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HelpSome sanity on baby names
Would you believe? This is the web reference:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26634477
and this is the punchline:
"Conley, who is a sociologist at New York University, says that children with unusual names may learn impulse control because they may be teased or get used to people asking about their names. "They actually benefit from that experience by learning to control their emotions or their impulses, which is of course a great skill for success."
"But for the main part, he says, the effect of a name on its bearer rarely amounts to more than the effect of being raised by parents who would choose such a name."
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26634477
and this is the punchline:
"Conley, who is a sociologist at New York University, says that children with unusual names may learn impulse control because they may be teased or get used to people asking about their names. "They actually benefit from that experience by learning to control their emotions or their impulses, which is of course a great skill for success."
"But for the main part, he says, the effect of a name on its bearer rarely amounts to more than the effect of being raised by parents who would choose such a name."
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He's like 4 or so (if I remember right), and his first "name" is L. Excuse me, but a single letter is NOT a name!!!! gah. *frustration* If that's not bad enough, his middle name is Aster. I know it means 'star', but for crying out loud, it's also the name of a flower!! And at least in our culture, it is not normal for boys to be given flower names... If you bump his first "name" up next to his middle, it also spells "Laster". Last... what a great meaning. -______-
I just ardently hope that when this poor child is older, that he decides to give himself a full name and have it legally changed, perhaps one that starts with L (Luke, Lucas, Lucian, Lorenzo, something like that) or a name that starts with the same 'el' sound, such as Elijah, Elisha, Elias, Eliseus...
His younger half-sister has a humdinger of a made-up first name, too. :(
I just ardently hope that when this poor child is older, that he decides to give himself a full name and have it legally changed, perhaps one that starts with L (Luke, Lucas, Lucian, Lorenzo, something like that) or a name that starts with the same 'el' sound, such as Elijah, Elisha, Elias, Eliseus...
His younger half-sister has a humdinger of a made-up first name, too. :(
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Maybe his parents are Death Note fans
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Omg, I think they probably are! I say this because our mutual acquaintance, the brother of the boy's dad (L's uncle), likes Death Note and I know he shares interests with his brother. I don't know a thing about Death Note, though. Is L or Aster from there?
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L is one of the main characters of Death Note.
http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/L_(character)
http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/L_(character)
This message was edited 4/14/2014, 11:53 PM
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That bit about impulse control is not the punchline. It's the stupidest quote in the whole article, IMO. The smart part is the part about the effect of"being raised by parents who would," and I think the father of E made a better, more general punchline point:
"I wouldn't say that names don't matter at all," he says. "But how they matter depends on the context."
I wonder about the supposed initial-letter effect. I mean, they say that if your name starts with C you'll statistically do slightly less well in school than people named A names, or that people with K names statistically strike out more in baseball. I'd like to see how they demonstrated that those findings weren't confounded by other factors, or just achieved by bias in selection of the question and answer. It doesn't seem real. I keep seeing it cited, like it was the gospel or something, and I'm more skeptical each time. The paper was entitled "Moniker Maladies"? Ahem
"I wouldn't say that names don't matter at all," he says. "But how they matter depends on the context."
I wonder about the supposed initial-letter effect. I mean, they say that if your name starts with C you'll statistically do slightly less well in school than people named A names, or that people with K names statistically strike out more in baseball. I'd like to see how they demonstrated that those findings weren't confounded by other factors, or just achieved by bias in selection of the question and answer. It doesn't seem real. I keep seeing it cited, like it was the gospel or something, and I'm more skeptical each time. The paper was entitled "Moniker Maladies"? Ahem
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Ha.
Growing up I had an unusual name, I had to explain it 24/7 and my impulse control sucked.
Growing up I had an unusual name, I had to explain it 24/7 and my impulse control sucked.
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Even when you have a common name, you still have to explain it. This article is BS in a lot of ways.
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agree
It's so hokey, and nobody should take it seriously.
It's so hokey, and nobody should take it seriously.
