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Monday, August 04, 2008

Bad Baby Names

Jeff and I are still pondering names, and not knowing the gender makes it 2X as hard ... we need to find both a boy's and girl's name that we both like and agree upon. We actually are finding boy's names more difficult than girls, and either way havent settled on anything. It's a lot easier to find names we both don't like or that we would never use because they are "too old fashioned" or our child would "get made fun of" or simply because we find them "cruel" :) Unfortunately, there are others out there in the world that don't seem to think like we do, and name their children the oddest things. I have seen lots of these lately and thought I would share some.

  • Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii

    • A 9-year-old New Zealand girl recently won a court battle to legally change her name from "Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii) after a family court judge found this name to a form of child abuse.
  • Dow & Indiana Jones

    • Indiana and Dow Jones are siblings, 12 and 7 years old, respectively. Indiana got her name because her dad's family was from the state. But Dow was a different story. Apparently, Dow's dad named him on a dare while his mom was asleep in the hospital bed after giving birth.

    In a recent book, actualy titled "Bad Baby Names", the authors discuss REAL names that were found on record by the US Census. Some examples?
  • Fanny Pack
  • Fanny Whiffer
  • Post Office
  • Al Caholic
  • Garage Empty
  • Hysteria Johnson
  • Please Cope
  • Lots of "Ima's": Ima Hogg,Ima Pigg,Ima Muskrat,Ima Nut,Ima Hooker
  • Mary Christmas
  • Happy Day


    • And lets not forget some of the crazy things celebrities name their kids!
  • Kal-El Coppola: Nicholas Cage (Kal-El is Superman’s original birth name)
  • Moxie CrimeFighter: Penn Jillette (also father to Zolten)
  • Pilot Inspektor: Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf
  • Jermajesty: Jermaine Jackson and Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza
  • Fifi Trixibell: Bob Geldof and Paula Yates (also parents to Peaches and Pixie)

So whats the big deal? What's in a "bad name"? Well, studies show that children with odd names: get lower grades and are less popular than in elementary school, are more likely to flunk out or become “psychoneurotic” in college, have their resumes spurned by prospective employers and are overrepresented among emotionally disturbed children and psychiatric patients.

Does that mean I just eliminate Justin Timberlake Schneider from my top 10 boy's names? Nah...what kid wouldn't want to be named Justin Timberlake?
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