Sunday, February 12

Baby names

I am just in rut lately with all of these name posts. This ought to be the last for a while though. I'm not quite sure what else I can say about them.

The first time this ever really came up in conversation for me was back in high school. I had some friends who had the more uncontrollable aspects of their lives perfectly planned out. Already they had planned out how many children they would have and what their genders and names would be. Suffice to say, I was rather amused and made fun of them for it. Now, in college, it's come up again. I don't even remember how, but people started talking about what they would name their children and what names they like. I have decided that my opinions that arose during this discussion are of such interest that they must be shared with all.

First of all, I must admit that I have a soft spot for names with classical allusions (as evidenced by my picking of Dismas (the Good Thief) for a confirmation name and Daedalus for just about every weblogin) and the 'a' sound. That pretty much guides most of the choices that you'll find below.

Start off, I'll just put down the names that have no great allusions. I just like how they sound. Darius, Dante, Dominique, Naomi, Leon.

Then there are those with classic allusions. There's the Arthurian legends (Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad, Mordred, Guivere). There's the Greek myths (Daedalus, Icarus, Achilles, Arachne). Finish it off with a little Buddhism, Mara, and Norse, Balder. Demons have some pretty sweet names, which is unfortunate. Kind of stigmatize a kid. Moloch, Mammon, Mephistopheles, Baal, Oni, Kali, Lucifer, Loki.

I once heard that the most common surname is Chang and that most common first name is Mohammed. I would love to name my kid Mohammed Chang Heinrich. Screw with people's preconceptions at the very least.

It's worth pointing out here that I'm serious about these names. When I have kids, I would want to name them like this. Needless to say, my wife will probably end up naming the kids lest they get beat up at school all the time. Maybe I can name the pets.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain Chris- I am also attracted to "unusual" names for kids, but the way I deal with it is I just give those names to protagonists in video games. My favorites: Darius and Daemon for guys and Hathor and Isis for women.
Hey, you can always just give your kids normal and boring first names and have fun with the middle name. It'd be fun to name someone David Mephistopheles or something.

Anonymous said...

okay, first of all: Naomi is a BEAUTIFUL name. i love that name. i think it means "pleasant" or something, right? well, anyway, i also fully support naming your kid Mohammed Chang Heinrich. that would be kick-ass.

Anonymous said...

Dude...Mohammed Chang? You stole that from Matt. You should've given the guy credit. He's being saying that for years.