A Boy Named Friday

[Amethyst Hunter]

When their son came home from school in tears from the teasing, they would give the old standby of "Oh just ignore them, they'll get bored, blah blah blah." And of course, it didn't end, it still hasn't.

To hear a 17-year-old guy talking about getting a will written up just to ensure that should he ever be worth something, his family won't get any of it, tells me how deeply the wrong name can affect you.

Oh this is so very, very true.

To this day I am at best ambivalent about my last name, because I grew up hearing all the wonderful bastardizations that can be made out of it. "Douche" was one of the *nicer* things I got called. People ALWAYS spelled and pronounced it wrong - some on accident, more often on purpose. I flat out told my mom one day that I wanted to change it - and she said my dad would kill me if I did.

I'm of legal age now, so I could theoretically do so if I wanted to (and I still kind of want to). But it would definitely create some bad blood in the family, and we have enough of that shit going on as it is. So I guess I'm stuck with it. (Marriage is pretty much off the list for me for a couple of reasons, not the least of which being that I don't think that I can handle living with someone else's insanity in addition to my own at this point in my life.)

I HATED the "ignore them and they'll stop" bullshit. NO, fucktards, THEY NEVER DID STOP.

Kids are assholes by nature.

Which is just reason #2347 why I don't want and won't ever have any myself.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

I have an unusual name. It's pronounced differently than Americans tend to say it, and it's 5 syllables long. I have always loved it. In fact, as a child my Mother gave me a very simple, recognizable nickname for it, and I HATED it more than anything else on earth. As soon as I hit high school I started going by my full name.

It often depends on personality as to whether you like having an unusual name or not---I like the fact that my name is spelled and pronounced in an unusual manner. It's great to start conversations with people who are doing paperwork for me or something. I have no problem correcting someone's pronunciation or having them correct the spelling, it's an opening to have an interesting conversation with them.

My sister, on the other hand, is an extrememly quiet, conventional person. She was given a very unfashionable family name, and my Mother did not like any of the nicknames for it, so she made up an unusual nickname to call her. My sister hated it and now she goes by the most mundane, normal nickname she could come up with.

My poor Mother does not understand why we hate the nicknames she came up with for us, and she still insists on calling us by those names.

My daughter has a friend named "Candida"

They call her "Candy" and I always thought it was "Candice".

One day, I saw "Candida" written on her books, and thought someone had been teasing her, or they gave her that as a nickname. (For those who don't know, candida is a genus of yeast that causes yeast infections.)

I guess her clueless Mom just liked that name.

Someone should have smacked her up the head.

I think it is rather rude of you to assume that that girl's Mother was 'clueless'.

Candida is a very, very old Catholic name. It existed long before yeast infections were called by the scientific name. It comes from 'Canditia', which is Latin for white, and it was the name of several early saints. The girl may have been given an old family name; Catholic children often are. She may have been born on one of the Saint Candida's feast days. Her Mother may be Italian, as it happens to be an extremely popular girls name in Italy, as well as Spain, two overwhelmingly Catholic countries. You should think before you assume that someone is an idiot just because YOU don't understand their motives for doing something.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The same goes for Gay which is a girl's name, but most parents wouldn't call their girls that now.

[Seshat]

Oddly enough, I used to know a Gay (or Gaye) who was named in the 50's or early 60's, and who was lesbian.

Odd coincidences.

[AFPheonix]

Yep....
I imagine in about 50 years we'll have new parents puzzling over names and wondering why on earth people would ever name their daughters Madison or Britney, such old fashioned names

[Sylvia727]

I fully intend to name my future hypothetical children something unusual and extraordinary. My own name is very white-bread and boring, which is bad enough, but its meaning is also shallow. I want my kids to have names that mean something, like naming my daughter Serendipity or my son Pharoah. Unfortunately, due to schoolyard bullies I shall probably settle for Melody or Vanessa for a girl, and Ezekial or Tobias for a girl.

Names do have power--I really want to name a daughter Cinnamon, since it's a pretty name and a delicious spice, but my sister convinced me that it's a stripper name.

[AFPheonix]

I had the best customer name today:

Johnson Wang.

I'm still giggling like a retarded junior high boy.

[IDrinkaRum]

Originally I wanted to name my daughter Lavendar Blue or if I had a son Obadiah Farthingblitz. Hubs shot me down both times.

However, when I'd get irritated by every person I came into contact with who would ask me what I was going to name the baby, those names would come out of my mouth and the looks ( ) on their faces were pricless!

[AFPheonix]

Oh, another one today: Dick Bone. Bwa hahahaha!

[protege]

On the subject of embarrassing names, there was a girl at my school who had a brother named Richard Head. You know Dick is short for Richard, right? O_o

I have an uncle Richard...who does by Dick. Considering he acts like one bout 99% of the time, it's pretty damn appropriate It could be worse though. My company does business with a guy named Richard Small...

[Lace Neil Singer]

Originally I wanted to name my daughter Lavendar Blue or if I had a son Obadiah Farthingblitz. Hubs shot me down both times.

However, when I'd get irritated by every person I came into contact with who would ask me what I was going to name the baby, those names would come out of my mouth and the looks ( ) on their faces were pricless!

I don't plan to have kids; however, in picking embarrassing names I could either name boys after hair metal rockers with girl's names, or name them after my fave Shakespeare heroes/heroines.

[horror]

As a person with one of these "weird" and unconventional names I am going to officially state that people (the general sense of "people", not those on the board because to be honest I've yet to read all the replies) should STFU.
I happen to love my name and love the fact that my parents gave me a unique name.
To quote my mother, "What? Do you think I would have named you something retarded like Tiffany?"

[daleduke17]

My wife and I were looking at names for our soon-to-be child and I couldn't believe some of the spellings they had for "simple" names.

We ended up choosing Caitlyn if it is a girl (which we found it is almost certain it is).

We never really chose a boy's name, but I had a couple picked out I wanted:
- Shawn Michael (yes, Mysty for good reason)
- Cordell Dennis (I'm a Walker, Texas Ranger, Dennis for my dad)

[blas87]

When you have a name like mine, which can be spelled so many different ways, it's really irritating. And my mother did it on purpose just so people wouldn't spell my name the "traditional" way. Yes, it's nice to be different, but I've spent most of my life having to correct people and don't even get me started on my last name.....

Everyone I know has a Madison or a Mason. I swear, in the paper, everyone names their kids Madison (girl) and Mason (boy). Either that or a lot of people my age are giving their kids African American names.

[MystyGlyttyr]

We never really chose a boy's name, but I had a couple picked out I wanted:
- Shawn Michael (yes, Mysty for good reason)

I can't say much, heh. The names I've picked out if I should ever breed are Eddie Gregory and Bobby Christopher.