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Not to mention the effect names having in application processes (job, college, etc). Society places certain expectations on certain names, it's sadly unavoidable. I've seen it myself in workplaces especially, having taken part in the hiring process a few times and needing to stop my bosses from disregarding certain applications cause of a name alone.
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I believe that those who make the hiring decisions at my workplace must be free of any name prejudice, in that a great number of the newer employees are young African-Americans, the majority of whom have recognizably African-American names.
There have been a few people here who have argued with me that there even is such a thing as a recognizably African-American name, and who have either implied or stated that I'm employing stereotypes and displaying prejudice for even thinking that there is. The last time this happened, I came close to posting all of the recognizably African-American first names of some of my co-workers, along with the fact that when I first saw these names in the work chat, before knowing to whom of the many new employees they belonged, I knew that their bearers were black. Because it just gets to the point that I feel it's insulting my intelligence. I decided not to post it in the interest of not being seen as being too argumentative.
So regardless of the merits of the rest of the article, I'm glad that the author points out "the growing ease with which one can guess whether a person in the US is black or white". Thank you.
There have been a few people here who have argued with me that there even is such a thing as a recognizably African-American name, and who have either implied or stated that I'm employing stereotypes and displaying prejudice for even thinking that there is. The last time this happened, I came close to posting all of the recognizably African-American first names of some of my co-workers, along with the fact that when I first saw these names in the work chat, before knowing to whom of the many new employees they belonged, I knew that their bearers were black. Because it just gets to the point that I feel it's insulting my intelligence. I decided not to post it in the interest of not being seen as being too argumentative.
So regardless of the merits of the rest of the article, I'm glad that the author points out "the growing ease with which one can guess whether a person in the US is black or white". Thank you.
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It's stupid to give your daughter a letter as a first name because you can't be bothered to make up your mind, and to let your son choose his names when he's four years old.
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very stupid indeed
I'd be all for letting the kid choose which nickname he wants to go by, sure, but letting him choose his own names? No ma'am.
I read a great book about Bonnie and Clyde recently, and it's mentioned that Clyde had a brother called L.C. Not short for anything, just L.C. No full name, no reason behind it.
I thought this was lazy and dumb. What, were they so poor they couldn't afford a full name? And poor L.C. undoubtedly had to go to school with several girls named Elsie.
Clyde also had a sister named Artie.
And a confederate of theirs, in Louisiana, had uncles named Iris and Ivy and nieces named Van and Dean. I don't know how Van and Dean turned out, but L.C., Ivy and Iris were career criminals to one degree or another. If that business about unusual names teaching self-control was true, these guys put the lie to it.
I'd be all for letting the kid choose which nickname he wants to go by, sure, but letting him choose his own names? No ma'am.
I read a great book about Bonnie and Clyde recently, and it's mentioned that Clyde had a brother called L.C. Not short for anything, just L.C. No full name, no reason behind it.
I thought this was lazy and dumb. What, were they so poor they couldn't afford a full name? And poor L.C. undoubtedly had to go to school with several girls named Elsie.
Clyde also had a sister named Artie.
And a confederate of theirs, in Louisiana, had uncles named Iris and Ivy and nieces named Van and Dean. I don't know how Van and Dean turned out, but L.C., Ivy and Iris were career criminals to one degree or another. If that business about unusual names teaching self-control was true, these guys put the lie to it.
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Speaking of letting a child choose a name, I have a story about that.... My ex's grandmother was not given a name at birth. I don't know why. Anyway, she was called Tissie by the family because that was her older sister's pronunciation of "sister." At age 10 Tissie was told she could choose a legal name for herself. She chose Sess.
Until she died in her 90s she was known within the family as Tissie and outside the family as Sess.
When she told me this story she made no comments about her choice of a legal name. But then she named one of her sons Mebane, pronounced MAY-bun....
Until she died in her 90s she was known within the family as Tissie and outside the family as Sess.
When she told me this story she made no comments about her choice of a legal name. But then she named one of her sons Mebane, pronounced MAY-bun....
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That was definitely not a good idea on her parents' part. I'd say Tissie itself should have stayed strictly within the family, preferably dying out as the sister got older. And she should have been given a name at or very shortly after birth.
