<p>I know someone’s who’s last name is Smelley, and I just can’t imagine ever taking on that last name.</p>
<p>ugh major typos…I know someone whose last name is Smelley,…</p>
<p>*Quote:
And another one with identical twin boys - one was a “Junior” and the other wasn’t. That struck me as very odd.
A couple in my extended family named their twin sons this way. Unfortunately, the babies were born prematurely. Even more unfortunately, one of them died – the one who was “Junior.”</p>
<p>It was not uncommon for people to say to each other, out of the parents’ hearing, “What a shame that it wasn’t the other one who died.” And even those who didn’t say it were thinking it.*</p>
<p>Very sad.</p>
<p>Upthread I mentioned that in my dad’s family that the first born son is always named “Francis” (Frank for short). Well, my dad’s oldest brother, Frank, died and when Grandma had another boy, guess what that baby was named. yes…Frank. Odd, very odd.</p>
<p>I love names, but when I was pregnant I chose to find out the sex and H didn’t want to know. This meant we did very little talking about names. As it happens, both of our fathers had the same name, and there were no male grandchildren on either side of the family. Since it was a name we liked, it was a done deal. Both of our father went by the nickname that was standard for their generation, but we always called our S by his full name. Eventually, friends started calling him by another nickname (one which I strongly prefer). He seems to go by both his full name and the nice nickname. His name is one of those referred to by Geeps in his anti-nickname post. I must say that I dislike nicknames also. My name has two syllables, and is usually not shortened. It astonishes me that some people try to call me by the first syllable alone. My H and son have H’s nice, easy to pronounce surname. I kept my own difficult one. :)</p>
<p>We used the “Revere test”. If you live around Boston, try saying a name like someone who lives in Revere would. You can’t render it in type, sort of a Ree-vee-aaahr but worse. Then avoid the names that hurt the ears.</p>
<p>I got to name both of our children because of a disagreement with my wife. I plain objected to the at-the-time trendy female name she wanted. So as a compromise she agreed I would pick the name if was a boy, and she would pick the name if it was a girl. We had the same agreement each time. </p>
<p>Lergmom,
I can relate. My dad wanted Joseph, his FA’s name. I asked him to spend 5 minutes in a Boston playground, and hear how many people called out Joseph (followed by Michael).</p>
<p>I went to elementary school with a girl whose last name was Smelly. When grandma died, the family name became Small. She was so happy!</p>
<p>My H is a Robert. So is my brother. When we got married, I told H no Robbie jrs. Brother has S1 R P, son goes by middle name, S2 was going to be W R, but was told it was overkill on the R’s, especially since B wanted to change his name in his 20s.</p>
<p>D1 knows an R, jr. He goes by Roby (pronounced Roe-bee).</p>
<p>" Over 36+years, though, I have to say the two worst I had were Le’toint (yes, I know) and Devoid. "</p>
<p>That just made me laugh ! I have a friend who worked for a social service agency that worked with a client who had many children…she claimed to choose the ( made up names with crazy spellings ) based on the emotion she was feeling when they were conceived ! We had some chuckles at that revelation as one might imagine , but try to envision the embarrassment the children have endured going thru school with such names I think Ennui and Disgruntled would have made nice names</p>
<p>I used to collect interesting names from the hospital. My favorite remains Sequoia Woodlands.</p>
<p>I used to joke with my wife we should name our kids “Testikles” for a boy and “Labea” for a girl. You could pass those off as coming from Greek mythology.</p>
<p>For many generations the first born boy of the first born for every other generation has had my father’s name. When I was pregnant we announced that our son (knew the sex) was not going to be named that - with our last name he would have been named after a very famous jazz musician. Instead, he was named a name I had liked for years - after my college roommate’s youngest brother. We chose his nickname as his name and then chose the lengthened version as his full name. All was fine until I was trying to teach a very stubborn pre-schooler how to spell his first name, after he’d spent years correcting his nickname (it’s familiar but not the usual nickname). The change of letter really threw him off.</p>
<p>DD was also named a name we really liked. We had picked out her name but didn’t know what I was having so were still trying to decide on a boy’s name while in labor! I wanted both kids to have longer names and true nicknames. I think both like their names and both fit them very well. DS talks about changing his name to his nickname but I don’t think they will. Both have family names for middle names - my former middle name for DS and my maiden name for DD. It was important to me to somehow keep my middle name going as I was the last in the family to have it. It was my grandmother’s maiden name and she was an only child so it died out as a last name when she married.</p>
