Beef Supreme anyone?

We were stationed in Annapolis when I was in 7th and 8th grade. Neighbors of ours, the Barrs, had a son named Clark and a daughter named Candy ...

And I thought my friend was cruel for naming his dog, "Stop," just to get a laugh out of confusing the poor mutt with, "Come here, Stop!"

You: "mirrors our cultural obsession with personal expression in a time when our individual sense of political power is on the wane"

Geico woman: " We live in a society where the individual ego and the group dynamic is in constant struggle."

And I will reply exactly how the caveman did.

What?

I went to high school with a girl named - no kidding - Sunny Ann Rainey. Nice girl, too.

I was in Junior Achievement in high school and met another kid from a high school across town named Rocky Mountain. He was philosophical about his name - said his folks had a sense of humor.

As for Butts - my brother went to high school with Bernard Butts. That's right - Bernie Butts.

If any of you guys are reading this post, hello! Long time no see!

------

Is "baby branding" really new? Oh, I'll mock right along with the best of you, but wasn't it the height of hubris to name your baby "Mary" after the mother of Jesus? And "Mary" (or Marie for that matter) isn't exactly how it's spelled in Aramaic, is it?

Oh, and please clarify at what point in human history did individuals feel really empowered? There are so many eras in which "the little guy" was enthroned that it's hard to pick.

It was bad enough for me to have the middle name Gaye. I had them pronounce it "guy-ya" at my high school graduation. I would have been really angry with my folks except that I was born in '73 and the word just meant "happy" then. That didn't help in elementary school, though. Anyway, some of the doozies I have actually known:

Norman Norman (went by middle name, Scott)

Two daughters of a Chevy dealer, Corvette and Corvair

Wolfgang and his sister Maxima Remington who live in rural WY

A customer of ours, Ms. Long-Johnson (think before you hyphenate, ladies!)

Justin Case and Penny Nichol at my high school

Funny or cutesy names are tempting, I know (our last name is Wood - Red, Holly, Forrest, Shirley) but there is a fine line between memorable and playground bait. They will only be kids for one-tenth of their life, be responsible for goodness' sake!!

There were 3 different Tamiqua's behind the registers. Though to be fair I think one of them was Tamikwa.

Way back when, my great grandfather, whose first name was Haywood, wanted a boy to be Haywood Jr. His first child was a girl, so when he and my great grandmother conceived their second child, he must have been sure it would be a boy. Finally, Haywood Jr.! Well, things didn't work out that way; instead, the couple had a second daughter. Not to be deterred, my great-grandfather Haywood plowed ahead and named his baby girl "Haywoodeen." Even in the 1920s that was a screwy name. When she married my grandfather and officially changed her last name to his, she took the opportunity to change her first name, slightly modifying her maiden name into a more reasonable first name: Vicky.

My kid, my genes, my money spent raising him/her, my choice to name him/her what I please.

end of story.

people have been tagging their kids with bizarre names for centuries. it's probably just that we hear about it more now.

My favorite, from the UK in 1981: PepsiCola Atombomb Washington.

I think parents do owe it to their children not to artificially burden them with names that will make thier lives difficult. Being an "Arthur" was bad enough (I've come to appreciate it as life went on), but to be LaShonda Jones, or iPod Paltrow is just wrong.

Nothing to see here. Just a bunch of human beings who fall *well* below the average intelligence quotient.

But even I think this is government intervention into naming children is going too far. Let parents name their kids whatever they want. Either it will work out or it won't. The kids will hate them later or they won't. The kids will get picked on and teased or they won't.

Remember, kids will tease and pick on other because that's what they do. Kids are mean. If it's not a name, it'll be something else.

And kids will hate their parents, whether it's over a name or being grounded or whatever. Because it's another thing kids do. Hate their parents.

My parents named me something dumb. I grew up, changed my name, and now I'm called by something I like. If my parents had refused to go along with my choice, we'd be seeing less of each other, maybe. Or maybe I'd just be annoyed with them when they called me by my original name. As it is, they call me by my "new" name (I changed it 25 years ago) and we get along fine.

Naming Police, get a real job. Everyone else, suck it up.

I particularly hate it when parents give a kid the same trendy name that every other child the same age has, but creatively misspell it to show how unique and special their offspring is. All that these "uniquely" spelled names do is make the parents look like illiterates. It makes my inner editor want to break out the red pen -- "It's spelled Brittany, dammit, not Britnee or Britony or Brytinee or Britney or ..."

OBGYN in Northern Virginia: Dr. Harry C. Beaver

My mom's cousin's kids: Deuce Carter and Elvis Cadillac

If you want the BEST laugh of your life, check out the most amazing blog, "Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing. A Primer on Parent Cruelty."

http://notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames

Read about the mother who wants to name her child Sophelia (because she loves Olivia and Sophie but finds them too common), an dif not Sophelia, then Allorah, Fairith, Sabriel or Katrien, not to mention the mother torn between "Brecklyn Kate" and "Ridgely Mae."

OMG, I'm laughing just checking this site out again!!!!