BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????

Subject: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 08:03 AM

Nicolas Cage has named his newborn baby Kal-el (Superman's name on Krypton). I mean, really. One thought this hippie burdening of your offspring was over ("Oh let's name him Peace-Love-Turnip to show our love for vegetables!"). Childhood is hard enough with ridiculous name abuse from the cradle. If the child leaves home at 15 and becomes a hardened accountant, I for one will not blame him.




yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 08:20 AM

Didn't Mr and Mrs Thomas from Birmingham name their child Ivor John?

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 08:39 AM

I used to work with Jimmy Olson. He was Irish, though.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Brakn
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 09:13 AM

Spotted in my local paper - EbHoney.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 10:10 AM

I thought it sounded middle Eastern, Peter. I'll bet most of the kids peers won't even know it was Superman's name, unless they are told.:-)

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 10:14 AM

and when kids want to be mean it doesn't matter what another child's name is - they will find some way to make fun of it.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 10:16 AM

Frank Zappa's kids seem to be doing okay.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 10:21 AM

So they call him Kal... doesn't sound to bad.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,H
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 10:26 AM

"Stupid Children's Names"

Doesn't every child deserve a name, intelligent or not?

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 10:32 AM

I have always thought Lex a neat name. It means Law and is an interesting contrast to Lex Luthor, it's owner.

I do have problems with names that beg to be ridiculed. Why would anyone name a child Isadore,eg.?

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: jimmyt
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 10:33 AM

We have a local elderly gentleman named Horace which is, under normal circumstances, just fine. His last name, however, is Dick. Makes it tough to be raised with that sort of challenge

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Seiri Omaar
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 11:00 AM

Lex= Alexander, at least the way I've seen it used.
Peter, Kal-el is not the worst out there. I mean, "Apple"???
Click here .

Cheers, Seiri.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 11:29 AM

Well, our reactions to names are culturally based, and therefore are usually pretty much arbitrary. However, I do agree with Peter that Nicholas Cage could certainly have chosen a better name for his child in this case.

Peter, it will NEVER be over. People will be giving weird names to their kids from here till kingdom come. Specially Hollywood people.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Seiri Omaar
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 11:43 AM

Oops, forgive the HTML blip. I of all folks should know better.

No problem. joe-clone

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 11:57 AM

I've known stupid people who thought that Frodo would be a good name for their kid....

People like that are the reason Tolkien died HATING his fans.... I'm confident that Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster would feel the same about Nick Cage...

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: artbrooks
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 01:13 PM

I have yet to see one that beats Bilbo, with the inevitable mutation.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,H
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 02:17 PM

I am still wondering how we know he is stupid. (Cages' new kid)
Isn't rather early to make that assumption?

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 02:32 PM

How about the trendy new name for girls, Madison?

Hell, why don't they just send out a birth announcement that says "We'd been hoping for a boy?"

Good news: my neighbor, not an educated guy, told us they had named their daughter Rose Marie. He said, "We hate those girls' names they've got going now."
----------
"Kal-el" is never going to last. It's too hard to say, especially for young kids. Ten to one he has some other name by age 5.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 02:42 PM

?? I have a five year old great-niece named Madison - and they knew her gender from early in the prgnancy - long before they started to consider names.

But I've yet to meet a male Madison outside of the pages of fiction.

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 03:04 PM

"Madison" is a surname. The going rage these days is to give your child a well-known surname as her/his given name!

Examples: Taylor (for both boys AND girls), Archer, Tanner, Harper, Madison, Reese (as in Witherspoon), McCauley (as in Culkin), and there are a host of others...really, just pick ANY well-known English culture surname that ends in "er" or "or" and you've got a trendy first name for your offspring, who may yet become a big star and get persecuted by People Magazine and News Of The World! Yeah.

The above is a much more prevalent form of nominal abuse of children these days than naming your kid "Kal-el" or "Chastity" or "Moon Unit" or other off-the-wall things like that.

The things people do to be "different" (ha! ha!). Notice how so many people try to be different in the same way at the same time? Hmmmm...ummmm...gosh! They all look and sound so much the same...

Then there's Kyle. The Scottish name that recently returned from virtual historical oblivion and took over the World! Now someone on a tour boat yells, "Kyle! Get over here right now!" 312 boys named Kyle rush to the port side, and the boat tips over. Another avoidable tragedy caused by trends!!!

Why? Why Kyle? (I heard it was because of some soap opera.)

Subject: RE: B.S.:Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 03:44 PM

How do we know he is stupid? genetics. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 03:50 PM

Chastity is in the good old puritan tradition...

But I am probably influenced by the fact that my parents made up one daughters name - used the masculine spelling for a second daughter - changed the spelling on a third daughter's, let one son choose his own middle name (they gave him only an initial) and let their kids name their youngest by committee.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 04:23 PM

Here are some more surnames that have been made first names:

Whitney (as in Houston)
Tyler

And some that became popular because of a celebrity:

Dylan (because of Bob)
Lincoln (because of Abraham)

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 04:37 PM

And there is some surprise that Nick Cage named his child Kal-El after a comic book character.

As I understand it, Nicholas Kim Coppola (yes, the Director is his uncle) took his stage name from a Marvel comic book character "Luke Cage" (Power Man)

So maybe his child will grow up to be a film star and take the stage name of "Fred" just to reverse the trend

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 04:41 PM

Kal Fred?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 04:41 PM

Little Hawk:

Here are some more surnames that have been made first names:
And some that became popular because of a celebrity:

Dylan (because of Bob)

Surely Dylan was a forename long before Robert Allen Zimmerman changed his name.
I seem to remember a Welsh poet & playright by that name!

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: John Hardly
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 04:49 PM

There was a priceless scene in an otherwise forgettable, and already cancelled sit-com in which the coach of a 6-8 year-old's soccer team is taking role...

"Kaylee Jones?"

"Here!"

"Kaylee Johnson?"

"Here"

"Kaylee Weston?"

"Here".....


What we lack in good sense when naming our young, we more than don't make up for by lack of imagination.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Don Firth
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 05:16 PM

As I understand it, Bob Zimmerman first spelled his professional name "Dillon" because he was something of a fan of Matt Dillon (James Arness), the protagonist of "Gunsmoke." Then he heard about Dylan Thomas and changed the spelling. The given name "Dylan" has been around for a long time. It's Welsh, and it means "man from the sea."

'Course you have to be careful of initials, too. Long ago, in the comic strip "Gasoline Alley," Skeezix (!) and Nina Wallet (her maiden name was "Clock") were trying to think up names for their newborn son. They came up with a perfectly good pair of names: Michael Thomas. Then, one of the other characters in the strip said, "Not a good idea. Think of the initials:   M. T. Wallet."

When I was working for the telephone company back in the late Seventies and Eighties, a large percentage of the female operators, most fresh out of high school and on their first jobs, were named "Kathy" (no, not "Katherine," just "Kathy") and "Tammy (not "Tamara," just "Tammy"). Sigh. . . .

Tom and Ray Magliozzi ("Car Talk" on NPR) got a call from a listener a few weeks ago. She said her name was "Magica." One of them asked her where the name came from. Her answer was, "Hippie parents."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 05:20 PM

Since when is originality a bad thing?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: John Hardly
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 05:35 PM

Since when is originality a bad thing?

1. When it inadvertantly shows ignorance of accepted and reasonable principles. For instance, every year a good teacher friend of mine emails me a list of the newest outrageous student names for the year. Quite often there is a high "cringe factor" as the spelling of the "original" name inadvertantly shows the parent's illiteracy.

2. Originality, while perhaps an admirable pursuit, is not always successful. For instance, LOBO...

When I saw you standing there
I 'bout fell off my chair
And when you moved your mouth to speak
I felt the blood go to my feet

...or...

