"It Isn't Just Gwyneth Paltrow Naming Her Kid Potato".

This sounds more like an income divide than a political one. (Though having just said that, I thought of what my Ohio cousin the dentist named his girls.)

Be glad we are not in Germany, where only state approved names are legal. Of course, as far as I know, Germany is the only country to require a license to play golf.

@BarSinister, the germany thing happened after WWII so people couldn't name their kids after famous Nazis.

I don't like it, but I also don't like when people name their kids something that's terrible and stupid.

"Of course, as far as I know, Germany is the only country to require a license to play golf."

Would that be a driver's license?

I have a question about names. Why do people give their children uncommon spellings (e.g. Jaycub, Jaxen, Britni) of names?

Why would you want you child's name to always be misspelled? It is not kute or unike. It just seems ignorant.

"If naming your kid with some idiotic spelling is your only way to unique'n'specialness, I suggest you find a hobby and volunteer at a homeless shelter."

YES.

I'll probably regret admitting this, but I watched an episode of "Toddlers & Tiaras" last week. (I chalk it up to being sick with the flu and I'm sure in my feverish state, my sense of judgment was mightily impaired.)

At any rate, there was an awful pageant mom who named her daughter Alessandra.

How did she chose to spell it?

"Alycesaundra"

Her poor testes-less husband purchased a tour bus outfitted with pictures of both their daughters all over the sides. The daughters also had body guards. Body guards! They were both under 5 years old!

There is just no accounting for deluded mothers who have a lot of time on their hands.

My kids all have uncommon names. One is old-fashioned, one is the portuguese version of her Gma's name, one I found in an old photo labum, and one is pretty famous but not really common. I dislike naming people the same as everyone else. Name your kid whatever, just make the spelling make sense! Nothing worse than having to spell your name every. single. time. you have to give it out, your whole life. I know this firsthand.

I mean really-being known as Jacob P vs Jacon R vs Jacob B in school is one step away from being known as male child 4156.

I really wanted to anme one of my girls Persephone. Another favorite was Lucy. I have no rhyme nor reason. So what?

It takes a man to raise a man. Or you can just name him Sue and walk away.

Some of these names are starting to remind me of custom license plates. Nobody in this state has ever thought to abbreviate Awesome this way! Buy a respectable car and we will respect you, Brijid.

Curtis, I am right there with you. I just read the Yahoo article on the top baby names, and reading the comments were fascinating and educational. People honestly seemed to believe that "you are what you're named". I watched people argue that someone named something unique would make their child a leader, a go-getter, and (really often) a future CEO. Someone said something to the equivalent of "I could never name my daughter Elizabeth because I would never want her to be so boring".

The weird spelling seems to be partly a Google phenomenon for a lot of folks. They want someone to search Jaxenn Smith and come up with only a few results. One commenter boasted that no one in the world had his son's name, which only made the proponents of traditional names go: There's a reason for that.

When I get asked why I named my lil' guy something so traditional, I have two good answers. He's named after his grandfathers, and that I don't need to give my child a unique name to make them unique. He'll be one of a kind just fine without being saddled with "Zebulon" all his life.

I've been starting to notice assertions popping up in news articles and the such. Often, they fly by quickly and seem to make sense, but really don't have anything backing them (at least in the article.)

So... I'm sort of wondering what the basis of this assertion is:

"A 23-year-old mom is more likely to come up with something out of the ordinary than one who is 33."

Also, as to unusual spellings, when the literacy rate was lower, people sometimes guessed at spellings and these became family names/spellings.

For names from other languages, there are sometimes multiple transliterations that are acceptable (which is more common varies by region/age). For instance the name pronounced lie-luh can be spelled Lyla, Laila, Lailah... the list goes on.

I love how NPR completely fails to mention race as a factor.

Someone said something to the equivalent of "I could never name my daughter Elizabeth because I would never want her to be so boring".

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*headdesk*

Right, because an Elizabeth would never go by Betty, Betsy, Beth, Liz, Liza, Elle*, or Bitsy. And of course a kid who wanted a weird name couldn't be LizardBreath, Zab, or MoonFlower. A kid who wants a unique name will find one. Goodness knows I did. My parents went with the "name her like she'll be a CEO" method and I quite handily managed to find a you-neek moniker to go by before I got halfway through Jr High.
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"The weird spelling seems to be partly a Google phenomenon for a lot of folks."

I will admit that it is part of the reason I gave myself a unique name (it helps that there's not to many people with my family name). But sometimes you want a level of anonymity online (hence, I go by a more anonymous Elle on most forums).

*I'm not an Elizabeth

Personally, I think it's a little weird when parents try really, really, hard to come up with an obscure (or wacky) spelling for a name. One example I can think of is Schuler (which the mother claims is pronounced Skyler). If you decide on a weird spelling, it's probably best to not get bent out of shape when nobody knows how to pronounce it, because you really set yourself (and your kid) up for that one.

I watched a show about a pregnancy concierge (apparently they exist) who actually had to coordinate a panel of experts to name a couple's baby. A complete and absolute waste of money and resources, but I suppose it was their money to spend. But definitely one of those WTF moments.

My daughter's name is Elizabeth. We call her Ellie. Apparently that's a really popular name nowadays. At my last job, my boss and another colleague had daughters named Ellie. But I think Elizabeth is a classic, feminine name that will never go out of style.

And I don't worry about her not feeling unique among a sea of Elizabeths. My name is Melissa, which every third little girl was named in 80s. (The other two were named Sarah and Jennifer). I was plenty unique, and so is my daughter.

