The better half and I "discussed" our kids names for quite a while before they were born and a couple of times it got into "arguing mode.
She wanted "Irish" sounding names, which I was perfectly fine with, but the real contentiousness came from the spellings.
One of the "points" of the article is that elementary school peers who are bulies just love to mis-pronounce names, or make derogatory sing-songs about them, to see if they can get a rise out of the kid.
There is also discussion of "African-American" names as opposed to "white" names in terms of hiring.
http://news.yahoo.com/baby-name-regr...140808874.html
The following is a generic commentary on my children's names and the angst/luck/thoughts involved with them, and may not be of any interest so if the reader wan'ts to just read the article linked above, please do so.
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So I was prescient on that account.
However, I was not on another.
The general idea about names, in terms of coffee klatch teacher discussions is that the local mores' dictate, to a certain extent, the spelling of names and their useage.
However, those names may, or may not, translate well to other areas or times.
So, our duaghter's name which is the name of a particular plant associated with Ireland was very nice back in the 70s and still is today.
Our first boy's name is not the Irish spelling but an "Americanized" spelling which cannot in any way be mis-pronounced but the Gallic way would have lead to mulitple iterations of purposeful mispronounciations. And the spelling is a "phonetic" one in the U.S. also, as it is in Europe. Also it "rolls wsll" from the tongue. He tends to be a somewhat "world traveller" so the name has worked well for him.
However our second boy has the Irish spelling of his name, which really IS the Irish spelling but there is an equivalent Biblical name which sounds the same except with strict pronounciation.
The real problem that we did not think about was that the local mores' demanded the Biblical spelling and also..... there was a girl born a year earlier that had the Irish spelling.
So, he never "really liked" his name while in school because several other, older, boys had the Biblical spelling and the one girl had the Irish spelling. However, we both pointed out the simple fact that it was, and is a highly respected name in Ireland and Europe and was THE correct spelling for that "version" of the name. And we also kept reminding him that he, and the other kids was/were probably going to move away from the area because of what he was going to do as a career, and he has done that, and he is a "world traveller", mainly to Europe also....and he suddenly found that in college and onward, his name was perfecto! lol
So.... there is discussion in the article about how names can actually "pull" a kid into something, or conversely condemn the kid into something.
In all three of our cases, we created in the kids the "expectation" that they would go to college, excel in what they wanted to study and be some kind of "mover and shaker" and they have done that. How much of that was propelled by the names? Don't know, if any at all, but the youngest boy's utter surprise and satisfaction when he encountered "university people" with his name is still a source of amusement to me.
Me, I was named with the first name of my two uncles one of which was Biblical and the other a Latin name that, although not unusual, is a memorable one and sounds good in both abbreviated and long form, it is also the one useage of a television hero who had a multi-year run and is still known today.... So, I lucked out.
She wanted "Irish" sounding names, which I was perfectly fine with, but the real contentiousness came from the spellings.
One of the "points" of the article is that elementary school peers who are bulies just love to mis-pronounce names, or make derogatory sing-songs about them, to see if they can get a rise out of the kid.
There is also discussion of "African-American" names as opposed to "white" names in terms of hiring.
http://news.yahoo.com/baby-name-regr...140808874.html
The following is a generic commentary on my children's names and the angst/luck/thoughts involved with them, and may not be of any interest so if the reader wan'ts to just read the article linked above, please do so.
************************
So I was prescient on that account.
However, I was not on another.
The general idea about names, in terms of coffee klatch teacher discussions is that the local mores' dictate, to a certain extent, the spelling of names and their useage.
However, those names may, or may not, translate well to other areas or times.
So, our duaghter's name which is the name of a particular plant associated with Ireland was very nice back in the 70s and still is today.
Our first boy's name is not the Irish spelling but an "Americanized" spelling which cannot in any way be mis-pronounced but the Gallic way would have lead to mulitple iterations of purposeful mispronounciations. And the spelling is a "phonetic" one in the U.S. also, as it is in Europe. Also it "rolls wsll" from the tongue. He tends to be a somewhat "world traveller" so the name has worked well for him.
However our second boy has the Irish spelling of his name, which really IS the Irish spelling but there is an equivalent Biblical name which sounds the same except with strict pronounciation.
The real problem that we did not think about was that the local mores' demanded the Biblical spelling and also..... there was a girl born a year earlier that had the Irish spelling.
So, he never "really liked" his name while in school because several other, older, boys had the Biblical spelling and the one girl had the Irish spelling. However, we both pointed out the simple fact that it was, and is a highly respected name in Ireland and Europe and was THE correct spelling for that "version" of the name. And we also kept reminding him that he, and the other kids was/were probably going to move away from the area because of what he was going to do as a career, and he has done that, and he is a "world traveller", mainly to Europe also....and he suddenly found that in college and onward, his name was perfecto! lol
So.... there is discussion in the article about how names can actually "pull" a kid into something, or conversely condemn the kid into something.
In all three of our cases, we created in the kids the "expectation" that they would go to college, excel in what they wanted to study and be some kind of "mover and shaker" and they have done that. How much of that was propelled by the names? Don't know, if any at all, but the youngest boy's utter surprise and satisfaction when he encountered "university people" with his name is still a source of amusement to me.
Me, I was named with the first name of my two uncles one of which was Biblical and the other a Latin name that, although not unusual, is a memorable one and sounds good in both abbreviated and long form, it is also the one useage of a television hero who had a multi-year run and is still known today.... So, I lucked out.
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