Me and you and a dog named "Boo"
Travelling and living off the land
You and me and a dog named "Boo"
How I love bein' a free man

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 05:49 PM

See thread on African-American naming practices. Forget the number, but looking for posts by Azizi should find it.

Just saw in BBC Music (October) that the baritone, Jonathan Lemalu, abandoned his first name, Fa'afetai, so that "I didn't get teased at school and, therefore, didn't have to beat anyone up." (He is built like an NFL lineman)

The old Spanish name for girls mentioned in that other thread, "Imaculata Concepcion."
Born-again Christians are always talking about Jesus; why don't they follow Spanish practice and use that name?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 06:00 PM

LOL to LOBO!

Howevuh, "accepted and reasonable principles" have at one time or another, included such as,

1. The earth is flat.
2. Leeches are good medicine.
3. Light-skinned people are genetically superior to dark-skinned people and thems born with with peckers are genetically superior to thems born without.
4. Gertrude, Ethel, Herschel, Siegfrid, Eustacius and Honoria.

Not to mention Barbi.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 06:03 PM

Yes, I was quite mistaken about "Dylan". I was typing in haste. It has been a given name for a long time.

Kaylee is indeed popular. So is Kyley. With all the Kyles around, they had to do something for the girls too...

Almost any name beginning with "K" is considered trendy now, I think.

Kathryn is considered cooler than Catherine, for example.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: John Hardly
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 06:04 PM

I think Catherine is great.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 06:09 PM

Me too.

Here are some other variations on a name.

Susan
Susanna
Susie
Suzy
Suze
Sue

Of those, I guess "Suze" is the most obvious attempt to stand out from the crowd.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 06:09 PM

Leeches are good medicine, in certain circumstances.... Especially where circulation is a problem....

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: John Hardly
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 06:16 PM

I think that I will follow Nicholas Cage's hip ways. If I ever have a boy I will name him after a Superman character as well...

Mxyzptlk Hardly.

Then, should the kids tease him, he could just disappear into the 5th dimension. Hmmmmm... I wonder if Mr.Mxyzptlk ever knew Marilynn McCoo? va va voom! whatta fifth dimension babe!!

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 07:22 PM

It worked just fine for Suze Rotolo, LH.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: The Walrus
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 07:52 PM

There are some parents who almost warrent arrest for child abuse with the names they give their children
"Peaches" was bad enough, but "Fifi Trixibelle" ???

Mind you, odd names are not a new phenomenon, the man who started the first Fire Brigade/Fire Insurance company in London (late 17th Century) gloried in the baptismal name:
"If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-Thou-wouldst-be-damned" (I've forgotten his surname).

W

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 09:08 PM

I know, Elmer, that's exactly why I mentioned it! (I love you, man, cos you know your Dylan.)

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Don Firth
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 09:17 PM

. . .and then there's good old Clarence Clapsaddle. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 09:22 PM

Catherine, Kathryn, Kat, Katy, Katya, Kate, Cat, Cathy, Kathy, Cathie, Katie...

Did I miss any?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Don Firth
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 09:26 PM

. . .Kitty. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 09:46 PM

Some of the best names of all time, thanks to W.C. Fields:

Mahatma Kane Jeeves

Eustace P. McGargle

Gretchel Schickelgruber

Snavely--Chester Snavely was the name of an actual Philadelphia undertaker.

J. Pinkerton Snoopington

Egbert Souse': Remember, not SOWSS, but SOO-ZAY (accent grave over the "e").

J. Frothingham Waterbury

Larson E. Whipsnade-- "Not LARCENY...LARSON--'E.'"

Ambrose Wolfinger

Marmaduke Gump-- In real life, Fields sometimes called his own personal assistant by this name.

source: http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/WCWords.html

Elmer Fudd (now THERE's a cool name...)

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 10:39 PM

Bizarro!

(What was Supergirl's
Krypton name, anyone remember? She was an "-El, I recall). I remember we used to say that Superman's girlfriend was Superwhore, whose Krypton name was Mot-El. (This is true 9th grade nerd humour!!)

