Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

My name sometimes causes me trouble, and there are times I wish my parents hadn't given us kids such unique names, but most of the time I'm really glad that I'm not just another Jennifer or some variation of Brittney. So as a person with a unique name, my thoughts are these:

1. Parents should spring for a name that has some meaning to them, not just something that's popular/sounds nice.
2. Think about all the possible names your kid could be called as a result of their name. My name is unfortunately similar-sounding to a feminine hygiene product, which didn't make public school all that enjoyable.
3. Don't make up your kid's name - it lessens the credibility of unusual yet legitimate names like mine.
4. Whoever gives birth first gets dibs on using a name. That said, if you both thought of it, it's clearly not a great name.
5. I wish I could tell people when they've picked a bad name, but I know it wouldn't make any difference.

As for agreeing on names, my husband and I don't have kids, but we had to start talking about names early on because we had such different views. My family has unusual names, and his family has very common names, so everything he liked I thought was lame, and everything I liked he thought was cruel and unusual. We now have a short list of names we both genuinely like, but it took four years.

Rifka wrote:

Dragon Lady wrote:Also, the oldest son's oldest son has had the same first name for generations. My great-grandpa, grandpa, dad, brother, nephew.

Someday someone's going to be screaming curses as they try to trace your family's genealogy!

Nah. It's easy. If they have the same first name, they're in my family. But they all have different middle names. And my dad is a huge genealogy buff. So if someone is tracking my family from scratch, they're doing something wrong.

Genuine Article wrote:1. Parents should spring for a name that has some meaning to them, not just something that's popular/sounds nice.
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3. Don't make up your kid's name - it lessens the credibility of unusual yet legitimate names like mine.

What if you make up a name that has meaning to you? That's what Dragon Baby's name is. She's named after Heartless Siren's nickname. Which came about due to my nephew not being able to say her real name. But the nickname sounded too nickname-ish to us, so we lengthened it. So her name is completely made up, but it has more meaning to us than any of the "real" names we've been considering for this one.

*Note: your answer won't actually have any impact on my opinions on names, I'm just curious of your thoughts.

Dragon Lady wrote:

Genuine Article wrote:1. Parents should spring for a name that has some meaning to them, not just something that's popular/sounds nice.
…
3. Don't make up your kid's name - it lessens the credibility of unusual yet legitimate names like mine.

What if you make up a name that has meaning to you? That's what Dragon Baby's name is. She's named after Heartless Siren's nickname. Which came about due to my nephew not being able to say her real name. But the nickname sounded too nickname-ish to us, so we lengthened it. So her name is completely made up, but it has more meaning to us than any of the "real" names we've been considering for this one.

*Note: your answer won't actually have any impact on my opinions on names, I'm just curious of your thoughts.

Names with tacked-on endings are kind of a pet peeve of mine. I say if you like a name, but it's not first name material, make it a middle name. I'm not saying no new names can ever be invented, but I've seen too many people fiddle around trying to combine the names of their beloved grandparents to get a unique name, only to end up with a daughter named Eugenessica. If a name is meaningful to you, great, but I think parents forget that someday their child will grow up and have to have a name they can put on a business card.

My sister-in-law is a high school teacher in Utah, and a few semesters ago she posted this list of students' names on her blog:

1-Mythann
2-Aeryk (Eric)
3-Brayhann (Brian)
4-Dzordan (Jordan)
5-Amel
6-Dylan Iron Lightening
7-Lexus Mercedes
8-Diamond
9-Skyli
10-Yanette
11-Margoi
12-Atule
13-Dagen

In my opinion, every single one of these names is atrocious, and the parents of these children should be ashamed of themselves for saddling their kids with freakish names just to satisfy their need to be creative.

I currently have a Mezmariah, Dee'Anfernee, Maurion, Robert Dequann....you get the idea. I have a cousin named "Sir Anthony." My former roommate worked with a woman who named her children lemonjello and orangejello.

If you've found me on Facebook, you've seen my name. I'm sure you can imagine the problems I had in school, but I love my weird, semi-madeup name now.

That list made me shudder. I'm pretty sure some of those names could only be conceived by someone being given 5 or 6 Scrabble tiles and then being told to make a name from them.

To what extent do you think names can be spelled creatively? I've got a name which isn't very common, but I do know several other people with my name. However, everyone I know personally with my name either spells it differently from me or pronounces it differently (a pronunciation that just sounds awful to me). Since some celebrities with my name pronounce it and spell it the same way as I do, I feel validated.

I'm curious if having to deal with incorrect pronunciations and spellings my entire life has shaped my personality at all for better or worse. It definitely feels weird to hear people pronounce it correctly on the first try.

1. Yes, we lengthened Dragon Baby's name, but it wasn't a weird lengthening. We went with something that made the name sound good and normal. It also happened to make her name one letter off from Yellow's sister's name. (Which wasn't on purpose. In fact, it was a strike against the name.) I don't think I'd have put it on a list like yours, GA.

2. My sister's name is a combination of my mom and dad's name. But I never thought it was weird. Granted, I grew up with it. I've actually heard very similar names in my day, now, though most of them are spelled somewhat differently.

