[Contest] Random internet friends, choose my baby's name

[MindDetective]

We are having another boy! The problem is deciding on a name this time is agonizing. We had a girl name all ready to go. Guess we'll hang on to that one.

Anyway, there is nothing that adds weight to a decision like the opinions of internet forum folk. Weigh in so we can completely ignore your vote and come up with a name not our short list.

 

[Dave]

I like Wes or William. Sully would be mean. (In my opinion.)

 

[Shakey]

I know it's spelled differently, but every time I hear Adrien:


Don't do that to your child.

 

[Chad Sexington]

I quite like Sullivan/Sully. And James is obviously an excellent middle name. It has cache.

 

[bhamv3]

Linden appears to be the most memorable among those names. I vote for Linden.

 

[PatrThom]

I went for "Wes," just because it's the thing I could hear being yelled downstairs when it's time for dinner.

--Patrick

 

[Eriol]

It also depends on your last name. Make sure that there's no bad three-letter-acronyms. For example, the vice-principal's name at my high school spelled out K.K.K. No I'm not kidding. And yes he was the "hardass" type too.

 

[Chad Sexington]

When you include your last name, Sullivan James has a nice cadence to it. These are the things I think about.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

Sullivan James...James Sullivan ... your child is going to be named after a Pixar character? Who also has the nickname Kitty?

I have no right to judge as my daughter was named by her brother after a tree frog in the Toot and Puddle cartoon. (True story, he pointed at my stomach one day and told me Lily was in my belly. I wanted an L name, and it was such a touching moment, so it stuck.) But more people know who James "Sulley" Sullivan is as opposed to Lily the treefrog. So to me that one is right out.

Wesley is one of my great-great uncles. He ended up being nicknamed Wessey as a kid and he was as sweet as Ebeneezer Scrooge before being visited by the ghosts, so that's out too. Also, Wesley Crusher. Ick.

Edwin was a kid that teased me mercilessly in high school. No.

William is boring. Nope.

Linden, will be Lindenderry Dingleberry in school, or he'll be bullied for having a girly name (Lindy is what my grandfather nicknamed my mom) so that's a no.

Kylan ...how do you pronounce that? Kill-an? Kie-lan? Killian? Kili? Be prepared for no one to know. Not fun for the kid. Nope.

So that leaves Adrien. It's a huge name on my dad's side of the family. I have a great-great grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle and cousin with that first name as well as several more men in the family who have it as their middle name. It's related to Hadrian, so it has a strong historical connotation. I like it.

 

[strawman]

No true options means I can't vote, as none of them are appealing to me.

Maybe my wife's aversion to names that can so easily be shortened is rubbing off on me?

Ok, doing the kitten war thing against all of them, the one is dislike the least turns out to be Wesley, also known as the dread pirate Roberts.

 

[Celt Z]

I think out of all the options, I like Wesley the best, since it's not over-used but not too out-in-left field rare. I also like William, but as much as I like the name Kyle, I can never name any son of mine that, 'cause, you know:

 

[Ravenpoe]

I think out of all the options, I like Wesley the best, since it's not over-used but not too out-in-left field rare. I also like William, but as much as I like the name Kyle, I can never name any son of mine that, 'cause, you know:

You don't want your kid's friends singing songs about you? It should be flattering!

Also, just as an aside, I was named after a TV Cowboy.

I was very nearly named James Tiberius, but my mom vetoed that.

 

[MindDetective]

I don't worry too much about pop-culture names (unless they are very unique) because any strong association I have with the name will be from my daily interactions with my son. Those will completely override whatever pop culture has brings to the table. That's not to say that other people won't default to those associations but kids will come up with any way to torment another kid that they can. Also, what is pop culture now won't be considered the same in 15 years.

Thanks for the votes! It is a relatively even spread, which is interesting. I don't love all the names on the list. My wife has a particular favorite that all of her mommy friends love but I don't. I'm going to end up being the bad guy in this, I suppose, unless I warm up to the name....

 

[Celt Z]

@Ravenpoe - Ha, ha. No.

Ahhh, pop culture names. James Tiberius is the place-holder name in our group we give boys when we haven't come up with a decent one. None of the kids have actually been named James Tiberius yet. I would have gone for it if it sounded better with out last name. Instead, Li'l Z's first name is after a Beatle, as tribute to my dad (the reason I am a life-long fan) without actually naming the kid after him. Both sides of my family repeat names to death. My dad is not only a junior, but there are two cousin who also share his name, and their were 4 (now 3-divorce) of us with my first name.

