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Another view on names

edited July 2007 in - Reading

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  • Just saw this article in the online Times re names, unusual and common.
    Here is a brief extract: 'When did the search for the unique yet meaningful baby name begin? Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that traditional names – Olivia, Thomas, Jessica, William, Emily, Daniel – dominate the top ten, but parents are, as Mehrabian puts it disapprovingly, “increasingly choosing names from a personal idiosyncratic perspective”. Last year 864 Summers, 55 Autumns, six Blades, 22 Spikes and 94 Myloses were born, plus a handful of Kofis, Francos, Fds, Kikis, Brontes, Lunas and Cadences.'

    http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article2167868.ece

    I'd like to know how you pronounce Fds?
  • also is the name Fds or is it Fd plural?
  • Effdees maybe!

    Isn't there a trend for babies to be named after the place where they were conceived? Or is there another reason for so many Indias, Chelseas, etc?

    Not that I've noticed many Wappings or Hackneys appearing in the birth notices!!
  • Do read the replies at the bottom of the article, there's some Australian contributions that make our weird ones sound quite normal.
    We'll have to ask Kangeroo, Nenastew et al if they know of any strange made up names.
    I didn't like the bit that said one of the countries had an approved name list you could choose from.
  • Isn't that France where names have to have religious connections?
  • I like the reply re the teacher who thought the little girl's name was Chutney!

    Imagine if parents gave their children "food" names!!!
  • Some Nigerian friends have called their son 'Marvellous'. Their own names are so difficult everyone calls them Mama and Papa Marvellous!
  • Another wonderful facet of the human race- everybody else has weird names for their kids too-  it isn't just the British 'celebrity'.
  • Thank heavens the idea of naming children after the place where they were conceivd was not thouht of in my parents day.......I really don't think the name Morris 8 would suit me .
  • Doing some family history research we couldn't find the GRO registration for an uncle called Morris. We found out why. He was actually called Lewis Mons (Lewis after his father's christian name, and Mons after the battle where his father was probably captured- he was a WW1 POW.)
    I can understand why he didn't want those names.
  • A friend of mine taught as a substitute teacher at an outback school for a while. It was only a very small country school with 10 or so pupils but not one of them answered when she called out, 'Guy' on the first morning she read the roll. She and was horrified to discover that apparently the parents had read the name somewhere and thought it was pronounced, Gooey. Everyone knew the poor ten year old boy as Gooey. True story.
  • Can't think of any offhand....Nenastew?
  • Thanks for the confirmation IG, I did wonder if the Australian replies to the article were just flukes, but obviously not!
  • I know of at least two people who are known as George but that isn't their name ... people are strange, aren't they? My daughter's brother in law has 2 sons, Ocean Breeze and Elijah Blue, either will look good on a name badge in future, won't they ...

    I found out recently, through research for the biography, that the earl's name (Antony) is not spelled with an H. That means every - single - historical - book that mentions him, which was written in the last century or so, is wrong. The H didn't come in until the end of the 16th century.  He thinks this is highly amusing and adds to my Notes for the biography, be aware that many books are full of errors about him!
  • I just wanted to say thanks for such an entertaining thread LOL...I particular liked the 'effdee' suggestion and the fact that crazy horse wouldn't want to be called a morris 8.

    There has been a few pregancies in the office (yes, someone left that chair out again!) and we were discussing naming children after the places where they were concieved...I actually thought Windermere Brown was quite nice...In fact even now he's born and thankfully they named him something more acceptable...he'll always be Windermere to me!
  • And Windy for short, no doubt!!!!
  • I'd like to see if those "Summers" shoot up now that Eastenders has a baby of that name.

    Helena
  • I don't qualify to comment on this thread as my husband has never let me forget that I wanted to call our baby - if it was a boy - Griffin.

    Thankfully we had a daughter. I didn't choose her name - but that's another story.
  • I go into schools quite regularly - and came across a boy called Chuks recently.  He was an African immigrant, and he didn't have a surname at all.
  • Don't Oriental people have a private first name and another one for general use?
  • I went to school with a Chinese girl called Peggy.  It was only when we were in the fifth form that she told a few of us in confidence that her real name was Peng-Peng.
  • Some parents just don't think. What about Crispian Brown. Poor sod.
  • When children were visiting our junior table tennis club with their teacher, we asked how to pronounce the name of a boy called Phuc (he was from Vietnam). She told us she pronounced it Foo, but that it was indeed pronounced the way you would expect. From the first day she had told the parents it just wouldn't do in their inner-city school. The parents were upset but agreed in the end.
  • I expect he'll change it as soon as he can!
  • There was actually a Valentine Card, he was a client of the solicitors I worked for. And a Dickie Bird, but there are a few of them about, people I mean!
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