Why Swedish law requires approval for baby names...

[BuzzardsWife]

Originally Posted by MattyC

*From that list....I actually really like the name Liam...and Rhys (pronounced Reese)

But for me (and I apologize if there is anyone on here with this name) but anyone who names their kid Chet is just asking for him to be a giant ######bag

agree on all 3 counts

[BuzzardsWife]

Originally Posted by OilersBaby

This thread prompted my husband to discuss baby names..we may have a baby in a year or so. Do you guys think Anya is a wierd name for a girl? We are of East Indian descent but we don't want an Indian name thats too complicated! We want something easy to pronounce. He likes Ella or Elle and I like Anya for girls. I just wanted to know if Anya was too "out there".

I think Anya is pretty..it sounds very scandinavian or russian though. But I like it.

[Thunderball]

I think its a great idea to have approval for names... someone has to protect the children from idiot parents.

Personally, I have a few rules which have not always gone over well with the woman in hypothetical discussions:

1. No names in the Top 10 for the past 5 years. My kids aren't getting the dubious distinction of having the same name as half the room they're in. I had to deal with that and its annoying.

2. Ethnic names should be limited to the ethnicities of the parents, and preferably jive with the last name. Ie: I'm Italian-German, so I could drop a Guido or a HELMUT in there (not going to... maybe a Wolfgang... thats an cool-ass name), but it would be lame to name my kid something from a different ethnicity like Spiro, Mohammed or Joao. Furthermore, something like Stefano Di Nero fits more than Declan Di Nero (names chosen at random).

3. No stupid spellings. Especially ones that make one sound illiterate, or take all the vowels out to sound funky.. things like Krys (pronounced Chris), Aeyrn (Aaron), Mehgan (Megan).

4. Nothing that sounds like a stripper, or something a stoner would call their child. No Brandys, Candys, Moonunits....

5. Firstborn son should have the same full name as the grandfather. My grandfather pissed my mom off, so that got skipped for my generation (I got his name as my middle name) but its one of those traditions that should remain intact.

[Madman]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

5. Firstborn son should have the same full name as the grandfather. My grandfather pissed my mom off, so that got skipped for my generation (I got his name as my middle name) but its one of those traditions that should remain intact.

Which grandfather though? This is where my wife and I got stuck with the whole 'naming your kids after family members' dealio and why our son doesn't have anyone's names.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Madman

Which grandfather though? This is where my wife and I got stuck with the whole 'naming your kids after family members' dealio and why our son doesn't have anyone's names.

Traditionally, its the paternal grandfather and the paternal line, since most wives still take on the husband's name. The trade-off comes in giving the wife more discretion in the next kid(s), or tweaking the middle name for the other side of the family.

[dubc80]

hahah, this thread is cracking me up. Couple things.

1) Weird names.
- A guy I used to work with named his daughter Tetris. I always asked him if his next kids were going to be Link or Zelda. Yes, he was also a total nerd, think Dungeons and Dragons type guy...

2) Fat chick names
- Every Krista and Chelsea I've met has been chubby.

3) "Cute when young" names
- Cody. Worst name ever for any male over the age of 12 or 13.

I think more people should bring back the old school names. LOL.

Meeting an absolute hotty named Barbara, Mary, Lois, Gail, or Betty-Ann would be hilarious!

[onetwo_threefour]

Meh... I don't like 'rules' like that

My first son is Kiernan Alexander... Kiernan being gaelic and unique but not weird, Alexander being a name I like, but not as my kids first name.

My second son is Parry Allen... Parry is a name from a book I like, Allen is his maternal Grandfather's middle name because it was the best of the Grandfather names to incorporate that would go along with Parry.

I don't feel beholden to name children anything other than what sounds nice and that they will be able to live with. I hate popular names, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone else's choice to use a popular name.

[You Need a Thneed]

Me and my wife are going with the foreign name theme, and still trying to tie some history in there, and still having a little bit of fun and being unique as well. Our daughter name has a 1 beside it there in the 2007 list, meaning we were the only ones to name our daughter "Mädchen". Our future kids will very likely have foreign sounding names that will be fairly unique, but not too wierd that english speakers will have trouble with. Historical family names will show up as modifed first names, or be put in as a middle name.

[Table 5]

I hope it's not the case with you YNAT, but picking "foreign sounding" names that have no tie to your own families history sounds a little lame to me. Are people's family histories so worthless that they need to re-invent themselves by leeching other cultures?

