Interesting local article on baby names

"Sophie" wrote:

How would you shorten Alexandra?

Jean


That would be a nickname and I don't *do* nicknames. Alexandra would be
Alexandra


My mom didn't do nicknames either, and I made one up for myself and used it
ASAP (much to my mom's dismay). My niece named Elizabeth is now called
Lizzy which is a nn that I don't care for and one of my daughters is now
called by a shortened version of her name that I don't like much either.
So just because the mom doesn't like nns doesn't mean that it won't happen.

I have a friend who named her child with the middle name that she actually
preferred figuring that when she was in middle school and writing with
green or purple ink and making little circles for the dots over her "i"s
that she'd switch to her middle name as what she would be called.

The name that is the most ambiguous as far as sex IMHO is Pat which can be
Patrick or Patricia, and easy to make a mistake if you just see it written.

I have a great uncle (dead now) named Carroll, and I've had both girls and
boys named Frances/Francis in my classes in school (and the boy wasn't
called Frank either - he was Francis all the way). I've also known a man
named Kim, and a good friend of mine - mother of some of my children's best
friends is named George. Not Georgia or Georgianna, but George.

I don't think you can assume that all of the weird names out there are just
something that the trendy parents made up. Quite a lot of them are really
old family names. In the old days, the spelling wasn't quite so set in
stone as now - even when the kids were named James (Jeames) or Elizabeth
(Elisabeth). [Those are actual spellings that I've found in my own family
tree about 6-8 generations back]

Of course some of them ARE made up -- I mean I don't think Frank Zappa had
anyone in his family named Moon Unit. Nor do I think Tanja (finally
remembered how she spelled it) was named after anyone.


grandma Rosalie

"Sophie" wrote in message
...
As far as I'm concerned, they can be either boys or girls--provided they
are the SURNAMES, of course g!
--
Be well, Barbara -- old-fashioned and proud of it!


To me Logan is an airport, but nevermind - lol.

Yeah, it's like naming your kid Dulles or O'Hare g!

I dunno, Cameron doesn't
bother me. I knew a few in college and they were boys. To me it's a
genuine
boys name.

Hey now I think about it, there were Camerons in elementary school but
they
were girls and went by Cammy/Cammie.

Interesting. I'm reasonably sure I never met a Cameron of either gender my
age.

Actually, Cameron doesn't bother me nearly as much as Madison, Mackenzie,
Taylor, etc., but that's probably because it doesn't seem to be outrageously
popular out here. It's no problem to me if others like these names and use
them--it's just that my reaction is always "Ick!" But I am totally picky and
also dislike perfectly traditional names like Ashley and Brittany, so there
you go. I just know what I like (and don't!).
--
Be well, Barbara
(Julian [6], Aurora [4], and Vernon's [18mo] mom)
See us at http://photos.yahoo.com/guavaln

This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop:
"She rose her eyebrows at Toby" -- from "O' Artful Death", by Sarah Stewart
Taylor

All opinions expressed in this post are well-reasoned and insightful.
Needless to say, they are not those of my Internet Service Provider, its
other subscribers or lackeys. Anyone who says otherwise is itchin' for a
fight. -- with apologies to Michael Feldman

In article ,
"Mary W." wrote:

Hillary Israeli wrote:

In ,
Jenn wrote:

*In article ,
* (Hillary Israeli) wrote:
*
* In ,
* Jenn wrote:
*
* *but the correct foreign pronunciation of a place name is not 'correct'
* *if the people who use the name locally differ e.g. Lafayette as a place
* *name is often correctly pronounced Lah FAY ut not LA fay ette in the US
* *when it is a town or street name. Cairo Il is correctly pronounced Kay
*
* Seriously? Here in Lafayette Hill, PA, we say LAH-fay-ette HILL.
*
*
*in Nashville it is LAH fayut

so, where is it that you were saying they correctly pronounce it Lah FAY
ut, then?? Just curious!

Not Lafayette, but in Atlanta, a major road is Ponce de Leon. Pronounced
locally as Ponce da LEE-on. Took a little while to get used to that. Mostly
called "Ponce".

Mary



Right -- and in Wisconsin, there's a town called Berlin pronounced
"BURR-lin".

I remember visiting a school in Milwaukee in an area that had, many
years earlier, been primarily Polish. The school had been named after
someone from that time, with a fairly common Polish last name, and one I
knew how to pronounce because there were LOTS of Polish folks where I
grew up. The area had shifted, and was now primarily Hispanic. The way
everyone now pronounced the name was definately NOT Polish! But, since
everyone, from the principal on down pronounced it that way, I had to
accept it as the "proper" way to say the school name. (Wish i could
remember what it was.)

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

Tom Enright wrote and I snipped:

You never know. My 10 yo son is named Cameron. I always liked the name
since hearing of the football coach Cam Cameron (Indiana?) and hockey
player Cam Neely. Two or three months later "The Mask" is released and
suddenly people know of Cameron Diaz, now the name is as popular with girls
as boys. Personally, I think many of those people who name their girl
Cameron are confusing it it with Carmen.

Well, I have a girlfriend born in 1964, who's named Cameron. We call
her Cammy. She certainly wasn't named after Cameron Diaz. It must have
been a girl's name before her.