I think Persephone is a beautiful name. When I was pregnant I suggested Mnemosyne, but that didn't go very far with my husband.

I'm gonna name my kid Eponym.

When I was pregnant I suggested Mnemosyne, but that didn't go very far with my husband.

He probably forgot; or was not a-mused.

"Women in red states tend to have their first children earlier than women in blue states."

Sounds like a challenge. Single motherhood is highest where?

Meanwhile, you could name your child after the most-quoted sage in history: Anonymous.

> name your child after the most-quoted sage
> in history

There's this old joke about the American need to feel included: The funniest punch line in the United States is "Get it?".

Since we're sharing, I named my son Balin. Yep, that's a Tolkien character, for those that recognize it. In the year since he was born, exactly one person has recognized the name and knew the source. I made sure to give him a very normal middle name, if he prefers to go by the middle name. One of my aunts went by her middle name her entire life, and not because either was outlandish, she just didn't like her given first name.
I didn't choose the name to be weird, or unique, I was just re-reading The Hobbit when I was pregnant, and thinking of names, and I liked it, and so did my husband.
The weird names don't bother me too much, my first name is never pronounced correctly by people reading it, and is never spelled correctly by people hearing it. I enjoyed having a name that was different from everyone else. Not everyone has the temperament for that, though.
The only ones that truly bother me are names that aren't names, and never were, like Moon Unit, or Pilot Inspektor. At some point, a child will be an adult, and such an outlandish name will be just as much a hindrance to being a CEO as it will be any sort of advantage.

In the distant past, I had a co-worker who always signed Z. Patricia LastName.

Take a guess what the Z stood for. (Hint: Wizard of Oz.)

From what I can tell she was just short of loathing for her parents for the first name. Plain and simple: Don't do it.

Balin rocks!

Balin rocks!

A day late, but I agree with Astra about the income divide as much as anything else. My ex wife once noted that poorer parents were more likely to name their kids something that ended in -y (Ricky Bobby??) or -ee....or variations on "normal" names ending in the same letters. One of the few astute observations she ever made.

My parents gave me an uncommon first name, and I spent much of my childhood spelling it out for people and correcting people on what my name is. In my parents' defense, they weren't trying to give me an uncommon name, it just happened to be one. It also just happens to be an old-fashioned name that was popular two or three generations ago, so when people found out my name, I often heard: "Oh that's interesting, my grandmother/great-aunt/other elderly female relation or friend had the same name." Which is just one reason I've gone by my middle name my entire adult life (the main reason is that, old-fashioned name or no, I've always hated the way it sounds).

One of my favorite stories about stupid baby names is the one where a kid is named Shithead, and the parents get mad at people for mispronouncing it. "It's pronounced SHA-THEED!" What an amazing show of good judgment.

Awwww, thanks MO4.

Everybody who commented was opposed to weird spelling for reasons that I totally agree with.

Does anyone know why so many people do the strange spellings? (I am never going to ask a parent why the hell did misspell your kids name?)

My theory is that parents want to give their child a currently very popular name ... but also want it to be "unique."

So they start with the popular name and screw with the spelling until it looks like drunken backward typing in Urdu.

Hence, Kaylee becomes Keighleigh, Caileah, Quaylee.

Schuyler becomes Skylahr, Skeyelair, Shyl'r.

Caitlin becomes Katelynn, Kaitlyn, Keitlan.

Even Rachel becomes Raychel, Rachelle, Raichill.

I've actually encountered many of these variations.

If you don't want your child to be one of five Kaylee's in the classroom, guess what? When the teacher _says_ "Kaylee," it sounds the same no matter how it's spelled! Five little blond heads will still pop up!

Meanwhile, Ceighleaigh gets to spend the next 37 years spelling her name out two, three, and four times over the phone, over scores of retail and bureaucratic counters, and having it misspelled on every school form and piece of mail she will get.

I was named after several grandparents.

In naming our kids, my wife and I wanted names we liked, were simple, but that no ancestor of ours had*. We succeeded. Weird thing is that my oldest daughter has one of the most common names of her age group, but I hadn't known anyone with that name when I picked it. I still know few people with it, but the social security name index says it's popular--must be a regional thing.

My oldest is also the only one who embraces her middle name, which is on the unusual side.

My oldest son unilaterally changed the spelling of his first name and adamantly refuses to use his middle name.

My granddaughter has a surprisingly popular first name statistically, though I don't know anyone else who shares it.

*The exception was our first, who was born prematurely. We just the name of a brother and myself. Only later did it sink in how common both names were in my ancestry.

"I was named after several grandparents."

I would hope so. They were here first.

Sorry I'm going to name my daughters:

Doutzen (after Doutzen Kroes) God I love that name
Mikhaila (after Coco Rocha)
Milou (after Milou Van Groesen)

Yes .....I love models and their names.

At the risk of redundancy (and adding on well after other people), I'm going to repeat something.

"For names from other languages, there are sometimes multiple transliterations that are acceptable (which is more common varies by region/age). For instance the name pronounced lie-luh can be spelled Lyla, Laila, Lailah... the list goes on."

Adding to that, some names are spelled differently AND pronounced differently depending on the language of origin (lie-luh, lay-luh, lee-eye-la, etc). When there are different languages of origin that are related, the name/spellings can end up mix-n-match with no clear pattern. Mind, this is all because people are translating from non-English alphabet into the English alphabet. Sometimes there aren't good rules.

This is true for Rebecca, Rachael, Sara(h), and a variety of others that originate in Hebrew. I also understand that various Gaelic and Celtic names have been transliterated differently over time/place. Hence Caitlin, Kaitlyn, etc.