Brand names: Some Americans are naming their children after consumer products

WORLD ^ | 11/15/03 | Gene Edward Veith

[WaterDragon]

So, was Cleveland Evans born in the era when parents named their babies after cities?

[AnAmericanMother]

My favorite Argentine name is Immaculata Concepcion Finkelstein.

[AnAmericanMother]

The great published authority on this question is John Train's Remarkable Names of Real People. It was published in 1977 and sadly is out of print.

But some enterprising soul has posted excerpts from Train's book.

[AnAmericanMother]

What's wrong with Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed, huh?

[GeekDejure]

I named my two beautiful German Shepards after the Inteligencia:

"Play-Toe" and "Sock-Rat-Ease" !!!

.

[Old Professer]

There ought to be at least a thousand named Trojan.

[nmh]

I was just thinking ... these product names will be helpful to normal HR people, if they still exist. It would make it easier to put Chevy's and Ford's resume in the circular file. Honestly if the parents come up with these sort of names it's unlikely you'll be bowled over by the performance of the product of the two. It's a HUGE red flag.

[nmh]

This is the funniest thread I've seen in awhile.

I can't resist submitting there potentials ....

How about Bounty (the great picker upper) for a boy of course. Or aids, or motion?

[Constantine XIII]

"IZOD"

Me too!

[hunter112]

So, was Cleveland Evans born in the era when parents named their babies after cities?

Perhaps not, but his parents were clearly forerunners in another annoying naming trend: giving what were only last names as first names.

My only theory is, that these people avoid "normal" names because they all know a Steven, or a Mary, etc., that they don't like.

[handk]

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To: rhema

I named my two beautiful German Shepards after the Inteligencia:

"Play-Toe" and "Sock-Rat-Ease" !!!

Good for you. Now, if you could only spell the word correctly that generally describes a class of people with intelligence.

The correct spelling is "intelligentsia".

Dumbed-Down America! Catch the Fever!

[GOPcapitalist]

Not too long ago there was some news story in a ghetto neighborhood in Houston. The news reporter went down there and spent several minutes on a live report interviewing a woman named La Quinta - spelled just like the motel chain. She pronounced it "La Kwinta" but the reporter, not knowing this, kept saying it like the motel, "La Keenta." He did this six or seven times. It was one of the funniest things I had seen on the news in a while.

[GOPcapitalist]

This means that Jerry Springer and Maury Povich both have long careers ahead of them.

Yes. That is true. I was flipping channels late one night and one of those types of shows was on. I don't know what the screwed up topic of the day was, but when I flipped by that channel Jenny Jones or somebody like that was interviewing a horrendously overweight welfare queen type named Chewbacca.

[GOPcapitalist]

My co-worker had a cleaning lady who named her newborn daughter, "Placenta". She heard the nurse or doctor say the word and thought it was a "real purty name"

I've heard stories like that before. I knew somebody who worked with a lady named Urethra - the mother had heard it used in the hospital and thought it sounded pretty!

[GeronL]

I think there will be some boys named Dodge Hemi born this year

[GeronL]

My last name is Looney. We had lots of fun growing up. My sisters were Jennifer Lee, Billie Ann, Wendy Elaine and my brother is Dusty Lee..... I am Floyd Geron Looney.

Geron I suppose was shortened from Geronimo.

[GeronL]

Meet my son Dodge Hemi../kidding

[GeekDejure]

Good for you. Now, if you could only spell the word correctly that generally describes a class of people with intelligence. The correct spelling is "intelligentsia".

Dumbed-Down America! Catch the Fever!

Tsk, tsk, tsk. As a proof reader you only scored 50%. Shepard = Sheperd !!! ;-))

.

[Renfield]

I knew a girl in college named Pansy Looney.
SO...Rounding it all up....from college, Pansy Looney, Anita Hurt, Anita Miracle, Ivy Bush, and Priscilla Butt (don't remember anyone calling her "Prissy", but it must have happened sometime) (Priscilla was from India).

[AnAmericanMother]

Perhaps not, but his parents were clearly forerunners in another annoying naming trend: giving what were only last names as first names.

This isn't a new trend, it's a long-standing custom in the South, especially among the older families.

Usually results when a girl of good family marries a guy of good family, and they want to preserve her family name in the line. No decent Southern girl would hyphenate her name (at least not until recently), so the parents would bestow her maiden name as a given name to her firstborn son.

This has happened over and over again in my family, and I'm afraid I did it to both my son and my daughter - although I did also give them a more "normal" name for convenience because my maiden name doesn't make as good a Christian name as some. This means that they have three names - which is considered odd unless you're an old-line Southerner (or a Catholic). But the bonus is that it makes genealogy a whole lot easier.