My daughter is named after my wife's first PC!

[tmaaas]

My daughter is named Amethyst.

My third daughter's name is Amethyst. I knew there'd be a few others out there, but your daughter is the first I've heard of with the same name. I'm surprised there aren't more.

My first daughter's name is Arinmir. Brownie points to the first person who names the source.

And, for the record, my second daughter is Amber.

 

[Rancorpit]

I think I should name my son (should I ever have one) after my first D&D character, Guilo. I'd be satisfied to use it as his middle name, too.

Probably he'll end up with a more common Finnish name, though. Something along the lines of Jaakko, Vesa, Oskari etc.

 

[Umbran]

"You dumbass, I made it up, and now your daughter is going to be nicknamed 'Lusty' in school." Bad choice, I'm thinking.

Not a gaming-name related story, but further illustrating the point...

A family friend was at a party, discussing choices for a name for his baby girl. He wanted a name in keeping with the family's origin, and was leaning towards "Sellita", a fairly pretty name from the mother tongue.

Another friend, rather deep in his cups, piped up loudly, "Sellita? Sellit! Sell it for fifty cents!"

Needless to say, the lady is named Lillita instead

 

[Hardhead]

You can have a real blast looking at the Social Security Administration's Top 1000 Names of the 1990s. It's really shocking how unpopular so many "common" names are.

If you go here you can find the list for every other decade in the 20th century as well. Looking through the old names is fun. It's hard to believe that "Elmer" was as popular then as "Brian" was in the 1990s (both 36th in their respective decades).

What I found odd, though, was the change in Women's names. The top 20 men's names from the 1900s look pretty normal:

John
William
James
George
Joseph
Charles
Robert
Frank
Edward
Henry
Walter
Thomas
Harry
Arthur
Harold
Albert
Paul
Clarence
Fred
Carl

Clarence and Albert are really the only ones that people don't really use anymore.

On the other hand, the women's names are:

Mary
Helen
Margaret
Anna
Ruth
Elizabeth
Dorothy
Marie
Mildred
Alice
Florence
Ethel
Lillian
Rose
Gladys
Frances
Edna
Grace
Catherine
Hazel

Florence? Ethel? Midred? Edna? Helen? Gladys? No one really names their kids that anymore. There seems to be more change and trends among women's names (for instance, the statistic I cited earlier was that the top 50 names, for the first time, accounted for less than 50% of the boys' names and less than 40% of the girls names).

The circumstantial evidence on this board points the same way. Most of the weird names are girls' names. Even "Raistlen" was a girl.

 

[Hardhead]

Not a gaming-name related story, but further illustrating the point...

A family friend was at a party, discussing choices for a name for his baby girl. He wanted a name in keeping with the family's origin, and was leaning towards "Sellita", a fairly pretty name from the mother tongue.

Another friend, rather deep in his cups, piped up loudly, "Sellita? Sellit! Sell it for fifty cents!"

Needless to say, the lady is named Lillita instead

Lillita? Lolita. Not much better.

 

[Nifft]

I've heard a theory that it's most healthy to name your kid with one NORMAL name, and one COOL name.

"Normal" first name: this will get them safely up to high school, and perhaps beyond.

"Cool" middle name: when they wish they were someone special (high school, college, or post-college acting career), they'll have a "cool" name that's legally theirs.

-- N

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

With a name like that, he needs to get a business card: "Have gun, will travel."

I met a guy last month who was about 18. His name was Paladin.

 

[SpringPlum]

In an interesting reversal, I know a couple of guys who named characters after themselves. One guy used his own middle name and the other used his first name.

Of course, by the time that I have children, they will probably have the same name as either a PC or NPC from our gaming group. The other day, my SO and I were discussing good names for children--and every name we liked had either been used in a game or reminded us of someone we hated.

 

[d4]

Florence? Ethel? Midred? Edna? Helen? Gladys? No one really names their kids that anymore.

yeah, those all sound like "grandmom" names. (FWIW, my grandma is named Florence.)

I've heard a theory that it's most healthy to name your kid with one NORMAL name, and one COOL name.

my sister got that. Lisa Renee. up to her early twenties, she went by Lisa. now she uses Renee.

 

[the Jester]

I don't have kids, but if I ever do I'm naming it Illithid.