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: John O'L
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 11:15 PM

There is a girl in my son's class at school named Tewsdagh. (Pronounced Tuesday)

Her mother calls her Chewie.(Pronounced Chewie)

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 11:31 PM

KARA ZOR-EL - Supergirl's Kryptonian name.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 12:35 AM

Dejah Thoris - Barsoomian Princess.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 05:35 AM

David Bowie called his son Zowie, he now tells everyone his name is Joe, more sense than his dad.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Crystal
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 05:57 AM

I got off pretty lightly I guess! I COULD have been called Gladrial or Moonchild.

My parents are hippies

As it is Rosie isn't a bad name!

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 05:57 AM

Stupid names or not, possibly the most cringeworthy thing is when parents choose an unusual name for a child and then mispronounce it. One of the cooks at the school where my daughter teaches has a child with the (Irish/Gaelic?) name of Niamh (pron.Neeve)The silly cow actually calls the girl Nymah. Somebody is going to tell her one day!

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 06:35 AM

It may be silly to choose these ridiculous names, but the real killer is the inappropriate pairing of ordinary names.

I worked once with a James Riddell, and a Richard Head. I can't help wondering whether those parents were stupid, or totally evil.

Maybe it's "Boy Named Sue" syndrome. They had to get tough to survive their schooldays, and believe me, these two were HARD.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Mr Red
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 07:59 AM

One thing about giving a child an unusual name is that it can make them introvert - and when they realise in their teens that they have no hiding place they can become quite extrovert. Well if that is how the world takes me - take this then.

And they start wearing monochromatic attire...............

But their ain't no hiding place with a name that no one else has. Trust me.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Peter T.
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 08:22 AM

Thanks, Clinton, I suspected there was something like a Kara in there. But Zor-el as well? So they had two names? Maybe just for girls? Where is a Krypton anthropologist when you need one.


yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: John Hardly
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 08:27 AM

"Where is a Krypton anthropologist when you need one(?)"

The planet having exploded as it did, I don't hold out much hope of finding one.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: KateG
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 08:35 AM

We shouldn't forget the Oklahoma philanthropist Ima Hogg, or the early 19th century New York merchant, Preserved Fish.

More variants on Katherine: Katya, Katook, Katrina, Ekaterine, Trina (some of the Germanic countries use the end of a name, rather than the beginning, to make a nickname). She got around on her wheel.

KateG

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Seiri Omaar
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 08:59 AM

Katharine (German), and Kaitlyn as well:
Behind the Name Listing for Names Related to Katherine
Good site, that one.

Cheers, Seiri.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: MMario
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 09:11 AM

JH - since Argo city and Kandor both survived the explosion of Krypton the possibility of a Kryptonian anthropologist goes up.

According to various sources which I do not now recall;Kryptonian naming customs for males was first name hyphenated with family name. For the females - first name paired with fathers full name.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Alice
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 09:25 AM

And the celebrity baby named Apple (Gyneth Paltrow's, right?)... will she be called Ap or Al?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: LilyFestre
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 10:51 AM

A close friend of mine recently had twins, a boy and a girl. She and the daddy spent months trying to decide on a name. Because my friend's name is a very common one, she wanted something decidedly different. The boy ended up with a somewhat more "normal" name while the girl has been named Salem Willow. Many folks have balked at this, but unless you know the parents, you will never understand why they chose that particular name...which actually suits the infant quite well. Sure...she'll get picked on, but kids are notorious for finding ways to pick on each other....unusual name or not. I think it's the parent's call...even though some of them are quite unusual, they must have had their reasons....right?!?! :)

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 11:46 AM

Young lady named Merry Christmas was once elected Miss Merry Christmas at the junior high in my home town. I once new a guy named Harley Worken, and another named Phil A. Bottom.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,John Gray in Oz
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 12:25 PM

So, a recent trend is to use surnames as first names. Well I must have been years ahead of the times when 25 years ago I named my boys Ryder, Cable & Slade. Not after famous people though. No, straight out of the biggest book of surnames around - the telephone directory. And with a mind on the Kyle thing, 25 people don't look around when their name is called. My sons know its them, and no-one else, that's being sought.

