[Alouette]

Condoleezza.

[bonfire]

Condoleeza just sounds Southern.

[Ditter]

I think I remember hearing that Condoleezza is a classical music term, not that I would know, I like country and western myself. ;9)

[dighton]

“Her mother, a pianist, was thinking of the musical direction con dolcezza, or ‘with sweetness’; for her only child, she composed a variation on it.”

[pollyannaish]

I would like to add that this rule should go for us white parents who think we must give our children "special" one off spellings for regular names. It's not cute. It's illiterate. Every parent shoud check out the corresponding chapter in Freakonomics.

[gogeo]

That's Latin, isn't it?

[ASH71]

Often they simply invent new names. For instance, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice derives her first name from the musical term 'con dolcezza' which mean 'to play with sweetness'.

http://www.rogerdarlington.co.uk/useofnames.html

[dandelion]

Condoleezza is a musical notation. Italian for "with sweetness" (con dolcezza" And perfectly acceptable to anyone who knows their classical music! It shows that names really do affect us an inordinate amount - as witness by her classical music training.

One can overcome an "unusual" name, but the hurdles certainly can be difficult. Hence, nicknames for business use...

[veronica]

Queen Latifa. She's done ok. Oprah. What the heck kinda' name is that? But they are the exception.

Then again, there's the crazy white folk who name their kid Apple.