 

[blotsfan]

I don't worry too much about pop-culture names (unless they are very unique) because any strong association I have with the name will be from my daily interactions with my son. Those will completely override whatever pop culture has brings to the table. That's not to say that other people won't default to those associations but kids will come up with any way to torment another kid that they can. Also, what is pop culture now won't be considered the same in 15 years.

I dunno. Rocky came out 16 years before I was born. I have only seen pieces of Rocky 4. The moment I read Adrian, that was the first thing I thought of.

 

[Chad Sexington]

Monsters, Inc, a movie I was in the demo for when it came out, did not leave a lasting impression on me such that I associated Sully with that character. I quite like Sullivan and Sully as names; plus remember that guy who landed a plan on the Hudson after it was taken down by geese? Captain Sully!

 

[MindDetective]

I dunno. Rocky came out 16 years before I was born. I have only seen pieces of Rocky 4. The moment I read Adrian, that was the first thing I thought of.

Sure, I thought of it too. I just don't think it would dominate once I got to know the kid. My first son is named Sebastian. I definitely don't think of the crab from The Little Mermaid when I think of that name.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

It makes me think of Sebastian Michaelis from Black Butler.

There are some names I just could not knowingly give to my children just because they were problematic. My husband wanted to name our daughter Andromeda. It's hard enough learning to write your name in Pre-K, but to be saddled with that monster is awful.
When we were figuring out names for our son, my husband wanted to go with Theo. At first I said ok, but then I thought about nicknames. Theo, Theodore, Ted...Teddy. Well our last name is Blair. I could not name my son Teddy Blair and live with myself because you know that poor boy would be shoved into a locker every day of his middle school and high school career.

I went for "Wes," just because it's the thing I could hear being yelled downstairs when it's time for dinner.

--Patrick

Oddly enough that is kind of how I chose my son's name. We had two names picked and decided to use both, but didn't know which order we liked them. So I decided the order that sounded best when I was yelling it would be the winner.

 

[sixpackshaker]

A group of brothers in laws that married in to a family with a lot of daughters. Each of the families named kids with Texas place name based names. For a while each of them only had sons, Travis, Austin, Dallas, Houston.

One of them joked, "if we ever have a girl, we will have to name her 'Dime Box.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Dime_Box

 

[phil]

What about Edwin Kyle? He can have Eddie or Kyle as backups if he doesn't want to go by Edwin.

 

[MindDetective]

We're not above moving some of the middle names around like that.

 

[PatrThom]

For a while we maintained a name that we could give people basically so they would stop asking. We decided it had to be insanely geeky and outrageous, so we settled on "Zaphod Tyberius."

You should have seen the faces.

--Patrick

 

[Bowielee]

I don't share most people's obsession with coming up with the most unique name for their child ever, and I like the name William.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

For a while we maintained a name that we could give people basically so they would stop asking. We decided it had to be insanely geeky and outrageous, so we settled on "Zaphod Tyberius."

You should have seen the faces.

--Patrick

We told a few people we were naming our son Caligula Nero. My daughter's fun names were Lavender Velveeta and Toprameneesha Odonata.

 

[Frank]

William with a middle name that starts with D so your kid can be Billy Dee Suchandsuch. It's actually the best name.

Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk

 

[Bubble181]

It depends on how he'll be addressed. All of those names can look decent on a letter, but if you're going to call him by his shortened name, I personally like Kyp best.

Ren -> ...and Stimpy
Eddie -> too many bad memories and crappy pop culture "Eddies", too much of a wannabe-badass-name
Link -> Is going to be looking for Zelda
Lindy -> sounds more like a female name to me
Sully -> you're going to sully your name?
Wes and Wil(l) -> actually nothing against these at all, I just like names that end with a strong sound lore. "Kyp!" is more fun to call out than "Wes".

 

[Dei]

This is assuming your kid will even like the shortened name. My daughter hates the common shortening of her name and gets mad if we use it, for example.

 

[Bowielee]

Anyone I've ever known who's named William has gone by Billy.

 

[MindDetective]

This is assuming your kid will even like the shortened name. My daughter hates the common shortening of her name and gets mad if we use it, for example.