JG / FME

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Seiri Omaar
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 01:09 PM

True enough. Being named Sarah, I do a lot of looking.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,Auggie
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 01:54 PM

As god is my witness I actually knew a bartender named Ken Alexander who named his daughter.. oh yes.. what else..Brandy.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 02:45 PM

Cage's kid could always use his middle name: Coppola:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Seiri Omaar
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 04:17 PM

Could also use Clark, LOL.

Another interesting link: 'Names' in Popular Culture
I personally wonder at the parents' sanity on some of these...

Cheers, Seiri.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: LilyFestre
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 04:24 PM

At a local ice cream shoppe, there is a bulletin board that hangs outside the window where you can order ice cream. The board is covered with post-it notes....I wish you had pumpkin ice cream, I wish my friend would come back from Iraq, I wish school would never start, etc.

My favorite: I wish people wouldn't laugh when they hear my name. Sincerely, Phil McCracken

*G*

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Peter T.
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 05:01 PM

Well, of course the Internet has everything -- this is the site for the Krypton Dictionary --

http://theages.superman.ws/Krypton/glossary.php

Kara's mother was Alura. Alura Zor-El. Almost as good as Deja Thoris.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: John Hardly
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 05:18 PM

Does that Kryton dictionary have a pronounication guide for "Mxyzptlk"?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 05:27 PM

I think "Alura" is a beautiful name. Is it just me or do the Krypton names sound very middle eastern ala El Al Airlines?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: number 6
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 05:28 PM

They all should be assigned numbers, not names!

Hey wait ... !!

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Joybell
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 05:42 PM

I already had a Hippie name before Hippies arrived. The way probably hasn't been so smooth for the girls named Gay though. Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 04:27 AM

A couple I knew had the surname 'Allwright'. They were considering the name 'Hugh', for their son, until it was pointed out to them that the hapless child would be haunted by a particular question for the rest of his life.

My other favourite naming story is of an American couple who, at the height of the space-race, named their child 'Module'.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From:
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 10:00 AM

Im Catherine jayne but it's shortened to Khatt (pronounced Cat) although my parents call me CJ for short. My friends have called me Cat for such a long time I can't even remember the start of it but when I got to university there were a lot of people called kat or Cat so I changed the spelling and it has stuck!

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 10:33 AM

A kindergarten student who enrolled in the school where I taught had the name Pajama (pag' a ma). It seems that when she was born her mother asked for a dictionary, opened it, and selected a name.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Seiri Omaar
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 10:49 AM

My aunt taught a girl named Mhari... and the parents made it up!
I had "Mairi's Wedding" running through my head all day after that one..

Cheers, Seiri.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Pseudolus
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 12:53 PM

I agree that kids can be cruel and they may find something to make fun of but why give them a bull's eye? When the Twins were born I could have taken the chance that the name shithead would eventually become accepted but luckily for the boys we didn't. HA! Luckily we went with Spiderman and the Green Hornet....yep, those'll work.

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Wesley S
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 01:33 PM

I met a guy named Harry Dyke once. He didn't want to use his full name of Harold. Nope - Harry.

And my brother went to school with a girl named Twinkle Starr.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Jeanie
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 01:36 PM

It's not only the names themselves that intrigue me, but the way in which the pronunciation of some of these trendy names can be so very different from their spelling - a perilous trap for unwary teachers to fall into. Here are a couple from my current registers: Jourdain (a boy) and prononouced "Jordan" [I suppose the Frenchification is to try and make him more sophisticated, but the parents don't carry it through with the pronunciation]. The perfectly good name "Aaron" now seems to becoming pronounced "Arran" (as in sweater), rather than conventionally as "Air-on". I am now wise to this, having been the target of several indignant "Arrans" when I said their name wrongly.

