Baby Names

My wife finally got around to telling me our
son's new wife is pregnant with the first grand
child. No, she wasn't that way when they got
married. Here is the most popular names last year
for babies:

Aiden
Jacob
Jackson >>>>>>Aiden? Jayden? Caden? Is this a joke? If they
Ethan >>>>>>name him anything like that, I'll call him Pete,
Jayden >>>>>> I swear.
Noah
Logan
Caden
Lucas
Liam
XXXX
Olivia
Emma
Chloe
Ava
Lily
Madison
Addison
Abigail
Sophia
Isabella

Quote: EvenBob

Aiden? Jayden? Caden? Is this a joke? If they name him anything like that, I'll call him Pete, I swear.

Be glad the kid isn't black or he or she would end up with Shaniqua, Loqueesha, Santonio, Delonte or Kanye. I'm sure those parents think they're being loyal to the African heritage but geeeez, an 18-yr-old putting Tavon or DeShaun on an application to Microsoft might get tossed in the trash by a white boss. Jus sayin'.

There's always been a push towards biblical names like Matthew, Mark, John, Michael. Waaaay too common. Why would ANY parent name a kid John? No imagination. I like the sounds of names like Logan, Madison and Chloe in the list. The key is to have a name that is common enough people can remember it, spell it and pronounce it when saying it for the first time, but unique enough it denotes strength or beauty in the mind while saying it. You don't want a name that's the flavor of the month that year, which instantly might discolor the kid decades from now, like Kiefer, Cher, Rihanna, LaToya or Beyonce (gee....wonder when YOU were born, kid) or one so laughably out-of-date like Hester, Herbert, Poindexter or Gertrude. Celebrity baby names like Apple, Moon Unit and Suri get attention....I dunno, I guess Suri isn't too bad. Whatever you do, don't do like the Jackson family and name them Blanket or Jermajesty.

Some scientists say part of falling in love with someone is how the name of that person sounds when coming off the tongue. If the name has a pleasing, colorful or sing-song quality, that would be better than one that's gloomy or heavy in the mind. Alegra or Sophia versus Drexel or Adolf for example. And never name your daughter Gay.

Better not be any of these names either.

Bad Baby Names

And just an addendum here, I have a stupid name that has haunted me my whole life. My father chose to honor his Scandinavian heritage and name me after his grandfather (who was already dead when I was born) by giving me a Norweigian name that's virtually unpronounceable by Americans. By high school, I got tired of always having to spell it for people and correct their attempts at pronunciation and shortened it to something more common. Now that I'm in Las Vegas and all my player cards have my given name which must match my license, I'm having to deal with the crap all over again.

Don't let this happen to your grandkid.

Quote: zippyboy

And just an addendum here, I have a stupid name that has haunted me my whole life..

Zippy? You're parents were cruel indeed...

Full name Zippyboiefinnbjørnhaktor.

Quote: zippyboy

Full name Zippyboiefinnbjørnhaktor.

Is even part of that your real name?

No. lol I've shortened my given name to Chris, and I'm surprised by the people who can't even spell that right.

We had a kid named Harold in grade school. He renamed
himself Pete and he would beat the crap out of anybody
who called him Harold. He turned into a bully from being
picked on for his name and he dropped out of school in
10th grade. Names do make a difference. I wonder if the
Wiz ever researched that when he was doing the the baby names
stuff.

Here is one more slice of advice for boys names. Never give a "jr," "II," "III," etc. Years ago this was fine for people who wanted to keep the family name going. But these days it will cause no end of problems. I have had to spend much time clearing one name for credit because either the son or father had problems and the other one had a clean record. When dealing with the client they told me if they knew all the mixups that would be caused they never would have done it. If you want to include the parent's name give them that as part of the middle name.

And for crying out lout, don't give the mother's maiden name as the middle name, espically to a boy. That trend seems to have started in the 1980s. My cousin changed his middle name to his Confirmation Name because his parent's did that.