emd-meant to say happy (day late) b-day to you as well-hope you had some cocktails for me.

mgc's post reminds me of names I heard recently in South Africa: we met a man named Blessing, another called Gratitude, and one day I heard someone call out for Joyous. Isn't that special!

I also know a woman there by the name of Patience, and another little girl who is called Kuwait, (born during the Gulf War).

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the name I'm about to offer... Did you watch, don't remember exactly, was it 1994 or 1998 winter Olympics, and the female skier who got the gold medal? When she was born her parents didn't have a name for her, so they called her just a girl. When it was time to send her to school they named her after her favorite game: first name Pickaboo, last name Street. You can see her sometimes on TV advertising Chupstick. ((U))

Fun post!

I have a name that is not only mispelled 100% of the time, it often mispronounced, and you can't tell from it whether I'm male or female. And it's not even that odd: Jaime
My last name (also butchered in mispellings and mispronunciations) is italian but uncommon and sometimes thought to be hispanic. So people see the name and think I'm a hispanic male and called me "hymay"

So my advice is if your last name is at all difficult to spell or pronounce, make the fist name SIMPLE. It's really tiring and annoying to have to correct people on both your names.

Totally unrelated: I can't believe how popular Mackenzie is for a girl's name now. I have friends with children named Kenzie and Mckenna and people get confused that it's not Mackenzie all the time.

Oh, and my current frontrunners for future offsprings' names: Audrey and Nathaniel.

Ani: No cocktails, it was a weeknight and all, but as I helped my kids w/homework and general "learn life responsibilities" fundamentals that night, I thought of you and how much pure fun you have ahead of you in the next few yrs.-- while you are the most important thing to that baby (and before they realize you can not only not walk on water, but you can't do anything right and that you are just as human as they are.) You have so much joy (and exhaustion) ahead of you! You may not travel as much, but you'll pick up on that again later.
BTW- love the name Riley-- my daughter is Celine (Irish, although some say it is French- and it is NOT after Celine Dion) and my son is Casey, another good Irish name.

Since you like unique names and Gaelic names, Siobhan is one I always liked. Very Irish and heard there often enough (we have a cousin with the name) but unusual in the US. Pronounced "SHEE-vawn"

Apparently my porn star name, based on the 1st pet/street theory, would be <i>&quot;Yippee Water&quot;</i> This goes to show that either the theory needs tuning or that you shouldn't let a not-quite-two year old name the family pet.

My screen name is my real name, by the way, so I'm in the position to think there's both good and bad in having a unique name. It's ok <i>after</i> you leave school.

Okay, my given name is Kimberly Ann. Pretty middle American, right? Yeah, until you figure my Irish mom and my polish dad (both 1st generation) wanted me to be Kimberleighane Rebecah (their spelling, not mine) and the admitting attendant decided it wasn't &quot;American&quot; enough. I was one of 7 Kimberly Anns in my graduating class (1985).
I guess my point is misspellings can err in both direction. :)
Kim

Siobhan is a pretty name, one I've heard often here in England. But rather than it being pronounced &quot;SHEE-vawn&quot;, I've always heard it pronounced as &quot;Shivahn&quot;. Perhaps the pronunciations are regional. Nice name, either way!

Such a fun thread! My Irish grandmother's name was Salina McNamara. I think that is very pretty, and gave the Salina to my daughter as a middle name. My daughter went to school with a boy named Diamond Bevel.
And my porn name would be great if I were a man: Buff Turnhill

After much lurking, finally have to weigh in on this fun thread. We named our daughter Carolyn 12 years ago in rebuttal to the Brittney's and Ashley's who were EVERYWHERE in my son's then pre-school class. She loves her name and is definitely the only Carolyn in her school's 6th grade class. Of course, some people still call her Caroline but what are you gonna do? Her middle name's Elizabeth (family name)--it's a good thing she was an early speller and that our last name is very short!

Being from Nebraska I remember the Husker football player from long ago whose name was I.M. Hipp (Isiah Moses, I believe).

