Halx

Actually, Winter has always been a name I've wanted to give a female of my possession.

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Amnesia620

I got it first. So, :P

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StormBerlin

I'm going to have a dilemma when I need to name my children. They are going to have Hungarian names for the most part and my first boy will have my last name. My bro decided not have children, so I feel like I need to make up that. And I can guarantee that no one will be able to pronounce their names on the first try, let alone spell them

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Gman

To any soon to be parents who are reading this thread, for the love of everything Holy...

DO NOT USE THE MIDDLE NAME OF YOUR CHILD AS THE PRIMARY ONE!!

Example, my name is Grant. That's what my parents named me, that's what my friends call me. But on my birth certificate, it says Christopher (first name) Grant (middle name).

You have no idea how annoying and bothersome it is.

Imagine every new person you meet, you hear "Oh your name is Christopher, but I thought it was Grant? Why is that?" *cue the story*

Every first day of school "Is ...uh... Christopher here?" "Actually, it's Grant." "But it says right here it's Christopher.." *cue the story*

And having to remember on every legal document you sign that you have to put Christopher instead of the name you've gone by for years, or else they think you're trying to pull a fast one.

Seriously, DO NOT DO THIS TO YOUR KIDS. THEY WILL HATE YOU FOR IT FOR AS LONG AS THEY LIVE.

Coppertop

My sister goes by her middle name. She always has, as that's what my parents have called her since she was born. She uses an initial when signing documents and things of that nature.

skinnymofo

i know or knew several people who were named Mohammed Mohammed
like they could be double saviors of their religion or something ;/

shortynickel

being a jr. i hate it soo bad...that is one thing i would never do, cause with everything i have to say that i am a jr. so ppl dont get me confused

my favorite girls name is megan treanne(i believe is the spelling) but my wife hates it.

i actually met a girl named summer and the named suited her very well, i dont think to many ppl that summer or winter would fit them well.

spindles

I agree with Halx - this is almost exactly what I thought when I read that other thread. I'd have trouble remember which of my kids was which

"Come here....yep, you with the red hair!"

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Pacifier

Yep, the name must indicate the gender of the child (no naming you son Linda) and the name must not lead to ridicule your child. The registrar has the last word. But I got the feeling that tose rules are weakend lately, I've seen names like "amidala" (and much worse, amidala is quite OK)and other fictious names that would not have been acceptable some years ago. A german Actress is named "Cosma Shiva"

and you should think of how the name is pronounced.
"Chantal" might be a beautiful french name, but pronounced in hard german it sounds weird.

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raeanna74

That's insane. I'd sooo hate my mother for that.

My middle name is bad enough but I gotta give mom credit since GAY didn't mean 'homosexual', it meant 'happy', when she gave me that for a middle name. I still which she'd at least have used Gaylin instead of Gay. At least I rarely use my middle name for things and usually I can get away with just the middle initial.

If it's any consolation I named my daughter Laura Elizabeth. They're both family names and about as normal as names come. They're spelled traditionally too. I didn't want her to have to spell her name for every teacher and other person. This way she can just say her name and no one should misspell it unless they simply can't spell.

I wanted to name our daughter Marcy or Marcie (French) but hubby wasn't crazy about either one. So I got vetoed. At least I got my second favorite name 'Elizabeth'.

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Demeter

If its any consolation, you're not the only one walking around with an unwanted middle name. Both my older sister, and my cousin have 'Gay' as a middle name. My sister always said it wouldn't be so bad if my Mom had at least spelled it 'Gaye'. Both of them were born in the early sixties, so it wasn't such a big deal then.

TexanAvenger

I like these rules. As far as I can see, names that I like generally fit these criteria, especially #4.

I think in addition to this, however, there should be a rule which states that a kid should not be named after a trait you wish them to have... not only is it usually annoying, but somebody out there's gonna name their daughter "big tits." (Running joke with a friend.)

Derwood

Very interesting takes everyone has. I broke several of your rules and don't feel bad a bit (because our daughter's name ISN'T Shaneequa, Samwise or Noxema)

I have some rules of my own (that, of course, don't pertain to anyone but myself, but I'm pretty hardcore about them).

1. Don't give all your kids names starting with the same initial (My wife's family consists of Maria, Miguel, Melissa, Mauricio, Matthew and Monica...oh and the dogs are Mickey, Minnie and Maury)

2. If you're going to call your kid Tom, don't name him Thomas. If you're going to call them Jen, don't name them Jennifer. Name them what you are going to call them. I have utmost respect for my coworker Ben's parents, who simply named him Ben. Not Benjamin, just Ben.

