Saturday, November 28, 2009

More Name Games


I have written before about how parents are naming their children using the last names of other people. Everywhere you look you will find Parkers and McKenzies. Some of us old timers still think this naming trend is a bit silly, but I wonder if there was someone like me writing a hundred or so years ago about people started naming their children after plants and flowers. In that realm we have names today such as Rose, Rosemary, Ivy, Camellia, Heather, Dalia, Daisy, Fern, Willow. These names are almost always given to female children. I do know one male child named Cedar. I once knew a Sweet Pea and I once misspelled her name as Sweet Pee. Boy was I embarrassed.

There are other strange direction that names go, like for the months of the year. There is always April, May and June. I’ve heard of someone named September. The month of August was actually named after Augustus; not the other way around.
Days of the week were not immune either. I’ve heard of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. I wonder why no one ever called their kids Thursday or Saturday.

Then there are the animal names, Fawn, Buck, Drake, Bunny, Colt, but no one is naming their kids Cow, Skunk, Weasel or Fish.

Think of all those that share names with Geography. Phoenix, Paris, Dakota, Chelsea, Georgia, and Florida. Fortunately no one is being named Bayone, Mississippi or Walla Walla.

16 Comments:

Blogger JustRex said...

One of the funniest first names I have run across in a long time is "Alpachino". I asked him if he had a brother named "Dustinhoffman", but he didn't think that was funny.

6:17 AM  
Blogger JustRex said...

And where did you get that picture? I want one!

6:17 AM  
Blogger Auntie said...

you missed your favorite name, "Rat Bastard", Guy.

7:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have ancestors named, "Contented Gurnsey" and "Preserved Fish."

I worked with a Russian gal whose mother was named "Reliable Tractor" apparently the parents got a payment for naming their child a good communist name. At home she was Claire.

Columbiacritter

8:05 AM  
Blogger Sunflower said...

I heard of kids named Shithead pronounced Sheh-theed.

True story, a nurse friend of mine witnessed the births of twins named Orangejello and Lemonjello. Pronounced Aura-jah-low and La-mon-jah-low.

11:40 AM  
Blogger g said...

I'm a wannabee hippy so I named my youngest Daisy.

11:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of my buddies gave a presentation to the natives and he was very long winded liking the sound of his own voice. At the end, the natives gave him a plaque of appreciation and also gave him the honorary name of Walking Eagle. He was pretty proud of that - he never did find out that it was the name given to a bird that was so full of shit it can no longer fly...


Moose

12:25 PM  
Blogger Auntie said...

ting, tang, walla-walla bing bang.

just had to say that.

12:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I sold a stock tank to a woman who used it for a birthing tub she named her child Cedar. My father inlaws last name started with a C
he thought it was good idea to have his three children's first name start with the letter R so they would have a fond memory of rc cola. Might be something to that.
I married his daughter 32years ago. I had to have a pickled
polish sausage and a rc cola every friday night while we were dating. thanks for the memory.
PaPa

2:31 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Darev, that cruel to name a kid that. I'd expect it from an Elvis fan, but not a Pachino fan. Imagechef.com.

Auntie, I call everyone that, so it loses it's unique quality.

Critter, are you lying to me? Though I could see you or your brother doing the same thing to kids.

Sunflower, welcome to you with a flower name. Sounds like names came right out of the Ashram. There was a guy in New Jersey named Peter Lemonjello who had a singing career and promoted it with lots of TV commercials. I haven't heard of his since. Lounge singers...go figure.

g, after you saw 2001?


Moose, oddly, I bet that's a true story.

Auntie and the Chipmonks.

PaPa, No wonder you married her. That crap would have killed you had you held out for another year.

3:37 PM  
Blogger Stephanie said...

When we were kids, my sister had a friend named Spring Buck. I also knew a Stormy Weathers

My husband came up with the craziest Italian family names for our son. His favorite was his great Uncle Rocco. After that was vetoed he wanted to name our son Walter Oscar so with our W last name his initials would be W.O.W. He was promptly dismissed from helping pick out names...

3:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No lie, Contented Guernsey was from a large dairy farming family and Preserved Fish was American indian.

Every time I see some movie where all the indians having noble names like, Powerful Stallion, or Leaping Wolf I think of Preserved fish.

7:02 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Mama, I knew a couple Robin Hoods. And, I'm not allowed to name our animals.

Critter, well I guess if you could have named yourself you would be called Farm Wife.

5:28 AM  
Anonymous dalia said...

i knew a saturday! she was a cute little bubbly thing...

7:47 AM  
Blogger Guy said...

I stand corrected. Now does anyone know a Thursday?

7:58 AM  
Blogger Undercover Mother said...

I know personally of the following last names as first names:

Carter
Cooper
Parker
Peyton
McKenzie
Anderson

I have huge problems with names so absurd that the people can never possibly be CEOs or anything successful:

Kayleigh
Kaylee
Harleigh
Haylee
Hayleigh

You get the idea. And finally, I went to school with a kid named T. D. Spell. T. D. was born on...Thanksgiving Day.

3:59 AM  

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