Why do people hate unconventional names for children?

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Africanus said:
A name becomes conventional for arbitrary reasons (Such as Wendy, which was made up). While something like Nutella is ridiculous, Winter is a perfectly fine name, as I have a friend named Summer who has never been picked on. I suppose the key aspect of this is discretion.
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It's true that Wendy was popularised by JM Barrie in Peter Pan, but it's a diminutive form of Gwendolyn, which has been around for centuries.

Also, all names are made up :P
 
I don't like them. I went to school with a girl named "Justice" and she was named that because of some feud her parents had when her mom was pregnant and going through a divorce.
 
Because people are stupid.

Parent should be able to name their child anything they want.

All 'conventional' names are just a random bunch of letters you've been conditioned into thinking they're normal.
 
CrazyDogg77 said:
That is so anecdotal it's amazing. I know plenty of girls named Destiny and Mercedes who have never even stepped foot inside a strip club
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I think it also depends on the region. In Holland, I know of 3 Mercedeses that aren't cars, two of them work as strippers.
the other one does pornography
 
Poodlestrike said:
I'm going to name my kid Ozymandias, and when people ask me why I'm going to tell that that Sheriff Battlesnake told me it was okay.
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That legitimately made me laugh.

I think the name Sheriff Battlesnake comes with a lot of authority. And fear. I imagine an old west rattle snake with a cowboy hat and a twirly mustache. And instead of a rattle he has a revolver.

I'd trust me.
 
NekoFever said:
It's true that Wendy was popularised by JM Barrie in Peter Pan, but it's a diminutive form of Gwendolyn, which has been around for centuries.

Also, all names are made up :P
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You have caught me in my folly! I did not know the Gwendolyn fact. And I suppose I should have said recently made up, to the point where we can find the origin of it.
 
It can bring children hardships in their school life, social life, and later in their professional life. I will say that in 20/30 years people with unconventional names will probably be a little more acceptable given they will be more common.
 
There's also a weird class element to names: The more unconventional your name is, the more likely people are to assume either: (1) Your the child of a celebrity, too rich to care about what anyone thinks; or (2) You come from lower income parents, who had you at 16 and lacked the ability to understand how serious naming a child is... In either scenario, the child is going to stand out in a bad way and be judged harshly.
 
Unbounded said:
Pretty sure a lot of names in videogames, anime, cartoons, comics, etc are made up but they still work.
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Yes, within the concept of their fake imaginary worlds. Taking those names out of those worlds and putting them in ours where we don't have those made up names would make them stick out like a sore thumb. Jabba sounds like a perfectly fine name when you look at the rest of Star Wars, but if you named your kid Jabba he would probably just get made fun of.

The only time names actually annoy me is when parents make up their own spelling of an already existing name. It just seems like they're trying to make their kid stand out in the cheapest way possible. Especially when those names don't even end up looking like what they're supposed to sound like.
 
Mango Positive said:
We have a kid coming in August. We are not learning the sex beforehand.

If it's a girl, it's easy... we've both decided on Lilah.

For a boy, she wants Travis. I like either Knox or Nash (no intention to refer to Tennessee, I just like the names).
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Good news, Knox and Nash aren't that odd.

Knox was ranked #345, Nash #464 in 2013 according to Social Security.
 
The Smoking Bun said:
How is Joe confusing? How is Maddy confusing?
Joe is like the epitome of bland names.
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That's his point. Having a common name leads to confusion in group situations. I had two other people with my name in various classes in school, and we always got each others papers because we all had the same first name. If a teacher called out our name, three people would turn around and the teacher would have to clarify who she was talking to.
 
Zen_Arcade said:
That's his point. Having a common name leads to confusion in group situations. I had two other people with my name in various classes in school, and we always got each others papers because we all had the same first name. If a teacher called out our name, three people would turn around and the teacher would have to clarify who she was talking to.
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Ah, that makes sense.
Also, is it a bad idea to name my daughter Arya (From Game Of Thrones)?
But again, what about foreign names? Like my name, Abhishek which is an Indian name.
 
I think it's pretty selfish of the parents. "Hey guys, I named my kid Punch, because I'm unique" !

My GF's former coworker was a pregnant teen who was legit thinking of naming her kid Punch. I shit you not.

Do what you want, but for fucks sake, think about the kid who will have to live with that name throughout his/her life.
 
