New Trend In Baby Names Is Just Weird | Golden Skate

New Trend In Baby Names Is Just Weird

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~
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Jul 28, 2003
Check this out!

If Madison or Michael are just way too commonplace for your taste in baby names, look around your house, closet, or garage to get the latest ideas for naming Junior. News Interactive reports that some parents are naming their sweet little babes after shoes. Or cars. Or cheese.

Timberland. Reebok. Camry. Chanel. Gouda. Snicker if you will, but according to Social Security records, five babies were named Timberland in the year 2000. Give it a decade, and Timberland could be in the top 10 names. Forty-nine kids were named Canon in 2000. That same year, there were 11 Bentleys, five Jaguars, and a Xerox.

Many American parents are marching to their own baby name drummer, spurning traditional names. Here's a fun fact: At least 10,000 different first names are now in use in the United States, and two-thirds of them were basically unheard of before World War II. Edward Callary, a past president of he American Names Society, said parents are choosing these unusual names to be purposefully different. He said, "The more we feel defined by numbers, in our postal codes and bank statements, the more we need to shout out a unique name into the world." Well, maybe not totally unique. The Social Security records show that 24 children were named Unique in 2000.
 

SugarCoated

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
sad as it is i can see Timberland being the next baby name in the hip hop community. Although theres already a rapper thats been out for a LOOONg time name timbalin.

yea but thats idiotic. It's bad enough every1 walks around as a billboard for fashion designers (aka. armani shirts, bebe shirts) but to name ur kid... no no crazy talk
 

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I know someone who named their baby Cabello. Or whatever the name of that sports store is. yuk:\
 

Piel

On Edge
Record Breaker
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Jul 27, 2003
Naming children something that sounds cute up until about age 10 but sounds silly for an adult has always made me shake my head. The rule for naming a child should be: How would it look on the door if she/he were CEO of a major company? The same for visible piercings and tattoos...would I be embarrassed if I were being sworn in as president and this was showing?

Piel
 
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Moto Guzzi

Spectator
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
In the paper a few weeks ago, there was a photo of a man with his two little girls named Mercedes and Lexus. What will his next child be named--Corvette? :rolleye:
 

Blue Bead

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Naming your child after some commercial product or foodstuff or whatever is just inane! What's the child going to think at the age of eight when all his/her classmate are unmercifully teasing about a first name like Snapple or Lysol or Spyder? :rolleye: By the time the kid is in high school it will be an even bigger problem. Some of these parents seem to be trying to out-do other parents when choosing outrageous names for their children. I knew it was a bad sign when Frank Zappa began giving his kids weird names like Moon-Unit. :laugh:
 

Ptichka

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Jul 28, 2003
Those odd names are NOT a good idea. Back in USSR, I had an aunt that everybody called "Lena". I was very surprised to find out that her real name was Vilena -- for V.I. Lenin! Yikes!!!
 

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~
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Jul 28, 2003
I also heard today, that people are naming their kids for places they were conceived or born! I forget who the actress is but, they named their baby Brooklyn.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
serenity said:
Well what do you think of this Rgirl?
Do you mean about my given name being Massengill (see above post) or the trend in general? If it's the former, I'm just glad I wasn't a boy, because my parents would have named me Leaky Trojan-enz. If my mother had had her way, she would have named me Midol. My dad would have named me Overtime.

In general, we're a consumer socieity; I guess it was only a matter of time before we started seeing kids named Gap, KFC, Walmart, Asplrirn, Pepsi, Sprite, Jelly Belly, Mop and Glo (for twins), we could go on and on.

Actually, I remember goofing around with a friend about 20 years ago when designer (Tiffany-Chandelier) and granola (Sunflower) baby names first started becoming all the rage. We wanted to kids to have names like Plate, Toaster, Blender, Table, Rug--names of everyday household items.

I actually like Moon Unit and Ahmed Zappa. But their dad was the real deal. Moon Unit for him was real. I also liked that the Clintons chose Chelsea because the song "Chelsea" morning was playing on the way either to or from the hospital just before or after her birth. I think if there is a genuine connection for the parents to the name and it suits the child, different is great. It seems like a lot of the parents in this article are forgetting that they're choosing a name for theiir child, not choosing a name to impress their own friends.

