Teachers: the names you will never name your own kids

[AGDee]

There's a Jeffery I have to email from time to time at work. The first time I had to do it, I was very frustrated because our lookup starts with the first name and I kept looking for Jeffrey.

[PhoenixAzul]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

Too bad my mother-in-law wasn't told this when my husband was born. He has a common name with two of the letters reversed: Jeffery instead of Jeffrey. People tend to "correct" it to the typical spelling. This has caused him to have to have his passport redone, barely in time for a trip to Australia, and to have the mortgage papers on our first house redone. It's just a pain.

Changing the spelling on a common name creates a lifelong nuisance.

See,I feel for your husband. I have a name that has many spelling options, all "correct" (and some wacky).
Tracey
Tracy
Tracie
Traci
Traycee (don't do this to your child!)


It burns my biscuits that people INSIST on spelling my name incorrectly, especially in the face of overwhelming documentation to the contrary. For example: when I was a teenager/college age, I was a municipal lifeguard. I had to fill my timesheets out in triplicate. All spelled TracEY. Nope, all paychecks to TracY.

My current work e-mail is Name@Company.com. Right? So you have to TYPE my first name to get an e-mail to me, but then when you address me by misspelling my first name in the body of the e-mail, I have to question your sanity. I'm going to blame it all on the fact that they're a bunch of computer dudes.

My mortgage paperwork had to be changed because the mortgage company had misspelled my name. Dude, you had my driver's license right in front of you!

The plus side is that this has made me hyper aware of checking the spelling of people's names before I hit send. Grr, etc.

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

I've heard the Le-ah from lots of teachers who "knew someone" with the "Le dash ah" or "Shithead" in their class. I think it's an urban legend.

I agree with you.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

See,I feel for your husband. I have a name that has many spelling options, all "correct" (and some wacky).
Tracey
Tracy
Tracie
Traci
Traycee (don't do this to your child!)


It burns my biscuits that people INSIST on spelling my name incorrectly . . . .

And I feel your pain. I have a given name that has more than one standard nickname with more than one accepted spelling, and the one I use isn't the more common one, though it's hardly unusual. I've lost count of how many times people like bank tellers will see my full name and, trying to be friendly and familiar, call me by a nickname that I not only don't use, but that I really don't like being called.

Add to that, there is more than one pronunciation—the "usual" one and the one you'll likely only find in parts of the South and, supposedly, in Scotland. Yes, I have had people tell me that I pronounce my name incorrectly.

The funny thing is that growing up, I knew a handful of other people with my name (or the more common spelling variant), and they all pronounce the name the same way my family and I do. I was in college before I met anyone who pronounces it the "normal" way.

Meanwhile, my brother has a name that isn't but so common and that is spelled differently from the way it's normally seen. He had to have his med school diploma redone. My sister has a name we've never heard outside our family, except as a surname.

And to be clear, our parents didn't change spellings or anything like that. These are all family names that go back generations.

[SWTXBelle]

http://www.scarymommy.com/baby-name-donts/

"Is it just me, or is it like a freakin’ contest nowadays of who can give their kid the most gag-worthy name? All of a sudden, everyone is “that guy” with regards to naming their offspring. You know, that guy who makes folks roll their eyes or stare blankly when they hear the baby’s “hip” or intentionally unusual furniture- or foreign city-inspired name that is spelled with 7 extra consonants and a random apostrophe? Yeah. I didn’t want to be that guy. Don’t you be that guy, either."

[chi-o_cat]

One time I was working at a credit union and waited on someone named something like Alysyn. I tried to pronounce it like the word “listen” with an A at the front (as in, “let’s take ‘a listen’ at it”). It turns out, it was just a special snowflake spelling of Allison.

[khlkcca]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

I've heard the Le-ah from lots of teachers who "knew someone" with the "Le dash ah" or "Shithead" in their class. I think it's an urban legend.

We definitely had a La-a (la dash a) last year. We also currently have a Ses, a Cannabis, and a Urmajeste (Your majesty).

It amazes me that the government limits what you can put on you license plate, but not what you can name your child.

[IndianaSigKap]

Originally Posted by khlkcca

We definitely had a La-a (la dash a) last year. We also currently have a Ses, a Cannabis, and a Urmajeste (Your majesty).

It amazes me that the government limits what you can put on you license plate, but not what you can name your child.

A few weeks ago, a crime suspect's arrest was on the news and his first name was Yomajesty. I actually laughed out loud when the news guy had to say his name.

[AnchorAlumna]

Newborn twins named Orangejello and Lemonjello - I have a friend in Birmingham AL who processed these kids' lab tests.

[Sciencewoman]

Of my former students, the worst name ever was: Gredericka. Pronounced Gred-reek-ah. Like Fredericka, but with a G. It just sounded so guttural.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

Of my former students, the worst name ever was: Gredericka. Pronounced Gred-reek-ah. Like Fredericka, but with a G. It just sounded so guttural.

Well, it is a German name, so guttural maybe comes with the territory.

Originally Posted by khlkcca

It amazes me that the government limits what you can put on you license plate, but not what you can name your child.

That's because the government issues those license plates and requires them on cars before those cars can be driven on public roads. The design of the plates is set by law or regulation, and the purpose of them is to provide official and unique identification for government purposes. The equivalent for people would probably be Social Security Numbers, not names.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by khlkcca

We definitely had a La-a (la dash a) last year. We also currently have a Ses, a Cannabis, and a Urmajeste (Your majesty).

It amazes me that the government limits what you can put on you license plate, but not what you can name your child.

You can always move to New Zealand!

Some of the names in this article are RIDICULOUS.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/01/world/...ge-baby-names/

...acceptable names must not cause offense to a reasonable person, not be unreasonably long and should not resemble an official title and rank.

It's no surprise then that the names nixed most often since 2001 are "Justice" (62 times) and "King" (31 times).

Some of the other entries scored points in the creativity department -- but clearly didn't take into account the lifetime of pain they'd bring.

"Mafia No Fear." "4Real." "Anal."

Oh, come on!

Then there were the parents who preferred brevity through punctuation. The ones who picked '"*" (the asterisk) or '"."(period).

[ComradesTrue]

I'm seeing a lot of names here that I think are closer to urban legends. Some of these names/stories mentioned above I heard about 30 years ago in Texas- always a friend who had a friend who was a nurse, etc.

So, along those lines I present another one that I think is urban legend: Porche Corvetta Ford.

The person who told me that one is the same one who shared orangejello and lemonjello as well as Female (fe-mah-lee) and shithead (shi-thead). No one is truly that stupid, and no one is so stumped as to coming up with a name as to read it on a bracelet or the food on a tray.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Blondie93

I'm seeing a lot of names here that I think are closer to urban legends. Some of these names/stories mentioned above I heard about 30 years ago in Texas- always a friend who had a friend who was a nurse, etc.

So, along those lines I present another one that I think is urban legend: Porche Corvetta Ford.

The person who told me that one is the same one who shared orangejello and lemonjello as well as Female (fe-mah-lee) and shithead (shi-thead). No one is truly that stupid, and no one is so stumped as to coming up with a name as to read it on a bracelet or the food on a tray.

Snopes at your service.

And I think Snopes is right that there's more than a little racism, classism and regionalism going on in these urban legends.

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Snopes at your service.

And I think Snopes is right that there's more than a little racism, classism and regionalism going in in these urban legends.

I was just about to post the same link.