No, you can't name your kid that...

[REWahoo]

Interesting article on laws in several countries regarding naming newborns:

Oh no, you can't name your baby THAT! - CNN.com

One name rejected in Sweden was "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb111163" - pronounced Albin, of course.

 

[Sarah in SC]

This is so amazingly sensible:
In Germany, you must be able to tell the gender of the child by the first name, and the name chosen must not be negatively affect the well being of the child. Also, you can not use last names or the names of objects or products as first names.

I can't decide what is more irritating, product names for children or the yuppie non-gender names. I loved the feature in Freakonomics/Superfreakonomics where they studied names. Having a traditional female name myself, I obviously appreciate that no one saddled me with some oddball name.

 

[easysurfer]

Funny article. Reminds me of this song:

YouTube - Johnny Cash "A Boy Named Sue" ORIGINAL

 

[W2R]

I can't decide what is more irritating, product names for children or the yuppie non-gender names.

Product names? Never thought of that. I guess that instead of naming my daughter Christina, I could have named her "Spam", "Velveeta", or "Clorox"...

 

[audreyh1]

One of the Spanish telenovelas I watch has a young man named "USNavy". It took us a while to figure out it was actually his name.

Audrey

 

[bbbamI]

Having a traditional female name myself, I obviously appreciate that no one saddled me with some oddball name.

I don't have an oddball name, but most people can not pronounce or spell my name correctly.

My grandfathers even called me by different names. One called me Toni and the other called me Connie.

I wish I knew the first names of the members of this forum.

 

[Janet H]

I was in 5th grade with a girl named Lorna Dune Stewart. Funny thing was she usually had homemade cookies in her lunch..

 

[bbbamI]

Heh...after looking at this thread, there are 3 first names....but are they really the names of the members.....

BTW, W2R....if one had twins, they could name them Pepto and Bismol.

 

[W2R]

Heh...after looking at this thread, there are 3 first names....but are they really the names of the members.....

BTW, W2R....if one had twins, they could name them Pepto and Bismol.

Perfect!

 

[Cattusbabe]

True story. Young lady's last name was Lear. So Mom and Dad thought it would be cute to name her Crystal Shanda.

 

[REWahoo]

True story. Young lady's last name was Lear. So Mom and Dad thought it would be cute to name her Crystal Shanda.

Along those same lines, I once met a young lady named Joy Full. Yes, Mr. & Mrs. Lee thought it was funny.

 

[chinaco]

Funny how those parents that choose idiotic names like that described in that article ( "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb111163" ) are so caviler with the decision to saddle their kid with a ridiculous name.... Don't see too many of them going court to have their own name changed to it.

A just reward for those parents would be for the court to legally rename the parent's middle name as a$$h0le with the first name being "foolish" of course... for about 5 years. Let them get a feel for what is it like to have someone else saddle them with a stupid label that would subject a person to ridicule.

 

[Gumby]

I don't have an oddball name, but most people can not pronounce or spell my name correctly.

My grandfathers even called me by different names. One called me Toni and the other called me Connie.

I wish I knew the first names of the members of this forum.

The only person in my family who can pronounce my name properly is my mother. My father, brother and sister cannot. I'll wager that Alan could do it.

 

[REWahoo]

I'll wager that Alan could do it.

And Eddie Murphy...

 

[Amethyst]

Good article. I never realized some European countries exerted such control over their citizens.

I use my middle name as my first name. My parents gave me a first name that has a lovely (and appropriate for me) meaning, but is, for some reason, unpopular. Why they didn't realize that the rest of the world dislikes that particular name, I never knew; my parents lived in their own world about some things.

Anyway, as a teenager, I insisted that everybody call me by my middle name, which is actually a family name, but later became a very popular first name for girls. The unpopular first name only appears on my passport and driver's license.

I just try to remember people's names and spell them right - not worry about whether I like their name or not. I am afraid that hearing the name "Number 16 Bus Stand" would cause me to smile uncontrollably. [What do you suppose it gets shortened to? Nummie?] In addition, it strikes me, perhaps unfairly, as pompous when someone uses a first initial and middle name (J. Alfred Prufrock).

Amethyst

 

[Bestwifeever]

If only I'd lived in Denmark--My parents chose a name that no one used in 1950 and caused every teacher until high school to assume I was a boy as at first glance it looks like a boy's name. Today it is fairly common and in college I met two others with my name. To compound my nonconformity they did not give me a middle name (did they have only a boy's name picked out? You think?) and my last name is unusual and mispronounced even by those of us who carry it. But I love my names. Especially that middle name

One of DS's childhood acquaintances was named Justin Case. And DD had a friend named Crystal Ball (or maybe Balls?). The latter ran for office in the DC area so at least she took advantage of her easy-to-remember name.

 

[ziggy29]

This is so amazingly sensible:
In Germany, you must be able to tell the gender of the child by the first name.

Hello, Pat? Meet my friend, Chris...

 

[ziggy29]

True story. Young lady's last name was Lear. So Mom and Dad thought it would be cute to name her Crystal Shanda.

Well, if she has children of her own she can retaliate by naming their grandkids Cordelia, Goneril and Regan...

 

[Sarah in SC]

I wish I knew the first names of the members of this forum.

I know it would be hard to guess mine, LOL!
I'm the 13th Sarah in my family on my mother's side.

And those of you who take me up on my DVD recommendation to watch Idiocracy will love the names of the newscasters!

 

[HFWR]

YouTube - Bill Cosby Thought He Was Jesus Christ

 

[ls99]

So naming a kid after a significant event is not permitted?

Such as Broken Rubber?

 

[Meadbh]

A significant event.....like Concepcion?

I'm a baby doctor. I see the results of parental folly on a daily basis. Like the identical twins, Rachell and Rachael; Mindy and Mandy, and Oranjelo and Lemonjelo. And Tra-C.

No, I am not making this up. I wish I were.

 

[MikeD]

In my FIL's neighborhood there was a Hawain family named (last name) Peter who named one of their daughters Likki. This caused my FIL endless mirth.

I have a 20 year old list I've been making of over 14,000 funny names. I got thousands of them from the Click and Clack web site. Another rich source was the Nation Lampoon Yearbook parody.

No, I will not release my list for fear it gets on the Inter-Webs.

Mike D. - with nice normal Irish names.

 

[calmloki]

snopes.com: Le-a

The possibly apocryphal story of a child named Le-a.

 

[MichaelB]

My wife’s hometown Maracaibo is famous for strange names. Going to local employee and customer meetings was always an adventure – and a real challenge. After “Yedosca” and “Guaituque” - the spanish literal and phonetic translation of Y2K, president Chavez announced a law to limit newborn name to only 100.

So long, Hengelberth, Maolenin, Kerbert Krishnamerk, Githanjaly, Yornaichel, Nixon and Yurbiladyberth. The prolifically inventive world of Venezuelan baby names may be coming to an end.
If electoral officials here get their way, a bill introduced last week would prohibit Venezuelan parents from bestowing those names — and many, many others — on their children.
The measure would not be retroactive. But it would limit parents of newborns to a list of 100 names established by the government, with exemptions for Indians and foreigners, and it is already facing skepticism in the halls of the National Assembly.
“I need to know how they would define those 100 names,” said Jhonny Owee Milano Rodríguez, a congressman representing Cojedes State. “For example, why not 120? This seems arbitrary to me.”

Read the article for more weird names. The law was not passed but Venezuelan authorities have stopped registering newborns with unusual names. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/world/americas/05venez.html?_r=2&oref=slogin