Last year we had a little girl named Pashun (pronounced Passion) and this year (1st grade) we have another interestingly named child. This year 1st kid has a classmate named Danger (I have to wonder what his middle name is).

Any odd/interesting names you've experienced lately?

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I subbed in a class last year with a girl named Aquanett. Like the hairspray. I also know teenagers named Icee (the frozen drink) and Yunique (pronounced Unique).

And in my physics class a couple of years ago there was a guy named Steve Zoltan Lastname. I loved that.

There was a big dust-up about the valedictorian of our local high school using Danger as a middle name for graduation. It started as a joke, but when the school got their britches in a bunch, she pressed the issue. It was really funny.

Marijuana. I shit you not. It doesn't get better than that.

My nephew took a name from Maury for his xbox live name, it was so out there. He can't believe how much the parents of these kids have cursed them on their first job interview...

I was brought in to direct a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with 1-3 graders at a very swanky elementary school. Some of my kiddos were Flannery, Corthe, and Lunsford. My kiddo's day care features a Hawk, Finn, Coco, Lola, Bonden, Scout, and more.

Serenity and Destiny

We also have seen a couple Grace's, Hope's, and a Chastity.

Those kind of names get on my nerves. But then someone once told me they hated the name Morgan.

I just don't get Chastity. Charity I get. I sometimes wonder if that's what some people meant.

In my earlier days working in public health I met a number of little boys named Precious. I wish I were kidding.

TH growing up in the South I've encountered lots of girls named Precious but never boys. I always thought naming your kid Precious was pretentious.

My grandma had an ugly Chinese Crested named Precious. :)

I see weird names at the Children's Museum all the time. Although I love how we have a million Ava's, Aiden's, Grace's, Jacob's, Ella's, and Brayden's....And I love some of those names. But now, totally ruined.

I know a few Preciouses. And I growing up I knew a girl named Princess.

Quar'Quana
Shalala (pr. sha-LAH-luh)
Dominique: a boy
The one 2nd grade classroom with 5 McKenzies, all spelled differently, 4 girls and a boy)

In my own childhood I knew a Phuc, who was an adorable Korean girl who pronounced it "Pook", but you can imagine what she was called, and a Woody Dick III. Great guy, nice freind, had a great sense of humor about the name.

My nephew's name is Bonscott. yeah, his daddy loves AC/DC. and so do i, but really? everyone thinks he's kidding when he tells them his name.

Vision, Diamond, & Ebony are the names of my coworker's three daughters. Too me, they sound like a stripper's stage name, but I ofcourse, would never tell her that!

My sister in law had a baby last week and named her SueBee. I gotta say, as strange as it is, I still LOVE it! Maybe it's because I just love that little baby so much! That probably explains the parent's who pick these strange names...you are so blinded by love of the child that you don't even realize the weirdness of the name.

And I really don't like when daughters are named the same name as the Mom. I don't like it for guys either, but I REALLY don't like it with women. My other sister in law shares the same first and middle name as her mother and grandmother!

the life duet grew up with a girl named Special Precious Lastname. Of course, she went by *both* her first and middle names. No shortening to "spesh" for her.

My best friend had four cousins, all under the age of 5, and their names are as follows:

Diamond Xperanza (Great-grandma's name was *ES*peranza)

Nevaeh Cristal (Heaven spelled backwards, pronounced nuh-VAY)

Elektra Glamour

Sinnamon Desire (no, not Desiree, but DESIRE)

Their mother, related to my friend by marriage, is a 21 y.o. club rat, and their dad is a 22 y.o. club DJ, both think the names are sooo unique and creative. My friend and I have joked that if there is a pole in any these girls futures, they won't even have to change their names!

In Hawaii a common name for girls was Honeygirl.

Rachell - your SIL's baby will get called "Honey" often. It is a cute name.

I used to work with a girl named Cinimin.

If you haven't seen this site, it's worth wasting a lunch hour on: http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html

Also, did anyone else read Freakonomics? His chapter on baby name popularity by economic strata is fascinating.

MNM: Elektra is so named after the shitty movie of the same name:)

I am so glad I won the battle to NOT name my child Enzo. AND I won the battle to NOT spell his name Dominique. I RULE NORMALCY.

I went to university with a Honnee (Honey). Fortunately she was a pretty girl.

My niece has a name that I think is one of those "just put a pole in the nursery" names but it's actually better than some of the ones I read here - maybe I'll get used to it.

I used to work with a girl named Sunshine. For some reason, her name always made me happy. It was just so cheerful. If I weren't such a coward and scared to death of people mocking her name, I definitely would have named peanut pants Sunshine. It's almost like you can't say it without smiling. Sigh.

A friend of a friend had a baby girl that she decided to name after a town in France where she had spent time as an exchange student. That child is named Chamonix, pronounced sham-o-nee. But I don't foresee that causing any problems. None. Whatsoever. Lovely name.

Also, in high school, there was a guy with the last name Head. And unfortunately, his first name rhymed with 'gave'. So, he got teased. A LOT.

In school with me was a whole gang of kids with the last name Cox. They caught much hell.

I also know a woman named Sparkle.

Mamawho, isn't "Chinese Crested" and "ugly" redundant?

My MIL taught a kid in elementary school named Clifford Clifford Clifford. His parents must have been stoned out of their minds when they filled out that birth certificate.

