Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

The 'nym used by the asker of this question reminded me of a joke my roommate tells of a woman who names her daughter La-a. How would you pronounce that name?





The answer? Ladasha. (La-dash-a.) When he told the joke, he said he didn't know if someone made it up or if it had really happened.

Holy cow. 5 pages in one thread since I last read? Sheesh. I had to write a post it note to keep tabs on everything I wanted to comment on. And now, in reverse order:

1. I also appreciated the name dibs-ing answer. Especially as we go through drama every time I get pregnant. Neither of Yellow's sisters are married and they each are very set on their list of names. Niffler Baby "stole" a name off one of the lists and, although I was forgiven (there are 11 more names on said sister's list!) she sat me down and went through her list to see what my opinion was on all of the other names. Just to make sure I didn't do it again. Luckily, our tastes differ for the most part. So when this answer posted, I brought it up at a family dinner (she reads the Board, too) and we laughed about it. (She at least has a good sense of humor.)

2. I went to school with sisters named Liberty, Charity, and Noel. I didn't realize they were odd names until high school.

3. My step-grandfather is named Darius. He went by Dar often. Which is now my brother's middle name. Which led us to discover Dar Williams (who is a girl) and I love her song, "The World's Not Falling Apart." Darius is also in the Bible. He's a Babylonian (I believe, without caring enough to check) king.

4. I have a friend who just named her daughter Maude.

5. My name is commonly considered black. I had no idea until I moved into a new apartment and my roommates were disappointed that I wasn't black. And because you probably all know my real identity anyway, it is also very similar to a Disney princess. Though, I definitely am older than said princess. And really, it's not so bad being named after a princess. At least, not at my age. It's a great way to make sure little kids remember your name. At least, in my case, if you're ok with your name being pronounced wrong. (Which I am.)

6. Made up names. Dragon Baby has a made up name. It is the nickname of The Heartless Siren that I discovered I loved after years of calling THS that nickname. But we were afraid it sounded too nickname-ish, so we added a "-lyn" to the end. Yes. We're one of those people. In hindsight, I still love her nickname (which is pretty much all we ever call her) and I'm torn on the "-lyn". On one hand, it makes her name ridiculously long. (Her first and middle names are 7 syllables.) We could have just used Lyn as a middle name. (That's my dad's middle name, so it would have even had family roots.) And now her name doesn't really seem nickname-ish at all. It's just her name. And it makes her full first name one letter off from her aunt's name. (We weren't naming her after her aunt. In fact, having such similar names in the family was a strike against the name to begin with. But, I suppose, that's the same with or without the "-lyn" as her aunt doesn't use the "-lyn" often, either.)

On the other hand having the "-lyn" makes her first and middle names almost a palindrome. And it sounds really cool. And because it sounds cool, I was able to win the debate over which of the two names we were considering to actually use. Then again, the middle name is the name of Yellow's ex who caused much drama in our dating lives. But we didn't choose the name because of her. We chose it because we both really like it as a name. And I knew it was probably ruined for me as a first name. But I still wanted to use it. So a middle name it was.

Dragon Lady wrote:2. I went to school with sisters named Liberty, Charity, and Noel. I didn't realize they were odd names until high school.

I've known several Noels. I don't think it's an odd name.

Katya wrote:

Dragon Lady wrote:2. I went to school with sisters named Liberty, Charity, and Noel. I didn't realize they were odd names until high school.

I've known several Noels. I don't think it's an odd name.

But who was the first?


Badum tish.

Digit wrote:

Katya wrote:

Dragon Lady wrote:2. I went to school with sisters named Liberty, Charity, and Noel. I didn't realize they were odd names until high school.

I've known several Noels. I don't think it's an odd name.

But who was the first?


Badum tish.

That took me way too long to get.

My cousin married a girl named Autumn. Which I actually kind of like. The ridiculous part was that her sisters were named Winter, Spring, Summer, and a couple of other weather related names, I want to say Rain and Sunny, but I'm not positive. The maiden name of the girls was Hail.

Speaking of Spring, a different family I know has daughters named Spring (a name I don't think I'd ever use, but not unheard of) and Sparkle.

Katya wrote:

Dragon Lady wrote:2. I went to school with sisters named Liberty, Charity, and Noel. I didn't realize they were odd names until high school.

