Our chickens have "functional" names: Blackie, Whitie, Big Brown, Little Brown, Big Red and Little Red. A quick glance at our chicken coop, and you'd easily be able to tell who was who. But children should not have functional names, it would be cruel. We'd have to refer to Headbanger as Fat Cheeks or Melon Head, and neither of those are very nice.
When we named Headbanger we came up with the following rules, which we intend to use for the new baby:
1. It must be a recognizable name with an established spelling. We're not interested in "Brandine" or "Aemmalye".
2. It must not be too popular right now. In fact, Flashlight and I are interested in names that were popular at the beginning of the 20th century. I love the names Hannah and Emma, but too many babies and young children have those names right now.
3. Middle names should be family names. Headbanger's middle name is Ruth, after my paternal grandmother. Although highly strung and somewhat demanding, she's the sanest of my grandparents. My maternal grandmother is crazy and I would never do that to my child.
4. The name shouldn't have any terrible associations (Adolph, Mao and George are off the list) or be an obviously bad name - one that might get my child beaten up at school. My brother was nearly named Gaylord, but thankfully they switched to Nathan at the last minute.
5. If the name is going to be literary, there need to be some good associations with the character. I'm named after a Dickens character and while I like having a literary name, I feel somewhat hurt that my mother named me after a prostitute whose common-law husband beat her to death at the end of the novel. "Prostitute" does not really describe me and Flashlight is one of the least violent individuals I know. I'd love to give my daughter-to-be a Shakespearean name, but Ophelia, Juliet and Desdemona all have similar problems.
So what are we going to name the new baby? I have no idea. When Headbanger was born, we had a short list of four names: Lillian, Eleanor, Evelyn and Rosemary. I think that a few of those might make it to the next short list, but other than that, its up in the air. What kinds of names would you choose?
Thursday, May 8, 2008
What's in a Name?
Posted by Nancy Ross at 9:56 AM
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4 comments:
If we had another girl we would have named her Opal. A boy probably would have been Maxwell. I agree on the middle names that should be family derived. Sassafrass and I share the same middle name. Jedi has Beau Brummel's middle name and HotDog (who ate a hot dog for lunch and another for dinner) has my mother-in-law's maiden name.
Oooh, we like Maxwell too, but no boys so far.
I agree that crazy names can be terrible for a kid- just look at http://wesclark.com/ubn/ (The Utah Baby Namer) website and you can see all of the horrible things people have pinned on their innocent, unsuspecting babies. I have a friend who had issues with this- she has 4 little girls and I have to tell you their names so you can understand: Eden (not so bad), Quincey (a little odd as it is a boy's name), Ever (yes, Ever- that is NOT a typo) and Romy (not one of my favorites). The funny thing is that their last name is Loveridge and when she was pregnant with Romy she was teased incessantly about naming the baby "After" or something like that to compliment "Ever". She told us once that she absolutely loved the name "Ever" but realized her mistake one fateful day while she was chastizing Quincey- "don't you EVER do that again!" to which Quincey relpies, "Ever?" pointing to her little sister. SOOOO the moral of this story? STICK TO YOUR RULES!!! I really like your rules, they are very similar to my own. As for girl names, I really like Grace.
Beau Brummel and I thought Rancy for a boy and Nanuss for a girl. Just kidding, but you do live in Utah!
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