<p>One of my kids’ HS classmates was a Geoff. His friends called him “Gee-off.”</p>
<p>And when my niece Katelyn was born, I asked my brother, who is slightly dislexic, how they spelled it. Pause. You’ll have to ask (his wife.) LOL</p>
<p>One of my 2nd cousins named their daughter Neveah, which is Heaven, backwards. Sigh. I am not a fan of backwards spelled names. And Neveah reminds me of a skin lotion, Nivea.</p>
<p>“And when my niece Katelyn was born, I asked my brother, who is slightly dislexic, how they spelled it. Pause. You’ll have to ask (his wife.) LOL”</p>
<p>Does that run in the family by chance? :P</p>
<p>@momof2inca</p>
<p>Neveah is not Heaven backwards. Nevaeh is.</p>
<p>“I’m probably the only person who thinks the name Hazel is sort of pretty…”</p>
<p>Yeah, I think you probably are;) But it’s better than Brunhilda or Ethel.</p>
<p>Androgynous names should be banned. It prevents laziness in terms of naming. I work with a girl named Reggie, and you just know that her parents just hated the fact that she came out without a *****. I also know a 50-year old woman named Bob. Both generally suck at life. In fact, I think most people with androgynous names tend to suck at life. Neither one of them have attractive boyfriends either… which makes a lot of sense, actually. I mean, telling your friends about banging Bob or Reggie last night really isn’t something to brag about.</p>
<p>afruff–I am actually a good speller, but oops.</p>
<p>I’ve seen Nevaeh too. It’s a pretty name that LOOKS like it should be from Hebrew, but it’s…not. </p>
<p>Same with the weird spelling of Rachael. People must think it’s analagous to Michael, but it’s not. Rach-el, Mi-cha-el.</p>
<p>phuriku–so I guess you are against Jamie, Tyler, Taylor, Camden, Dakota, Ryan, Jordan, and all those other boy/girl names? </p>
<p>Evelyn Waugh’s parents were just so wrong. 
:D</p>
<p>I had no idea European countries legislated names! Wow! Actually, I think it’s pretty aweful that a government would do this. Think of all the amusement and amused indignation we’d be robbed of!</p>
<p>In my family the fascist government was my in-laws who hated my plans to name DS Gabriel so much that I gave it up. They nixed Christian as well (we’re Jews, but I love the name.) Actually, I was never going to name him Christian because of obvious confusion, but I wanted to. </p>
<p>DD is frustrated because when I named her her name was extremely uncommon, but now it’s the 13th most popular name, which she hates.</p>
<p>Kids got back at in-laws. They legally dropped husband’s name from their hyphenated last name and now just go by my last name. Whoo hoo. It is a nicer name (DH agrees and couldn’t care less) and I swear I didn’t put them up to it. But as an occasional women’s studies teacher I do use it to prime the conversational pump. Perhaps they’d be prohibited from doing this in some countries.</p>
<p>Didn’t one of the Scandinavian governments make it a policy to offer monetary incentives [i.e. bribes] to new parents (and I believe adults generally) who agreed not to use particular names; specifically names that were overwhelmingly common? Such as Peter or Jan or Hans? Apparently, the phone book in that country had multiple pages of the listing for “Sven Anderson,” for example.</p>
<p>What about all of the last names being used as first names now? I guess that would automatically make them gender-neutral.</p>
<p>I think legislating names can be dangerous. Isn’t this essentially what new-world Spaniards did to Native Americans in forcing them to take ‘Christian’ names? Ditto with names imposed on indigenous people around the world. Didn’t it happen to African slaves as well? Isn’t it a way to diminish a group’s identity?</p>
<p>Yes ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad, that was part of Muhammad Ali’s argument when he abandoned his “slave name” of Cassius Clay back in the 1960s.</p>
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<p>This is AWFUL! </p>
<p>Geoff–short for Geoffrey–as in Geoffrey Chaucer, for example.</p>
<p>Yikes, phuriku!
I know a female “Reggie” (Regina) and “Ronnie” (Veronica).
Bob or Bobbie could be Roberta or Barbara–I’ve seen those, too.</p>
<p>My D has a nickname that is more commonly used by males. She likes her nickname and always has her “real name” (a very traditional and never male name) for official uses. </p>
<p>I’m not a fan of gender neutral names–but to say people that have them
“suck at life”–lol.</p>