Has anyone else come across a Devon ? I had assumed that the young lad I was teaching last year was named as the result of parental passion in Paignton......until someone put me right about the footballer (I think it was a footballer) called Devon. Now - why is HE called Devon ?

New up-and-coming names, it would appear from my registers, are: Tabitha and Archie. I have two of each.

The other name trend which bugs me is the idea of double-barrelled surnames being created from the husband's surname and wife's maiden name. The offspring started to be born in the 80s and 90s. What's going to happen, though, soon, is that all those Emma Ruggles-Johnsons will marry the Joshua Burgess-Wetherstones and the nation's telphone directories will have to double in thickness if they continue with a quadruple-barrelled trend. Totally nuts !

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 03:51 PM

Alura.

Back in the late Thirties, in the comic strip "Buck Rogers," there was a fairly long sequence in which Buck and Col. Wilma Deering didn't appear. It followed the adventures of Wilma Deering's teen-age niece and nephew (both human, Earth-born kids), who managed to get themselves stranded on Mars. Their long-range goal was to somehow get back to Earth, but their immediate goal was to stay out of the clutches of the dreaded Martian Tiger-men who were hunting them. The nephew's name was "Buddy Deering" and his sister's name was "Alura."

During the late Fifties, I had an excellent classic guitar teacher named Edward (Bud) Hern. I don't know what his wife's maiden name was, but her first name was Fern. Love overlooks many things.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST,Fullerton
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 04:19 PM

One of my relatives works in the Office of population & surveys.

They keep a list of weird names there.

These are REAL names

Lottie Liquorice

Alexander Nobuga-Cares

Sammi Sunshine

David Dilemma

Isabella Bell

Annie Struggles

Peter C. Fearns opted for Hermione Bayleaf after gender reasignment

Ha Ha Woof Woof (Checked by head of department - client said everyone treated him like a dog so he wanted an appropriate name.)

Bentley Kneebone.

Nellie Knock

Minnie Mustard

Willie Knocker

Osprey Willow Rainbow Beetlestone Mortis

Anettte Curtain

Mr & Mrs SImple called their twins Rimple & Dimple.

Lizzie Longbones

Sunshine Purple Velvet Frost

But why oh why did Mr & Mrs Pipe call there poor son DUANE!

.....Fullerton

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 04:34 PM

There were a couple of musicians who met while playing in the same symphony orchestra (woodwind section), married, and eventually had a baby girl. They named her Clare Annette. It wasn't until some time later that they realized what they'd done to the kid.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 05:03 PM

LOL, Don!

Of course, NPR's "Car Talk" listeners are familiar with their staff members, including leader of their single mothers support group Erazmus B. Dragon, statistician Marge N. Overa, customer complaint representative Haywood J. Buzzoff, and the law firm that used to represent the Three Stooges, Dewey Cheatham and Howe.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 05:29 PM

When My Uncle was a lad, there were a couple of girls at school by the name of Kyzia Crump & Eva Onions (oh don't get me on the subject of ONIONS........)

And in the book of "Real names of Real People" is Mr Lear of Lear Jet fame. He called his daughter Shanda. It's in the book so it must be true.

Anyway what's all this about surnames as christian names - it was the custom in many families to give their sons' middle name that of their mother's maiden surname. And that is true of my generation. All one of me.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 07:55 PM

In response to a query above, Mr Mxyzptlk would not appear in a Kryptonian dictionary as he was not Kryptonian. But, some time during the fifties or sixties the question of pronunciation of his name was raised in the letter pages of "Superman". The answer given (as far as I recall) was "Mix-yez-puttle-Ik"

Nigel (sad, or what!)

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: JennieG
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 08:43 PM

Some doozies that have crossed my path recently:

Jorja (what's wrong with Georgia?)

Chaianne (suppose they mean Cheyenne)

Kersandra (she will go through life correcting people who spell it Cassandra)

I agree that some parents should be shot for child abuse!

Cheers
JennieG.........who answers to Jennifer Grace, or Jennie, but NEVER Jenny!