Zen_Arcade said:
Yes, within the concept of their fake imaginary worlds. Taking those names out of those worlds and putting them in ours where we don't have those made up names would make them stick out like a sore thumb. Jabba sounds like a perfectly fine name when you look at the rest of Star Wars, but if you named your kid Jabba he would probably just get made fun of.
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I mean, off the top of my head:

Lucina
Marth
Zelda
Korra
Katara
Zuko
Azula
Ahsoka
Ilana
Lance
Octus

I just remembered those from random shows and games. If someone actually put some effort into it they could probably get a metric crapton that could work.
 
unconventional names disrespect that family's lineage,
unconventional names disrespects that person's cultural heritage,
unconditional names can subject kids to bullying

*I understand that of Americans that have multipel roots and have lost completely any trace of any heritage and don't care about naming their kids as Channum, Trig, Trip, or Seven or Soda

But to first gen or 2nd generation people still value cultural heritage
 
I mostly don't care about unique names, but if I'm reading you're kid's name and it isn't immediately obvious how you're supposed to pronounce it, that's a problem. Or if you give them a common name with an uncommon spelling, I feel like you're setting them up for a lifetime of frustration, having to constantly tell people how to spell their name. I went to high school with a girl named Sarai, which was pronounced like Sara. That's stupid.
 
The Smoking Bun said:
Ah, that makes sense.
Also, is it a bad idea to name my daughter Arya (From Game Of Thrones)?
But again, what about foreign names? Like my name, Abhishek which is an Indian name.
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I think the dislike comes from the idea that people name their kids weird things in order to get them to stand out. Like I said, I personally don't like it because it seems like a cheap way to make your kid look special. Then they have to go through life with people double taking every time they say their name because it's jarring to hear a name like Inspektor Pilot. It makes them stand out, but usually in a way that makes people annoyed by them. It's not just that they have an odd name, it's why they were given that odd name in the first place.

I consider foreign names just something I don't understand. While I consider made up names or wild misspellings something with no real meaning that the parents decided to do so they can feel like their kid is special.
Unbounded said:
I mean, off the top of my head:

Lucina
Marth
Zelda
Korra
Katara
Zuko
Azula
Ahsoka
Ilana
Lance
Octus

I just remembered those from random shows and games. If someone actually put some effort into it they could probably get a metric crapton that could work.
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Some of those were already names in reality before they were in any game. Like Lance and Zelda. Those are cases of video games taking names from reality. Not the other way around.

And I think you'd be mistaken if you think you can name your kid Octus or Zuko in western civilization and not have that kid get weird looks. Those sound like names the anime kids in high school gave themselves to role play with.
 
The Smoking Bun said:
Ah, that makes sense.
Also, is it a bad idea to name my daughter Arya (From Game Of Thrones)?
But again, what about foreign names? Like my name, Abhishek which is an Indian name.
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All I know is that Arya has always been a name for males in India. I know this because an acquaintance of mine is named Arya and he told me when GoT became popular that he found it weird cause it's a name used in India for males. It's not super common but yeah. There's even some sports/celebs in India that have that name.

I guess that has changed since ASOIAF became popular though.
 
The Beard said:
I think it's pretty selfish of the parents. "Hey guys, I named my kid Punch, because I'm unique" !

My GF's former coworker was a pregnant teen who was legit thinking of naming her kid Punch. I shit you not.

Do what you want, but for fucks sake, think about the kid who will have to live with that name throughout his/her life.
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Kids shouldn't be subjected to ridicule and discrimination due to their name. This is a horrible argument
 
I hate ridiculous spellings of common names too. Or common names with a letter changed for no reason to make a really stupid sounding name. Seems to be more common in teens.
 
Unconventional names might make kids easy targets for mockery and bullying.

Edit: Names are important to a child's upbringing, that's why some countries only allow parents to give their children certain names.
 
Marcus said:
im naming my daughter Lucina. you cannot stop me.
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I've really no problem with 'unique' names. As long as they're not too extreme.
 
DrGonzo615 said:
Candy is socially acceptable? Thats news to me.

Some names just sound stupid or pretentious as hell, like Destiny, Mercedes, or North
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Candy was pretty common at one point. My aunt is named Candy, and I have a cousin with the same name.

When it comes to unconventional names, by buddies first baby momma named the kid Saren, after Sarendipity. Everyone's first question? "Did he name him after the gas?" Such a stupid fucking name.
 
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