3. Pertaining to ^^^^^, if you WANT to name your kid Matthew, stick to it. Don't let other people (particularly teachers) nickname your kid if you don't want them to. My wife's brother is named Matthew, and everyone in the family calls him that. It's been a losing battle since elementary school for him with others calling him Matt. He hates it, but he has given up on correcting people.

4. I'm REALLY against uncommon spelling of names unless there is a legitimate reason. For example, our daughter has a Dutch spelling of a name that is commonly Swedish. (Think pro golfer). But naming your kid Ghennipher is downright mean spirited.

5. I don't have twins, but in the rare case I ever did, they would get two unique names, not rhyming names or cutesy matching names. It's tough enough looking like one another much less being named Karen and Sharon

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skinnymofo

Ive been thinking about this for a while and really the only acceptable (by which i mean can go both ways) boy/girl name that i can think of is Lorn/loren. I actually know more guy lor(e)n's than girl Lauren's
Also a first Name that flows well with the lastname is a good thing

Gilda

I have absolutely no problem with gender neutral names, and don't quite understand the objections to them here. Loren / Lauren, Jody, Chris, Marion / Marian, Jessie, Don / Dawn, Lynn, Leslie, Ashley, Kelly, Jean / Gene, etc.

Context will pretty clearly indicate the sex of person involved where it is relevant, and where it isn't the name doesn't need to indicate sex.

Ok on to my pet peeve: Theme names for twins. My mom wanted to name my sister and me with cute rhyming names like Carrie and Mary or a theme name like Faith and Hope. Ugh. Fortunately my father managed to intervene and we got Kathleen (Katie) and Gilda. I have cousins who are named Timothy and James. As kids they were Timmy and Jimmy, and that's still how everyone refers to them.

My SO has a traditional Korean girl's name that has about a dozen transliterations and nobody every gets it right, but she refuses to compromise and adopt an American name; it's part of who she is. She tells me I've never pronounced it right, and probably can't because it contains a couple of sounds that don't exist in English.

We've already agreed on girls' names for when we have a child--Anneke and Hannah--and one boy's name, Jake.

maleficent

My idiot sister and her husband did that with their four children -- she thinks it's cute to sign cards K4 - (all the kids names start with the letter K) I don't see the cuteness -- let the kids have their own identity.

That's a battle I fought forever. My first name happens to be two names. Somewhat confusing, but I have always introduced myself with both names. My birth certificate has my name as two names as my first name and a middle name (which I hate so I never use)... It never failed, all thru grammar school and high school, I was always called my the first half of my first name, because people assumed my second first name was my middle name.

Right before college, I had the spelling of my name legally changed, so that it became one word because I got so sick of being called Mary -- intead of Mary Ellen -- so -- my name officially became Maryellen.

Were my parents mean to do that? Nope, I like my name, it's unique enough that I don't come across too many maryellen's but it's also not so far out in left field that people say - -huh? Just drives me nuts when people try to shorten it to something that is not my name.

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StanT

I'm another Jr that hates it. I went into a similar field as my father and the constant comparison irritates me to no end.

"Oh, your dad is soooo nice"

Ya and I'm a dick, get used to it.

skinnymofo

most of those are ok i think but
i think lynn ashley and jody are way more feminine than male
i would be very upset if my parents named me or my future wife named our boy ashley
its just not right

Coppertop

Horrible thing to name your daughters:

Sonja (pronounced SAWN-yuh)
Tanya (pronouced TAN-yuh)

Ugh.

Gilda

Interesting. I think of Ashley and Jody as being more masculine than feminine, and Lynn pretty much dead center.

Derwood

I'll tell you what, we have our 2nd kid coming in September and it's proven to be much harder to pick names this time around. It was hard enough to find a name we liked for the first one, but now to find a name we like that doesn't sound weird with the first kid's name, that's really hard.

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lindseylatch

I thought Sonja was more SOWN-yuh...

I'm actuallly the total opposite. It give the kid NO options. What if they'd PREFER to be called Benjamin, and instead you put Ben on the BC. I want my kids to have all their options open.

My dad is the same way, because they actually screwed up at the hospital, and they didn't find out until he went to get his driver's license. So, his name is Marion Paul...But it lets us know when it's telemarketers calling, cause they use his first name.
Then my parents named my brother after a great grandparent, but they hated the first name (William) so they use his middle name (Kavanaugh). This causes a number of problems, one of which was him being listed under 3 different names in our year book.

