Naming your children

[wishfulthinking]

Ok. I believe that parents have the right to decide what to call their children, and to hell what relatives think.

But by fuck, my brother and his wife want to call their daughter [when she is born in a couple of years] 'possum'.

We were all slightly tipsy at the time, and my step-father said "I'd nickname her po" [I added pogo].

Then mum said she liked "Chicago". Me thinking: Cargo, where are you? and on that basis, refusing to babysit in a park. Imagine if she grew up to have big tits or something, what the nicknames would be then? Barge?

What are your relatives doing to drive you nuts, or worse, avoid the phone?

 

[carsonshepherd]

Start slipping some birth control into your sister-in-law's tea. Clearly these people should not breed!

 

[wishfulthinking]

Toto, I think we have passed birth control and are in vasectamy land!

 

[tolyk]

Possum? Chicago?

Um.. they're cruel..

 

[Guest]

Maybe they are just kidding?

We never told anyone our naming plans for our children.

The last thing I wanted was critical analysis from everyone about our hard-thought choices.

So - we made up suggestions whenever anyone asked, the more outrageous the better.

 

[Guest]

Hmmmm names... well...

I have always liked older names.... but then I am the type of person that would go to something like Behind the Name and find names with specific meanings

But I would also do what my parents did... take names that I liked and tell them to a grade schooler and ask them to make fun of the names if they can... we all know that those are the cruelest ones when coming up with them so why not have them try them out

Things my family has done to not make me want to pick up the phone...
... told and old boyfriend that they hated how to find me stating "well she is useless anyway shouldn't matter if you knock her up now"
... managed to make me the 'satan' of the world to my younger brothers and sisters by claiming that I refuse to visit, interestingly enough they fail to mention that I am not allowed in 'their house'

and the list goes on but I refuse to depress myself today

 

[OhMissScarlett]

LOL. My dad's dog's name is Possum.

Being a kid is hard enough without having some weird name.

My relatives mostly drive me crazy by being helpless and unable to figure anything out for themselves. My cousin and her husband are in their mid twenties and behave like a couple of eight year olds playing house. Everything is a major emergency and when I see their name on the caller ID, I just want to hide. Luckily they don't live nearby.

 

[AppleBiter]

My brother and his wife, when they were pregnant with their first daughter, were going to name her (if she had been a boy) Sebastian Orion. Their last name begins with a B. Yeah. S.O.B. I pointed this out to them and they seemed horrified. However, when they were getting ready to have their second daughter, they had the SAME name picked out for a boy!! Thank God it was a girl. If they have any more children, I'm praying for nothing but girls.

Avoid the phone? HA!!! Like they call!! I might as well be in some prison in a foreign country as much as I hear from my family.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Actually... *ducking* I kind of like it...

But if our daughter, Zoe, had been a boy, she would have been Coyote... lots of people were grateful for that XX chromosome...

 

[Guest]

Actually... *ducking* I kind of like it...

But if our daughter, Zoe, had been a boy, she would have been Coyote... lots of people were grateful for that XX chromosome...

LOL.... now I like Coyote

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The way we give names to people is really awful. We pick a name without knowing anything about the person, because we like the sound or because we had a relative who had the same name or something like that. Considering how important names are to our identity, this is a terrible system.

To a lot of Native Americans and other people (ancient Egyptians too) you had several names--a public name, a spiritual name, a name at home, and then you had a secret name that no one knew but you and your Gods: your True Name.

I really like this idea, and I think about what my secret name might be a lot. You're supposed to fast and pray to discover what it is, but I remember an episode of the Simpsons where Homer had to come up with an alias in a hurry when he was hiding from the law, and the name he picked was "Rex Strongo." I'm afraid my True Name would turn out to be something like that.

 

[variable Xy]

deleted

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The way we give names to people is really awful. We pick a name without knowing anything about the person, because we like the sound or because we had a relative who had the same name or something like that. Considering how important names are to our identity, this is a terrible system.

true... although there are names that kids certainly grow up to fit... and some names that never seem to fit... I have a friend whose whole family changed their names, even their last name (and they weren't in witness protection either... lol)

I like the idea of a "true name." Sometimes I think it would be harder to name myself than name my characters, tho...

but it would be an interesting experiment to see what others thought my name should be... kind of like getting community consensus, based on people who know you best... ?

And I've always hated my name...

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I was named after a biblical prophet- Daniel. It's a bit odd, now that I have turned out to have beliefs that are quite UNbiblical. I mean, a pagan with a bible name is kind of funny. Then again, I shortened it to Dan (though not formally). Just don't call me Danny. I hate it, because it sounds like a ten year old's name. My slave likes the name Danny, but that's just her. She argues, and it is difficult to refute this, that any child she carries to term (hypothetically, since we probably won't have kids) should be ultimately named by her (you know, because she deserves a reward for all of that pain and suffering). She has also considered Danielle for a girl (which I don't mind, it sounds nice on a girl) and Theodore for a boy (it's the closest equivalent to her name). I told her that he would probably shorten it to Ted. I know that I would.