BrimhamRocks,

You know, I think you're phonetics are probly better than mine on sound of the name. I'm sure it's more a short &quot;i&quot; than a long &quot;E&quot; as I showed. Could also be regional, as you said. I've only ever heard the name pronounced by people who have a native Dublin area accent.

Apparently Hooked on Phonics did <i>not</i> work for me. :D

Has anyone noticed how &quot;feminine&quot; names for boys have become? Overheard a family at a sushi restaurant last night shouting at their son, Bryce Dashell, to stop playing with his chopsticks and to eat his sashimi like a good boy...he was about 4 yrs. old!

When I hear the name Dashell, I don't think a new trendy boys name, I think the kid was named in honor of writer Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, The Thin Man).

Islandmom, has the baby arrived? What is her name?

Islandmom, please reply as to what you named the baby!! Grandduahgter #5 is on the way, she will be Savannah Jayne. We were hoping for a boy but another girl is ok too!

Maya, Lily Belle, Liliana

What a funny thread - I missed this when it first started.

I went to high school with a girl named Bleu - pronounced &quot;blue&quot;.

I knew a set of brothers in college named Peace, Love and Joy - which were shortened from Peace on Earth and Joy to the World. Love was just Love.

I don't know if they were named that at birth or it was a decision they collectively made to change their names - but I had to check their driver's licenses to make sure they weren't joking.

Of course, they were these real laid back surfer dudes - I can imagine that they had hippie parents that named them that.

I live in Ireland, and there are many traditional Irish names that I do like. But I am sick to death of my fellow Americans naming their kid Conner and then spelling it wrong (they always spell it Connor).

Niamh (pronounced Knee-v), Siobhan (shiv-on), Bronagh (bro-na) Nuala, Briege (various spellings, Irish for Bridget, Bree-ssshhh), Aine (Irish for Ann, pronounced On-ya) for girls. For boys, Liam, Padraig (various spellins), Kieran, Callum, Declan, Dermot. I would have said Aidan, but after SATC, everyone in the US has been using that.

Someone posted earlier that the name Homer is as common in the UK as the name John is in the US. I've never run into anyone named Homer in the UK.

I have the kind of name that NO ONE ever spells correctly (sorry, it's not Ann), and many people can't pronounce correctly (although I do consider those people pretty stupid). Don't do that to your child. It's so annoying.

People also tell me all of the time that I have a &quot;pretty&quot; name, but I know they don't mean it. It's what people say when they can't say what they're really thinking.

Thank you, Thonglori, for liking the name Lila. I got stuck with it because my parents were expecting a boy and when I arrived they just opened a movie magazine featuring starlets named Lila Lee and Lola Lane. They said, ok that's good enough. Only further publicity Lila Lee ever got was being arrested for drug use with Robt Mitchum.

Hated it as a kid as people called me Lollee, Lala Lee, etc. Don't mind it so much as an adult after I insisted on dropping the middle name.

And I really hate the trend lately of naming girls surnames, like Taylor, Hunter, Tucker, Riley, and especially Madison! That is the name of my home town, and I just cringe whenever I hear it, which is very very often nowadays. One or two Madisons are fine but this is ridiculous.
If the surname is really a family name, fine. We know people who have Madison, Brooklyn and Austin. People call them things like &quot;Pittsburgh&quot; behind their backs.
I like carrying on family names. Unless the names are really bad, consider the 2 grandparents' names as middle names. (Our girls' middle names are Grace and Louise after their g'mothers.)

Terrence - I'm glad you like the name Madison. I do as well. However, that isn't my name but the name of my cat who I rescued in the cornfields of Madison County and brought back to California.

If I had a daughter I would have named her after my grandmother who's name was ZANA, pronounced ZAH NAH. I am even thinking of adding that as my middle name I love it so much.

Name on Target employee's badge in Chicago...Felonie..we speculated she had siblings named Larcenie and MissDemeanor...