Would you burden your child with a rare, uncommon name?

Question

Why do people do this to their children??

LONDON: A London-based translation firm is offering parents-to-be the chance to check the meaning of prospective baby names in other languages to avoid inadvertently causing their offspring future embarrassment.

Celebrity couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes might have thought twice about naming their daughter Suri if they'd known that it means "pickpocket" in Japanese, "turned sour" in French, and "horse mackerels" in Italian, suggests Today Translations.

For $1,678, the company's linguists will carry out a "basic name translation audit" of names, checking their meaning in 100 languages. Checks for more languages can be done for an additional cost.



Other celebrity baby names it has checked include Kai Rooney, the newborn son of English soccer player Wayne Rooney, whose name means "probably" in Finnish, "pier" in Estonian, and "stop it" in the west African language of Yoruba.

And while musicians Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale may have known Zuma meant "peace" in Arabic when choosing their son's name, they may not have been aware it also translates as "Lord frowns in anger" in the Aztec language of Nahuatl.

Some unusual celebrity baby name choices are beyond easy translation however, the company admits, such as Jermajesty — the son of Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine and Lark Song — the daughter of American actress Mia Farrow.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Naming-your-kid-Check-meaning-to-avoid-blushes-/articleshow/5241339.cms

Answer 1

I have a rare and very uncommon first name.



It is so rare that, as far as I know only I have it.



As I am the only person I have ever known to have it I used to try to keep it a secret.



All my childhood, whenever my name was mentioned by teachers etc, other kids would say 'Waaa.?? What's yer name?? Yayaya' just like kids do.



I have never used it, I am known by my second name and that is a perfectly normal and well known name.



So..... As you can imagine all my kids have very usual names.



I would never saddle anyone with a name that is an embarrassing burden like mine was in my childhood.



Perversely, now I quite like it and if it was the name I am known by I would shorten it to Ella, which I think is quite lovely. :-)))



Finally, I doubt very much if there is any translation of it, maybe a place name somewhere in Outer Mongolia or even in outer space. lol

Answer 2

Not in a million years. I have noticed in recent years that there has been a drift away from traditional family names for some reason. I blame these so-called celebs , who live in a different world from the rest of us anyway. What about 'Ruskin Andromeda'?

Answer 3

personally, I know a few people with uncommon names - who I wont name as they may well identify themselves, as they are so uncommon.



I think they are wonderful and I sometimes wonder if the name influences the person...



I cant imagine naming any of my kids sunshine' or 'daisyfleur', but I would use a name that was common in another language . I have always liked the name 'Svetlana' for a girl

Answer 4

When I was pregnant with my first child, I thought up all sorts of obscure names, luckily my husband vetoed them all! My kids have good old fashioned names - Ben and Katy. Children can be cruel and I am just thankful that at least they won't get teased for having a strange name. The reality is that our children are human beings not dolls or pets and they have to live with their names for the rest of their lives.

Answer 5

I have an uncommon name (Clayton) and as far as I'm aware it means 'Clay town' In Anglo saxon. I'm not that bothered about what it means in Nahuatl tbh hahahaha.



My favorite celeb baby name is Knox. Knox Joile. Named after a Fort, how sweet xD

Answer 6

No. My kids have all got sensible traditional names. I like non traditional names that come from natural things - you know like seasons (Summer, Autumn), flowers (Poppy, Daisy) and alike. And also old fashioned names (but I save the really old lady ones for my pets - like my horse, Doris!)



But I detest made up names. There seems to be a tend where I live. Most of the names sound like hormones , or sports brands, or pound shop perfumes.



I'd love to print the names I think are crap but if they ever decided to google them my answer would come straight up as they are that unusual.

Answer 7

Yes I would give my child a rare or uncommon name but only if I was 100% certain it wasn't the kind of name that would be a burden.Sad to say kids can take a run of the mill name and morph it in to something horrendous.

Answer 8

Your right, in today's crazy mixed up world why add insult to injury.We have enough problems growing up,nobody needs to be burdened with a weird name.