<p>“It may also be worth checking to make sure that the name does not mean anything derogatory or insulting in any other language.”</p>
<p>There is a man at one of my summer jobs/fiance’s current place of employment whose first name is a homophone for the Laotian swear word for male genitalia. The Laotian employees find this really hilarious, in particular because the word his name means in their language is a very suitable description of this particular individual.</p>
<p>I wish there was a way for people to mention their children’s names, without being linked to the CC name. I feel like a failure trying to guess.</p>
<p>I was originally going to have my father’s first name as my middle name and have a first name that my mother chose, but my maternal grandparents didn’t like a guy in high school that happened to have those names.</p>
<p>Instead, my first name is a common alternate spelling of a relatively common name with no real nicknames. A distant relative had an earlier Germanic form of my name. Both my first are almost always spelled wrong, even by close relatives, though the spelling makes sense phonetically. My middle name comes from a famous baseball player whose cards were in packages of Wonder Bread around the time. In order to get the entire set of cards, my mom bought a lot of Wonder Bread. :)</p>
<p>As my last name is often mispronounced, I usually just go by Firstname or Mr. Firstname. My first two initials are DR, which makes me want to get a doctorate so I can be Dr. D.R. Lastname.</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of naming people after relatives, nicknames that have nothing to do with their legal names, or having children go by their middle name, all of which are very common in the South. I’m toying with the idea of not giving my children middle names as my last name is very unique. That said, I’d like it if their initials were also airport codes.</p>
<p>A cousin decided to name his son something that sounds and looks like the French word for peasant and when combined with my paternal grandfather’s name for the middle name and their last name, has the initials PCP. The cousin and his wife likely don’t get the reference, but I sure hope they don’t order the kid a backpack or luggage with his initials on it.</p>
<p>Bookworm, that is why I proposed in an earlier post to make a list of names you would use if you were naming a child today. They can include the names you actually chose for your children, no one will know.</p>
<p>Remember the brouhaha over Fort Wayne, Indiana searching for a name for a new government building? Many people wanted to name it after an ex-mayor named Harry Baals! What were his parents thinking!</p>
<p>The Gaelic name is Caitlyn. Depeding what area of Ireland you live in, you might say ‘Cat-Leen’, ‘Cotch-leen’ or ‘Cawtch-Leen’ (I’ve heard all three). Kathleen is the anglicisation of Caitlyn. </p>
<p>Although to be honest, ‘Kate-Lyn’ has become so pervasive that plenty of people in Ireland say it like that as well, especially in NI, even if it was originally a deliberately alterred or mispronounciation</p>
<p>My parents wanted ‘traditional’ names for us, and old names as well for the most part. They considered Madeleine for me, Mum liked Hugo and Bartholomew for my brother, and I think Theodora might have been a contender for a younger sister. We got (IMHO) names that were much nicer, especially my brother </p>
<p>If you want an odd naming trend, retro is slowly coming back IN with aspirational middle class types over here (in the South at least)- there are quite a few young children called things like Maud, Madge, Agnes, Agatha, Gloria and Beryl. Or Reginald and Frank etc. If ever I wish for a more unusual name, I remind myself if I was born now to the wrong parents I could be called Mabel or Ethel!!!</p>
<p>^Girls names supposedly go on a 100-year cycle. We don’t choose names that our grandmothers used because they seem like old ladies to us, but once the “old ladies” are gone, their names no longer carry that. </p>
<p>Boys names tend to repeat more because fathers still name sons after themselves, and everyone knows lots of Michaels and Johns. Back when women had more children it was common for them to name one after themselves.</p>
<p>Well, a couple of us here mentioned that we first heard the name because of Dylan Thomas’ wife, and she spelled it Caitlin. I’m assuming that it’s the Welsh spelling. [woops, just checked–she was from London, but her parents were Irish.] I almost named my D that and would have spelled it that way.</p>
I must say that I dislike nicknames also. My name has two syllables, and is usually not shortened. It astonishes me that some people try to call me by the first syllable alone. My H and son have H’s nice, easy to pronounce surname. I kept my own difficult one. :)</p>
I think Ennui and Disgruntled would have made nice names</p>
</p>