We actually like names that allow for lots of options. The nicknames will probably just be for when they are young and they will eventually choose the variant they like best.

 

[Bubble181]

My write-in suggestion: Mikko Dave. Or, anglified and latinized, Michael David. Plenty of options (Dave, David, Davy, Mike, Mikko, Mick,...) for call names, and a tribute to two great people from 'round here.

 

[Celt Z]

I'd like to make the small suggestion to tread lightly on names/nicknames that are a little too steeped in geek culture. Sometimes the name becomes more than the kid could handle. I had a friend growing up who's parents loved The Dragonriders of Pern and thought it would be great to name him F'lar. Personally, I never though anything of it because we knew each other since we were toddlers and that was his name. But as we got older, there were a lot of people who weren't so kind about it. It didn't help that he was already an introverted kid, or became more so from the hard time he used to get about his name.

I'm not saying unusual names are a reputation-killer, or that everyone needs to be named "Joe" or "Tom". But sometimes the kids have a hard time getting judged by their monikers before they get to make an impression for themselves. Later on, I was in school with an Attila and an Achilles (not related to each other). Attila kinda shrugged it off, but Achilles HATED it, and would get very defensive about it. And this was in an area with a very high immigrant population, so traditional/ethnic names were not unusual.

 

[strawman]

Here's the thing about bullying - they find the thing you are already bothered about, and pick at it. If they can't find something, they keep looking at different things to pick at, or they create something to pick at , and hope that picking at it long enough eventually bothers you.

I say this because it isn't that the name itself is bad, but the bullies getting a reaction from abusing it means they will continue to do so, and this depends more on the personality and self-esteem of the person they are targeting than the name. If they truly own and accept the name, it will be hard for others to use that as a point of bullying.

It also depends on the oversight by adults and their peers in that environment. It could be that a child with an insecure personality and a strange name will be fine because they have strong friends or teachers that denounce the bullies whenever they attempt to pick on the name. On the other hand it's not hard to find a self assured person with a common, perfectly normal name successfully name-bullied because they don't have support, or worse the problem is aggravated by teachers or authority figures who tell them that it's their fault.

The name matters less than the environment they grow up in for the first several years of their life.

 

[Celt Z]

Here's the thing about bullying - they find the thing you are already bothered about, and pick at it. If they can't find something, they keep looking at different things to pick at, or they create something to pick at , and hope that picking at it long enough eventually bothers you.

I say this because it isn't that the name itself is bad, but the bullies getting a reaction from abusing it means they will continue to do so, and this depends more on the personality and self-esteem of the person they are targeting than the name. If they truly own and accept the name, it will be hard for others to use that as a point of bullying.

It also depends on the oversight by adults and their peers in that environment. It could be that a child with an insecure personality and a strange name will be fine because they have strong friends or teachers that denounce the bullies whenever they attempt to pick on the name. On the other hand it's not hard to find a self assured person with a common, perfectly normal name successfully name-bullied because they don't have support, or worse the problem is aggravated by teachers or authority figures who tell them that it's their fault.

The name matters less than the environment they grow up in for the first several years of their life.

Very true. But in the case with my friend, getting asked constantly "What kind of name is 'F'lar'?", even when they're not trying to bully, began to wear him down. I could see it making him feel isolated, like there was something strange about him just by introducing himself. In the case of Attila or Achilles, I don't remember either of them getting bullied, but the seemingly innocent question of "Your parents named you___??", can start to make you feel like saddled with either preconceived notions or your parents' idea of a joke, and then you automatically feel like have to defend/explain yourself. (For example, same school, there was a kid who's parents named him Richard Tracey. He insisted on being called Richard and he would fly off the handle if you even started to mention the nickname. But to be fair, I got the impression the name was the least of his issues. He was generally not a happy kid, from what I saw.)

This is why I suggested treading lightly on the pop culture-influenced names. I don't think they should never be used, but they may be better used in a way that's not plainly obvious. Some kids can take it in stride or good humor, but there are a number of those for whom it becomes a very sore subject. And since you can't legally change it until you're 18, you're already playing Russian Roulette with one the most awkward and trying times in a person's life.

 

[MindDetective]

Cue video for A Boy Named Sue.

 

[strawman]

True. One thing you can do for a child if you are unsure is to give them a middle name that is more mainstream, and let them use it when and where they feel more comfortable with it.