"Strange Christian Names"

[Calthrop]

My stepfather was in the same class at school with a pair of twins whose surname was Ness. Their respective first names were Andrew and Peter.

Let's just say giggles were often heard during register calling .

The worst I've ever heard were two brothers - Chris and Andrew - with the surname Peacock.

Chris Peacock Andrew Peacock

Not very well thought through by the parents...

I must be totally stupid... I know the old ones like "Iris Chew", and calling a kid Peter Ian Grant or Mary Ursula Gibson (acronyms): but what's wrong with the above-quoted? Please explain, that I may furiously kick myself...

 

[transmanche]

I must be totally stupid... I know the old ones like "Iris Chew", and calling a kid Peter Ian Grant or Mary Ursula Gibson (acronyms): but what's wrong with the above-quoted? Please explain, that I may furiously kick myself...

Crispy Cock and Droopy Cock...

 

[theblackwatch]

The poor child.

The moral to anyone here is, if you have kids, think carefully when you give the baby a name!

 

[J-2739]

The poor child.

The moral to anyone here is, if you have kids, think carefully when you give the baby a name!

I repeat, don't give the bullies the treasure!

I once heard of someone called 'Rainbow Dash', but that's my sister telling me...

 

[Chew Chew]

Woman I used to work with called her son Wolf. ad:

My mate and his partner called their daughter Lily, the partners sister was unhappy with the name as it wasn't individual enough.

 

[PHILIPE]

My cousin Valerie married a man with the surname "Duck", and their son was named, guess what ?........... I am not taking the Mickey here either.
Also, our daughter, Elizabeth, when s little older wished she could have had a say in choosing her own name.

 

[Phil.]

There's a certain class of people who seem to compete for the stupidest names. Eurostar's Disney train was always a rich source with Tyler, Chardonnay, Febreeze, Teejay, Peejay and Woody all making appearances.

 

[Calthrop]

Crispy Cock and Droopy Cock...

Either I'm a total dimwit and / or total innocent; or the rest of the world is male and eight years old and nudge-nudge-wink-wink genitalia-obsessed, way past the bounds of sanity... "Drew Peacock" I get as unfortunate -- but "Crispy Cock" -- what's that got to do with anything? IMO: reaching for double-entendres, getting to verge on the realms of madness. And I still totally fail to see -- what's dodgy about Andrew and Peter Ness? Please, those of the mucky-minded brigade: explain to me in words of one syllable...

 

[Cowley]

Erm. I don't want to say this but I think the joke is A Ness, sounds a bit like, well.
No I'm sorry I just can't write it and I should be working anyway.
Someone else?

 

[transmanche]

what's dodgy about Andrew and Peter Ness? Please, those of the mucky-minded brigade: explain to me in words of one syllable...

I'm assuming that A. Ness can be made to sound like 'anus' and similarly P. Ness becomes 'penis', thus making schoolyard life somewhat tiresome.

 

[richw]

The practice of having a familiar sounding first name but which has a unusual (or sometimes downright silly) spelling seems alive and well too - Izobel, Johnathon, Maddisyn etc. I dare say it's mainly affectation, but some might just be bad spelling from the parents like the unfortunate young lady I knew who was called 'Machelle' because that was how her parents pronounced it (This was in Glasgow ). It always made me think of part of an aircraft (nacelle).

This practice reminds me of the story about the haughty lady who hade a very expensive posh dog which she called 'Phideau'.

I was served today in a retail place by a "Britnee".

 

[61653 HTAFC]

More cringe-making than ANY of these ridiculous names is the conversation I overheard at a stall set up to raise money and awareness for one of the veteran's charities (I forget which).

A young Asian family were giving their details to the old lady at the stand, and I overheard her ask "and what are your Christian names?". She meant no offence I'm sure, and it didn't appear that any offence was taken, but it still made me cringe. Just say first name or forename!

I once worked with a lady named Kelly Kelly, but Kelly was her married name...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

One of the boys in one of my son's class in the 1980s at St Ambrose College, Hale Barns, had the first name of Grieg, but this was his parents whilst liking the name Greg chose to "enhance" it by adding the letter "i".

Needless to say, the nickname of "concerto" was soon in use, to the despair of the boy concerned.

You really do get a different class of bullying at posh schools don't you?