Coming from a family with all sorts of euro spelling's of common english names, it's not as fun as those parents seem to think. Mädchen might be fun to you, but your kid will spend a good amount of it's time trying to work around that umlaut.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Madman

Nope. But if you leave without a name, your baby get a generic "Baby Whatever" name and you have to pay to have the name legally changed. That is how it was explained to us 3 years ago and my sister-in-law just had a baby and it was the same rules - they ended up paying for a name change.

Was that in Alberta?

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by 4X4

What about Wolfgang?

As in, Wolfgang Van Halen? Good bass player, btw...

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by Table 5

I hope it's not the case with you YNAT, but picking "foreign sounding" names that have no tie to your own families history sounds a little lame to me. Are people's family histories so worthless that they need to re-invent themselves by leeching other cultures?

Coming from a family with all sorts of euro spelling's of common english names, it's not as fun as those parents seem to think. Mädchen might be fun to you, but your kid will spend a good amount of it's time trying to work around that umlaut.

He had the kid, is going to raise it for 18 years at least and most likely do a stand up job. If the kid doesn't want the name they can change it themselves. I don't think it's fair to call someone's taste in names "lame". At least Madchen is a real name, not Spatula or Tetris.

[Madman]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

Was that in Alberta?

Yep, and both babies born at the Rockyview.

[Muta]

Someone needs to post the George Carlin skit on Youtube where he rants about boy names. That was hilarious.

(Paraphrasing) "Whatever happened to REAL names like JIMMY and BILLY and VINNY??"

Hahaha... That man was awesome.

[Muta]

Someone should name their kid Serge.

That way, he can get the nickname Sarge. I'd do that. Then in Elementary he can pick on the kids with names like Khrystophfer or Dahnyeil or Ashleigh or whatever / however other kids are popularily names these days. 'The Sarge' would command respect not only from his fellow students but also from the executive level at the school as well for his leadership capabilities and propensity to get things done.

[Sample00]

Never criticizes any one about their name.

[Byrns]

A Chinese friend of my wife named her son Simba. (She liked the Lion King Movie)

From the Alberta list posted, only one B'Elanna in 2007. They must be the only Klingons living here.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Table 5

I hope it's not the case with you YNAT, but picking "foreign sounding" names that have no tie to your own families history sounds a little lame to me. Are people's family histories so worthless that they need to re-invent themselves by leeching other cultures?

Coming from a family with all sorts of euro spelling's of common english names, it's not as fun as those parents seem to think. Mädchen might be fun to you, but your kid will spend a good amount of it's time trying to work around that umlaut.

Mädchen is pretty foreign sounding, but we are of German heritage, most of our ancestors had very German sounding first names, and often they anglicized it when the area they lived here in Soouthern Manitoba started becoming more and more english speaking. Johan became John.

Future names will be foriegn names, but like I said, not too far out that english speakers will have trouble with them (though we realize that english speakers will always have trouble saying Mädchen).

She will have to spell her name everytime she gives it to someone, but my wife and I have to do that pretty much every time as well, and we have normal names. We know what it's like.

We hope she'll have fun (in a good way) with the umlaut. Mw wife and I know we would, so we hope our personalities rub off of our daughter enough for her to enjoy having her unique name.

[Sample00]

Originally Posted by fotze

You and Iowa Flames Fan have the coolest names on the board, bingo is proabbly the only one with punctuation in it.

well I dont know about that since I dont know Iowa Flames fan's real name, but how about we keep it at unique..

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

I think its a great idea to have approval for names... someone has to protect the children from idiot parents.

Personally, I have a few rules which have not always gone over well with the woman in hypothetical discussions:

I agree with you in principle, but your rules are pretty awful.

1. No names in the Top 10 for the past 5 years. My kids aren't getting the dubious distinction of having the same name as half the room they're in. I had to deal with that and its annoying.

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.

2. Ethnic names should be limited to the ethnicities of the parents

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.

3. No stupid spellings. Especially ones that make one sound illiterate, or take all the vowels out to sound funky.. things like Krys (pronounced Chris), Aeyrn (Aaron), Mehgan (Megan).

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.

4. Nothing that sounds like a stripper, or something a stoner would call their child. No Brandys, Candys, Moonunits....

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.

5. Firstborn son should have the same full name as the grandfather. My grandfather pissed my mom off, so that got skipped for my generation (I got his name as my middle name) but its one of those traditions that should remain intact.

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