[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

That would rule out perfectly good names like John, Michael, Mary, and Elizabeth. Sure those names aren't quite as popular now as they once were, but nobody ever accused a parent of choosing a "hip and trendy" name if they picked one of those when they dominated the Top 10. Furthermore, it was the desire of many parents to avoid the "popular" choices like John and Mary that led to kindergarten classes filled with Madisons and Mikaylas and other "unique" names.

They're too common. I didn't say I hated common names... I said I didn't like having one cause its annoying. Nothing wrong with the actual common (biblical) names, I just don't want them.



A former-coworker of mine is a first generation immigrant from China, as is his wife. They named their (Canadian-born) daughter Victoria, because they wanted her to have an English name suitable to her home country. Your rule would prevent parents from doing that.

Good for them. I wouldn't want to. Everyone is different. I don't care if the name is suitable to Canada or not.



Agreed with this one. Alternate spellings are ok (John/Jon, Sarah/Sara), but totally made up spellings, complete with gratuitous usage of the letters 'Y' and 'K' are simply horrible.

Agreed.


There's an interesting chapter in Freakonomics in which the author shows that many "white trash" names become that way because the parents picked a name that was popular with the upper classes.

And FYI, Candy is a short-form nickname for Candace, which is a perfectly acceptable name.

Sure, if the name is Candace, then its a nickname... its not like that has to be on one's permanent records... I mean actually naming them Brandy, Candy, Lexus, Honey, etc.


Uh, why? This rule seems totally arbitrary and pointless.

Its called tradition and its something I value. I really don't care what you think of it.

Like I said, those are my rules and they work fine for me, they clearly aren't for everyone and I didn't try to pass them off as such. I could care less what you think about them, though I'm glad we agree on the lousy spelling rule... one less person with "creative" versions of normal names that look rather illiterate.