K and I have been kicking around baby name ideas for some time now. She sent me a list yesterday, illustrating what some people have chosen for their kids. I'm just going to give a highly abridged version here: Cutter, Tuisdi, Pleasant, Shade, Zanda Z'Ann and Zoe (siblings, of course), Azzan, Raistlin, Jewlia, Coco and Ambree.
Good lord...
Now I can appreciate the idea of an interesting name, but considering where this list came from, I have to wonder what the rationale was behind the choice of some of these names. The closest analogy I could come up with in a later conversation about this list with K, was the idea of using your children as a vanity license plate. It's not that you want the child to have a good name, that will be easy for others to understand, unique enough in your family so as not to confuse them with other kids, and not so strange as to invite nine kinds of playground angst. No, I think some of these parents just want something that sounds cool or looks cool, to them. The feelings of others are pretty much irrelevant, including those of their kids. There are plenty of nice names out there already, why do we have to go inventing new ones, or bastardising old ones, just to try and make something more special than it already is? It's almost as if they're saying that the child would be boring without a really messed up name.
Oh, where did the list come from, you ask? Midwestern kid's bible study class list. Of course, what can you expect from a group of fundie parents who would actually name their sons "Cannon" and "Creed". No, I did not make that up. Talk about wearing your faith on your sleeve. "Look how faithful I am! I used biblical terms instead of names for my sons! Let me into heaven now!" Sheesh. I could go off on a religion rant, but I'll save that for the other site.
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