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

[FredHD]

I used to work with a woman in college named Bobo. Her parents had been really into drugs and it rubbed off on her because she died of a heroin overdose.

I have a friend named Nguyen Nguyen, but we call her Winnie.

One of the weirdest names I ever saw was on Judge Judy. There was a guy named Mojo Teckelhimanot (pronounced teck-el-high-man-aht) I thought that was a weird one.

 

[Chris Moe]

My friend just emailed me this name this morning. This guy is the VP of some company in Singapore, his name is Goh Lik Kok. Ouch!!!

My brother is a teacher and one of the students at his school is named Phuck. He now goes by different name at school though.

 

[MickeS]

The link in the first post is no longer working. They changed the female basketball player's name on the website. It now reads Ivi Mandic instead of Ivana Mandic. I bet they were wondering why they got so many hits all of a sudden.
What's up with having so many names that are both male and female? I was gonna call someone named Stacey the other day, and assumed it was a female. Fortunately I talked to him face to face instead, would have been embarrassing to ask if she was there or something.
Is this an american thing? The only gender neutral name I know of in Sweden was Kim, and that was mostly used by males. Here people can apparently be called whatever they want.

 

[Carlos V III]

From the days I used to live in Georgia:

My son went to school with twin girls named Tequila and Shaquilla.

Worked with a guy who said he knew someone who had a girl and hadn't thought of a name yet, so the hospital temporarily put Female on the paperwork as the first name. The woman saw it, decided she like it and kept it. They pronounced it Fe-Mal-Eee.

 

[Yee-Ming]

This guy is the VP of some company in Singapore, his name is Goh Lik Kok. Ouch!!!

oops... but remember no doubt in Chinese it's innocuous. having said that, nowadays parents here really should consider what the name is going to sound like in English, seeing as that's the working language here. "Kok" is not an uncommon surname here, as well as being part of many male names, like Mr Goh here ("fortunately" male, and not female names...)

I was helping a friend with his wedding dinner some years ago, the assistant F&B manager's name was Wuen Ker. we were all trying to keep a straight face, as well as pronounce his name very carefully...

 

[Rex Bachmann]

MickeS wrote:

Correction: ". . . whatever their parents want."
Naming in contemporary America has come under the "me-generation" thinking of the 1980's, whereby tradition, convention, and the like are often tossed aside in favor of the whims of the parents, who sometimes have absolutely no regard for the social consequences for the child of having an odd first name. (Men named "Heather" do not get to be CEOs or chairmen of "Fortune 500" corporations, no matter how talented and competent to do so they may turn out to be.)
Some of the weird naming probably started out when the "hippie"-era generation of the country became parents (check out a moniker like "Moon Unit"). Throw in a little "women's-liberation" thinking, shake in a little "black awareness" and "black-power" rebellion (also '60s), and the aforementioned "me! me! me!-ism" of the Reagan era. Mix 'em all together, and---voi là!---you get the mishmash we have today.
People used to name their children a lot after family members (living or dead). That still occurs, but is greatly diminished as a practice (due to reduced and weakened familial bonds?). It's been replaced mostly by fadism and personal "inventiveness" in naming. According to what I've read in the popular press, the number-one naming principle in the culture today is what is called "euphony"; that is, people name their children first and foremost on the basis of what "sounds good" to them, without regard for traditional naming conventions.
That means that a lot female names in particular will fall under what's been en vogue in the latest few years prior to the child's naming. Note that a lot of these "trendy" names are, or can be, sexually ambiguous because, in origin, they are actually traditionally used as last names: Kimberly, Sydney, Ashley, Haley, Lin(d)sey, etc., etc., etc. (Notice the trend?) The sexual ambiguity in these cases is, no doubt, part of the motivation. (Many professional women in America use only their first initials for business and public-presentation purposes.)

 

[CameronS]

The worst real name I've come in contact with is Mike Hunt.