a very yuppie private high school. Two of his teammates are “Amos” (which always makes me think of ‘Famous Amos’ cookies) and “”Anis” (I only saw it on the roster- I’ll leave the pronouncing to you!).

K.

These may not be all that bad, but a friend of mine has a son named Brien, which is pronounced, “Brie-n”, who in turn has two sons, named Rayne and Zayden. Frankly, I’m not sure if any of these are common names, but they are just different enough to keep friends, teachers, etc., confused as to spelling, pronunciation, origin, meaning, etc.

-E.

I work at a Univeristy, and have seen some strange and bad names in the student files.

Superman The Aquarian (“The” is the middle name)
Koala Bear
Cinnamon Twist
Asha Mashaka
Amanda Gropper (can you believe that!!!)

-M.

I have a family member who’s an obstetrician, and has been in practice in the south for 40 years. We have seen our share of pseudo-Latin (or is that Pseuda-Latin American?) names: Latrina, Tangela (I always wondered if she was conceived in a citrus grove),Tercel (conceived in a Toyota?) etc. But the winner has always been a baby he delivered in the early 70’s:

Tcheacheata Wequadreneta – pronounced… (wait for it!)… Chiquita Juanrenita.

I never thought this could be topped… until a couple of years ago, when someone called in to make an appointment for their daughter:

Pausefunei

I had her spell it. Twice. I’ll give you a hint – she’s married to the Greek God of the Underworld. Yes, it’s Persephone.

All I can figure is that these people hear a name, and guess at the spelling. How hard would it be to *ask* someone?

-S.

A friend of mine from school was named Aguinaldo Alfonse (last name) III.

-J.

My own experience with odd names concerns my daughter, an otherwise sensible girl who named her boys Chase (not too bad, although I note quite a few girls named Chase on your site), Bryce and Tristan. I begged her not to give names that would have these lads get the crap beat out of them daily at school, but she just didn’t get it. Bryce’s middle name is Joseph, so he suffers the double ignominity of having B.J. as his initials. I’m going to call him Joe (and Tristan Jeff, since his middle name is Jeffrey).

It’s not likely that Grandpa can have a whole lot of influence in this, but we’ll see — perhaps if either one of them likes it well enough they’ll start using it and subvert their mom’s well intended but otherwise misguided naming efforts.

And my (relative) named his daughter Zephyr — I told him he should name his next one Monsoon, or Twister. And that she’ll marry a guy named Zeb and they’ll be Zeph and Zeb and run around without shoes and have lots of kids named after Carnation products. He doesn’t speak to me much.

Thanks again for the fun — keep writing.

-M.