Admittedly I didn't see the early series but I've never understood how Lorelei got shortened to Rory?!!
Great answer Nil, i totally agree with you! So many people caring about what others say or do, or are called come on! your kid is especial for you, and how you name him or her is not as important as they way you raise your kid and built his/her confidence and self-esteem. I personally like nice names with a especial meaning, not totally strange but not that common either.
So teach your kid to love him/herself and you will see how his name is loved as well.
By the way, we could make a advisory list of names pronouncible and non-offensive in the whole world by sharing our language and cultural knowledge. So far, I only have one name in that world-ideal-names: Hugo . (But I am still researching asian languages, there may be one where hu-go means something dirty...)
I work with small children. A question I always ask the parents when we do our first orientation visit, is how they address their child / how they say the name.
Names are very important to us on an emotional and psychological level. No one wants to have their name ridiculed or mispronounced, and in my culture shortening the name or pronouncing it wrong is done often, but considered rude.
My eldest has an irish gaelic name which we pronounce using an Australian/english influence. Our second has a very 'traditional' hebrew/english name pronounced with two syllables in English, but three in German. Our third has a wonderful traditional hebrew/english name, which perfectly fits the German culture, a very strong name, and we get enormous 'kudos' from the local German-speaking people for choosing a 'strong' German name - even though he is named after his great-grandfather who was very much english.
I think it's polite to pronounce a child's name the way the parent's culture dictates. I don't judge parents for choosing 'traditional' or 'modern' names, 'trendy' or whatever.
I was named after a great aunt. My name was considered extremely 'old fashioned' at the time. Ten years later it was the top most popular name in the western world. Nothing I can do about that...
I like Dorkas (that's how this girl's name was spellt) but the North Eastern English sixth form's pupils she went to school with always shouted out 'here's the dorky a**' when she entered a room.
I love 'foreign' names, but people have to be aware of how they sound in different languages, particularly in the language of the country the child is growing up in. For example, in Toronto a friend of mine named his son Anas, which sounds very nice in Arabic, but to anglophones, who tend to stress the first syllable and change unstressed vowels to 'uh', it'll end up sounding a lot like 'anus'.
My problem now is that I'll be having a kid in a French-speaking place, all the names I like sound bizarre in French (I've even had to change my own name because it sounds so ugly pronounced with a French accent!) and both its father and I have extremely difficult last names for the local population to say and spell.
Kids' imagination makes an insult out of just any name.
I had a student named Archie once. If you saw the guy, you would understand why no German speaking kiddo would ever dare making fun of his name based on "Arsch". Name alone will not ruin you child's childhood, it's a whole context and a pinch of bad luck that would.
My sister is a primary school teacher in a less desirable part of a British City.
On the first day of term she called the register, one child didn't respond and there seemed to be an extra child in the class. So my sister asked that child her name, the girl replied (i will try to spell it how she pronounced it) "Why-vonn-eeee". The unticked name in the register was of course Yvonne.
Apparently her parents found the name in a baby name book and thought it sounded unusual.
I thought my name was "Shut up !" until I was 16...
When I named my kids, I wanted to keep the names a tiny bit special but most importantly, names that could be said in both German and English. My kids are very grateful for that.
My own name is said differently in every language. I wish my mother had given me a name that could be easily pronounced everywhere. It just makes life easier. Even my mother has admitted that she would name me differently now.
Having said that, my son still gets funny nicknames that I never even dreamed of. Oh, the power of a child's imagination.
Parents should be allowed to call their kids whatever they like but I draw the line at naming the baby after where they were conceived.
It might seem appropriate at the time but how do you explain that to your 13 year old child? Ewwww.
I'm so glad my parents decided not to call me "Princess of Tasmania"
Sometimes I think parents name their children special names to show how "clever" the parents are. It really has very little to do with the child since the child has no opinion in this whatsoever.
In Cyprus its traditional to name the boy after the grooms father and the girl after the brides mother. We also dont have middle names. So since im really close to my family i will combine names. The boy will have the name of my grandfather and my dad combined (not hyphenated, just one word - that name exists btw) and the girl will be named after my two grandmothers and my mom (name is a bit complicated but i want to do it). I dont care if they dont have middle names but if OH wants that he can choose whatever he wants. Its only fair.
And they are not ridiculous names. Just extremely difficult to pronounce for other people.
" Alexander is a great name, as is Thomas or Simon."
your post reminded me the scene in Harold and Kumar, where the redneck cop stopped them for jaywalking:
Worrying or getting upset about what people chose to name their kids is not something I will be adding to my "Things To Get Majorly Worked Up About Before I Die" list anytime soon.
Chill out Kittster, I understand that some people do give ridiculous names to their children and every parent should have their kid's interest as their priority but I do not find Rex or Verdana as ridiculous names, unusual at best...
Also in Spanish culture double names are very common, Jose Eduardo or Jose Miguel are beautiful names that I would like to give my children as part of my heritage, since they will get their father's name.
I did cringe though when a cousin of mine named her kid Gian LucaS, yes with an S at the end, clearly trying to imitate an Italian name and then killing it by putting an S in the end, result = stupid name...
Lukas is a very usual name in Cyprus. The accent (is that what you call it) though is on the a so its pronounced loukAs
I'm not worked up, just feel sorry for the poor sods with 'creative' parents who don't realise how their choice will affect people's perception of their child.
I like the names Sennacherib, Celestine and Som but got out-voted. At least I didn't name my child Harvey -Lee, surprisingly when you call his name out nobody seems to react much. I still love the name Sennacherib.
And of course Scheherezade!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennacherib