Heres some not too uncommon ones ive heard stig = ladde(r) Sten=stone Kjell=shell Bjørn=bear Varg=wolf Hauk= hawk Guttorm=boy worm Veslemøy= little girl Dag=day Odd Viking Jokke= humping Ødegård=desolate farm (origins in the black plauge and has a sad but interesting backstory) Im named after a house personally
I also met someone online who was named jaycob, and when i said "jaycob who are you and why is your presence making me feel like a kid yelling bazinga would" bc he was pestering the group chat it kinda became a friend meme
I went to school with a girl whose parents did a "V" name theme with their two kids. Hers was just an odd name--might have been archaic, or a fabricated name. Her brother's was Vash. Yes, after Vash the Stampede from Trigun. (I mean, I guess it's better than naming your white kid "Yuki" or something, but still, heavens...)
Usnavi actually isn't that uncommon a name. worse, there are children named Usmail for the same reason
As part of my job I sometimes have to go through very old documents. A lot of these are registers of names, army records, etc. The best two names I've ever come across are: Ms Mervielleux Wonderlich Ms Immaculada Concepcion My own name has also caused me a lot of trouble over the years. My first name is a common shortening of a longer name, and I've had countless people refuse to believe that it's not short for anything in my case. My middle name was made up by my father and sounds close enough to another common name that people refuse to believe it's spelled/pronounced the way it actually is. Sort of makes me wish that my father had gotten his way when I was born and I'd been named Quadrangle instead.
One of my clients is legally named Pooh Bear. He changed it himself. and my personal favorite [10/7/2016 2:05:02 AM] Carpool Tunnel: Have u met my friends baby blaez [10/7/2016 2:05:12 AM] MK 47: n o [10/7/2016 2:05:21 AM] Carpool Tunnel: I'm never getting over how it's spelled blaez [10/7/2016 2:05:30 AM] MK 47: im tremblign w laughther omfg [10/7/2016 2:05:35 AM] MK 47: its actually spelled blaez [10/7/2016 2:05:35 AM] Carpool Tunnel: Juggalo [10/7/2016 2:05:41 AM] Carpool Tunnel: It's blaez [10/7/2016 2:05:52 AM] Carpool Tunnel: Fucking Mexican juggalo baby named blaez [10/7/2016 2:05:53 AM] MK 47: fuckf fman
I thought for years that a distant acquaintance was named Kaadit. It is not a usual name in Estonia, but my brain parses it as a name without any complaints. Then I learned that the name is actually written... very unintuitively. I don't want to give the exact spelling, because it's probably one of a kind, but let's just say that based on spelling alone I wouldn't pronounce it correctly (which is unusual, Estonian spelling is usually very sensible) and would guess that the bearer of this name is not Estonian (she is) and might be male (she is not). Then there are people who advocate that Proper Earthy Estonians should take care that their children's names actually mean something in Estonian and... looking at one recommended names list we have, besides common old-fashioned names and "unusual, but might be a name": Edukas ("successful"), Orav ("squirrel") - don't parse as names. Ihameel (archaic, don't know what the 13th century meaning was, but these days it parses as "mind of lust") - ...why. Murelik ("worried") and Tont ("ghost") - might as well curse the child and be done with it instead of actually naming them that. Like, it's one thing when your child nicknames themselves Ghost, and it's completely other thing when you go and name them Ghost. Especially because Estonia absolutely does not have the tradition of "unpleasant name to ward off evil".
My heart really goes out to any unfortunately named Richards. I know my dad used to work with a Richard Head, and also a Candy Hunt (although sadly not at the same time). There are also some odd name shenanigans in my recent ancestry. For one, the surname "Edhouse" which was apparently chronically mispelled as "Headhouse", "Doghouse" and even "Shithouse" among others?? Then there's my nan, whose name was "Anneada" because the person who filled out her birth certificate smooshed her first and middle names together, somehow...
I'm almost certain I've heard of children being named "Google" or "Facebook", but I hope to god that's an urban legend (I'd look it up but I fear disillusionment). Oh, and my mom once had a student named "Mackenzie", which is a perfectly fine name…except that her parents deliberately chose it as a reference to Spuds Mackenzie. At least they didn't go all the way and just name the kid "Bud Light".
I seem to recall hearing about at least one Vriska. (Which is also a "don't inflict that on a child" both for the pronunciation issues and because. Vriska is not a happy person with good parents who likes herself. This poor child does not need that mountain of baggage hanging over them and ready to fall over as soon as they discover what they're named for. :::PPP )