-Patty, mom to Corinne [Mar-98] and Nathan [May-00]
and stepmom to Victoria [Apr-90]

My mom didn't do nicknames either, and I made one up for myself and used
it
ASAP (much to my mom's dismay). My niece named Elizabeth is now called
Lizzy which is a nn that I don't care for and one of my daughters is now
called by a shortened version of her name that I don't like much either.
So just because the mom doesn't like nns doesn't mean that it won't
happen.

I don't buy that. I've known several Jennifers, Anddrews, Jacobs, and
Davids. They are *not* Jennys or Jenns, Andys, Jakes, or Daves.

My Patrick has only been called Pat once, by a pediatrician, who was swiftly
correctly and laughed, saying his wife is the same way about nicknames.


I have a friend who named her child with the middle name that she actually
preferred figuring that when she was in middle school and writing with
green or purple ink and making little circles for the dots over her "i"s
that she'd switch to her middle name as what she would be called.

If she preferred the middle name, why didn't she use it as the first name?

To me Logan is an airport, but nevermind - lol.

Yeah, it's like naming your kid Dulles or O'Hare g!

Lol.



Actually, Cameron doesn't bother me nearly as much as Madison, Mackenzie,
Taylor, etc., but that's probably because it doesn't seem to be
outrageously
popular out here. It's no problem to me if others like these names and use
them--it's just that my reaction is always "Ick!"

Same here. Those names are jsut so unbelievably common/trendy.

But I am totally picky and
also dislike perfectly traditional names like Ashley and Brittany, so
there
you go. I just know what I like (and don't!).
--
Be well, Barbara

I don't like those either

sher wrote and I snipped:

The top 10 girls names we 1. Emma (3), with one spelling of Ema,
Emily (1), with one spelling of Emilee, Madison (not ranked), with
spellings of Madyson and Madysen and Taylor (not ranked), six times
each; 5. Hailey (not ranked), with one Haleigh, Megan (10), with one
spelling of Meigen, Olivia (4) and Samantha (9), five times; and 9.
Allison (21), including one Alison and one Allisyn, Alexandria (19),
with one Alexsandra, Cassandra (not ranked), including one Kasaundra,
Gabriel (not ranked), with one spelling of Gabrielle, and Isabell (not
ranked), including single spellings of Isabel and Izabelle, four times
each.

I don't get Gabriel as a girl's name. Who would think this was a girl?
Has anyone else heard of this?

It makes me thing the authors got this wrong and there were 3 boy
Gabriels and 1 girl Gabrielle.

-Patty, mom to Corinne [Mar-98] and Nathan [May-00]
and stepmom to Victoria [Apr-90]

"P. G. Chavez" wrote in message
...
sher wrote and I snipped:

The top 10 girls names we 1. Emma (3), with one spelling of Ema,
Emily (1), with one spelling of Emilee, Madison (not ranked), with
spellings of Madyson and Madysen and Taylor (not ranked), six times
each; 5. Hailey (not ranked), with one Haleigh, Megan (10), with one
spelling of Meigen, Olivia (4) and Samantha (9), five times; and 9.
Allison (21), including one Alison and one Allisyn, Alexandria (19),
with one Alexsandra, Cassandra (not ranked), including one Kasaundra,
Gabriel (not ranked), with one spelling of Gabrielle, and Isabell (not
ranked), including single spellings of Isabel and Izabelle, four times
each.

I don't get Gabriel as a girl's name. Who would think this was a girl?
Has anyone else heard of this?

It makes me thing the authors got this wrong and there were 3 boy
Gabriels and 1 girl Gabrielle.

-Patty, mom to Corinne [Mar-98] and Nathan [May-00]
and stepmom to Victoria [Apr-90]

I've known people not know the difference between Daniel and Danielle
before. Not the same names at all.

P. G. Chavez wrote:
Tom Enright wrote and I snipped:

You never know. My 10 yo son is named Cameron. I always liked the name
since hearing of the football coach Cam Cameron (Indiana?) and hockey
player Cam Neely. Two or three months later "The Mask" is released and
suddenly people know of Cameron Diaz, now the name is as popular with girls
as boys. Personally, I think many of those people who name their girl
Cameron are confusing it it with Carmen.


Well, I have a girlfriend born in 1964, who's named Cameron. We call
her Cammy. She certainly wasn't named after Cameron Diaz. It must have
been a girl's name before her.

-Patty, mom to Corinne [Mar-98] and Nathan [May-00]
and stepmom to Victoria [Apr-90]


It might have been a surname in her family. There's nothing new about
giving a child a surname as a first name - that's how I got mine, and
I'm not the only Clisby in the family.

Clisby

"Hillary Israeli" wrote But this particular kid was
named Joaquin ObviouslyHispanicLastname, and
the Philly 'burbs aren't exactly suffering from a dearth of Mexican
migrant workers, so frankly there was no excuse for the particular teacher
at the particular time in this particular place to be so darned ignorant!



Joaquin isn't that common that one would be expected to know it, unlike Juan
or Jose.
I have a friend from Spain named Joaquin, its pronounced HAH! Keen, Not WAH
Keen. THe first syllable is a guttural HA sound, almost like clearing of the
throat, kind of arabic in tone.