Answer 9

I did actually find the meanings of my children's names before \i named them and think that is only fair on them. I did have to stifle a laugh on the baby name section when somebody asked "what do you think of the name bristol"? I had to answer that one just to make them aware of the consequences.

Answer 10

No, not really because it's always going to mean something else in another language. I'm more disgusted with people who name their children things like "George George George" or "Harry Cherry", yes these are names of people I actually know.

Answer 11

I have the most awful sutname, hardly anyone knows it. I used to get picked on for it but I was a gobby mare and gave as good as I got. My mum regrets giving us our dads name, it's that bad. There's been arguments about it too. My siblings have all changed their surname to my mums surname.



So based on that, I'd never ever give my child a strange name. They'd have a normal name such as James or Elizabeth.

Answer 12

I'm ashamed to say my cousin has a child with a middle name of Jedi. How sad is that? They let his 5 year old brother pick a name..idiots!



It's always the way that the kids called ' Periwinkle' and 'Summer' are usually the beefy kids !



My kids names are normal, I take all my cruelty out on the various pets I've had :)



AURORA- Your real name is beautiful and not at all 'outlandish' I love the fact you have a unique name ...tis fitting ;)

Answer 13

children on the playground will take the mick out of everything, to not choose a name because of that is utterly retarded, as for the abroad thang, if it was a big enough deal that you bothered to learn a bit of the language then you could use one of their countries names, its no big deal, i like the name storm... thats what i hope to call my first daughter

Answer 14

attention seeking i think



i know of a family of kids with ridiculous names



these names include echno, rogue, frodo, beaudelaire, winter berry, morpheus, and widget

they even considered egyptian cotton



and you can only imagine their middle names....each child is saddled with three outrageous names



positively cruel

Answer 15

I would want my kid to have a unique but not odd name. I like the old names like "Edna" or "Charles".



I was named after a song and I named my dog after a song so if I have a kid it may get named after a song too.

Answer 16

I was always made to believe i was called vivienne after vivien leigh in gone with the wind, quite romantic i thought, till i got older and found out my dad wanted a boy named vincent, so after i was born (willyless) LOL The nearest they could get to it was vivienne, aw my mam had 8 boys and 6 girls, so he got his vincent in the end.

Answer 17

Suri in Italian means nothing. (I speak Italian)

According to Google translation, Suri in japanese/French means nothing

http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&text=Suri&sl=ja&tl=en#ja|en|Suri

http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&text=Suri&sl=ja&tl=en#fr|en|Suri

According to Wikipedia, Suri has a whole lot of meanings, but none are "bad".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suri

Searching google images for Suri just brings out pages and pages of photos of the girl above mentioned:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=suri&gbv=1

I can't see anyone boasting the same feat, so she's truly unique and I'd like that myself.



I then lost interest about checking the others but let me add that I couldn't care less about what the "Aztec language of Nahuatl" translation for my name would be.

Answer 18

Ann Dunham did. So I guess it's OK.

Answer 19

No I wouldn't and as for the people who named them after the place they were conceived - Brooklyn Georgia, Paris, etc etc - my child would be called BLACKPOOL! lol

Answer 20

I pledge now that if I have a kid, I'm going to give them an outrageous name like "Pink Sprinkles" or Slartibartfast. Hang the consequences.



Haz. I'd be dead chuffed if my middle name was Jedi.

Answer 21

My parents burdened me with this name!.......

Answer 22

I think this is the definition of "over the top".

Answer 23

i couldn't really care less what a name might mean in some obscure language, or even a not so obscure foreign language thanks.

Answer 24

Jermajesty is awful---my dog is called Her Majesty lol



I guess if I liked the name I wouldnt care what it was in another language.



lol--A woman in hospital next to me called her son Colon and I know someone called their baby Kaylen after the forceps he was delivered with

Answer 25

i would name my child newton jones i wonder if that means something weird.

Answer 26

Never.My three sons have plain, fairly common names for which they are eternally grateful.

Answer 27

IS THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT NAME UNCOMMON ?

Answer 28

I just call them by what they are. Tw@t, Tosser, and Lummox.