There's also the whole Extremely Protestant thing of avoiding any Catholic saint names. That's how you end up with children being named Prudence, Patience, and Increase. Also, "America" was an occasional girl's name in the early 19th Century.
used to drive to work every day past a mailbox showcasing the last name "reckless." thought that was awesome. mom went to high school with a girl named cigarette. that was, in fact, her first name. cigarette
in the category of "pay attention to your surname when naming your kids," my mom grew up with someone with the full name Candice Barr.
mom also went to high school with a girl whose maiden last name was starr, first name candace. candy starr.
My mum recalls meeting a woman housed in the same maternity ward. Her name was Mercy, which is a perfectly fine name, right? Only not so much when your surname is Killen.
Gunnar. I dont even know what to say to that, not only is that not a name it also isn't spelled right.
We'd get some interesting ones when I worked front end customer service on private student loan applications, but the one I will always remember is first name: Jesus Sunshine surname: Rainbow Daughter. At the midwifery where I had my kids, they would take pictures of the new families and put it on little cards with the name date and weight ect. of their new babies. same week Eris was born, there was a couple with a new baby girl they had named "Nymphilia". Now. Okay. I can see where they were trying to go with the name, trying to bring to mind delicate fey spring creatures of beauty. That. That is not the association that 90% of people are going to jump to though. especially not when this kid gets to middle/high school.
The first time I stumbled across Hyman I laughed out loud. Turns out it's a) a man's name and b) Ashkenasic and fading out of use in English-speaking regions for obvious reasons.
i used to know a girl named Brynn (pronounced with a short I, rhymes with "fin") and thr number of times she got substitute teachers reading out "...B- bryan..? Bryan (lastname)?" during attendance also a girl in one of my younger friend's classes whose name was Hind, rhymes with the noun "wind". A quick google indicates its Arabic, but apparently it got mispronounced enough by substitutes (like the noun "hind" as in hind leg) that most of the class would just immediately call out the correct pronunciation like "it's Hind"
Fuck, I can't believe I forgot the kids I know with the first and middle names of Echo Moonbeam and Clover Rain. Their last name is perfectly inoffensive, which makes it even worse, somehow.
I go to school with a guy named Meridious, after a gladiator I think. It's actually a pretty badass name now that I think about it.
I used to know a guy named Nebula. He was cool. I also knew a guy named Randy Teets. That guy wasn't quite as cool.
at one point my mom worked with a guy named Agamemnon which is a good name i also knew a Siobhan, "shÉ™-VON" but then years later some coworkers were boggling over someone with that name like "lmao how tf am i supposed to say this??" and i was like, you stop that I guess thats not so much a bad name as a name you have to explain constantly
Today on WACKY AMERICAN PROTESTANT PARENTS: I got a lot of stammering substitute teachers with my birth name. It's a fairly obscure Old Testament name, shared with various women going back on my mom's side of the family. Also, I learned as an adult that we didn't even use the more commonly accepted pronunciation. Spoiler: lol Turns out most people say Keziah with the emphasis on the first syllable rather than the second. I have an aunt Connie, short for Constance. I don't know how many years it's been since someone dared call her that to her face, though. She's really not a "Puritan virtue name" sort of person.
Names I learned from my mom of people she knew: Vazina (pronounced like Vagina but with a Z, poor girl went through hell for ages but was still a total sweetheart on the other side.) Dick Sandycock Gayland (I forgot his last name but it was essentially making his name a pun, also awesome older dude) She had friends who named their children after things they wanted. Chrysler, Lincoln (her middle name was Marie idk it kinda salvages it?).. and another who named her kids after what junk food she was craving during pregnancy. So lots of names around the Little Debbie line and beyond with her eldest bearing the name Twinkie.
I knew a Cash Nicholls (not %100 on the spelling of the last name, it could have actually been "Nickels"). I also have an odd name myself; it's from Greek mythology, but not any of the well-known bits.
One of my coworkers is named Jael. Apparently she used to win a lot of awards as a kid- for what i don't recall rn- and there are several that had "corrected the obvious misspelling" to Joel.
There's a Discworld character named Adora Belle Dearheart, more accurately nicknamed "Spike." I'm picturing her. ...And now I'm picturing Pippin Galadriel Moonchild from Good Omens. :::PPP My job involves a lot of going through lists of older people, and I've seen a lot of Gaylands and Gaylords. Unfortunately I am unable to offer any other good ones at this time because I tend to drop them in my friend group's group chat and it's in Discord and you can't search Discord chat logs. :::///
Apparently someone I know has relatives named Kayona and Nicker. Nicker. Nicholas is a name. Nick is a name. Nicker is you're trying to say underwear but you're pretending to be british and you're bad at spelling.