MJM - in Texas that name would suck, in Quebec notsomuch. My aunt lives near Chamonix actually.

kana - I imagine that if the child lived somewhere that French culture had a more prominent place, it may not be that unusual. But, she lives on the West Coast, and I think a lot of kids are just going to end up calling her 'shammy'.

Could also be Monix (Monicks) as well...or Mony (here she comes now...)

But yeah, you do have to take stuff like that into account.

thanks kanachick. I'm going to have that song stuck in my head all night!

I've known an Alpha and a Beta (unrelated). Also, my cousin's boyfriend legally changed his name to Evil. Lovely. And he's studying to be a pharmacist. Doesn't that seem sketchy to you?

Rarely to I hate something but I hate I hate I hate the name Nevaeh.

I see the Gopher from the Winnie-the-Pooh cartoons beckoning "Shammy."

College friend named Woody Moss. Another guy named Catnip (the only thing to quell his mom's morning sickness).

Treated a child named Imunique. And she was. Also, the requisite Preciouses, Princesses, and Princes.

Worked with a baby with a very...um...urban name. But her family called her Nemo since she had big eyes like the fish. The geneticist called it "orbital hypotrophy," to which I say tomayto-tomahto.

I played volleyball w/ a girl named Susan B. We called her SueBee. It reminds me of Sioux Bee from Sioux City, Iowa.

College best friend was from Hawaii. In her private school they had a girl named Sunshine and a very non-denominational morning chapel including the "hymn" by John Denver. The boys sang, "Sunshine on my boner makes me happy."

atomicforliving: thank you for that link. I'm waiting to go into labour and after reading some of the comments on that site -- and in this OS thread -- I'm sure contractions will start any time now from laughing so hard.

I went to elementary school with a Revel and a Paisley, but that was the 70s.

Frenchy - that's odd...I knew a girl who knew a boy named Catnip. How many can there be?!

He doesn't by any chance have curly hair, does he?

I had a Merecal in my class last year. Unusually spelled, but at least I could pronounce it.

When I was teaching swim lessons a few summers back, we were starting a new session and just about everyone had turned up. One girl was missing: Emeline. (Emiline? Not sure.) So this girl bounces over, and I say, "Hi! You must be Em-uh-LEEN!" and her mom says, "Oh, it's Em-uh-LINE. This is her brother, Rhett. And I'm Dixie!"

I was like, seriously? We live in Illinois.

Oh, also I know a family who has two kids: Phoenix and Raven. I think those are kind of cute, though they are unusual.

I also know a woman named Heather who has two sisters: Holly and Laurel. If you're going to name your kids in a theme, I guess it's good they all get to have names that are actual names.

MM - she is an *especially* ugly Chinese Crested.

GirlWho used to play with a little girl named Novaelyn. It's odd, but it sounds pretty.

People often think I am my husband, because he has a name that is sometimes a girl's name. Our last name has "au" for an "ow" sound, so we spell it all the time. There are a zillion ways to spell my fairly mundane name. Poor GirlWho is really named Madeleine, which no one in Texas or Oklahoma can spell. I've seen her name spelled "Matilyn." We have name angst.

I worked at a college for several years, and remember some very interesting names. The ones that stand out the most are Tarantula, twin sisters named Fabulous (went by Fab) and Stupendous (not suprisingly, no nickname) and my all time favorite - SB Giant. He was born in the year that the NY Giants won the Superbowl. But he went by his middle name, Bob.
Also, I went to high school with three sisters named Faith, Hope and Charity.

Mamaluv I went to school with a girl named Faith who had younger sisters name Hope and Charity. It was hilarious because Faith's mom had Charity just before we started 8th grade and when she told us what her new sisters name was a guy in our class said "So what are you brother's names, Death, War, and Pestilence?"

People spell Meredith's name wrong all the time: they put "Merideth". "...deth?"

LG, is your friend setting himself up for the joke "it's DOCTOR Evil. I didn't spend 6 years in Evil Pharmacy School to become Mister, thank you very much."

By the way, apologies all around to anyone whose kid's name has appeared in this amusing list.

(this said by the mom who, when calling for Older Daughter, has 23 girls turn around, and tongue trips when saying both daughter's names together. We didn't anticipate that)

I went to high school with brothers name Ninety and Thirty they had a younger sister named Twenty.

My Uncle's best friend is named Major. I have actually encountered several Majors in my life and I've always been confused by that name.

I know a Major. I also know a Mr. Major, but sadly, his son is not Major Major, which would be AWESOME!

Both my boys have surnames as first names, because, well, we liked them better as first names!

My name is always mispronounced as Rachelle and Raquel. It's just plain old Rachael, but with a spelling to match my father's name of Mitchell. I guess my parents thought no one would believe I was their child unless the spelling of my name resembled my father's name. Sharing the same last name just wasn't enough....

My dad used to work with a guy named Jack Daniels. His son, Jack Daniels, Jr. graduated with my younger sister (I graduated with the daughter, Crissy Daniels).

Oh...inexplicably forgot about the baby named Johnny Walker. Thanks for the brian jostle, ks.

And MNM - this may well be the same Catnip (as opposed to all the other Catnips in the free world). I recall a curly-headed guy w/ dark brown hair and an overall crunchy demeanor.