I mean, hippie culture used names like “summer” and “rain” which are bonkers but we got used to it.
I watched an interview with someone who was named after a car part and they said it was fairly common, but I can’t find that interview to figure out what country it was anymore.
Old names that span cultures often have wildly different spellings, or pronunciations that don’t seem to make sense in English (like pretty much any Celtic name). It’s one thing to appropriate that culture, it’s another thing to say that names taken or derived from that culture are stupid. People move. People have parents or grandparents from other places. I don’t think it’s reasonable to say the name is bad just because it’s spelled unusually or is something that isn’t typically a name where we live.
Why is it better if a name is an English word? In fact isn’t that exactly why you’re saying they’re terrible names?
And it’s cute that you think those names fell out of fashion because they’re “bad” and that they won’t be back in a couple generation along with all the names that were popular at the same time as those ones.
In the meantime, why don’t we shit on names like “john” which is a stupid misspelling of the original Yohanan?
Like… I agree they’re bad. But mostly because people are just stealing little snippets of cultures they know nothing about, just to make their kids names unique.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with a unique name, but don’t make a mockery of another culture in the attempt.
But probably avoid names that rhyme with dirty words…
idk, i think it’s productive to make fun of names from time to time, i think we attach to them too much. It’s definitely too much to make fun of people with bad names though.
There are definitely a lot of other names in other cultures, but i would need some genuine context before hand. Otherwise im just going to assume it isn’t a real name, because people have a weird propensity to just fucking lie all the time for some reason.
That’s reasonable. Unfortunately the kid (and maybe even the parent) doesn’t know. They just saw it somewhere and copied it. Like all the “eigh” instead of “ey” is Celtic, but the folks naming their kids probably don’t even know that. As a result they make all Celtic names look dumb by association. That said, I love a good Celtic name, so I might be one of those people who’d do it 😅
You’re right though, people take names too seriously. As long as a name isn’t gonna rhyme with something nasty, it’s fine.
i genuinely cant imagine putting that much effort into naming someone only to completely fuck it up and for them to be stuck with a shitty name, or at least having a shitty name at one point for the entirety of their life.
Literally just stick to the normal names, pick one that people aren’t using at that point in time, or one that they are, literally who cares. Bonus points if you use the most common generic name because it provides slightly more anonymity.
You can’t imagine someone putting in that much effort.I can’t imagine why someone would be so passionate about making fun of someone else’s name.
Like… you’re saying “they might get made fun of” but youre the one making fun of them. Just dont. Idky, but it’s the people who are making fun of kids who are the most concerned that people will make fun of kids.
i mean look, if you dont want to put effort into your kids name, that’s fine, just use a name. Almost everyone does it. If you want it to be unique though, it better damn well be a good one.
I’m not explicitly making fun of people with bad names, i’m just saying that in my opinion, they’re bad names. That should mean nothing to anybody. That’s like the equivalent of me telling you that you use your brain wrong.
Another part of the problem here, is that names are somewhat explicitly tied to identity, which im sure people will love to yell at me about, like the people with weird names who get shit on have learned to deal with, much like everyone else with a weird name. It just doesn’t matter.
Damn well better pick a good one? If you don’t then what? Some loser on the internet makes fun of you or your kid? You think the kids are teasing each other when all their names are like this?
FWIW I think these people did put effort into these names, and in their bubble/micro-culture (which may not be the same culture from which they got the names), these names are great. Making fun of names is like making fun of clothes; at best it makes no difference and at worst you ignorantly insult someone’s culture and heritage.
I kind of agree wrt some of these names, which likely make a mockery of someone else’s culture - but it’s up to that culture to decide if they think it’s a mockery or not.
So you’re free to do call these names and parents stupid, but then people like me will be there pointing out that, unless you’re from one of these cultures, you’re at least as stupid for making a stink about it.
But like you said, a mountain of a molehill on both sides.
FWIW I think these people did put effort into these names, and in their bubble/micro-culture (which may not be the same culture from which they got the names), these names are great. Making fun of names is like making fun of clothes; at best it makes no difference and at worst you ignorantly insult someone’s culture and heritage.
i mean yeah, i could name my kid rape, because if i ever had a kid, it would be because i was raped. That would be a very clever and apt name. But also a completely and utterly shit name. The name is an intrinsically outwards facing property, you must both consider it’s meaning to you, your family, and the world, carefully. It’s a balance of all three.
