Weird kids names

[mac39]

Hi guys I was out shopping earlier and saw a little girl in a snow white outfit, she was running ahead of her mother and then I heard Texas stop there, that poor kid is going to get bullied at some point, I mean what is the point of calling your child that?

[Kirk5w7]

The one that sticks in my mind was once when I was in the local Supermarket this woman bellowed "Crystal!!" At the top of her lungs , more than once. Then this scruffy urchin with a snotty nose came running to get an earful of expletives from that less than pleasant looking woman.!!!!!

Not the "Crystal" I'd imagined at all.

Know what you mean though 😀

Janet

[Gaia_rising in reply to Kirk5w7]

We once saw a woman in Lidl, yelling at one called Mercedes, and one called Bentley... I do try not to be judgemental, but I imagine that particular woman was more acquainted with Bentley the suburb of Doncaster than she was with 'luxury' cars.

[Kirk5w7 in reply to Gaia_rising]

My eldest married into the surname Forss and I must admit I chuckled when I said she should name her daughter Gail or Storm her he.

Janet

[Hidden]

There are certainly some odd names around. You wonder what will happen to a poor little kid called some outlandish name when they grow up. Imagine someone called 'Cloud', 'Sting' or 'Skylar' becoming the Chief Executive of a huge company. Or someone with a very posh sounding name going to work in McDonalds. I am all for normal traditional names that don't date. It's OK for people like Jamie Oliver and David Beckham, their kids are never going to go to a school with 'normal' kids who will torment them. All the others at their school will be 'Bluebell', 'Apple' 'Fifi-Trixibell' etc.

[barny1]

I think most names refer to a particular time or generation, with a few that have stood the test of time. Perhaps 'Margaret' or 'Joan' would've been a common name for my grandparents generation, but these names have fallen out of favour. I will say there are far too many common names that 'kate/katies', 'lucy's and 'rachel's' that maybe the change is welcome.

[barny1 in reply to barny1]

I'm going to name my first daughter Scarlet and first son Valor

[mac39 in reply to barny1]

Scarlet is a nice name what's your last name so I can figure valour

[Hidden]

I use to work in the nhs and we use to get messages for midwives notifying births and names. The worst ones I was told was destiny desire robinson-hull or cello. They don't think of what it would be like at school for them

[iforget]

It's not unusual or new for kids to have names that are places ...And some really work quite well.

We all thought Frank Zappa had list the plot when he named his child"Moon unit" ... And Woody Allen had a child called Satchel..... David Bowie called his son Zowie Bowie...poor kid changed his name as soon as he could. Those were the days of free love and psychedelic drugs....

If a name suits a child no worries....My pet peeve is bastardised spelling or completely made up names with weird spelling ...Especially when nobody can spell or pronounce the names including the poor kid themselves.

Our name follows us all our lives and is often the thing that precedes us ....Like in a job interview....

What is cute on a two year old may not be appropriate for a uni grad, a head teacher, doctor , prime minister, priest or sweet elder.... There is a lot riding on a name 😉

[Gaia_rising in reply to iforget]

Hehe. I have one of those bastardised names, I blame my mother, I had very little say in the matter... I then went on to marry a man with an unusual surname, and took his name, so I'm damned-near unpronounceable to most people reading my name in waiting rooms and such. I've stopped getting uppity about it, but it used to enrage me when colleagues would respond to emails using the traditional spelling of my forename, when the given-spelling was THERE on the email.

Nominative determinism and such, the ex and I toyed with the idea of 'unusual' names for the boy when he was born, 'Vlad' had too many negative connotations, and Grandma couldn't pronounce 'Raul', she kept saying 'Roley?' In the end, we stuck with a plain name for him, which he hates, but has the option to change in the future, if he wants to.

[malalatete in reply to Gaia_rising]

Me too Gaia! My mother (a teenage mum before such became a social worker's target group) took the advice of the woman in the bed next to her, so for my first 30 years I spelled my Christian name to all, laughed politely at the same old 'funny' comments about it and wondered at some of the strange alternatives people would come up with when they couldn't get their heads round what is, essentially, a phonetic spelling. Then I too married man with a most unusual surname, also resulting in alliteration. The joke now is that I sound like a character out of Viz (for those who can remember such literature!). Suffice to say the average doctor's receptionist only has to meet me once and it seems my name is etched on their memory! Not sure it is always a good thing, mind...

Boys were given good solid traditional (and obviously spelled) names as my OH too has a 'wrongly' spelled Christian name and we both agreed that we did not want our children to go through life reciting any more of the alphabet than they already would have to...

[Gaia_rising in reply to malalatete]

Supply-teachers red-penning my name, but not bothering when Kerry swapped her 'y' for an 'ie'... I'm scarred for life, I tell you! Between that, the bizarre mispronunciations, and the odd spellings I get on correspondence, life's never dull. The in-laws had 20 years to practice it, but when the Mother-in-law wrote my birthday cards and such, I often wondered if she'd just had a dig in the Scrabble bag, and then given up...

