Technical baby names (article)

Technological baby names: Horrific or cool?
By James Pearce, Special to CNETAsia
Monday, January 5 2004 8:59 AM

It is a well known and popular fact that people are a product of society.
Now people are beginning to name their children after products, and who
knows where that will end?

A psychology professor by the name of Cleveland Evans who works at Bellevue
University in Nebraska analysed the names of four million babies born in the
U.S. in 2000 and discovered the trend of parents naming their children after
products.

There were several boys names based on cars * including Chevy, Camry and
Dodge * while girls names include fashion houses such as Armani and Cartier,
as well as Essence, a name Evans believes was inspired by a women's
magazine. Seven children were named Courvoisier, after a brand of cognac,
which was possibly a contributing factor to the pregnancy? If that took off
in Australia we'd have hundreds of XXXX and Bundabergs running around.

Of course, these products have been around for a long time, and older brands
such as Chanel and Tiffany entered the naming lexicon decades ago. So it's
only a matter of time before parents begin naming their children after
technology brands.

Siemens, Panasonic, Symbian and Pentium are all potential childhood traumas
waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting generation. Of course, it can get
worse * would you name your son Longhorn? And anyone named Intel had better
hope the current "Intel Inside" promotion has ended by the time they hit
school.

However, there could be some benefits. Memory guru Benjamin Levy has
bemoaned the fact that most names are a random jumble of nonsensical
syllables, which makes it hard to remember the names. He teaches how to
remember people's names by linking them to an image, and claims the pilgrims
of America had the right idea in naming people things like Temperance and
Chastity. Even Native Americans had a more sensible naming system by
choosing a name based on a distinguishing characteristic.

Let's be honest * when you meet one of the Linux's I am sure are running
around, it will be easy to remember their name by simply picturing them as a
giant penguin.

ZDNet Australia¹s James Pearce reported from Sydney.

If that took off
in Australia we'd have hundreds of XXXX and Bundabergs running around.

LMAO!

I remember reading an article like this back in the 80s.