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Mr Happy
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 08:57 PM

Re Nigel's post above:



As to his adoption of the name 'Dylan' after Dylan Thomas, the welsh pronunciation is 'Dullun'.

I guess he either wasn't aware of this fact, or if he did; in probability wouldn't have felt 'Bob Dullun' had quite the same sort of ring to it!

e.g.


Bob Dull 'un!

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Mooh
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 09:29 PM

Never had a son, but if I had he'd be named Maurice Ronald, Moron for short. Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: LadyJean
Date: 07 Oct 05 - 12:13 AM

Grandaddy was born in 1880. He was a fraternal twin, and apparently it was something of an event in his neighborhood. A few days later, one of his aunts went to a church bazaar, and they had a booth with a sign, 2cents to see the McCallister twins. Inside were two dolls labeled Edgar and Edna. The aunt went home and told the rest of the family, who agreed that Edgar was the perfect name for their son. Up until then he'd been called Edbert.

Now, Grandma's family didn't want her to be called Lizzie. Which is why instead of naming her Elizabeth they named her Bessie Irene. She will probably haunt me tonight for making that name public knowledge.
I was named for our father's mother. When my sister came along, mother actually did ask grandma if she'd like the baby to be named for her. Grandma said "No, it's a cow's name."
Victorians seem to have had a great fondness for godawful names. So my grandparents didn't suffer alone, and they didn't suffer much. They did very well in fact. Grandaddy was a very successful patent attorney. Of course I don't know what he'd have done if he'd been named Edbert.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: number 6
Date: 07 Oct 05 - 12:22 AM

Good one Mooh.

One of my sisters was married to a French Canadian guy whose last name was Leduc ... when she was pregnant with their first child I suggested they name it (if it was a boy) Donald.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Mooh
Date: 07 Oct 05 - 08:48 AM

Poly Esther was one name my wife wouldn't allow for our daughters. Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Peter T.
Date: 07 Oct 05 - 10:21 AM

I always thought Mxyzptlk was pronounced Mix-yez-PUT-lik, the accent on the penultimate consonant cluster.

That is interesting about Alura.

What always interested me about Supergirl was the fact that she had such a short skirt, and no tights. Didn't she have a supercat (no wonder Marvel comics were such a relief!!!)

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Oct 05 - 10:34 AM

My parents gave me two perfectly fine upper-class English names: Philippa (after my father, Philip) and Charmion (after a character in Shakespeare). Alas, we lived in a village on the Rideau River some 20 miles upstream of Ottawa, in an area dominated by Irish and Dutch dairy farmers who never read Shakespeare, but are very familiar with pop songs and the brand names of toilet paper.

For close to 30 years, I have spent the first ten minutes with every new acquaintance teaching him or her how to pronounce my name and stating that, no, I am not particularly charming. Distressingly often, I have to inform people that I am not at all amused when they try to squeeze me (see reference to toilet paper above). As a child, I desperately wanted to be named Carol or Debbie or Marilyn like all the other girls in my class, but I grew out of that stage during my seven years in the armed forces, when everyone called me Charlie and I let them because you just don't argue with your sergeant. At university, I dug my heels in on the name issue, and insisting is now a habit.

Although I wonder why it is so difficult for those who can't spell out my first name not to use my family name. How hard can it be to call out "Mrs Thomas" across the crowded waiting room, instead of feebly stumbling out, "Shah -- shah -- shah -- Charmane?" (No, my name is not Charmaine. "Charmion" has only one "a" in it, and you say it just the way it looks, in English ...)

After so many years of asserting my identity against all comers, I can honestly say that the struggle has probably done much to make me the formidable person people keep telling me I am!

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Peter T.
Date: 08 Oct 05 - 02:26 AM

Isn't Charmian in Shakespeare spelled Charmian? ("Ah soldier!")