Not wanting to descend into the land of "They'll call them anything these days!", but the new first-year register at school generally raised eyebrows. After 13 years there, you could generally tell which of the kids were going to be 'challenging', perhaps in response to years of people getting their names wrong?

[malalatete in reply to Gaia_rising]

You may have something there. Surnames are perhaps more tolerable - after all by definition there is a whole bunch of people who are quite important in your life who share it with you...but an odd Christian name does end up in some way defining a part of who you are from early on. And I remember, vividly, having teachers comment in every class on the spelling of my name. And the sense of 'grrrrr' when they nevertheless reverted to the standard spelling. I got used to being remembered, or seen as different, something that can be helpful (you don't feel quite so conspicuous or pulled up for special treatment when it does happen - you are used to it happening) - but I can see how that could go the other way and become a desire for such attention.

These days I like my odd name. The alphabetical relay trips off the tongue easily enough after 16 years of practice, being remembered has more advantages than disadvantages I find.

And as you said, if you don't like it, there's always deed poll!

[Hidden]

Its not only strange names; plenty made up too.

What really riles me though is the changing of the spellings of names that defy the rules of literacy.

Probably very prevalent on the Jeremy 'look at me, look at me' Kyle show - not that I ever watch the rubbish you'll understand!

[TBI2015]

Each to their own - I think you grow into your name personally and alot of famous people actually change their names to something more remeberable.

Imagine Elton John as a Reginald / Bruno mars and a peter 😂

[sospan]

Can top all this in terms of names - I have worked with all sorts of people some named after famous people - Richard Burtons, Gareth Edwards etc.

One woman had the surname Blower was mortified when a work colleague pointed out that it wasn't the best to call your son Richard ..... and a few worse that I would get in trouble for posting on such a gentile forum.

It is not always the name, the initials can be a problem too. My daughters ex- boyfriend had a surname starting with T and three first names, the first two started with TW and the third - lets say it wasn't Ian. However, the label did fit

But the award goes to a guy I worked with in the late 70's early 80's whom never quite made the transition from the 60's. He called his son Sinbad - because he wanted his son to have an exciting name !

[barny1 in reply to sospan]

Anthony Weiner springs to mind, you just know he was teased his whole life for being named after a sausage up till that point, I'll say no more.

[Matt2584]

The kids' name was Texas? What a stupid name. She likely will be bullied in later life.

I'd heard silly names before like "Storm" and some names that are kind of odd but sound pleasant like Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, "Apple" but still, I would never assosiate these names with kids.

Just think later on in their life, they are in a job interview, they want to be a bank accountant and the employers ask what their name is. You'll get some raised eyebrows for sure :).

[Matt2584]

Also, seeing other posts, some parents name their kids after things they like. There is a guy at my Headway who is a fan of motorcycles and cars. He has 2 boys, one named Harley and one named Vincent, which aren't exactly silly names as Vincent is also a normal sounding name and Harley... Well I think of Harleyquinn from the Batman comics :).

I am an artist. So if I were to name my kids referring to Art I suppose I could call one of them Picasso could I :).

[BaronC]

Had I had a son, I was going to name him 'Ulysses Heathcliff'. Luckily, children never arrived and I just got lumbered with two later in life

[TiredNan in reply to BaronC]

Living in a tough part of town at the time, I wanted to name my son Tarquin so that I could holler in a Scouse accent...

"Taaaarquinnnn gerrrrrin ... yerrrrr tea's ready..."

but his Dad was having none of it...

[mac39 in reply to TiredNan]

Aww that's a shame lol I had a friend as a kid named Karl and we had a few posh neighbours and they used to look down their noses at everyone so we used to put on posh voices and call each other tarquin and Caruthers whenever they were about, I was caruthers

[TiredNan in reply to mac39]

H ha that takes me back a bit... we used to do the same... and on hot summer days we wpuld shout..." the heat ... the flies... Caruthers1"

[Julesgettingthere]

probably just as well Mr Baron

jules

x

[Mikey48]

Texas? She must be a right state!

[CindyBurton10]

You're thread reminded me of the following.....

My name before marriage was Burton and one of my brothers was called Richard. In his teenage years he was a naughty boy and got stopped by the police for speeding on his motorbike......

The conversation went something like this.........

Police.....now then young lad what's your name

Brother....Richard Burton

Police.....yeah and I'm Elizabeth Taylor

😃

[lcd8]

Nowadays names like James and Mandy are unusual because so many people have called their children what they class to be different. Its each to their own. But personally I feel sorry for kids with weird names as their parents are condemning them to a life of having to 'spell it', no one being able to tell from the name what gender they are and, at worst, bullying.

[peaches2]

This thread reminds me that I was never actually supposed to be called what I am called....my father took it upon himself to register my birth while my poor mum was still in hospital! Not a day goes by that I don't think about that....I wonder if I would have had a different path in life with no brain tumour etc if they had registered me with the agreed name!? I worked with young children before the tumour appeared therefore I always associate a name with a certain type of child, bad I know and if the truth be known you could have three children all with the same name and totally different characters, so really we shouldn't stereotype, that would be like thinking, Baron, oh he sounds right old fashioned, I bet he's a bit of an eccentric! (haha).