Free Republic

Many of us start thinking about what we’ll name our future children when we’re basically still children ourselves. With youthful-yet-earnest contemplation, many young people choose the names of their future sons and daughters based on such things as an inspiring book character, a beloved geographical location, or (cringe) the pop culture craze of their era. Some people go on to give their children the names they’ve held dear over the years. Others lament when their spouses put the kibosh on a favorite moniker. Yet others discover that life’s unexpected circumstances steer them toward names they hadn’t considered for their child...

Nerdy boy names come in all shapes, sizes, and styles and some are definitely cool. There geeky boy names are the clunky, old-school vintage choices that are starting to feel fresh, funky, and daring again, while still being rooted in tradition. Like thick black-rimmed spectacles and heavy oxfords, these nerdy names are so out, they're in, and deserve a spot amongst the other cool boy names. Some of these nerdy names for boys are now heading into the mainstream, like Arthur, Hugo, and Franklin, which all rank in the US Top 500 baby names for boys. Others, like Alfred, Harvey,...

A new study shows that employers are less likely to call back applicants with Black-sounding names than those with white-sounding ones. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago recently filed 83,000 fake job applications for 11,000 entry-level positions at multiple Fortune 500 companies with names like Brad, Greg, Darnell, Lamar, Amanda, Kristen, Ebony and Latoya. The study, “A Discrimination Report Card,” found that the white-sounding applicant names were favored up to 24 percent more than the likely Black applicants. “It’s of course upsetting and discouraging that in the year 2023 and so on that this...

Glassdoor, the website that allows workers to anonymously complain about their workplaces without fear of retribution, is reportedly revealing staffers’ real names in their profiles — prompting a viral backlash over fears that their identities could be exposed. The shift began last July when the site added social features integrated from Fishbowl, an app for work-related discussions that Glassdoor’s parent company, Recruit, acquired in 2021. Signing up for an account on Glassdoor required workers to reveal their full name, job title and employer — a departure from its previous practice of just requiring email addresses but no names, according to...

Names gradually rise and fall in popularity over time with changing trends and norms. But certain choices drop off the map more quickly thanks to big cultural or political moments ― think Katrina, Isis and more recently, Karen. It seems that the name Brandon might be joining their ranks. Between 2021 and 2022, the name fell 20 places, from the 181st most popular name for boys in the U.S. to No. 211, according to Social Security Administration data. Like Karen, the name Brandon had been dropping in popularity for many years, but a recent negative cultural association seems to be...

But racism runs deep. Next up on the chopping block are our fine feathered friends: birds. The American Ornithological Society has announced that starting next year they will rename all birds in the United States and Canada that have English names.

Florida currency trader is accused in staggering $35M Ponzi scheme targeting elderly church members for their savings - and 'blew the money on luxury cars and private plane trips' Brent Seaman of Naples, Florida was charged in an SEC complaint on Thursday He allegedly fleeced fellow church members in a $35 million Ponzi scheme SEC officials say Seaman guaranteed 'safe' returns but blew the money on luxury lifestyle A currency trader in Florida has been charged with running a $35 million Ponzi scheme targeting elderly and retired churchgoers from his congregation. In a complaint filed by the US Securities and...

The oft-misquoted and misattributed 20th-century American philosopher and writer George Santayana once warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And while Santayana had the follies of war in mind when he said it, the phrase could just as easily apply today to the Left’s destruction of American history in the name of “diversity” and “inclusion.” As I wrote last week here at PJ Media, our woke U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, is hellbent on expunging hundreds of existing “offensive” and “derogatory” geographic names on federal locations that aren’t deemed “diverse” enough — an...

Mayne I'm making mountain out of mole hills and I just wanted to vent on something here on a simple observation I have made on society today versus what it was say from the 1980's and before. I was born in 1966 so I'm 56 years old. As time goes on, I am having more and more trouble making sense of the way the world is going today and I just scratch my head or just end up giving the old "South Park" 1000 meters stare while staving off a mental "Blue Screen of Death." I was going to type...

As a young military service member, Richard Kingsberry said he wasn’t aware that two of the bases where he served had been named after Confederate leaders Braxton Bragg and Robert E. Lee. That realization would happen later, but it helped sparked him to join the effort to see names on military boats, installations and other places removed, saying that they sent the wrong message about the nation’s history and ideals. The effort to remove the namesakes of those who aligned themselves with the Confederacy hit a critical step as the Naming Commission recently put forth several names to replace military...

