What's In a Name?

While cleaning out my drafts of unpublished posts, I discovered I actually wrote quite a bit for this one but just never finished it. Thus why the article is dated 1/1/2008.

I often wonder if the people who grow up with those weird (sorry, unique) names end up hating their parents with every fiber of their being for saddling them with such terrible names. Some parents are misguided and think every kid wants to stand out from the rest of their peers. Some parents are pushed into passing along a family name that should have died out generations ago. Some parents indulged in too many psychotropic drugs in their earlier stages of life.

Now, CNN illustrates some of the parents who realized the error in their ways and changed their child's name. While none of the couples in this story had given particularly odd-ball names to their children, perhaps this will be a lesson to those mothers who think the name they choose while heavily anesthetized will have staying power.

Some names however aren't too odd or uncommon, but just really horrible names. For example:

Bertha: Do you want your child to grow up to be overweight and featured on Cops or Jerry Springer (or both)?

Gertrude: What an excellent name! For a grandmother of 12 who smokes 2 packs a day. For a newborn? Not so excellent

Hunter: You might as well petition L.L. Bean for a lifetime supply of plaid overshirts

Demon: Yes, a real name I have seen. Why would you continue to go by this name?

Many more exist and have been previously mocked here, here, and here.