My daughter has a school friend whose little sister is Penelope. Penelope is about three and still can't pronounce her own name. Her attempt sounds sort of like Ralphie, and that's what she's called. I'm hoping very hard that Ralphie falls into disuse very soon, because it's a terrible name even for a boy.
My daughter has a school friend whose little sister is Penelope. Penelope is about three and still can't pronounce her own name. Her attempt sounds sort of like Ralphie, and that's what she's called. I'm hoping very hard that Ralphie falls into disuse very soon, because it's a terrible name even for a boy.
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I have a friend who claims that his parents allowed his six-year-old sister to choose his name. I'll refrain from saying what the name is, because he's a very private person, but I will say that it's a common, popular, totally unremarkable name. I've always wondered whether or not that's really true, first, because it doesn't seem likely that parents would do that (though of course it's possible), and second, I would think a six-year-old girl would pick something more fanciful. But maybe it is true. But even if it is, at least he got a legal name at birth, and wasn't stuck with a childish mispronunciation of "brother", employed by his sister. That really takes the cake. I honestly think I'd feel pretty bad if my parents didn't bother to come up with a legal name for me at my birth. I really wouldn't look at it as "Oh they wanted me to choose, isn't that cool". I'd feel neglected.
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My great-grandmother wasn't given a name at birth. She was just called baby girl even after her parents had another baby girl whom they did name. This went on for 5 years until her brother who was 10 started calling her Ollie and told his parents that she needed a real name so he was giving her one. Her parents just went with it and from then on she was Ollie. Even when she was telling me this in her 80s I could see that it upset her. She was still very angry that her parents never bothered to give her a name and said that's why she was very careful with picking out her children's names, especially her daughters, because she didn't want them to feel like she did.
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I went a couple of weeks without a name, but five years? Good lord, that's TOO long.
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I saw on a game show, when I was very little, a woman who was the youngest in a big family. Her older brothers and sisters were allowed to choose her name, and evidently they could only agree on one. So she was given the name Herbie. Not Herbert, just Herbie.
The parents should at least have insisted that they agree on one boy and one girl name, and they should have retained veto power in any case.
Now that I think on it, Sess sounds like a skewed pronunciation of sex. The comedian Phil Hendrie has a character who always talks like that, saying he's "very sessy" or that he's "siss-foot one."
The parents should at least have insisted that they agree on one boy and one girl name, and they should have retained veto power in any case.
Now that I think on it, Sess sounds like a skewed pronunciation of sex. The comedian Phil Hendrie has a character who always talks like that, saying he's "very sessy" or that he's "siss-foot one."
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I agree. I guess there are letters that wouldn't be so bad as names- B, D, V, J, K, or M could work, since they could easily be spelled/thought of as Bea, Dee, Vee, Jay/Jae, Kay, or Em- but E? That's just lazy and unattractive. "Hi, my name is E." URG, IT BUGS ME.
The son's name is...yeeeah. I could never do this myself, and while I want to give props to people just for having the balls to do it, I can't get past the fact that it reeks of "Look what a cool parent I am." Just STFU and pick a name for your kid.
At least the dad is somewhat attractive. Positivity.
The son's name is...yeeeah. I could never do this myself, and while I want to give props to people just for having the balls to do it, I can't get past the fact that it reeks of "Look what a cool parent I am." Just STFU and pick a name for your kid.
At least the dad is somewhat attractive. Positivity.
This message was edited 4/12/2014, 9:45 AM
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Plus at four - you really don't know yourself.
Sorry.
Slightly off topic / slightly on topic - Miriam's nickname really is becoming M. I call her M allll the time and my family is picking up on it. She's still Miriam a good majority of the time but I suspect the day is coming when everyone starts referring to her - at least half the time - as M.
Sorry.
Slightly off topic / slightly on topic - Miriam's nickname really is becoming M. I call her M allll the time and my family is picking up on it. She's still Miriam a good majority of the time but I suspect the day is coming when everyone starts referring to her - at least half the time - as M.
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