To: A certain parent

[Becks]

I went to school with an Amanda Bang.

Sounds like a rejected prank call to Moe.

I also knew a kid named Cam. It wasn't short for anything, he stated he was named for the car part in class.

According to himself and his parents, the man of the household was named after/for Mikey in the LIFE cereal ads.

I'm disturbed.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm sorry, but that just kinda creeps me out.

Along with people naming their twins rhyming names. I'm so grateful Mommy didn't do that for me and Bella.

Gah! Twinsie names. Blargh!

My mother and youngest aunt are twins. Their names have the same initials and the same number of letters. And they used to have the same outfits, too, which annoyed the hell out of them as soon as they were old enough to consider it.

Oh, and to make it even better, they're named for Janus. You know, the god most often depicted as having two faces.

^-.-^

[crazylegs]

I have managed to dredge this one up from my addled memory, I went to infant school with a Kimberley Clark, which is a brand of loo roll/public toilet fittings company.

She must have endured some stick later in life...

[Geek King]

According to himself and his parents, the man of the household was named after/for Mikey in the LIFE cereal ads.

I'm disturbed.

Meh. I was named after a road. The name just caught my dad's fancy. I like to kid that I'm already famous because I already have a road named after me.

[Becks]

I like to kid that I'm already famous because I already have a road named after me.

Hey, I do that.

In Eagle, WI, two streets are named after my great grandfather, and one after one of my great uncles. (Andrew, Laurence {sp?}, and Schroeder.)

Since Schroeder is my last name (kinda long story, really), I'd tell people that I don't need my own corner--I have my own street.

I gotta take pictures again.

[FuzzyKitten99]

About 6 years ago, when my husband's now-ex-wife was pregnant with their first child, she was telling us the names she wanted. The one for if it was a girl was Mercedes. I told her that wasn't a bad name, except that they have a cat named Lexus, and well.... make the connection and your own little jokes about it. She got SO pissed at me. I am like "Why? Cuz I pointed out something someone else might have AFTER the kid was born and named? I save you and your potential girl the barrage of jokes and comments about naming your next one Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Honda, or Ford"

They ended up having a boy... and they named him Ethan, lol! Though she did have a girl a couple years later (4 years TBE), and they named her Paris. Yeah. Poor kid. She'll never be thought of without connecting "Hilton" to her name.

My first name is Lea. No 'h'. My grandma named me, but my mom picked the spelling. To this day, I give my mom crap about her being 16 years old and wanting to be a 'trendy/cool' mom. I hated my name for years. I always wanted a cool name like Kelly or Elizabeth, or Jennifer. My name wasn't common (I was the only 'Lea/Leah' in a high school with over 3,000 students), but not unusual. Just the spelling. I have never put an 'h' on my name, and yet people still add it on their own for some reason. As if they think *I* misspell my own name. Even my kids' school does it. I have corrected them several times, and still they spell it wrong. I pretty much have just given up at this point.

My own kids have normal, pronounceable, spellable names. Nathan Jon, and Benjamin Martin.

The names that we have (hypothetically and out of boredom) picked out for our future children are:

Marlee Kathleen
Preston James (for some reason I really dig the name Preston)
Paige Elizabeth
Maxim Valentine (I know I know but it was my great grandfathers name)

I don't think they're too bad.

Maxim is the name of a men's magazine my husband gets: http://www.maximonline.com/index.aspx

[Kogarashi]

My first name is Lea. No 'h'. I have never put an 'h' on my name, and yet people still add it on their own for some reason. As if they think *I* misspell my own name. Even my kids' school does it. I have corrected them several times, and still they spell it wrong. I pretty much have just given up at this point.

My own kids have normal, pronounceable, spellable names. Nathan Jon, and Benjamin Martin.

Nathan might have problems with people misspelling "Jon," but other than that those are some rather nice names.

I know a Lia. Pronounced the same as Leah.

As for misspelling, it took 12 years for the school district where I grew up to spell my parents' last name correctly. My parents live within 3 hours' driving distance of Holyoke, Massachusetts, and have the surname of Holyoak. The school constantly misspelled our name to be that of the town. Of course, then there were the random letters we'd get sent to our home with misspellings, some likely due to our own poor handwriting but others due to goodness-knows-what. Like letters addressed to So-and-So Hollindak, or Halycak, or even just Hollyoak (one too many L's). It got to the point where I'd say my last name as "Holyoakholyasinbibleoakasintree" if someone had to spell it.

Then I moved to Utah for University and suddenly everyone could spell it (the majority of my Holyoak relatives live in southern Utah), but nobody could pronounce it (pronouncing "holy" as "holly" for some inexplicable reason).

As for my current last name, there are only two names we can't give our children, ever. William and Gromit. And despite it being a very easy surname, we've still had at least two people misspell it since I married into the family (and apparently none before; I'm cursed!).

[Sheldonrs]

My HS Principal' name was Seymor Hyman. Would have been great if he were a gynocologist.

[draftermatt]

My HS Principal' name was Seymor Hyman. Would have been great if he were a gynocologist.

Mine was John Seaman

[Lace Neil Singer]

Yeah...I'm not completely happy with Maxim Valentine either but like I said it was my great grandfathers name and I adored him. I'm thinking more along the lines of Maxwell Valentine though.

Don't forget to buy him a silver hammer... XD For the record, I think that's a brilliant song so I see nothing wrong with the name Maxwell at all.

[protege]

I save you and your potential girl the barrage of jokes and comments about naming your next one Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Honda, or Ford"

Bonus points if the kid's last name is Prefect or Fairlane...

Could be worse though--imagine if your first name was Edsel. Imagine going through your entire life...if your name was tied to one of the biggest automotive failures ever...

[CaroPhoenix]

As I've mentioned before, my husband's first name is "Byron". We keep getting mail for "Bryon" - I keep asking hubs if he has an evil twin I don't know about named Bryon who keeps having his mail sent to us. Hubs gives me this look:

[Geek King]

My HS Principal' name was Seymor Hyman. Would have been great if he were a gynocologist.

Our assistant principle was F***ing A**hole Jock-Sniffer, but I think that's just what everyone who wasn't on a sports team called him.