Pretentious Baby Names (12 Viewers)

[Brad Mojo]

I'm definitely naming my next kid Pretentious.

 

[Arathrael]

Guess this can go here

I think I read that in Britain the baby often isn’t named right away but after a few weeks so the parents can get a sense of what name fits the best

Anyone have any name change stories to share?

Or think you or one of your children have the ‘wrong’ name?

Interesting how many of the parents in the article could tell pretty quickly that the name they originally wasn’t right

Legally, in the UK you have six weeks to name your baby. That's when the birth has to be registered. But you can still change their registered first name after that, within 12 months, if you can show a different name is being used. After that, it has to be done by deed poll.

You can also change their surname, but only in a few situations. Random fact, in the UK, you legally have to re-register a birth if the parents weren't married at the time they were born, but subsequently marry, under the Legitimacy Act 1976. The potential penalty for not doing so is "a fine not exceeding £2". We had to do that for our first child, so his birth was re-registered and his name changed a couple of years after he was born, when we eventually got married.

The Office of National Statistics here publishes data on baby names, which includes every name used three or more times each year. So you can find out that 80 people called their baby boy Loki in 2020, and 12 called theirs Thor, for example. Someone also has a site where you can do searches and see trends over time: https://names.darkgreener.com/ The SSA has something similar there, but I think it only covers the top 1,000 names: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

Personally, I'm fascinated by the psychology of it, how some names stay popular, some suddenly pop up, and others drop. Why does everyone, collectively, decide to not use names like Gary or Stephen so much, but they keep on using George?

Ours have slightly unusual names (both boys, the first one had 74 others given the same name the year they were born, the second one's only five months old, but there were 44 given the same name the year before). But they also both have more normal middle names, so they've got an option there if they want to use it.

 

[St. Widge]

If there’s a problem with Stormy, it ain’t that it’s pretentious.

"Give it up on the main stage for Stormy."

 

[t_rav_82]

"Give it up on the main stage for Stormy."

That was my first thought as well, and then was surprised to read “him”. I’d probably just call him Storm but maybe that’s because I’ve seen too much of Stormy Daniels.

 

[Yatman]

born to mr and mrs prime, a child, optimus

 

[Eeyore]

I'm definitely naming my next kid Pretentious.

You'll have to spell it differently or it won't count. Preitehnshuss? And then get angry when people spell it "pretentious."

 

[superchuck500]

 

[Dan in Lafayette]

Meet Frank Zappa's children!

Moon Unit




Dweezil (originally Ian Donald Calvin Euclid)




Ahmet Emuukha Rodan




Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen

 

[FL_Saint]

Moon Unit was smokin hot back in “the day” and I believe Dweezil was/is a pretty good guitarist.

 

[BlackandGoldXLIV]

This is nothing new. Everybody wants a unique name to make their kid stand out.

Almost 30 years ago, I went to school with a.......Mary Christmas. Ugh.

 

[Xeno]

As someone who was named something somewhat unusual: Don't do this to your children. Growing up hating your name is a miserable experience. To this day I still don't particularly like hearing my name said out loud I've just learned to deal with it. If you insist on being a whackjob and giving your kid a weird name then at least make it their middle name so they can eventually discard it.

 

[kizzy821]

As someone who was named something somewhat unusual: Don't do this to your children. Growing up hating your name is a miserable experience. To this day I still don't particularly like hearing my name said out loud I've just learned to deal with it. If you insist on being a whackjob and giving your kid a weird name then at least make it their middle name so they can eventually discard it.

I relentlessly badgered my parents about my middle name from the time I learned what it was. When I was 12, they had it changed.

I was like, "Oh. Ok... Thanks?" But I was perplexed as hell as to why they didn't ask ME what I wanted my new name to be.

I don't believe most parents are as good at being parents as they think they are.

 

[Xeno]

I relentlessly badgered my parents about my middle name from the time I learned what it was. When I was 12, they had it changed.

I was like, "Oh. Ok... Thanks?" But I was perplexed as hell as to why they didn't ask ME what I wanted my new name to be.

I don't believe most parents are as good at being parents as they think they are.

Someone like Zappa giving his kids wild names is at least in character for him.

In the case of naming a child I think most parents, the first time at least, really can't get past the selfishness of "our baby" and fail to consider that they're naming another human being and that human being will either have to deal with it their entire lives or go through the effort of changing their name and almost certainly offending their parents.

I had some friends who named their first son Charlie. They didn't name him Charles and call him Charlie. His name is legally Charlie. If you wanted to call him Charlie why didn't you name him Charles, call him Charlie and let him make the decision on what he wants to be called when he gets older? Now he's stuck being Charlie.

 

[zeetes]

I relentlessly badgered my parents about my middle name from the time I learned what it was. When I was 12, they had it changed.

I was like, "Oh. Ok... Thanks?" But I was perplexed as hell as to why they didn't ask ME what I wanted my new name to be.

I don't believe most parents are as good at being parents as they think they are.

i hate my middle name. it is the female spelling of an already stupid sounding name. reminds me of how much i hate the colour teal. it can't decide if it wants to be blue or green. my mom is a forking moron.

 

[kizzy821]

Someone like Zappa giving his kids wild names is at least in character for him.

In the case of naming a child I think most parents, the first time at least, really can't get past the selfishness of "our baby" and fail to consider that they're naming another human being and that human being will either have to deal with it their entire lives or go through the effort of changing their name and almost certainly offending their parents.

I had some friends who named their first son Charlie. They didn't name him Charles and call him Charlie. His name is legally Charlie. If you wanted to call him Charlie why didn't you name him Charles, call him Charlie and let him make the decision on what he wants to be called when he gets older? Now he's stuck being Charlie.

The entire process is screwed. Now that I think about it, there should come a point (not sure what age) that a person should be given the option of changing their name for free.

Old enough to know if you want your name or not. But young enough not to be a jerk about it and change your name to something even more stupid.