Surnames used to be based on what someone did, ie Miller, Baker, etc. Names that sound odd are often just foreign versions of same. Then there are the family-related names, ie, Johnson for John's son, etc. Some people have started going back in their family trees, thanks to geneology sites, and finding names for their children from four or more generations ago, which I personally like.

One of the funny comments on this is in the movie "Sugar Town." It's about various aging rock stars living in Laurel Canyon in LA. A guy from Duran Duran is in it (forget his name, lol) but in the movie, some woman drops off a kid at his door and says, "Here's your son, no YOU take care of him." What is the kid's name? Nerve. All the groupies who hang outside this guys house find out about the kid and of course start idolizing him too, "Hi, Nerve! We love you, Nerve!"

In all seriousness, I don't have children, but I have had various dogs and cats. Especially with the cat I adopted 15 years ago, I had a name I thought I wanted, but when I got the eight-week old kitten home, the name I'd picked out didn't suit her (can't even remember it now). So I thought we'd just hang out for a while and she'd let me know her name. And she did: Pi. It's the first time I'd done that with a pet and everybody who met Pi, whether or not they knew the spelling--it was the sound tha was important--said something like, "You know, that is the perfect name for that cat. I don't know what it is, but it's like she's saying, 'Hi. I'm Pi.'" It was true. She WAS (still is) PI.

I'd like to see more parents take that kind of approach with their children. Get to know them for a while and try to feel what name suits the child, whether it be a modern name or a family name from generations ago. After all, the child is going to have to live with the reactions to the name, not the parents.
OliveRgoil
 
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Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Congratulations, Ladskater

Hey, Lad! Congratulations on your 1000th post! Way to go!
Rgirl
 

dlkksk8fan

Medalist
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Jul 26, 2003
When I named my sons, my husband said keep it simple and short. So their names are Kyle and Dean.

My mother-in-law still can't get Kyle's name spelled right. After 17 years she still spells it Kiel:laugh:
 

Ptichka

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Jul 28, 2003
RGirl, I agree with you on pet names. In the Russian immigrant community there is a trend to choose extremely traditional country Russian names for their pets (the kind of names noone would think of giving their kids). When I was getting a cat, I really wanted to name her Anfisa. But when I got her, she was just so NOT Anfisa. I named her Ksusha. I admit that she was more of a Ksusha when she was a little kitten than now, but it still fits her perfectly!

My mom says she named me Masha (full name Maria) because I really looked like either a Masha or a Dasha. Dasha's full name -- Dar'ya -- is just too much of an ethnically Russian name (we are Jewish), so I ended up with Masha. And now I really think it's fate -- my fiance's name is Misha :)
 

Lucy25

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
As a human being, I think these new names are pathetic. I feel so sad for the kids. My sister-in-law's brother and wife named their two boys Truth Walker and Freedom Hunter. The whole family is so embarrassed by this. They can't bring themselves to call them by their names so they make up nick names instead. They are going to be teased so much in the coming years!
 

mike79

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Hi Lad

I think the people you're talking about are Victoria and David Beckham (the ex-Spice Girl, and the superstar soccer player) that named their daughter Brooklyn. I actually kind of like that name.

Another new fad with baby names in the last few years has been State names. I've heard of more than a few Montana's, Dakota's, etc.
 

Mistyeyed

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 4, 2003
Figureskates said:
We know we are in deep, deep trouble if a child is named "Depends", or "Ex-lax".

OMG--rotflmao and lets not forget correctol :p

I like alot of the cologne names like Cierra and Chantilly ect but some of these names are way out there. The poor kid named Zerox. Can you imagine the harrassment in school?
 

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Rgirl:

Did you know Chelsea Morning was written by Canada's own Joni Mitchell?


Chelsea Morning - by Joni Mitchell

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and
the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window, and the
traffic wrote the words
It came ringing up like Christmas bells,
and rapping up like pipes and drums

Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll wear it till the night comes

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and
the first thing that I saw
Was the sun through yellow curtain, and
a rainbow on the wall
Blue, red, green and gold to welcome
you, crimson crystal beads to beckon

Oh, won't you stay,
We'll put on the day
There's a sun show every second

Now the curtain opens on a
portait of today
And the streets are paved with passerby
And pigeons fly
And papers lie
Waiting to blow away

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and
the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey and a
bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch
and stuck to all my senses

Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present tenses

When the curtain closes and the
rainbow runs away
I will bring you incense owls by night
By candlelight
By jewel-light
If only you will stay
Pretty baby, won't you
Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning
 
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