 

[EM2]

I went to infant school with a girl called Annette, the daughter of Mr & Mrs Kirton...

I know someone who very nearly got away with calling his daughter Lanesra, until his wife twigged that it was Arsenal backwards, and I also know someone that actually called their daughter Limara, which was a popular deodorant at the time.

I have also heard of a girl call Abcde, pronounced 'Ab-kee-day'.

 

[Harbornite]

I remember reading about ghetto names and one that I quite liked was when some mother called her kid Le-a, pronounced as Ledasha.

 

[EM2]

My wife is a teacher and has become used to the trend to non-traditional names over the past number of years - surnames used as christian names, named after a car/motorbike, and no prizes for guessing which football team young Chelsea's father supports.

Chelsea is not particularly unusual, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton being a pertinent example.

 

[Chew Chew]

I remember reading about ghetto names and one that I quite liked was when some mother called her kid Le-a, pronounced as Ledasha.

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp

An urban myth that one.

 

[Harbornite]

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp

An urban myth that one.

Dang it. :cry:

 

[krus_aragon]

A Welsh name I somewhat dislike is Seren. It translates literally as “star”. I never saw it used as a name in my youth, so I associate the word “seren” with a distant ball of flaming gas. I appreciate it's now a popular name, especially with non-Welsh-speaking parents, but it's not to my taste.

I've far more contempt for the name Nevaeh (Heaven spelt backwards). I find it to be terribly gimmicky.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm assuming that A. Ness can be made to sound like 'anus' and similarly P. Ness becomes 'penis', thus making schoolyard life somewhat tiresome.

So, it's about initials. ??!!!? -- a good thing, probably, that I've never been a parent...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

More cringe-making than ANY of these ridiculous names is the conversation I overheard at a stall set up to raise money and awareness for one of the veteran's charities (I forget which).

A young Asian family were giving their details to the old lady at the stand, and I overheard her ask "and what are your Christian names?". She meant no offence I'm sure, and it didn't appear that any offence was taken, but it still made me cringe. Just say first name or forename!

With respect -- isn't the bolded, what's important? It's just a convention of expressing something: is there any need to make "a big honking THING" of it? In America, the convention is to phrase it "first name" or "given name" -- here, we use the C-word. Frame it as "christian" name, un-capitalised, if you wish. Sometimes, people just over-think stuff.

 

[me123]

I do have to wonder if some people think beyond the "aww, what a cute baby" stage of life when it comes to naming a child, and this seems to prove that they don't. There's lots of more unusual names that I do like (particularly some of the lesser used Gaelic, Irish and Welsh names), but I think people need to stop and say their child's name out loud in various situations before going with it, remembering that your child might one day be going for a job interview, might be a doctor, might appear on television or even be PM. So giving them names like Spartacus, Tinkerbell*, Snowflake*, Adolf Hilter Campbell, Aryan Nation Campbell, Talulah Does the Hula from Hawaii, Number 16 Bus Shelter... it's not exactly going to help them in life, is it?

*I don't have a reference for these ones, but I can assure you that they are real!

As for misspelling names - it just looks silly.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

A Welsh name I somewhat dislike is Seren. It translates literally as “star”. I never saw it used as a name in my youth, so I associate the word “seren” with a distant ball of flaming gas. I appreciate it's now a popular name, especially with non-Welsh-speaking parents, but it's not to my taste.

I'm not a Welsh speaker, but Seren sounds like quite a nice name TBH.

 

[EM2]

In America, the convention is to phrase it "first name" or "given name" -- here, we use the C-word. Frame it as "christian" name, un-capitalised, if you wish. Sometimes, people just over-think stuff.

Traditionally, a Christian name is given at the time of christening or baptism. Obviously, those of the Muslim, Hindu and other non-Christian faiths don't go through this, so can't have a Christian name.
To use it as a 'catch-all' for given names is unthinking and lazy.

 

[me123]

Dang it. :cry:

Don't worry, there's loads of them going round. I believed that one a few years ago (although I was told it was La-a). There's been an urban legend going around Glasgow for over a decade now that there's a child somewhere called Versace McLatchie, but there isn't - my Aunt has claimed for several years that this child is about to start secondary education at her school, but it's never actually happened.