Why was I named this? Very simple. My parents hoped that I would be a Baptist preacher, just like my dad. Well, that was one prayer that wasn't answered.

My personal preference for names: for boys- Arthur, Karl, Simon, Robert, Konrad, Sean, or Hector; for girls, Cassandra, Kirsten, Julia, Natasha, Natalie, Valerie, or Jessica.

 

[Guest]

My mother, in a fit of random inspiration, named all of us in odd manners. My family, both sides, is very much Irish, so we have a William Pete (grandad) Mary Ellen (grandmere) Jack Milton (dad) Erin Micheal (my brother) and a Jocelyn Lea ( sister). And then there's me. Irish as Irish can get without being born on the bloody Blarney Stone, and what does she pull out?

Gabrielle Renee.

French. VERY French. And I very large name for someone as tiny as I was at birth (I fit into Cabbage Patch doll clothes until I was about a year old.) My grandad snorted and said "That's too much a mouthful fo rthat little thing' and I have been George to him ever since.

Oddly enough, as a teenager, I was given the nickname Angel. Fitting enough since I was named after one and all, but... I'm no angel. It did however stick, to the point where outside of family and friends from school days, everyone calls me Angel or some variation thereof depending on their native language. I write under the name Angelle deGuerre, which is an inside joke of a sort, I'm AngelShadow on here...

I guess I grew into the aspects of the name chosen for me. AS the oddball out in the name game, I chose to learn French (partly so I could correct people knowledgably on the correct pronunciation of my name) and fell in love with all things angelic/demonic as far as the myth and legend side of it. Renee literally means reborn, and I would like to think I've reinvented myself successfully from the ashes of misspent youth, lol. Still, when it came time to name my little monsters, I went traditional as possible: Ian, Mason, Gavin. And trapped myself into another odd man out realm: All of the memebers of this family are N's, right down to Jasmine, the pooch.

I am again, stuck with the most fucked up name of the lot.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I was named after my father's brother and, once I got over "Georgie Porgie" have been OK with it. I have never had any kids so I have never been faced with naming anybody but I have some ideas anyhow.

Don't be trendy. Pick a name that sounds good and looks good on a shingle and has a built in affectionate nickname. For boys, such as James, Richard, Lawrence, Franklin, etc. For girls, Samantha, Sarah, Elizabeth, etc. Unfortunately, I am rather behind times on fashionable names. For one things, kids will always use something other than the proper name, and Jim or Sally or Becky is much nicer than Fatso or Foureyes or Pizzaface.

If I had any hair, I would tear it out over people naming their kids after a parent, adding a middle name and calling the kids by the middle name to avoid confusion. When the kid gets older, he or she has friends and teachers, etc. who use the first name, and that's where the confusion starts. Why not just use that middle name in the first place.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

If I had any hair, I would tear it out over people naming their kids after a parent, adding a middle name and calling the kids by the middle name to avoid confusion.

That's my husband...

his first name is the same as yours, Box... but his middle name is Michael, and he goes by Michael...

yes. George Michael.

You can imagine the jokes!

 

[Stella_Omega]

When I was preggers the first time, I knew what I wanted for a boy- Maxilmillian. It took nearly the whole nine months before I came up with a name for a girl- garnered from a photo of an antique teddy bear.... And I had a girl.
So, she's named after a lovely winter-blooming flower, native to the Himalayas. And it's good- but she could have been named Maxine" just as easily, let me tell you!

The boy is named... Boxlicker is going to be mad at me... after both his grandfathers, with his "calling" name in the middle- the name of a wild animal. The whole name sounds terribly literary!

 

[Boxlicker101]

When I was preggers the first time, I knew what I wanted for a boy- Maxilmillian. It took nearly the whole nine months before I came up with a name for a girl- garnered from a photo of an antique teddy bear.... And I had a girl.
So, she's named after a lovely winter-blooming flower, native to the Himalayas. And it's good- but she could have been named Maxine" just as easily, let me tell you!

The boy is named... Boxlicker is going to be mad at me... after both his grandfathers, with his "calling" name in the middle- the name of a wild animal. The whole name sounds terribly literary!

I wouldn't be mad at you, only at members of my family. A nephew was named after his father and is known by all parents, uncles, etc. by his middle name. My youngest grandson was named after an uncle and is always known by his middle name.

 

[cloudy]

My youngest's first name came from a Grateful Dead song.

His father is blissfully ignorant of that fact - he's not a Dead fan.

 

[Stella_Omega]

My youngest's first name came from a Grateful Dead song.

His father is blissfully ignorant of that fact - he's not a Dead fan.

Casey?

 

[cloudy]

Casey?

yes.

 

[Stella_Omega]

yes.

He was a good man- he stayed on the line

I could have named my girl Magnolia... Didn't though...

 

[cloudy]

He was a good man- he stayed on the line

I could have named my girl Magnolia... Didn't though...

Well, I could have named him Jerry, but that would've been sort of obvious.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Well, I could have named him Jerry, but that would've been sort of obvious.

Yeah... I didn't name mine Mick, for somewhat the same reason