I want French names, that are moderately pronouncable...And nothing that's going to be mispronounced in English, like Nanci (which in French has emphasis on the second syllable, not the first).

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Coppertop

Exactly what makes these names horrible. Spelled the same, pronounced differently. Ugh.

buddle

They just soften those laws in Norway, and some pretty funny names have come up!

A wellknown radio-comedian added the middelname (this is translated from norwegian) "thankyouverymuch".

A medical-student added "Batman" as his middle name so he could sign bills with Dr. Batman. (He was going to be a kiddie doctor)

A colleague of mine sent an application for fun asking for the middle name "keiko-burger" and by god they approved it...
So he goes by the name Mr. Keikoburger.


These folks changed their name freely, and are over 18years of age.
I have three personal guidelines for naming my kids.

The name should:

1. be individual
2. indicate an origin
3. not be an embarrasment later in life ( refering to silly names, like naming your kid keikoburger )

with those i think youll see a big varity without it beeing negative for the kid!

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lindseylatch

Well, Jorge is pronounced two different ways, but that doesn't make it a bad name...

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Zeraph

My middle name is Alexander, when I was really young I wanted to change it to Fireball
My parents handled it well, luckily that never happened and I like my middle name now.

CSflim

Sweet jesus! There are some incredibly cruel parents out there!

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Grasshopper Green

I too am a middle-name goer. School was the biggest pain in the ass, because either the teacher kept forgetting, or I'd have to explain WHY I didn't go by my first name. I've completely given up on correcting doctors, dentists, and such...I just don't see them often enough for me to bother, and they don't remember anyway. I usually sign documents with my first initial and make sure my checks are my first initial and then my middle name. Ugh, it's a pain. Not to mention my first name is much prettier than my middle name.

Someone did mention one upside; you do know its a telemarketer when someone asks for you by your first name instead of your middle name

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Derwood

Though I suppose that hard to pronounce names would do the same trick. My dad and sister both know exactly who the telemarketers are....

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lindseylatch

yeah, we have a hard to pronounce last name, but sometimes colleages if my dad call up and they don't really know how to pronounce it.

I want unique, but not totally off the wall names for my kids. My name is too common, I've almost always got someone in class with the same name. Blah.
My sister named her son Valen, which is her husband's favorite character on Babylon 5 (it's also an Old English name).

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Grasshopper Green

Ya, everyone mispronounces my last name, even though I think its very easy to pronounce....another dead giveaway!!

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Sage

Alrighty, my name is DAWN and it is NOT the same as DON!!!! Don is short for Donald, they are not pronounced the same, DAWN is a GIRL'S name!!! DONALD DOES NOT EQUAL DAWN!!! ARRRGGHHH!!!

Sorry, just been havin this argument a lot lately....

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Gilda

Sorry if I impuned your name, no offense was intended.

I've never heard the name Dawn pronounced differently from Don. I don't doubt that you do, but I've always heard it pronounced, and would pronunce it myself as rhyming with, say lawn, fawn, con, and John. How is it pronounced differently from, say, dawn, meaning the time when the sun rises?

Don can be short for Donald, Donavan, Donnely or a half dozen others, or it can be just Don. I have an uncle Donavan, and one of my brothers is Don, not short for anything.

My point is that they are (or at least can) be pronounced the same, and context will always tell the listener which sex is appropriate when necessary.

While I'm at it, I wanted to add Sean / Shawn (pronounced the same as Don) to my list of perfectly acceptable gender neutral names, equally good for boys and girls, and like Chris or Kelly, almost perfectly gender neutral.

Sage

hee hee- it's ok

I suppose it has something to do with the fact it's my name- to my ear I can hear the difference between Dawn and Don when they're pronounced almost the same- but other people have a hard time differentating!

Plus i'm from the south, so my name usually has a distinctive "twang" to it- and I have friends from up north, so it gets the yankee treatment!

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spindles

I dunno what crazy country you are from but Dawn and sean rhyme, but Don is not even in the same ballpark. awn is a long sound, on is a short one.

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Gilda

They're pronounced exactly the same in the US Midwest and in California.

I don't know what you mean by /awn/ having a long sound. In American English, the aw morpheme is usually pronounced the same as a short /o/.

aKula

Like spindles, I live in Australia, and there is a clear difference between the pronunciation of "on" and "awn" here.

questone

If I have children, I shall name my firstborn "w00t".

spindles

hopefully the second one will be hax0r.

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Derwood

and the third one will be pwn3d?

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