Have you given your kids fantasy names?

[Panthanas]

My two sons are named Gabriel Silvanis and Declan James. Silvanis is in the baby name book and is old Germanic for 'wood dweller'. Declan is an Irish name and in the baby name book as well.

 

[Southern Oracle]

We named our daughter Zoe (with the dots over the "e") and everybody assumes we named her Zoey after the butt-kickin' chick on Firefly. Don't ask me why.

Dude! We named our youngest daughter Zoe as well, umlaut and all! Of course, where we live, no one knows what the umlaut is (or diaeresis), and so we have to constantly correct people calling her 'Zoh.' :\

Our oldest daughter is named Corina...just a variant spelling on an old name from the '30s. Daughter #2 is named Rhiannon Siobhan, after the Celtic goddess and one of the singers in Bananarama...but people assume she's named after the Fleetwood Mac song. Daughter #3 is named Faelyn, which is a variant French spelling meaning "Fairyland."

 

[El Ravager]

Some people are coming down pretty hard on the idea of 'different' or 'odd' names. And I suppose they have a point. One woman I work with used to work for the govt in child services and she came accross some horrible names, like a kid named Star Supernova Jellybean, or Pepsi Cola, etc. Those are bad. Also apparently you can add 'esha' to any name to make it a girls name.

But I am in favor of some different names. Its a fine line though. To me some names that are somewhat archaic are alright. It should sound like a name and not be a blatant rip off of some geek thing. Naming your kid Aquaman would suck. Naming your kid Thor is iffy. But plenty mentioned would be fine by me. You just gotta be careful. I don't think it has to be the responsible thing to do to name to give your kid a normal name. My name is Adam and it seems to be very common. In school there was pretty much always another kid named Adam in my class. The pizza place I worked at for a while I was in highschool had four other kids in addition to me named Adam. Now I don't dislike or resent my name at all, but I don't think that giving a child a mildly unique name is terrible or irresponsible either.

 

[Felix]

Re: Middle names.

My brothers and I all use our middle names; I've been told it's a southern thing. Both my folks are from Alabama, and my brothers grew up there. Not me, though; I'm Vriginian, but I suppose the habit followed along.

As for odd names, it doesn't have to be fantasy to be odd. My full name is Edward Austin Middleton. Edward and Austin are both family names, named after Edward Middleton the immigrant gardener who became master of this; Austin is the maiden name of my mother's great aunt.

What comes up in conversation is the middle brother whose name is Henry Hueston Middleton. Pronounced the same as "Houston". The prepared answer, "no" comes quickly on the heels of, "Are you from Texas?" Hueston also happens to be a maiden name from the distaff side.

It was perhaps unfortunate that Hueston tried to get me to like the Cowboys instead of the Redskins when I was 6; he suggested we name the dog Dallas.

Just to keep the gag going, I figure I'll name the next dog Corpus. Good name to shout when he runs away, eh?

---

ANYway, as far as fantasy names are concerned: name your pets funky things, not your children; you can always get new pets.

 

[comrade raoul]

Yeah, I consider some of these ideas verging on child abuse. Your children are not your fictional characters or toys. They are not fashion accessories to use to make a statement. Give them real names. If you want to announce your fantasy geekdom wear a friggin "Jesus saves, the rest of you take full damage" T-shirt.

I'm certainly sympathetic to this line of thought: I'd feel awfully sorry for some poor kid who was stuck with Legolas, or Jayne, or even Leto. But, purely as an intellectual question, where should you draw the line? I think it's great to give kids names of political figures, as long as those political figures are praiseworthy and not massively well-known (Eugene Debs Smith is okay; Jimmy Carter Smith, less so), and not only appropriate but cool to give them certain classical names, like Ulysses, Cicero, or Calpurnia. A name can be a way of linking a child to their parents by naming the child after something you hope she'll find inspiring. Why not through relatively unobtrusive fantasy characters into the mix?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I'm certainly sympathetic to this line of thought: I'd feel awfully sorry for some poor kid who was stuck with Legolas, or Jayne, or even Leto.

At least Leto is a name from classical Greek mythology, and the fiction involved is relatively obscure among non-SF fans.

But Legolas? That's a name that will invoke lots of taunting (as well as homophobic jokes)...

 

[Nyaricus]

Still, this is the woman who suggested displaying the Colossal Red mini towering over the Nativity scene in the living room, so there may be hope yet.

That is amazing, sirrah! But worthless without pics

Of course, there are plenty of horrendous "real" names.

Any examples?

I know (of) a guy named Thor, and another guy who's short, has curly hair and who's last name is Frovich. He got nick-named Frob*tch, then Frobbit, then Frodo

"Elvis! Turn on your lightsaber!"

That is even more amazing than the nativity scene upthread

.sigged

cheers,
--N

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Having been homeschooled, I can say that at least in my case it carried essentially no expenses. Not quite sure what you mean by that.

Raising a kid costs an enormous amount of money even if you stick to the basics - time, food, clothes, and so on.

And homeschooling a kid represents an even more significant investment of time, since you need to spend lots of time teaching the kid - time that you could otherwise use for a part time job, raising the living standards of the family.

And frankly, if I am ever going to have kids, I am going to insist on them going to ordinary schools for these reasons (assuming I moved to another jurisdiction where home schooling was legal):

- It will provide for some basic socialization with their peers.

- There is no reason to assume that the parents will be qualified to teach all the subjects taught in school.

My parents certainly wouldn't have been able to help me with Calculus, or high-end English, or Latin, while my teachers were fully qualified for this.

 

[danzig138]

Galen, Lorelei, and Abaddon.

For those of you who think that the odd names are going to be bad for the kids,

My name is Nicholas. Until the SO came along, everyone called me Nick (or Nicky, if you're family). Or more often, things that rhymed with Nick.

My last name rhymes with Tuna.

It's a miracle I didn't grow up thinking my name was completely different.


Bachelor Party didn't help matters any either.

You really need to stop thinking that kids need something odd to go after. They don't. They're vicious little bastards who can make a target out of anything.

 

[bodhi]

And, in High School, I knew a girl named Larry. And her two sisters. . . Georgie and Scotti.

And a boy named Sue!

I have no kids, but my friends named their twin girls Eris and Denise. I'm looking forward to their teen years. Should be (Chinese curse) interesting.