Tag Archives: letters

When I was about 10 a new family moved in across the street. Their four year old daughters name? Bambette. Horrible.

-E.

From the Naples (Fla.) Daily News:

Things are back to normal for little Avigayil Wardein.

The lemonade gal who spent her summer in the spotlight is now living life like any other 7-year-old with a lemonade stand.

And her mother, K.C. Shaw, wants to keep it that way.

“She liked the attention, but now she just looks at it like it’s another day,” Shaw said. “That’s good.”

The Lake Park Elementary School first-grader received national attention after the city of Naples briefly shut down her lemonade stand in June.

An anonymous neighbor called Naples police to complain about the permit-less lemonade stand. Police responded to the call at Abby’s house and told Abby she had to get a city permit. After Shaw complained, city officials waived the $35 permit fee and allowed Abby to reopen the stand.

The lemonade saga quickly received national media attention. People from all over the United States were contacting Abby offering support, money or advice. The grayish-brown-eyed gal received air time on CNN, Fox, MSNBC and Rush Limbaugh’s radio show — even a guest spot on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

This question from bulletin board:

Does anyone know what the meaning is for the name MaKenna??? (m)

We finally have chosen the name for our 5th child, IT is going to be Makenna Nicole, but I cant find the name Makenna in any baby book so I dont know what the meaning is??? Any help would be truley apprecaited.

TIA —Julie

Divergent answers:
1. MaKenna is an alternate spelling of McKenna which is Gaelic meaning “Ascend.” (source: Babynamer.com)
or
2. Makenna is an African Name meaning “Happiness” (Parenthood.com)
or
3. MaKenna MEANS McKenna (baby-names-world.com, bubbaboo.com)

I have a friend who recently moved from here in Australia to the USA (perhaps to be among like-minded wierdos) who called her son Zorak.

And, yes, the Cartoon Network is available here on pay-TV.

-“Anonymous in Australia”

If you watch the Food Network: The Naked Chef (Jamie Oliver) and his wife have two daughters. Their names are Poppy Honey and Daisy Boo.

~Bronwyn

Just on the off chance (Awf Tjants – there’s one!) you aren’t sick of these, there’s poor little Holdem Malone.

Nothing really points out how mean these parents are like looking through a hospital’s newborn gallery and seeing an innocent little face labeled Jaxson Kodiak. Kee-rist.

-Angela

Holdem (I hope it’s a typo) is painful, but nothing prepared me for Elora Danan (yup, the name of the magical baby in “Willow” – mom & dad must like Ron Howard.) Other interesting names are Adelene Sedona, Landon Jaimes and Emerson James, Wyatt Kodiak, a Cutter, and, so help me, Cherubim Gwen Timbal Palomar.

I love your site! I fell into the unfortunate experience of being exposed early in life to two different sets of horrific names: the “mama made” names that have exploded like a neutron bomb through the public schools, and the even more odious faux family names with which middle managers one generation out of the sticks grace their head-geared, ADD-raddled spawn.

Here are some examples:

–Twins named Domiko and Tomiko who went by their nicknames: Frito and Dorito.

–A girl whose parents preferred the “French” spelling of Amber: Ambuer. Yeah, blame everything on the French. Another girl was named “Timiri,” pronounced “TI -mur -ee.”

–Another girl whose mother must have found the endless procession of Tanyas and LaTanyas too prosaic. Her name was Satanya. As in the Hebrew name for the devil, plus “-ya.”

–I don’t know what the hell it was about the names “Antoine” and “Andre” that made people’s creative juices flow, but in the same school were DeAndre, Twan, AnTwan, and Deandray. There was a Kenyotta who went by “Yot” and didn’t understand when the track coach started calling her “Boat.”

–My brother’s third grade had both a “Precious” and a “Princess.”

–On to the less ridiculous but more pretentious. Some people feel an all-consuming need to be cute, in the way ducks with bows stenciled onto your wallpaper and silhouettes of obese gardeners are cute. There was a family of one son and four daughters named, respectively, Brian, Kaycee, Kaylee, Karlee –I could go on, but does it matter? I don’t know how the son escaped with Brian and not Keeeegan.

— My father in law went to school with someone named “Dorcas Clapsaddle.”

-Corey

I worked with a woman who named her boy and girl twins Hensley (girl) and J. Holland (boy). This is a woman who I have always thought had great taste. I’ve spent the last year of their lives trying to convince myself that I’m just missing something- these names are really OK, right?

I’ve recently decided that I don’t think I can take it anymore, I’m pretty sure they may be the worst names I’ve ever heard. It doesn’t help that their last name begins with an H as well. They did that thing where they wouldn’t tell the names until after the babies were born so once the announcement had been made I asked if they were family names. Shockingly, no… The good news for Hensley is that her brother’s name is so awful that people are likely to overlook hers. As for poor J. Holland (I think they’re actually trying to get people to use both the initial and the name), the only hope is that he can go by J. As it is, J. Holland is so pauncy sounding that the move to “Gay” Holland is inevitable.

BTW- I think this is a case of pretentiousness gone way out of control. These are well educated folks. What’s your take on these names?

-H

The Name Boards on AOL have suddenly been invaded by a bunch of newbies, most of which either claim to be pregnant with twin girls, or know absoulutly nothing about names. While I have to respect these newbies (many of which actually know that -son and mack- mean son of) the names the suggest can be absoulutly awful.

My favorite one has to be Kendalyn (“Its like Kendall, but its prettier!”) While this name is not entirely awful, they only get worse. Madison is a favorite, but all of them spell it differently, anything from Maddicynne or Mhattuhsuhn. One woman is planning on naming one of her twin girls Eabrazhun. Karsyn, Chandlyr, Parkyr, Kaidyn, and other “The Y makes it feminine!” suggestions are everywhere.

And then theres the (alleged) sightings. Someone said they met 3 sisters, Jelously, Signifigence, and Honestey. Theres the rumor of Chevodka, the man who was concieved while his mother was drunk on vodka in the back of a chevy. We see the lemonjello and orangejello post at least once a month. Someone said they knew twins named Hansel and Gretel.

In real life, the most atrocious name I have heard on a little girl is Maverick. What would posess any person to give such a masculine name to a little girl, I will never know.

-L

Another good name from the news:

NTSB investigator Tealeye Cornejo