Comments on: 8 Countries With Fascinating Baby Naming Laws

By: David

David — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:08:06 +0000

I have 4 names, 2 middles and all first names. FTW!

Holy cow these comments exploded!

Good call on the name topic. Everyone has one…

By: Megan

Megan — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:23:53 +0000

The rule I think of is, “They’re going to put that name on a resume some day”. So I plan on naming a daughter Elizabeth and calling her Libby.

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:19:43 +0000

FWIW I have 3 first names and 2 last names. They are Kenneth, Alan, and David in no particular order. Even after 70+ years I still get annoyed by getting addressed as Mr Kenneth. This happens quite often in spite of the fact that I write my surname in all caps. Google gives 25 hits for my complete name, Been Verified gives 100 for first & last name only.

By: Lee Kim

Lee Kim — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:04:12 +0000

Not naming your kids after a place name could be difficult, especially in Canada. In Toronto there are lots of streets with names like Jane, John, Peter, Beverly, Stephanie, Perl, Augusta, etc… Not to mention St. George, St Andrew, etc… You can drive down Martin St. to get to Margaret St. in the town of Milton. There’s little Amelia St. in Victoria, BC Or Jasper Ct. in Devon, Alberta. And there’s a Jasper St in St. John’s, Newfoundland, not too far from Russell St. and with a Virginia Lake close by.

Also, while forbidding first names that are also last names sounds like a good idea. In practice, it’s impractical. Names like Lee, Kelly, Jordan, Mason, Martin, Clark, Lewis, Allen, Scott, Mitchell, Stewart, Howard, Ross, Alexander, Henry, Gordon, Rose, Spencer, Barry/Berry, Ray, Elliot, Austin, Ryan, George, Kim, Dean, Douglas, Terry, Daniel, Todd, Francis, Joseph, Paul, Simon, Allison, Kirk, Kirby, Charles, Bruce, Vincent, James, May, etc. are all popular as last names as well as first.

Oh, btw, mentalfloss.com is a trademark owned by Felix Dennis and the article was written by David K. Israel. Both men have first names that can be used as last names (see funny man Larry David & athlete Allyson Felix). And both have first names that are places! (Felix in Spain & the ancient city of David in Israel).

By: Sir Read-a-Lot

Sir Read-a-Lot — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:17:21 +0000

My basic rule of thumb is that you can name your child anything you want, as long as your child has the right to any nickname they want, and you will call them by that nickname.

My second (personal) rule of thumb is that if I want to give my child a name that could possibly draw unwanted attention to my child (like Samwise, or Obi-wan, or Hamburger), then make it a middle name. That way, my child can keep it private if he/she doesn’t want to use it.

By: beth

beth — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 07:36:39 +0000

I have twin niece and nephew. Darian and Nathan. When they were born the hospital brought in the circumsision form for my sister I’m law to sign for Darian, who is a girl.

By: Brandy

Brandy — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:24:24 +0000

Something I was surprised to see no one mention…

Here in the Deep South it is quite common to give first-born children (if they are girls instead of boys) their mother’s maiden name as a first name. Hence Spencer Lucky and Vesta Brown, both adult women I know. I’ve also met a girl named Gordon.

Another Southern naming tradition–Sister for a girl. I’ve known at least two Sisters, though they were neither sisters (African American) nor sisters (female siblings of each other).

Names, just like any other words in the English language, change over time. Names we think of as exclusively female today were once exclusively male: Ashley, Leslie/Lesley, Brittany/Brittney. Gender neutral names like Madison, Jordan, and Morgan may simply be making the transition from one gender to the next.

My vote for weirdest names? Anthony and Re-Anthony, brothers my mother taught (and, yes, I’ve met them–they really exist). That and the family where every male (including brothers) is named Gary Carter, no middle name, no junior/II/the third, etc.

By: John David Galt

John David Galt — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 05:26:33 +0000

So when does Anderson Cooper have to turn his around first-name-first?

By: amy

amy — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:55:38 +0000

In my first year teaching high school in southern Texas I had Elmo, Charles Brown, Ceasar, and Jesus in the same class. I have to admit it made roll call fun. Sometimes it is not so much the individual names, but the combination.

By: Tboneator

Tboneator — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 03:11:05 +0000

One foreign surname that never fails to make me chuckle is “Lipshitz”. I first ran across it in an almanac listing of celebrity birth names! Goes to show there are surnames that don’t translate well into english.

Regarding naming guidelines, I especially liked Adam’s two key rules:

1. Whatever names you are considering, run it by your friends and family to try to come up with as many variations your child will suffer through.

2. When naming a female child, use the name in the following sentence:
“OK fellas, next up on the main stage…”

As good advice as any I have read regarding this issue!! I’ll add a third that should apply to celebrities offspring:

3. As a child of a famous person, he or she will already be drawing plenty of unwanted attention. Why add to it by giving that child a “weirda**” name?! If anything, a celebrity child should have as normal and non-attention getting a name as possible (names like Fifi-Trixibelle and Mirabella Bunny will not likely acheive this end, LOL!).