Author Archives: notwithoutmyhandbag

Aparently not a lot of adults in the world know that Jade isn’t just a pretty rock from the enigmatic east.

I’ll let my friend the Dyck Chynnarre (dick-SHUN-AIR-ee) do the talking:

Main Entry: jade
Pronunciation: ‘jAd
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English
1 : a broken-down, vicious, or worthless horse
2 a : a disreputable woman b : a flirtatious girl

-Steven

When my son was born there was a young student nurse working in the maternity ward whose name was Sparkle.

-A

I saw this name at an auto dealership, on a certificate for “outstanding performance” or some such:

Percephanie

I had to stare at it for a long while before I realized it was probably meant to be a version of “Persephone”. Whether the parents meant this as a “cute” variation or (like my parents) simply couldn’t spell will remain unknown … but honestly, do parents really want people wondering this sort of thing? It’s no “Portia/Porsche/Porsha”, but still.

— M.

I come from a large family (6kids) and my parents have a thing for wierd names.

My brothers are named:
Bleu Moon
Dallas Lincolon
Everett Forrest

My sisters are named:
Summer Skye
Misty Rain

And being the last of the bunch I got all the leftover names. Retta Desmond Walker Paris

This is no joke. I hate my parents.

Hi there. Ok, we have a weird last name coincidence… Our next door neighbors are the Balls, the previous owners of the same home were the Boners. We can’t wait to see what the next neighbors names will be.

John sends in this article:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Hate your name?

Consider these doozies: Vasoline Lewis, Emancipation Proclamation Cogshell, Winnie Mac Pough and Texas Moon. Or Toyota Corona Maria Collier, Ima Rose Bush and Rose Royce Hood.

Come on, you say, nobody would stick a little baby with one of those.

But they have.

The Florida Office of Vital Statistics, the state agency that keeps track of all births, deaths, marriages and divorces, has collected unusual names over the years. …”

In case you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s a key quote from name researcher Albert Mehrabian, a psychology professor at UCLA:

“There are lots of studies showing people with more common names tend to be more successful in school situations, professionally and so forth. People with less common, unique or unusual names don’t seem to be doing as well,” he said. “If a person’s name is somewhat bizarre, they are less likely to be taken seriously.”

A friend just named their baby girl Sapphire Velvet. I am concerned that the little girl may end up being a dancer or adult film star with a name like that. I hope she proves me wrong.

-A

In the invented random names category: Quintoria. I had a world history class with her, and my friends and I came up with various fifth-child theories, but I don’t think that numbers or logic had much to do with this one.

Also, Rotunda…the possibilities for weight-related jokes are endless, aren’t they? My mother also taught elementary school spanish, and in organizing her various school materials I found some weird ones. In the pretentiously misspelled category: Hevaughnleigh…and to make matters even worse, her brother is named Skielarh. There was also an inexplicable tendency to give poor, unwitting children names that seemed more suited to dogs: Princess, Duke, Buster, etc.

-D

My sister worked with a girl named Trashanda. It sounds fine (truh SHAHN da), but on paper.. ….. eh……

Also…. My aunt was going to be named Karen, until her pregnant mother put it together at the last minute with the surname, Aaron.

-M

I finally finished reading your whole website (I think) and loved it, loved it, loved it and I actually have something to add.

I sometimes forget that three of my friends have really weird names, mostly because I am so used to them I guess. My best friend is Galandrielle. Obviously a Lord of the Rings reference. Her Dad was reading it when her Mom was pregnant and I guess Galadriel just wasn’t weird enough?!?! Good lord, the amount of teasing she took as a child.

I also have a friend named Efua Dubie. The worst part about this is that her given name was Hannah, she actually thought it was a good plan to change her name to Efua (Eff-oo-wa). (I don’t really know how to do that phonetic business, I am a lowly political science girl myself.)

Lastly, I have a good friend from childhood whose name is Sansea. Sansea was named after a friend of her parents who was an artist. This one is pronounced like Sand Sea without the D. I am not exactly sure what is wrong with all these people’s parents. We are all in our late twenties, early thirties so perhaps the hippy thing? Not sure, but I know it’s not good.

-Maura (I feel lucky in the name department)