I generally don’t think culture is that significant of a factor, the primary aspect that matters is geographical region. You either have that name there, don’t have it there, or it’s becoming a thing there, or fading away. Usually, if it’s becoming a thing, and it’s culture related, that’ll be immigration. Which tends to make it pretty apparent. It’s different on the internet of course, i have no idea what source that list of names is from, but we also have no idea whether that’s even real. We have no idea whether the tweet is from even exists. We know nothing about it, so it’s safe to assume nothing about it, since we’re in a vacuum.
I think you’re free to name your child whatever you want, but i also think you’re free to be made fun of relentlessly for naming your child a bad name.
And being style police is completely and utterly useless, and serves no purpose.
Just like telling other people that they’re bad at fashion, or simply don’t understand style.
My point with that example was to illustrate that you have a clever name, be a very shitty name simultaneously. Much like changing the i in brian, to a y, or vice versa, depending on how you feel. it’s all useless.
Lol honestly I wouldn’t even mind. Where I grew up, that’d be a pretty cool name as a kid. Maybe not as an adult, but most adults I know can keep that shit to themselves.
You are probably thinking of “Liesel” a diminutive of the name “Elisabeth”. Pronounciation is LEE-zəl, so maybe this is indeed some weird attempt to use a german name.
Okay, but Raddix Zephyr and Leviathan are fucking cool names. Sigurd Felix Wolfgang Atreides could be if you split it among like, two kids instead of one.
Leviathan doesn’t work as a first name, you’ll get picked on. That’s one that you need to keep on reserve as a middle name so it can be pulled out when necessary.
Meanwhile Sigurd Felix Wolfgang Atreides has 5 kids and two wives by the fifth grade and will be the coolest kid you’ve ever met.
I thought “mispellings of basic white girl names” are funny enough, but nope, we now have mispellings of words that are not even names. Triniteigh… What’s next, Conflagurayshawn?
A lot of these people grew up being called “The Black Kim” or “The Fat Jessica” because there are only so many standard names. Think about what that does your self esteem? All of your experience is summed up as “Fat Jessica” for the entirety of your formative years.
Further, I am one of 15 people in my company with the same first name, and 3 of which have the same first name, last name. I spent easily an hour per pay period forwarding emails to the correct parties.
My name is David. Do you know how common that name is? At one point in my life I knew and regularly interacted with 8 other Davids. That’s not even close to how many I’ve known over the years. That’s what happens when you have a name that’s been popular for like 3000 years. Biblical names are the usual Western example. My friend Mike - no the other Mike - no the other other Mike - agrees.
As someone with a name that is a slight variation in spelling and pronunciation of a common name, I’m so tired of explaining that don’t even correct people about it anymore. Please name your kid something fucking normal.
I have a very uncommon surname that is pronounced like it’s spelled. Unfortunately, no one can pronounce or spell it. Even if I spell it for them, they get it wrong.
I work in youth therapy. These are exactly the kind of names I regularly see on admit forms. Not saying it’s a direct cause, but theres a lot of coincidences when looking at youth therapy cases as a whole.
Do these parents not realise that they are naming real humans that will also be adults one day? Like, just imagine a grown-ass woman named “Brexleigh”.
I’ve always felt like the names we pick for ourselves ought to be more valid than the ones others choose for us. We should choose names for ourselves at different stages of life, and just tack them on in whatever order we like. You want something more fun than mummy and daddy gave you? Knock yourself out. Were your idiot parents drunk when they signed the papers? Well you can fix that at 12 if you like. We are who we choose to be and this the goddamn future.
Honestly, I think it would be fun to choose new names at various stages of life, adding them on as we age. If our parents aren’t going to take naming us seriously, why should we? So what if we have a dozen names we no longer use? It becomes a summary of who we were, how we came to be ourselves, a reminder of growing up.
I wholly agree with your initial sentiment, although I envision it being structured differently. I think it makes sense for a person to have a name when they are growing, especially one given to you by your parents since they are (typically) a huge part of who you are at that point in your life.
But, no one stays who they are when they were 7, or 12, or 16. By the time they’re not a minor I would argue that they’re hardly the same person. Thus, I think it should be expected and tradition for people to change their name once they truly become individuals.
And I think it doesn’t even have to be a legal thing. Parents can just be like, “think about and pick your new name” and once the person decides, they (and everyone else they inform) just starts calling them that name.
I agree that there should be no need to make a legal name change. Likewise, it’s nobody’s business how many middle names we build up over our lives. If one of them is “Superman” from when we were six, nobody needs to know.
Add comment