A WOMAN has revealed that she hates her own name so much, that she's planning on changing it to something "normal." The anonymous woman, from the US, took to Reddit and explained: "My mother named me Persephone 28 years ago when the name wasn’t a thing." An anonymous woman, from the US, took to Reddit and explained that her mother named her "Persephone" 28 years ago when the name "wasn’t a thing." 1 An anonymous woman, from the US, took to Reddit and explained that her mother named her "Persephone" 28 years ago when the name "wasn’t a thing."Credit: Getty...

Convicted sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell will no longer fight to protect the identity of eight johns who allegedly had sex with young women she and her billionaire pedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein procured for them. A lawyer for Maxwell stated in a letter to federal Judge Loretta Preska this week that she would no longer object to the identities of the “John Does” in a 2015 civil lawsuit brought against Maxwell by Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre. “After careful review of the detailed objections submitted by Non-Party Does 17, 53, 54, 55, 73, 93, and 151, counsel for Ghislaine Maxwell writes to...

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Sunday said former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol about “a number of names that I had not heard.” “She had a number of names that I had not heard before, and she had some ways of looking at it,” Raskin told moderator Chuck Todd when asked about Grisham’s meeting with the panel during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

You don’t have to actually watch sports to be aware of the country’s most famous teams — or wonder how they got their names. While some are obvious (the Boston Red Sox wear red socks!), others are anything but. If you’ve ever wondered what a knickerbocker is or what the reigning World Series champions have been “dodging” all these years, read on for the story behind seven teams’ unique names. New York Knicks A.K.A New York Knickerbockers Though almost always called the Knicks these days, New York’s oldest basketball team is still officially known as the Knickerbockers. If you don’t...

The new COVID-19 variant first detected in South Africa was given the name Omicron by the World Health Organization on Friday. An advisory panel classified Omicron as a highly transmissible virus of concern and gave it its name under its Greek-letter system. It marks the first time in months that WHO has classified a COVID-19 variant with such a name – and is only the fifth variant to be given the designation amid the pandemic.

Traditional names such as Nigel and Carol are dying out in England and Wales amid a rise in popular Eastern European names beginning with K, official data has shown. Nigel and Carol could now be officially extinct as names for new-borns, while Jonathan, Gordon, Sally and Sue are also falling out of favour, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS only records data where three or more children have been called a single name, meaning no more than a maximum of two babies were named Nigel or Carol in 2020. The downturn in usage is understood to...

Some say names are a blessing from one's parents, but it might just be the exact opposite for this Indonesian boy. A couple in Tuban Regency, Indonesia, have come to their wits' end as they struggle to legally register their son, whose name is too long to for the civil registry system. His full name: Rangga Madhipa Sutra Jiwa Cordosega Akre Askhala Mughal Ilkhanat Akbar Sahara Pi-Thariq Ziyad Syaifudin Quthuz Khoshala Sura Talenta. He simply goes by Cordo, according to Coconuts Jakarta. He was born in January 2019, but has yet to receive his official documents. The boy's father, Arif...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday blocked the names of the 13 US service members killed in the Kabul blast from being read after a moment of silence on the House floor.“How badly do Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats want to cover up this Afghanistan debacle? They just blocked Members of Congress from reading the names of the service members who sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan last week.” Congressman Gimenez said on Tuesday.“Don’t you think our military deserves better?” he added.https://twitter.com/RepCarlos/status/1432751530516652033Rep. Brian Mast told the Floridian Press Pelosi refused to recognize the fallen Marines.Rep. Brian Mast (R), a...

Washington, DC (CNN) More than 100,000 names will be removed from Georgia's voter registration rolls in an attempt to keep the state's voter files "up to date," Georgia's secretary of state announced in a statement Friday. "Making sure Georgia's voter rolls are up to date is key to ensuring the integrity of our elections," Republican Brad Raffensperger said. "There is no legitimate reason to keep ineligible voters on the rolls." The voter files being removed are "obsolete and outdated," according to the statement, which says that since the 2020 election, Raffensperger has "made it a priority to continue with the...

Fewer American babies were named 'Karen' last year than any year since 1932, after the name became a pejorative slur for white women who throw fits in public. Data released by the Social Security Administration shows that last year, just 325 newborns were named Karen, which represents 0.019 percent of total female births in 2020. Karen, which had already been declining in popularity for years, plunged from the 660th most popular female name to number 831, tying for the 13th sharpest decline among all female baby names. The name Karen peaked in popularity in 1965, when 32,873 Karens were born,...