I've known several Noels. I don't think it's an odd name.

Are most of your Noels men or women?

Genuine Article wrote:

Katya wrote:

Dragon Lady wrote:2. I went to school with sisters named Liberty, Charity, and Noel. I didn't realize they were odd names until high school.

I've known several Noels. I don't think it's an odd name.

Are most of your Noels men or women?

All women, although I'm aware it can be a man's name. (Actually, I think one of them spelled it "Noelle," if that makes a difference.)

Unit of Energy wrote:My cousin married a girl named Autumn. Which I actually kind of like. The ridiculous part was that her sisters were named Winter, Spring, Summer, and a couple of other weather related names, I want to say Rain and Sunny, but I'm not positive. The maiden name of the girls was Hail.

Speaking of Spring, a different family I know has daughters named Spring (a name I don't think I'd ever use, but not unheard of) and Sparkle.

It was Rainy, and the last name was spelled Hale. I think there was a Season, not a Sunny. From Tempe, which I thought was appropriate for some reason.

So you know of the family. Small world, I only met Autumn the week my cousin was set apart for his mission. I was probably 12 or so at the time.

Unit of Energy wrote:Speaking of Spring, a different family I know has daughters named Spring (a name I don't think I'd ever use, but not unheard of) and Sparkle.

What a coincidence. Sparkle is my nickname.

Unit of Energy wrote:My cousin married a girl named Autumn. Which I actually kind of like. The ridiculous part was that her sisters were named Winter, Spring, Summer, and a couple of other weather related names, I want to say Rain and Sunny, but I'm not positive. The maiden name of the girls was Hail.

Speaking of Spring, a different family I know has daughters named Spring (a name I don't think I'd ever use, but not unheard of) and Sparkle.

Heh. Be careful what names...and pairings of names...you make fun of here

I don't mind the names, I just find the combinations odd and amusing. I don't mean to insult anyone, I promise.

Oh I'm not insulted, I just thought it was funny. I've always liked your name, by the way.

I like my name well enough, but most people with it are at least 15 years older than me. Which make it feel a little dated to me. Although it was still in the top 100 the year I was born.

I mostly think that sibling names should coordinate, but not match. I know a family that named all there children something that ended with the letter "N". It helped all the names fit well together, but not overwhelmingly so. Where as I think the Duggars and every child's name beginning with "J" is overwhelming and something you can't really stop once you start. My mom loves names that begin with the letter "J", but only two of us have names beginning with "J", because she wanted to keep her options open and not have to name her kids names she liked less because all the other siblings had the same first letter in their names.

Boxer George Foreman has 11 kids. All five boys are named George: George Jr. and George III - George VI. One daughter's name is Georgetta. Then the remaining girls have other names.

Since I started the Noel thing, I should mention that my niece's middle name is Noelle (pronounced No-el). Many of the grandchildren in my sis-in-law's family are either Noel or Noelle, named after their grandpa, whose name is Noel (pronounced Nole).

None of the girls in my family were going to have middle names, so my oldest sister didn't have a middle name, but then my second sister was supposed to be born around Christmas and my parents thought Noel sounded like a good middle name. After that we all got middle names and my oldest sister felt cheated, so she chose her own middle name (Marty), which she has now used for long enough that it's her legal middle name.

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/68186/


And why SHOULDN'T there be a Dr. Arabella/Jessica/Brittneigh Jones? All my young coworkers have very '80s names: doesn't mean our much younger students don't see as adults. I feel like the ability to be taken seriously as a woman, whether you're Sharon or jasmine, is an important part of feminism. with all the Spencer & jordan couples having Lilys and Olivias and Emmy Maes, it will be incresingly important, although I've wondered if we're due for a New Domesticity 25 years hence, I'll admit. (Not to mention that half of boys receive weak, liquid names that would have elicited a very 90s "that's so gay!")

Historically the female name pool has been much more varied than the male name pool, for what I believe are reasons mentioned in the question. Men had to have professionally accepted names, whereas women didn't. That being said, I think people are far too sensitive about what their names are and how they are perceived. Yes, if you have an unusual name you will initially be perceived differently, but stand out and make you what people think of when they hear your name. Don't live up to the initial perceptions and things can change.