Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Sensible Baby Names

After a lengthy absence I've written a response to the 100 Word Challenge over at Julia's Place. The prompt this week is:

Ruby

(in honour of its 40th week).

From Google Images

I know siblings called Ruby and Reuben. Also Danny and Andy. Nadia and Diana? Passable. On the whole I'd avoid naming your children in sets like the best china.

Conversely, it's unfair to call one Gabriella Isabella Amber Rose and the other Sue. But two sisters called Isabella and Gabriella invites the question: And where is Salmonella?

Made-up names are in but nobody remembers them so Dlaybard and Jogaryll are out.

Biblical names? Solid but don't inflict Job or Jezebel.

Anything from nature is acceptable (well not grub or sap, obviously).

For further advice on naming baby contact Yentl-Magot@sensiblenames.com (pronounced Majeaux).

66 comments:

  1. you made me laugh! Thank you.Great piece.
    Gilly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Gilly - as you were reading this I was reading your poem by Ted Hughs. Your post was rather more high-brow methinks :).

      Delete
  2. In my family two of us have annoyingly exotic names and the middle child has a plain biblical name. I'm not sure who is better off!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought you were called Cathy. Where did I get that idea from? How does the middle child feel about his/her name? I find names a fascinating subject.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm often called Cathy, because people mishear my real name :) As for my brother, I will ask him and get back to you x

      Delete
    2. Ah I see. As the middle child is male it may not bother him. I think it would bother a girl more. Interesting though.

      Delete
  4. This was fun and made me smile. Good advise though - people really should think carefully about naming their children - celebrities take note!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always wonder why e.g. Heather or Fern is acceptable but Willow is a celebrity stupid name. In the end it's just what we're used to I think.

      Delete
    2. I don't mind Willow - quite pretty for a girl (wouldn't like it for a boy) - but some celeb names really are stupid: Moon Unit, Prince Michael II, Jermajesty and Junior. Ok, that last one sounds quite reasonable compared to the rest of the list, but imagine how daft it's going to sound when he's in his 40s...

      Delete
  5. My favourite part " But two sisters called Isabella and Gabriella invites the question: And where is Salmonella?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I took a risk there. dangerously close to two sisters I know :).

      Delete
  6. In my family 3 of us have very unusual names and one is named David. Guess which name I gave when making reservations at a restaurant?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know a few people who have restaurant-reservation names which are a simplified version of their real names. Good job you have a David.

      Delete
  7. Excellent Midlife - amusing, interesting and a change to read something that isn't a 'story'!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dancing, funnily enough I tried for a long time to make it into a story but I couldn't find a way.

      Delete
  8. Clever take on it. I remember being baffled by the parents of the man who cropped up week after week on our church sick list. They'd called him Thomas Thomas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the father of footballers Gary Neville and Phil Neville is (you've guessed it) Neville Neville !!

      Delete
  9. Really great, and alot of fun! So true. Baby names are a mine field. Little A's name I think is very straightforward. Made up names and celebrity names are usually pretty useless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also have an A which is unusual in Israel and unheard of inEngland - but sounds very pretty so people don't mind so much.

      Delete
  10. Don't give your kid a name that was popular a generation or two ago. I do not feel grateful to my parents for giving me a "Grandma" name.

    On the other hand, Sophie used to be a Grandma name and now it is totally back in style. But please, tread carefully. My name is still a "Grandma" name (and I'm afraid it always will be).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a friend who was called Freda. She hated it so much she changed it and now I think it's a lovely name - it reminds me of fresh fjords (might be the ABBA connection). My name is Rachel so that must be a Grandma name by now but still acceptable. Some names last like Elisabeth.

      Delete
  11. Ha this is a great take on the prompt. Salmonella!? A teacher colleague told me the other day they had a child at their school called Clamidia (Oh dear!) whilst another told us he had to talk his wife out of calling their son "John Thomas" lol.
    A very good friend of mine's first name is Ruby and she hates it, always having used her middle name.
    Great to see you back again :O) Missed your pieces.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Anna. LOL at Clamidia although it does sound quite posh really.

      Delete
  12. I like it! This weeks prompt led me down the name route too... http://ju-musings-on-life.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/ruby.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rushing over to read yours now... well soon, after baths, supper, stories, bed...

      Delete
  13. haha kinda like my predicament at the moment for choosing baby names :P love it x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Such a responsibility isn't it? Sometimes I try other names on DD to see what it would have been like if I'd chosen differently (only in my head though - I don't want to confuse her).

      Delete
  14. Clever. I named my two Tom and Jenny - never saw it coming!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Summer is popular I have noticed. I have recently encountered a variation on this...Summah. Hmm. You just have to pronounce it with an Essex accent, really, don't you??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seasons, days and months are interesting in that some are acceptable and other not. why can you be called Summer, Tuesday or April but not Spring, Wednesday or November?

