Have you given your kids fantasy names?

Jürgen Hubert said:

In Germany this can be difficult - you can only give your children names if you can prove that they are "real names" from the real world. This is done to protect the children from mockery later in life.

Probably a good thing in some cases...

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It's the same in Spain. I remember a judge denied a mother calling his child Kevincostner de Jesús.

lukelightning said:

Mike Hunt...has anyone seen Mike Hunt?

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He played linebacker for the Green Bay Packers in the late 1970s. Seriously.

Of course, he did us a favor by going by "Michael."

Contrarian said:

The Social Security Administration has a page where you can look up the top 1000 baby names (in the U.S.) by year. They don't have 2006 numbers up yet, but there's a script that shows the up-and-down over time for individual names.

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Wow. This one's definitely a keeper for the bookmark file. I've spent something like an hour just looking up name trends.

I'm surprised at some of them. Harley (To use a certain filmmaker's kid), is actually decently popular, being consistantly in the 300's for the last decade or so.

D.Shaffer said:

I'm surprised at some of them. Harley (To use a certain filmmaker's kid), is actually decently popular, being consistantly in the 300's for the last decade or so.

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Probably mirroring the surging popularity of Harley-Davidson motorcycles in that time frame, more than the popularity of a certain DC Comics villainess (which is who the filmmaker named his daughter after).

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

Worse, IMO, are the idiot parents who give their kids a common name with a random spelling. At least when people have unusual names, everyone knows they have to ask how to spell them.

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Guilty as charged. After naming our first child a solid 'Nathan,' I got artsy with the second and named her Mikela. I felt quite clever at the time, but we quickly got tired of birthday cards and letters spelled McKayla, Michaela, Makayla and a dozen other spellings. The name was inspired by a TV character, who actually spelled it with a q.
When our third was born, we named her Tabitha, inspired by another TV character, this time a young witch - so there's a tenuous fantasy link to the name there.
Incidentally, Tabitha has a cousin named Sabrina. A veritable coven in the making.

I believe I was requested to provide photographic proof of my wife's awesomeness. Not the best quality photos, but still suitable.

On another note, I have never seen so much wire holding down a mini as I have with that dragon!

You can't always get people to spell even common names properly, unfortunately. It's taken my aunt years to get her mind around the fact that my fiancee's name is (shortened to) Alexa, not Alexis. Bloody Dynasty poisoned her mind, I think.

Of course, my fiancee has started going by Lexa in the last few years, which helps - not even my aunt is quite silly enough to call her Lexis, or Lexus . . .

I actually really wish that (if we had children) I could name a daughter Alejandra, but I think my fiancee is against naming a daughter after herself.

My curse is that all the female names I really like end in "a", which might be awkward with my surname Adams. Alejandra Adams, at least in my accent, flows well enough, but some of the other names I really like don't.

kenobi65 said:

Probably mirroring the surging popularity of Harley-Davidson motorcycles in that time frame, more than the popularity of a certain DC Comics villainess (which is who the filmmaker named his daughter after).

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Or possibly, these are children of people who watched Guiding Light from about '85 on and liked the name of the female character Harley on there. Whom, it was mentioned in at least one episode, was named by her parents (teens when she was conceived) after her dad's motorcycle - which if I recall correctly was supposed to be WHERE she was conceived. So still, indirectly, they'd be naming kids after the motorcycle company, but possibly without knowing they were.

(I was sick A LOT growing up, and ended up lying on the couch suffering with little choice but to watch the soaps my mom watched. )

My ex boyfriend wanted our daughter to be named Laurana... To bad we broke up. He got the name....

Hard to talk too much about names in a vacuum - a name should be chosen by both parents. I want to avoid giving a child an overworked name - by that I mean a name that at least one and quite possibly 2 or three other kids in the class share with them - There where ten kids in my senior class with the name 'Michael'

As to my character's names - NPC or PC - they aren't too far in left field to be out of contention. For instance

Nelaria is a made up word and a name in my setting for the princess of Dalsundria. The name means 'Merciful Dove' in Liternain. From a practical standpoint it shortens to 'Nel' which I've observed many names will get contracted down by their owners. Anastasia becomes Ana, Anne or Stacy. Anatole also contracts to Anne or Ana. Patricia contracts to Patty, Trish or Pat, and even Michael becomes Mike. This is something to keep in mind.

Indeed, with long names like that are good for cluing in the kid that they are in trouble. "Ana!" - they know to come. "Anatasia!" - they know to run - they're in trouble.

My father wanted to name me after himself but the hospital lied and said he couldn't because his name is just two letters -- RC. I want to name my first child R___ Carmichael Morris. Now exactly which R name is to be decided the wishes of the mother, but there's a large variety there just as long as it isn't Richard -- which I consider to be an 'overworked' name. Off the top of my head that leaves - for boys - Raphael (shortens to Ralph), Ray, Raymod, Rudy, etc.

A girl's name should be musical when said completely but should lend itself to something short for everyday use. Anastasia, Patricia and Anatole I've mentioned and I like because they have that duality to them which lets the kid have a special name that shortens to a nickname they can use (hopefully the teacher will be merciful to the kid in 1st grade and let them get away with Ana instead of the full Anastasia )