The big clue with the names is - no one ever knows the person in question. It's always at least two or three people away (e.g. my friend told me that her Mum's teaching a child called Versace McLatchie). It's never "I met a child called Le-a today".

 

[Harbornite]

The big clue with the names is - no one ever knows the person in question. It's always at least two or three people away (e.g. my friend told me that her Mum's teaching a child called Versace McLatchie). It's never "I met a child called Le-a today".

Good point. Maybe one day, we will see a Versace Le-a McLatchie and I will die happy if that happens.

 

[pdeaves]

I once worked with a lady named Kelly Kelly, but Kelly was her married name

My mother-in-law's middle name is the same as her surname (May). When she's filled in forms people often think she inadvertently put her surname in the 'forenames' section!

 

[krus_aragon]

I'm not a Welsh speaker, but Seren sounds like quite a nice name TBH.

Yes, it does sound nice, hence its popularity. It's just that as a native speaker, its meaning (star) doesn't "gel" with me as a name.

J.R.R. Tolkien was famously fond of the sound of the Welsh language, and gave one example of the word "adeiladwyd" (roughly ADDay-LADwid) which he saw carved on buildings everywhere when visiting as a child. "Adeiladwyd" just means means "built", and in "Adeiladwyd 1895", but he liked the sound of the word. He gave an example in English of the phrase "cellar door". Ignoring the meaning, the sound of the words is pleasant to the ear.

The sound of "Seren" is equally pleasant on the ear. It's just that I can't disregard the meaning, for some reason.

 

[VauxhallandI]

One of the boys in one of my son's class in the 1980s at St Ambrose College, Hale Barns, had the first name of Grieg, but this was his parents whilst liking the name Greg chose to "enhance" it by adding the letter "i".

Needless to say, the nickname of "concerto" was soon in use, to the despair of the boy concerned.

Not the only funny business going on at St Ambrose in the 80's I imagine ...

 

[Peter Mugridge]

So, it's about initials.

Initials as well as the actual names; you also need to consider - if you have a daughter - of some possible initial risks if she gets married. thinking ahead is vital!

When naming our kids, thankfully I had the final say from a shortlist - several names I rejected because they would have made ridiculous initials! Slightly complicated by my wife being Polish and one thing that was a definite insistence on her part was the middle names had to be in the Polish tradition.

So our daughter has my wife's mother's first name as her middle name and our son has her father's first name as his middle name.

For our daughter, we settled on Alexandra as the first name ( this was fortunately on that shortlist! ) but my wife will generally call her Olenka, which is the Polish version of the short form "Alex" but under no circumstances must anyone actually use the English short form "Alex" - on pain of being yelled at very severely!

With our son, we went for Kenneth ( usually shortened to Kenny ) which was my paternal grandfather's name, and by a fluke the middle initial is also the same as said grandfather's middle initial - so he has the same first name, last name and purely by coincidence middle initial as my grandfather.


Meanwhile - our daughter has a friend called Ellie. Just that; it's not short for anything at all. I am desperately hoping that when said friend gets married, it will be to someone with the surname "Phant".....

 

[transmanche]

Yes, it does sound nice, hence its popularity. It's just that as a native speaker, its meaning (star) doesn't "gel" with me as a name.[...]

The sound of "Seren" is equally pleasant on the ear. It's just that I can't disregard the meaning, for some reason.

As someone who only speaks a very limited amount of Welsh, I'm rather fond of the name 'Seren' and how it sounds. I just think of it being a bit hippy-ish, like 'Rainbow'... which as 'Enfys' (EN-viss) has also been used as a Welsh girls' name.

 

[cb a1]

if you have a daughter - of some possible initial risks if she gets married. thinking ahead is vital!

Pal of my better half - Gaye. Fiance Mr Wright. She kept her maiden name when they got married

 

[J-2739]

As someone who only speaks a very limited amount of Welsh, I'm rather fond of the name 'Seren' and how it sounds. I just think of it being a bit hippy-ish, like 'Rainbow'... which as 'Enfys' (EN-viss) has also been used as a Welsh girls' name.

I agree with you, about 'Seren', though I'd normally spell it like 'Serene'. That name reminds me of really clear, free flowing, and calm waters for some strange reason!

"Serene...Serene...Serene..."