Thursday, June 29, 2006

People's Weird Kid Names

Okay, I need to be careful here, because some people who read my blog may admire or even do what I'm about to complain against.

I have a problem with people making up "creative" names or spellings of traditional names for their children. This seems to be a growing trend, with a sizable minority of new children being subjected to this, perhaps even a majority in some Mormon suburbs. I know that certain blacks have long done this, but I don't know if the newer trend is just a white Utah/Idaho Mormon thing or bigger.

My wife is bugged by these names too and seems to get a kick out of how much they bug me. She recently collected me the following REAL names off a photo site for new Utah babies:

Abbigayle
Alexandrial
Ashtyn
Austynn
Avree
Braly
Chayton
Davin
Dominyk
Ezinaye
Jayk
Katana
Koya
McKade
Peyson
Seide
Surenity
TyKoda
Tyzac

I HATE THIS! There's something so illiterate and hillbilly-ish about it, to me. There, I said it. Sorry if I offended you, but if you are considering doing this to your kids, please reconsider. Think of all the future problems with spelling and pronunciation, let alone people questioning your taste. I am hoping that President Hinckley will speak out against this practice during the next general conference--surely it's as pernicious as pornography.

2 comments:

Rebecca said...

I knew a woman who was a pediatrician in inner city Philadelphia, and she said parents were always bringing in kids with the strangest names. She said they weren't pronounced anywhere near like they were spelled - it was like they just threw random letters together. Although I think that may be due more to illiteracy than an urge to get creative.

C. L. Hanson said...

Hehe, my Utah cousin went the "creative spellings" route with his kids too...

Personally, I swung way to the opposite end of the spectrum by naming my kids "Nicolas" and "Léo".

To American eyes these names may look a little unusual, but I'm sure they're both easily within the top ten most popular names for little boys here in France. It seems like half their school is either "Nico" or "Léo"....

But since they have my husband's last name -- which is a very unusual last name here in France -- I didn't want them to have to deal with having a doubly weird name...