In article , Wendy says...

In misc.kids Vicki S wrote:
(sher) wrote:
UP FRONT/COMMENTARY: A.L. ALFORD JR. ...
As always, parents showed creativity with names.

Among the boys were ... Declan ...

I don't know about any of the other names, but I understand Declan is a
perfectly ordinary Irish name. The rock musician "Elvis Costello" is
actaully named "Declan P.A. Macmanus" and he's close on to 50 years old.

True. And that raises a good point: a good cultural awareness is required
if you're going to give your child an unusual name. For example,
an acquaintance of mine wanted to name her daughter some version of
Kay-Leigh but wanted to spell it "Kali". I mentioned that "Kali" was a
particularly brutal and bloodthirsty Hindu Goddess. She thought I was
being ridiculous to raise that objection because NO ONE knows
that. (Well... no... )

Right. Apparently *she* didn't know, but enough people know.


And you don't want to fall into the trap of naming someone something
because the names seem to go together. Adolph... Hitler? if you don't
know the culture from which you are drawing the name you might really
screw up.


True. But I think Rosalie's example, and many of the 'unusual' names I've run
across are names drawn in the context of the child's own background. A few
examples of what others have (IMO ignorantly) considered too weird or otherwise
'wrong' in friends and friend's children: Thorger, Wolfgang, Osama.


Banty (Wolfgang: "Well, John - no, my parents didn't name me after Mozart, they
named me after my grandfather - were you named after JFK?")