Have you given your kids fantasy names?

[Olaf the Stout]

I think people who give their kids weird fantasy/sci-fi names need to be beaten with a tire iron.

Since when is naming your kid all about you? You're picking the name for your child, not for your own amusement, or to immortalise some fictional character you happen to like. The kid's the one who needs to like the name and be able to find meaning in it (if you name them after someone or something), not you.

I think that this needs to be repeated. If you really want to name your child after something make it a middle name instead.

My middle name is Carmello (after my Dad's father). A popular Cadbury chocolate in Australia is the Caramello Koala. All through primary school I was often called Caramello Koala. At least it meant that by the time I got to high school it didn't bother or embarrass me. I kind of got to the stage where I went, "Wow, did it take you all day to come up with that."

My mum named me Adam because she didn't want my name to be shortened like so many other name are (i.e. Mike for Michael, Matt for Matthew). You would think that Adam couldn't really be shortened. Yes, yes it can. All through primary school my friends called me Ad!

Olaf the Stout

 

[exile]

When I was in medical school, a young mother, spying the contents of her tray of 'clear liquids', named her newborn twin sons Oranjello and Lemonjello.

Another young boy, named Demon, showed up in the pediatric ER with the complaint of "red eyes". I didn't get to evaluate him to learn the cause of their discoloration.

Chad

 

[Angel Tarragon]

No kids yet. But when I do have them, I want to name a son Quinn after the TV series Sliders. Jerry o"Connel played Quinn Mallory. Does that count?

 

[CanadienneBacon]

We have four children. Two of them are twins named Ember and Madelaine. My husband gave Ember her name. I raised an eyebrow when he initially suggested it and queried him whether he was naming her after "the" Ember in the PHB. He said no, he liked the name because it was a slight twist on Amber. If Madelaine had been a boy he was all for naming the twins Ember and Cole. Then again, he also wanted to name our eldest Claire Annette or Claire Voyant. We ended up going with Claire Eileen. I also nixed naming the twins Ember and Amber on the basis that they'd never know who was being called. That, and I knew an Amber once whom I didn't care for.

Anyway, it's been a few years now and I've come to really like Ember's name.

 

[Nyaricus]

I was almost able to sneak in Luke. My wife and religious father-in-law were like "oh like from the Bible". I grinned and said yes then the wife tattled on me and said really loudly "oh no! He wants to so he can say "Luke! I am your father" when he is acting bad". Needless to say my requests for Han, Anakin and Lando all were shot down too.

We went with Marcus for my son....different but not weird to bad. It's Latin for lion king or warlike lion king. He is also a Leo. Here is the funny part. My surname translates to "of the sword" so my son's name means "Lion King of the Sword". Wife to this day has no idea about this.

My daughter I named her Jaelin (JAY-lin) which is a feminine version of Galen as in the ancient physician during the times of ancient Rome. She loves playing doctor too. Her name means Physician of the Sword...combat medic. Once again the wife has no idea about this.

this post gets cookies for awesomeness

It's amazing the fun you can have with etymology. It often astonishes me that so many people don't know the true meaning or origins of their own names.

I do. It unfortunatly means "little stump" in old french :\

Update:

"Elvis! Turn on your lightsaber!"

Ambrus, I have been talking with some fellow musicians from my school, and we are now creating a spoof band just for fun called (you guessed it!) Elvis! Turn On Your Lightsaber!

cheers,
--N

 

[Nyaricus]

BTW everyone, I've made a thread in OT about "What did you (or would you!) name your kids, and why?"

link is here

cheers,
--N

 

[PhoenixDarkDirk]

No kids yet. But when I do have them, I want to name a son Quinn after the TV series Sliders. Jerry o"Connel played Quinn Mallory. Does that count?

That name is pretty appropriate for the character, given that "Quinn" is Irish for "intelligent" and "Mallory" is Latin for "unlucky".

 

[Kae'Yoss]

My name, "Nicole", means "victory" (or "victory of the people"). That started getting embarrasing when one of my exes (not an ex at the time) learned about it and started calling me his "victory."

They could have gone for broke and named you Nike, after the old goddess of victory. Your name would be so worn out.

I know a few people who go by their middle names.

That was aimed at you, Eh, Gary?

So we stumbled on Griffin and realized the name was pretty cool. Then the joke turned on us as there are now 2 Griffin's at my son's day care and we've run into 1 or 2 others just shopping around town.

So they can found the Griffin Empire! Or the Order of the Griffin. I guess if they get a couple more Griffins, they can get their own Griffindoor into the house.

Seriously, it's the first time I hear that name for a human instead of of a mythical creature. On the other hand, it's better than some of the other critters that fill our fairytale books, like cockatrice, basilisk, cyclops. I wonder whether there are any children called Unicorn. At least Griffin sounds like a normal name.

I guess you could smuggle Hydra under the radar, too.

 

[jdrakeh]

Slightly tangentical, but my parents gave me the middle name "Drake" -- though it's a family name, rather than a fantasy name, I went by "Drake" for the better part of my life due to the fact that my father and I share the same first name. Most people immediately thought 'fantasy name" as they'd never heard "Drake" used as a forename before.

 

[Zander]

Sorry for the OT post. Just wanted to say...

I was born on December 7... I got named Carol after a christmas carols.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!