      Delete
  16. A very perceptive piece - I'd not looked at names in that way before. Made me smile. As did some of the comments. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The comments make any post twice a s interesting. I love the comments. Thanks for commenting too.

      Delete
  17. Love your post! I would also urge parents to choose 1 or 2 names. Unlike my parents creative mix: Alisa Cherie Anne Marie Thomson!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But you have the best nickname I've ever heard.

      Delete
  18. Ha love this post ! Must admit to struggling with the names of our children. Because we have a plain surname (boring old Jones) We wanted something different but which hopefully wouldn't become common *cough* I mean *popular* So far we are succeeding but time will tell. When I named my eldest son Jacob 17 years ago there were hardly any Jacobs about. Now there are skillions : (

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always imagined your boys to be little rahter than teenagers. I love the name jacob - it was one of my choices for a boy.

      Delete
  19. So funny, I shouldn't laugh so much but Salmonella, you can just see that happening can't you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, or just calling them Fluffyella and Frillyella. I wish I'd had more tha 100 words... ;)

      Delete
  20. i know a couple who named their sons shai, ilai and itai. shai and ilai, ok - but ilai and itai? what were they thinking?!

    also - your daughter and my son have the same name, and a friend of mine whose son also has the same name told me one of his friends asked him "so how is b.l. doing" and he was totally bemused, till he got it. now think about it. add bl to the beginning of DD's name, and what does it sound like?! i never thought of that!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wouldn't have thought of that in a million years. I thought DDs name was foolproof. Oh well. I knew an Israeli family with three girls calls Idit, Nurit and Galit. We used to call them Pack it, Stamp it and Send it.

      Delete
  21. This gave me a giggle! It's interesting, as friends and family have kids, how they come up with names. I'm always surprised because the name they choose is never the name I imagined they would pick. Hmmmmm...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And sometimes I hate a name until I get to know tha child and, assuming it's a pleasant child, the name becomes ok.

      Delete
  22. Would you believe me when I say I know brothers called Jamie and Oliver? And sisters called Charlotte and Lola?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hilarious! You've pin-pointed a whole new genre. How about David and Camaron? Margeret and Thatcher. Victoria and Albert. harry and Potter. This is such fun but I think I'll stop. Thank you.

      Delete
    2. Cameron and Margaret of course *ahem*

      Delete
  23. Very funny! My particular no-no is people who give their children surnames for first names - Bailey, Taylor, Harrison ... (apologies to anyone I've just offended!) Or how about Ramsbottom?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean - I think it's a snob thing so that your boys sound like they are all permanently at a posh boys' school.

      Delete
  24. Nice piece. We didn't think about fashions. Our daughter got rid of her name. (I'd better not say what it was.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Miriam. I think it's esoecailly difficult if you move to another culture. Hebrew names that I thought were pretty (e.g Hadassah and Shulamit) I have learned are really old fashioned and consodered to be old lady names.

      Delete
    2. *especially, sorry - must proof read.

      Delete
  25. lol love this piece. So fun and light x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Susan - it's one of my hobbies examining the names people choose. May be that's why DD has three first names (we only use the first).

      Delete
  26. Oh, my gosh, this conundrum! What fun, though it's often harrowing for parents to do. (We named our girls in a "set" of two, but at least they don't sound like china!) :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL - I meant that you have sets of china not that the names sound like the names of china. I'm dying to know what you named your girls now ;).

      Delete
  27. Names are such a LIFELONG thing! LOL! At our home, we ended up with first names that begin "A" (the name I go by), "B" (my oldest child), "C" (our second child), "D" (my husbands name), "E" (our third child)! I used to joke that we had to stop because there were no names that began with "F" that would fit our family! :) What a delightful take on the prompt. Thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Thanks Lorraine. let me know if you need any help in the future - Felicity, Fiona, Frank, Fauntleroy...

    ReplyDelete
  29. Haha! :D Name etiquette from Yentl-Magot, well, it doesn't get much better! Very funny.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At last! You are the first person to mention that. I thought it was the funniest thing about the whole piece but no one else seemed to pick up on it. I even thought of writing myself a comment about it. Thank you my soul-mate in humour :).

      Delete
    2. Lol - respect!

      Delete
    3. It was the pronunciation guide, "Majeaux," that really cracked me up!

      Delete
    4. Where have you been all my life?

      Delete
  30. Well this was fun & made me grateful that although I'm not a fan of my name, it could have been worse! I would love to understand the 'Yentl-Magot line but .....!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's just a ridiculously silly name with a pretentious pronunciation which makes you wonder about her giving out advice on baby names and even having an email domain called sensible names. Either she's oblivious or she's offering this service after years of suffering herself.

      Delete
    2. I forgot to say, I think Julia is a very pretty name - I bet it comes back into fashion one of these days.

      Delete