Comments on: The action-name trend for boys is a backlash

By: Graham

Graham — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 15:45:33 +0000

Yes, but you have to make sure he knows to always tell people it’s pronounced tes-TOS-ter-on-ee. And tell them it’s a traditional name from his culture.

I assume they were apocryphal, but I used to see an ancient meme about African-American kids named Female [fem-AHL-ee] and Lemonjello [lem-ON-jel-o].

By: Red Arrow

Red Arrow — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 02:56:44 +0000

My next son will be named “Testosterone”. Take THAT, Bruce er…Katelyn Jenner!

By: Harry Jones

Harry Jones — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 15:10:19 +0000

Stupid parents give their kids stupid names.

How old do you have to be before you can legally petition for a name change?

By the way, there are cultures where it’s expected for each child to have a unique given name. It’s the convention.

By: Wang Wei Lin

Wang Wei Lin — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 23:25:55 +0000

It’s tribalism. The first unusual English names, if you can call it that, began showing up in Black society in the 80s as I recall. Now that the civil society is dissolving the symptoms of tribalism are spreading. One of them is weird, mispelled or neo-pagan names.

By: TRX

TRX — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 21:54:46 +0000

>Dr. Stryker Ramoray.

And it has to be Stryker, not Striker. Nonstandard spelling is a must.
—
Some scriptwriter probably new that some doctors use Stryker saws to cut bone, so they thought it was kewl. “Stryker, geddit, hur-hur-hur!”

By: TRX

TRX — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 21:51:37 +0000

> girls with names or spellings that make them stand out
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And those which they insist are pronounced in some weird way, so they can get double-butthurt when you try to say it.

“Your parents hated you and wanted you to be miserable, and your continued use of your ‘special’ name marks you as too stupid to petition the court for a change to something better.”

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 20:44:24 +0000

As an Xer who watched Friends, I can’t hear the name Striker without thinking of the character Joey Tribbiani’s career as a soap actor. He first played a character called Dr. Drake Ramoray, who got killed off.

Then they brought in some other guy to play his brother, Dr. Stryker Ramoray.

And it has to be Stryker, not Striker. Nonstandard spelling is a must.

I always figure my Ivy League name should be Remington Drake IV.

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 20:38:25 +0000

There was also the 1998 Spike Lee movie with Denzel Washington, “He Got Game”. [I don't know if it was made, but in 2018 there was talk of a sequel that "needs to happen": She Got Game. Inevitably.]

Denzel’s character gets paroled because his son is a high school basketball star and the governor wants the kid to enrol at his alma mater & Denzel’s exemplary coaching/parenting is called for.

The kid’s name is Jesus Shuttlesworth. Jeezus, not Hayzoos.

SO the kid confronts his father with the comment, “why’d you gotta name me Jesus, anyway?”

Denzel deadpans, “It’s a Biblical name.”

Kid replies, “I know it’s a Biblical name.”

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 20:22:40 +0000

Occasionally I notice that large chunks of the English speaking world are cut of from names that actually have meaning in our own language- they’re originally surnames, or they are from Old English, French, Latin, Greek or Biblical Hebrew, among others. Some, like my own, have lost or disputed meanings as well as having been surnames first.

It stands out when dealing with folks whose names still have actual meanings in the living language they speak everyday. Or near enough.

Short forms, nicknames, and diminutives/affectionates makes it worse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk8yRbIngGw from Stargate SG1

Criminal Minds tackles the issue of whether the name makes the man:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiQFrCgF19c

By: Sam Vara

Sam Vara — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 20:18:23 +0000

“Who’s going to make fun of Striker?”

If he’s bookish and non-combative, absolutely everyone.