OH, the power!!!

It's every parent's right and priviledge to name their child. You would think they would have rules and for some children's sake, I think you could make a case for abusive naming. Brian used to love this site with bad baby names that is no longer on the net. Some radio station apparently went into city records to highlight how idiotic (and insensitive) some parents can really be. Remember, these are REAL names, given to actual, live, innocent babies. Some of the ones that still have us laughing (or crying or crying with laughter): Anastasia Anestesia Anderson. Pimp Hard Jennings. Darth Vader Smith. (they went on and on, but we forget them now) I've read of parents naming their child "it" and "abc". Now, don't you think that should be outlawed???

The 20th we hope to find out the sex of our developing baby and before any of you can protest the names we choose, we are wielding our power by not telling! ha, ha. No really, we keep it a surprise until we have the baby in hand and named in case we decide to change our minds or if anyone really hates it, it will be too late. (See, the power is already getting to us!)

We do have our own standards. 1) We like unique names (as in not everyone has it) 2) We try to balance this out with not doing totally weird names (like something no one has ever heard of or is totally off the charts) 3) We like the names to have good meanings. We think names mean something, maybe that rose wouldn't smell so sweet if it was named a thistle!!


Of course, Ivan Truth Christophe Baggett is a little wierd in that it is long and you've probably never heard of someone named Truth. We added that name part way through, 'cause we felt we should. My cousin's son is also named Truth, so at least there are 2 of them. Ivan is learning his alphabet through all sorts of games, one of them online, so maybe he will be able to write or at least type out his name before middle school!

If we have a girl, we may already have the names, chosen since before Ivan. If we have a boy, the name game begins (it took us a lot of work to come up with Ivan's).

I am curious about the commonality of names in different places. Angela was rare in Saskatchewan, Canada. I'd only heard of one other Angela all my years growing up, until I came to the Southern US. Everyone is Angela here or Angie or Angelica. I have at least 2 other people named Angela that I would consider close to me (one as a friend, one down the block).

So tell me... How many people do you know with the following names? Tell us your name and where you live (if you've lived several places a long time, pick one for our little survey). Count people you actually know or know about (not a name tag you saw on the cashier, but at least aquaintances).

Ivan,
Jennifer/Jenny,
Ashley,
Maria,
Sam,
Marisol,
Sue,
Michael/Mike,
Floyd,
Christian.

AND tell us the weirdest name you've heard.