A "Madison" by any other name ...

[sparkofcreation]

To cleodhna and thebirdwoman: Okay, you asked for it ...

Okay, so I have had it up to here with people giving their kids stupid names. In the past six months, one of my co-workers' daughters named her son "Atticus"; a second co-worker named her son "Rocky" (not only that, but his middle name is Adrian, FFS) and then yesterday I got word in my email that a co-worker

Comments

[nadialena]

I think your alliteration rule should be a . . . best practice, rather than a rule. Scotty Scott and Tom Thompsons are extreme and should NOT happen, but something like Jacob Jones isn't too bad.

This is coming from someone who was going to be "Wade Weston Wolfgang W." if I was a boy. That would have been hell as a kid, and worse once the world wide web came around, but I would have just never told anyone my middle names.

[sparkofcreation]

Honestly, with a last name like W, I think even "Wade" might be too much. It's already a heck of a name (and I don't mean that as an insult, but it takes a strong first name--and a strong personality--to stand up to it). But I do see your point. Wade Williams might be okay, for example.

This being the US, parents are of course still free to name their children whatever they want, so they can certainly ignore the alliteration thing. Some people's pet name peeve is surnames-as-given-names; mine is alliteration.

[sparkofcreation]

There are quite a few erstwhile surnames that are popular first names here--Madison, Clinton, Blake, Mackenzie, Addison. Since they're now common first names, I don't mind them as first names, if that makes sense. (However, last names that are not common first names should, I agree, only be used as middle names.)

I'm afraid I have no idea what "gormless" means and I, personally, can't think of any nicknames that arise from your surname, but I'm sorry you had to go through it. I think too few people take account of the last name-my parents did, which is why my sister and I have long first names.

bad names

[palliddreamer]

I should seriously post a list of horrible names I've seen from being in the nursery.
Abcde (AB suh dee)
Usnavy (oos NAV ee)
IceTea Babyjesus (I kid you not, mom's two favorite people).
Apostrophes are also in, as are various forms of Asia. Din'asia, Minasia, Bethany'asia. That kind of terrible thing.

These kids will never get a job. And I'm not allowed to refuse to put a name on birth certificate.

Interestingly NPR did a segment on bad names. In the Netherlands your name has to be approved by the government. A bit extreme since they rejected names like Russel, but still, at least there's a process.

Re: bad names

[sparkofcreation]

I thought Virginia had relatively strict baby-naming laws, though, or at least used to. I remember a case when we were in college where a married couple who had different surnames wanted to give their son(s) the father's name and their daughter(s) the mother's name ... they had a son and then later had twin girls and Virginia refused to allow it because by law the children of married parents have to have the father's surname.

Your kids (I mean, your patients, not your own kids) will get plenty of jobs. Once they change their names.

I assume you've heard about this?

Re: bad names

[palliddreamer]

How does the surnames case apply to shitty first names though? I'd love to challenge some of the terrible ones like Chlamydia and Meconium that I've seen (meconium is the term for the baby's first poop).

Unfortunately I don't think many of the kids I take care of will be changing their names. Most are trapped in a bad situation and have families that just generally suck. It reinforces my belief that people should be born sterile and have to opt in to have children rather than opt out.

Re: bad names

[sparkofcreation]

I didn't mean to say that the case applies, just that it gave me the impression that Virginia (unlike, say, New Jersey) does actually have laws about what is, or is not, an acceptable name for a child. So I'm surprised that you're not allowed to reject anything.

[misplacedmind]

I was at the store yesterday, waiting in line. The woman ahead of me had a young daughter who kept running off. She kept calling after her, "Summer! Summer!" Ok, I thought - not too bad. Then the girl started behaving badly enough for the full name to come out. "Summer Rain, get back here!" Ah yes, I miss the summer rain too, but seeing as it's October

[bugtilaheh]

Summer Rain reminds me of this girl in one of my college art classes. Her name was April Rain. (Don't know her middle name, or if she even has one). I guess that's not too bad...