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EDHS Contemporary World Affairs -> Discussion Topics, Week G -> What's in a Name?
Post Info TOPIC: What's in a Name?
MrsCavalluzzi


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What's in a Name?
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The list of any given year's top baby names is always news.  Traditionally, this list is compiled from Social Security registrations (lots of their information is available athttp://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/background.html), but the last few years, many have been looking at the list compiled by BabyCenter, which allows parents to register their child(ren)'s name(s).  http://www.babycenter.com/top-baby-names-2014. (they have lots of other interesting stuff, too, like which names made the biggest gains and losses last year: http://www.babycenter.com/0_baby-names-of-2014-winners-and-losers_10398839.bc 

A REALLY cool graphic representation of the popularity of ANY name over time can be found here: http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager  (this is REALLY worth checking out!!)

The decade-by-decade most-popular list can easily be viewed at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30629317 if this is something that interests you.  

This article has links to stuff like funky celebrity baby names and whether names matter: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/30/and-the-most-popular-baby-names-of-2012-are/

Being a baby name consultant is even a job now! TIME Magazine columnist Joel Stein wrote about it (when he was considering names for his son) in this article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1858883,00.html

Now other analysts are piggybacking onto this trend by looking at popularity of dog names over time: http://theweek.com/article/index/240281/bella-cha-cha-man-boogles-fido-mopsulus-dog-naming-trends-through-the-ages

Do you think it's better to have a common or an uncommon name?  Are you influenced by your experiences with your particular name?  Would you rename yourself if you could?  If yes, what new name would you choose?  Do you like this year's top names? What is your dog's name and how did you choose it, or if you don't have a dog, what would you name one if you did and why?

 



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Lego, Cav (the Lego brand name was derived from the Danish expression "leg godt" - play well - and lego also translates in Latin as "I study" or "I put together"...really, one of the world's most perfect words!)

 
MrsCavalluzzi


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Baby naming, as you can imagine, is an issue I've thought about quite a lot during the last decade :)

There's also a GREAT chapter in Freakonomics about baby names that I thoroughly enjoyed.

It is a VERY stressful thing to choose a name, at least it was for us.  Having had an unusual, downright weird, name, and being married to someone with a quite common name (Anthony), my husband and I had a little different perspective on the issue.  I always liked having a name no one else had, but I wasn't necessarily thrilled that it was such a peculiar one.  So we tried to go with unusual-but-familiar with our first and third kiddos (Lucia, pronounced the Italian way, Lu-CHEE-ah, and of course we call her Lucy, and Micah).  My other son is named Joseph because in my husband's family, all of the first sons are named after their paternal grandfathers.  So two of my kids have uncommon names [though Micah is becoming more common - he shares it with Mr. Samson's son and there were two on his baseball team two seasons ago] and one has a very, very common one.  

Then you have to think about what nicknames derive from the name, how it sounds with the last name, etc.   AND, being a teacher, almost every name reminds me of some former student or several, so there's a whole other level of analysis there :).  This is no small thing.  But a fun one.  From my experience, boy names are more difficult than girl names...with Micah, we had two girl names almost immediately and took months to choose his name. 

Middle names are a little easier and more fun because there's less pressure.  Lucy's and Micah's middle names are both from my fave book, To Kill a Mockingbird (Lucy's is Harper and Micah's is Atticus), and JD's is after my grandfather (Dimmick; the Scottish form of Dominic) since he has a family name. Then my husband is all worried he'll grow up and feel left out of the TKAM club.  So perhaps it isn't less stressful after all :)

We did think about name meaning a little with Lucy's name (it means "bringer of light," so we thought it was related to my name, but we mostly picked it because we liked it), but it ended up being sort of significant- she was born on the last day of the longest storm of the rainiest winter in 100 years, so we tell her now that she literally was a "bringer of light" :). Harper means "harp player," so that doesn't really go with 'bringer of light'.  The boys' name meanings go together pretty well, though, although we chose their names for other reasons.  Joseph Dimmick means "God will increase/Belonging to God" and Micah Atticus means "Who is like God?/Fatherlike" (you can find baby name meanings in a variety of places and often get different definitions from different sources, which is interesting in and of itself)



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Lego, Cav (the Lego brand name was derived from the Danish expression "leg godt" - play well - and lego also translates in Latin as "I study" or "I put together"...really, one of the world's most perfect words!)

 
Amy Nguyen


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Haha i love this discussion! In my mind, i think it's better to have an uncommon name, or at least a memorable one. As for if i'm influenced by my experiences, not really (i think). I don't really know if i would rename myself since I'm so used to what name already (obviously), but if i did, i guess i would just change it to Amy, my current nickname, since my real name is Amanda. The dog i have now is named Holly, not the name i would choose but we had adopted her so we couldn't really change it. My sisters and I believe that dogs should have names that could be for humans too.

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~ AmY nGuYeN ~
Mary Williams


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I think that names are very interesting. All of my close friends have unique names and i love them! they, however aren't so fond of them. One's name is Milaya (Muh-Lay-Uh), another is Eriah (EE-Ry-Uh) and other's is Chiadez (Shay-Dez). the main complaint i hear from them is the fact that no one EVER pronounces or spells it right. I LOVE their names! With my own name, i wouldn't change it. I go by just Mary, but my full first name is actually Marycruz. It isn't that I don't like "Marycruz" its just that I grew up with my grandparents . Only my mom and step dad call me Marycruz. Ill always respond to it, and i would never change my name to JUST Mary, but either way is good for me.
My dog's name is Ivy. I'm not exactly sure hoooow we go it, the name just popped up and we loved it.
One day, when i decide to have children, (waaaaaaaaaaay in the future. haha) I want my children to have unique names that have a meaning to me. I already have names picked out! lol
I want to name my first son Ziggy Marcus, My second son, Langston Robert, and then my daughters Sunshine Reign, and Harmony Peace.
All of the names have important meanings to me, and that's what i think names should be based on.

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kami


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I think names are so interseting because in a way they are who you are. My nickname is Kami but my full name is Kameryn Christa D'amcio (my middle name comes from my dad's names which is Chris). my mom told me she named me that because she likes names that can be for boys or girls (so i would have been Kameryn either way) but they knew if i was a girl it would be spelt the way i spell it but if i was a boy it would have been spelt in the more traditional way which is Cameron. I like the way i spell my name but people sometimes think my name is pronounced Come-air-in which can be annoying. I used to not like my name but i like it more now that im older bcause i think of it as my honest self, like everyone knows me as Kami but only people im really close with would call me Kameryn. my mom also told me that she liked the name Brooke but my dad didnt. but to me names that are unique are so beautiful (ex. Heighla (Hay-la), Leighlani (Lay-lawn-ee), Alana. just a few i like) I'm not sure that i would ever change my name though. But, to contradict myself, names also arent who you are because who you are relies on your personality and your character and names are how people get your attantion and what they know you as. This is a great topic :)

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Kami D'amico
kristiestoermer


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I think it is better to have an uncommon name because they are usually unique and more memorable. I also always hated when in elementary school there would be three different kids with the same name and you had to use the first letter of their last name to distinguish them. I have not been influenced by experiences with my name, other than it always being spelt wrong by my teachers, or starbucks workers. My name is a pretty common name, however, it is spelt different than how most people spell it. I usually see it spelt with a 'Ch' in stead of a 'K' or a 'y' instead of 'ie' at the end. But I love that my name is uniquely spelt. I don't see mysaelf with another name than Kristie because I feel like it fits me, so I would not change my name. My dog's name is Chloe and she is a golden retriever. Chloe is a pretty popular name for dogs and but she just looks like a Chloe to me.

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