Do some parents think before naming their kids? (1 Viewer)

[Jon_Are]

There was a Detroit Lion named Harry Colon.
I also knew of a Fanny Bender.
Working with kids, I see a lot of crazy names:
London England
Iceeheaven (first name)
Ginger Rayle
Calvin Hobbes
and...a mother named her daughter Bitche (pronounced Bee-Shay)
There are tons of stories that go around the medical community regularly, almost all of which I'm sure are urban legends (though the tellers all insist these are true). Generally, they are first female names: Labia, Clitoris, Placenta, and Hymen. There is also Nosmo King (mom supposedly saw a No Smoking sign), and twins Orangello and Lemongello - accent on the second syllable (mom, of course, was fed orange and lemon jello after birthing the nippers).
Oh yeah, another girl's name: Chlamydia (which is actually quite a pretty name).
I can't tell you how many times I've heard these over the years at different institutions, and they all happened wherever the story was being told from.
Jon

 

[Yee-Ming]

my CE teacher in highschool was Richard Cox.

also the name of a member of the now-defunct group Go West.
there are also these three brothers in Singapore called Atomic, Hydrogen and something else similar which I can't remember right now (maybe Nuclear). as it turns out they are in fact scientists, so obviously their father's aspirations for them turned out OK.
and I have a colleague called Slim. fortunately for her parents she did turn out to be slim and svelte, and still is even after having three boys.
but may I just caution a little sensitivity here, no doubt many names cited are completely normal in the owner's native language (starting with that basketball player) and just seem funny when you view it through the English language, or (mis)pronounce it after Anglicizing it. e.g. "Ivana" is probably properly pronounced EE-VAA-NAA, which does not give rise to the "I wanna" joke anyway.
and no doubt the same could happen the other way.
although for the life of me I cannot fathom deliberately naming your child after female body parts, or an STD

 

[Jeff Kleist]

You know, there should be laws against these goofy names, at the very least the poor child should be able to change it before 18, or at least have a justifiable homicide
If you're going to name the poor child something stupid, let the doctor name them!

 

[Leif Wall]

Kind of related:

There is a married couple who lives in the town that I work with the names Peter and Angela Ness. They each got customized license plates: PNESS and ANESS. I'm not sure if they realize it or not...

 

[Yee-Ming]

Jeff:

if memory serves, in Holland by law you are limited to standard names that appear in a book or something similar.

apparently the footballer Dennis Bergkamp, Holland's record goal scorer, was named after Denis Law (an English player) by his father, but Bergkamp senior was not allowed to spell his son's name the same way as the English player since this would be pronounced (in Dutch) too closely to a male body part, and was in violation of the aforesaid law. so "Dennis" it was.

 

[rob kilbride]

My dad knew someone named Rod Putz, I swear to God.

 

[rob kilbride]

Double post.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, a law probably is a tad extreme
How's that every hospital should have a name advisor, to warn parents that their names are ludicrous

 

[Sam Posten]

Went to school with Phuc Lam. One of my students two years ago was named Salvatore Menella. Yup, Sal Menella

Sam

 

[Chris Moe]

I saw a guy on TV named Justin Case. My friend worked with a Richard Head. A women that used to shop at my old job was named Pleasantly Strange, and she married into the name Strange.
When I have kids if I have girl I want to name her Sue and if its a boy, Slo.

 

[Mark C Sherman]

Here is list of some funny names
http://www.lotsofjokes.com/cat_285.htm
http://www.lotsofjokes.com/cat_286.htm

 

[Nathan*W]

Two of my friend from high school were Truly Ager and David Gross. I always thought they should get married so she could be Truly Gross.

 

[Lee L]

I used to work with someone named Richard Biggerstaff. What a perfect name for porn.

 

[Dan D.]

A friend who was on his engineering school's car racing team used to deal with a vendor named Phil Cummings who sold Siemens Injectors.

Another friend's landlord was named Dick Hedberg.

 

[Craig Robertson]

my sister used to work for a guy named Dick Fuhr.

 

[Cam S]

I have a client/golf partner who is named Burpy Aitkins. I have no idea how or why he was named Burpy.

 

[BrianB]

apparently the footballer Dennis Bergkamp, Holland's record goal scorer, was named after Denis Law (an English player) by his father, but Bergkamp senior was not allowed to spell his son's name the same way as the English player since this would be pronounced (in Dutch) too closely to a male body part, and was in violation of the aforesaid law. so "Dennis" it was.

Denis Law is Scottish, not English! Another version of the tale is that the Dutch civil service thought it was too close to Denise so changed the name.

I'm sure Camp would have more to say about this.

 

[Karl_O]

Jeff,

Since you seem to have an interest in things Japanese (especially anime), about ten years ago there was a case of a young Japanese couple who wanted to call their newborn son "Akuma," which means "devil." Many Japanese were oppose to this as they fear that when the boy becomes of school age, he will be socially ridiculed by having this name. Fortunately, social pressure compelled the young Japanese couple to reconsider naming their son "Akuma."

 

[Malcolm R]

The advertising rep who handles our company's account is a woman named "Frisky."

 

[Sean P]

When I was doing telephone tech support, my boss wouldn't let me call a woman who's name was spelled Kwak Ho. I have no idea how it should be pronounced, but he yanked the ticket out of my hand before I could find out.
Sean