3. I also have an unusual name. My parents read it in the newspaper and liked it, so I got it. I've only met a few other people with my name, and have heard second-hand about a handful more. But most of them spell and/or pronounce it differently. And there is now someone famous with a name that is very close to mine, but is spelled and pronounced differently. I think I am doomed to have my name said and spelled wrong for the rest of my life. In good news, it doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I would estimate that the majority of my friends/acquaintances say my name wrong. Some of them are very good friends that know they're saying it wrong, but like the "wrong" way better. Luckily, I really like the mispronunciation, so the majority of the time, I don't even notice when people say my name wrong. It's always hard to convince other people with oft-mispronounced names that I really and truly do not care. "Oh no. I know how it is. I'm going to be sure to say it right because I hate it when people say my name wrong." And then they make a big deal out of every time they say it wrong. And I'm like, "Dude. Really, it bugs me more that you're making a big deal about it. I really don't care how you say it!"

4. Anonymous forums make this whole topic very hard.

I'm starting to think I'll never get used to having a weird name. I get surprisingly emotional when people get my name wrong, because looking at it objectively it's not hard to spell or pronounce, and yet people can't seem to wrap their heads around it for whatever reason. My own aunt can't spell my name, and considering she's known me since birth, that bothers me. My mother-in-law even mispronounces it sometimes and it makes me want to scream. Having just moved to a new ward, I'm constantly meeting new people and I'm forced to say my name, then repeat it, then spell it, because my first name combined with my married last name doesn't seem to register as a name to people. I wish I didn't have to do that, and I'm tired of it, but there's nothing I can do about it.

Yeah, I'm in the camp that goes for nice, normal, average names. My name has been on the top ten list probably for decades. In fact, in high school I was on a flag corps squad of 24 girls, and 4 other girls had my same first name one year. My husband's name is equally average. And we both like it that way. We are making sure that we name our kids something on the top 100 list just because we never wanted to be the kid who had to repeat their name a few times. Or spell their name.

My married last name is unique enough now that I don't care how generic my first name is. I lose no anonymity by saying my maiden name was Jones, so that made the generic first name a bit more trying. But I still prefer boring to unique.

And DL, I agree. This whole thread would make a LOT more sense if we could just come out and say our names or whatever name we are talking about.

My name is almost always misspelled, but both spellings are valid; one's just more popular. There were something like eight girls with my name in high school and I'm the only one who had it spelled my way. I was named after a friend of my mother's, which is why I got the odd spelling.

TheAnswerIs42 wrote:And we both like it that way. We are making sure that we name our kids something on the top 100 list just because we never wanted to be the kid who had to repeat their name a few times. Or spell their name.

That's your prerogative, but having an unusual name isn't as bad as you might think. (Of course, if you have a distinctive last name, that can help in terms of feeling like your name is special.)

I saddled both of my kids with you've-heard-of-them-but-you-don't-know-many-people-named-that names, and both of them have a variety of spellings and double letter/single letter options. For my son, we went with the most popular modern spelling for his name. For my daughter, we couldn't agree (I opted for the traditional spelling - it was a popular name in the twenties - but Sauron wanted the two sets of double letters, which I just couldn't stand for) so we just said screw it, let's spell it however we want. Both of them are the types of names that need to be spelled out. And our last name is very common with a less common spelling, which means it's consistently spelled incorrectly. Oh well. We picked names we love.

And I love my first name. A common word, a little unique as a name though you probably know somebody else with it, not too hard to get on the first introduction, and some personality. Thanks, parents.

Dragon Lady, your name isn't that uncommon, but I mostly associate it with black people. So, you know, there's that.

You know there's some guy in this wide world named Sue cursing Johnny Cash every day.

Genuine Article wrote:3-Brayhann (Brian)

I just have to say that when I saw this I immediately thought of Bryan Regan.

Imogen wrote:Dragon Lady, your name isn't that uncommon, but I mostly associate it with black people. So, you know, there's that.

True! I once had disappointed roommates who knew my name before I moved in who though for sure I was black. But I'm as white as they come. I didn't even see a black person till high school. And even then, just cuz I took a trip to Philly.

I saw a Taiason and a Teighlor today. Both girls. No idea how to say the first, unless it's Tyson. Tayson?

People usually mispronounce my name, but maybe I'm the one that says it wrong and they're all right...

I'd be okay if my name got used again for one of my children or my siblings' children, though preferably not as a first name. As long as their other name isn't androgynous, because we don't need more confused people in the world.

People have suggested I name our baby Caedm, since that's the name of the computer lab where my husband and I met. If I were more into "Utah" names, then I think Cadem or Kadem would be an awesome name.

As for Taiason, maybe they just weren't thinking and they meant to spell it Tiaison to rhyme with liaison.

Imogen wrote:Dragon Lady, your name isn't that uncommon, but I mostly associate it with black people. So, you know, there's that.

Yeah. I was going to point out the obvious place where I've heard it before, but I didn't think it would be good form.

Craig Jessop wrote:

Imogen wrote:Dragon Lady, your name isn't that uncommon, but I mostly associate it with black people. So, you know, there's that.

Yeah. I was going to point out the obvious place where I've heard it before, but I didn't think it would be good form.

probably not, though i know many people with that name. but most of them are black.