Author Archives: notwithoutmyhandbag

Hi!

I worked with a supervisor in Augusta, Ga. whose name is spelled Antonwon, pronounced Antoine.

–P

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

After coming across you site I had to send you an email. As you can see from my student email address this is my real name. Wanna know something else? Guess what my other brothers names are? Mike and Lucky! Not rolling on the floor laughing yet? How about my dad’s name. . .Hung! I swear it’s all true.

-Happy Quatch

It’s true – his e-mail address is hquatch@(a college with e-mail addresses based on student names) Still working on confirming the rest of the family, though.

Karm L. Sunday (applied for a job in my office)
Daniel Daniel Daniel (went to school with my sister)
And the Derryberry cousins: Kerry, Larry, and Terry.

Gotta love stupid people.

-J.

My parents were unable to have children, so in the early 70’s they decided to adopt a child, which was myself.

My parents wanted a son as their first child, so they started to pick out names. My father, somehow convinced my mother on these three names: Rasputin, Osgood and Thaddeus. Not only was one of these going to be the first name, but then one of the other two would be the middle name. “Thaddeus Osgood! Let the playground beatings begin!”

Thankfully, I was seven months old and already responding to the orphange’s name, James. They told my parents that changing my name would be a bad idea and bad for me. I to this day thank those nameless social workers in the past who saved me. But not totally…. Anyhow, love the site!

-James Thaddeus

In conversation with a pleasant customer of mine, the subject of names came up. The customer’s name was Creed (not such a bad name). He said that his brother’s name was Precious Jewel.

After a surprised pause, I said “gee, did he have trouble with the kids on the playground?”

Creed said “Not after the first time.”

-Ann

All right, that’s it, I have had it, I cannot stand the injustice anymore…the name Caitlin is a Gaelic variant on Kathleen or Katherine and is pronounced Cat-leen not kate-lin. Imagine someone with an Irish accent saying “Kathleen” and there you have it. So to all you trendy yuppie jump-on-the-old-country-naming-practice urban dwellers, “Get it right!”

Thank you for allowing me this rant. Have a good day!

-Eibhear

I used to know a family that had it all: the egotistical naming after oneself, names that “went together”, not-really-names that were spelled weird, and the incongruous nicknames. The especially weird part is that these kids were all born in the late 70s-early 80s.

Anyway, the dad’s name was Daniel, the mother’s name was Danielle. Ew already, right? So the first daughter was named Danielle, nicknamed Cory; second daughter, Danilee, nicknamed Cara; third daughter, Daniela, nicknamed PJ (WTF?); and of course the son named Daniel, nicknamed Chad.

I was in the same class as the oldest girl, so I used to ponder this family for hours instead of doing my math.

-A

I ran across this post on a bulletin board:

“Ok, me and my husband has finally decided on a name that we like. It’s anislee. Like the lady on the west wing. (My husbands favorite show.)

My friends do not like this name. They said it’s horrible. But it’s the only name me and my husband can decide on. Plus nothing sounds good with it. Please help. Our last name is Rollins.”

WTF? I wrote back and gently reminded her that perhaps a name beginning with ‘anis’ would not be so good in the long term for their daughter’s well-being, and pointed out the traditional spelling of Ainsley (ick either way). Maybe they’re just dyslexic or something, but SHEESH.

-L.

I have a good funny name for you: my English teacher in high school was named Harold Bauld, but went by Harry Bauld. The best part is that he’s bald. On the first day of class he wrote his name on the board and then underneath wrote the word “oxymoron.” Thus we got to laugh at our teacher and learn a new vocab word at the same time!

I also knew a woman whose name was Faye Fay. She married a man with the same last name as her first name.

Cheers!

-Kate