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 08 Oct 05 - 10:49 AM

The one that really annoys me is thick parents who give their daughter the beautiful Irish name ' Caitlin ' and pronounce it ' Katelynn ' but as someone pointed out earlier theEnglish are prone to do this.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Charmion
Date: 08 Oct 05 - 02:45 PM

Ah Peter T! -- that depends on the edition you have. My family's source was a leather-bound Victorian tome called "Knight's Shakspere" in which the naming variations started on the title page and just kept on coming.

I believe they chose the -on variant in the hope of avoiding confusion with the odious Charmaine. It didn't work; people typically don't read names (they glance and assume) or pay attention when their owners demonstrate how they are pronounced.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Oct 05 - 02:48 PM

We named our daughter Caitlin (with fada on birth cert...) mostly call her Kate...knows she is in TRUBBLE when we call her 'Caithleen'!!! LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Oct 05 - 11:24 PM

I remember that about 40 years ago some idiot of an English soccer fan wanted to give his son
the names of all the players in his favourite team, but I don't know whether it actually
happened. The French used to allow only certain names to be registered on birth certificates
which surely must have caused as much confusion as fashionable names like 'Kylie.'

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: hilda fish
Date: 09 Oct 05 - 03:32 AM

One of my grandsons is named Jah-rel which was supermans dads name on Krypton. He is 3 years old and I don't even think of supermans dad because Jah-rel is jah-st adorable. His brother who is nearly 2 is named Elija-7 (number) and youngest little mans name is Zion (9 weeks old). My grand=daughters are Vashti, Amaliarose and Sienna while my great-neice is Kestrel, one great nephew Titan and the other Can-o while nephews are Jago Nylan while my youngest son is named Dance while the youngest daughter is Keeradenaan shortened to Kizzy. Oldest son was Cassima shortened to Cass. There are and were good reasons for naming each child and each child fitted into their name so that whatever its origins were (the name) became irrelevant as the children 'became' whoever. They are all great kids by the way. We have many more names - for eg my tribal name is MuraiTighara which everyone says is odd but 'hilda fish' is so NORMAL isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Oct 05 - 04:00 AM

100!!


I have a lot of old names copied from Parish Registers... you think names NOW are weird.. just go look at some of the Old Testament!

Sunecai Genteeli is one of my favourites....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Seiri Omaar
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 11:30 PM


Poly Esther was one name my wife wouldn't allow for our daughters.
Thank you VERY much, Dad.




Actually, I should probably be thanking my mother...

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 08:15 AM

where did Kallista come from, I have three in my class ?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Mooh
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 09:06 AM

Use is weelcum ther, chile. Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 09:16 AM

Probably from Callista Flockhart (Ali McBeale), but as to where she got it from....

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: MARINER
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 10:52 AM

Jeeze Hilda Fish, Just what were you (and your extanded family) smoking at the time.?

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: MARINER
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 11:02 AM

Eric the red, unfortunately the English are not the only ones to destroy the name Caitlín. Thanks to Australian soaps there are hundreds of "Katlynns" in Ireland now as well. It irks me that those thickos are not even aware of the proper pronounciation, but such is the influence of day time television on dull unimaginative people.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Seiri Omaar
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 03:39 PM

Use is weelcum ther, chile.
I feel an utterly disturbing shudder going down my spine...

Callista- "most beautiful", Greek source. Taken from Behind the Name .

Cheers, Seiri.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Brakn
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 07:13 PM

Last year down in Swindon I thought I heard a rare christian name.

A young mother said to her child "Yor not gettin any sweets Ivor".

My daughter whispered when she saw me look round "It's 'You are not getting any sweets either'."

You have to know the accent.

Subject: RE: BS: Stupid Children's Names: Kal-el????
From: Biskit
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 07:23 PM

My Daughter named my Grandson, (Jayzen)
I said; What were you doing smokin' the Ganja and thinking of Baby names, and you suddenly became one with your Doobie (Jay-Zen)??!!?
I guess it served us right for telling her we were originally going to name her Wheatstraw, Ha!
Peace! Through Understanding
~Biskit~