[EllaMinnow]

My local paper has a page in today where parents could buy space for a photo of a baby born in 2002. Out of the nearly 150 baby names on the page, there isn't a single one that I would name a child.
Particular standouts are JaColby (boy), Kolbie (girl) and Cerenity. And let's not forget Destinni.

I went to high school with a girl named Vaseline Wineglass - still the strangest name I've seen.

[kaylar]

I wonder if little Kolby has sisters named Brie or Mozarella.

[smoking camels]

My 4 yr. old son is named Jayberry. I liked it because it was unique but not outlandish. The response has been very positive.

[mountaineer]

Our local paper sells Valentine's Day greetings where grandparents and parents run a photo of their little darlings. In the past few years, just about every little girls' name has been some variation on Brianne, Caitlin, Michaela or McKenna (why is that such a popular name?), and the boys include Brandon, Dakota, Colton and the like. It's a rarity to find a David or an Anne.

[ReveBM]

I have been fighting a running battle with my wife over baby names. She is a huge fan of the Young and the Restless and the Bold and the Beautiful, and she always leans towards trendy names in that arena.

I would very much like to name a boy (assuming we are blessed with another one) Edward, after my first ancestor who landed in this country in 1635. She seems dead-set against it so I will probably not get my wish. Our 2-year old son is named Andrew, which is a good name in my book. We had quite a struggle to agree on that one.

I absolutely refuse to name any of my children with a name with explicitly Irish roots, because neither of us has any Irish parentage. Because we're both Christian, we may end up falling back on biblical names, like one of the apostles for boys or a girls' name from somewhere else in the bible (like Rachel).

[TontoKowalski]

When we were thinking of names for our son, we wanted something a little different, but not wildly different. We also wanted a Biblical name, and we wanted one that would carry a little substance...you know what I mean...a name you could imagine as belonging to a Supreme Court Judge.

Try as hard as I can, and I still can't hear, "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Cherokee Jones."

We settled on "Matthew" which was a name I rarely heard. A lot of folks must have been thinking the same thing as we were at the time, because it seems that the name is quite common now.

For those tracking demographics, our Matthew is mostly western/northern European, with a quarter Japanese, and a smattering of Choctaw Indian. Seven years old. Homeschooled. Smart as a whip.

[Erasmus]

I went to high school with a girl named Vaseline Wineglass - still the strangest name I've seen.

Hey! I think that's the born name of my dominatrix, Urethra Monsoon!

[boris]

"I went to high school with a girl named Vaseline Wineglass - still the strangest name I've seen."

I have a colleague who works with a woman whose first name is (no kidding) Waltrout.

As I recall, her last name is equally strange but I have forgotten it.

--Boris