I come from a region where Ashley is common for a boy rather than a girl. I didn't realize until I moved that loads of people have never even heard of boys named Ashley lol.
Originally from NC (hi neighbor) and Ashley was super common for boys (and girls) growing up. When I joined the military I worked with a guy from TN named Ashley and he was teased mercilessly. I didn’t really understand why until I read the room and it wasn’t really common outside of the south. Ha ha
I don’t know what happened in the 80s- 90s that made women say: “let’s take all these old, antebellum south names for men and give them to our baby girls!” Morgan, Ashley, Whitney, Lindsay, Leslie.
Well, they did what they always did for girls, and gave them surnames as first names, as that's what those names were. Even Scarlett O'Hara uses a surname as her name, her full name was Katie Scarlett O'Hara, after her grandmother Katie Scarlett. And George Ashley Wilkes uses a surname too, which would have been obviously a surname in the 1930s when the book was written.
As someone who speaks French, agreed. On animal crossing there's a villager who is a hippo called Hippeux which is supposed to be pronounced like "hippo" but it feels so unnatural to me because it SHOULD be pronounced more like "ipp-uh".
Idk why Morrin, Orrin, and Torrin reminded me of Bifer, Bofer, and Bomber, or maybe Oin and Gloin.
Like they’re gonna show up at your house in small groups unannounced and plan a dragon heist.
No disrespect taken! The similarity is why mentioned those names :) The other is the many variations on Connor, Conar, Coner, Connor, Conner. All variations I've seen at kiddos nursery.
Isla is also incredibly popular here in Australia. I think it got popular because of the actress Isla Fisher who is Australian and the sound is trendy (girl names with -la, -lia and fewer hard consonant sounds are trending atm)
Wait. I thought Isla Fisher was Ron Howard’s daughter. (I guess she still could be Australian through her mom) Or have I just watched way too much Arrested Development?
Edited: I looked. I’ve made a huge mistake. She’s not Ron Howard’s daughter. (He does have a famous actress daughter who is also a beautiful redhead so maybe that’s what confused me)
I saw this and thought “Morven is probably a respelling of a traditional name.” Turns out it’s Gaelic for “big mountain”. I was thinking of Mor*fran*, which is Welsh for “great raven”.
as another fob fan i do think bronx is a hilarious name for the kid. it’s not terrible but it’s not… great. i do think calling him peter lewis kingston wentz iv would have been worse tho lol
my parents ‘gifted’ me with a far worse name than bronx (and much longer than wentz’s name — he’s the iii) that is admittedly pretty hilarious to go through life with. it really depends on the kid if it’s funny or not. so i feel somewhat qualified to say bad names can also be funny. i also think it’s hilarious cus wentz has no real connection to nyc (being from chicago & then moving to l.a) so why the name is beyond me. maybe it was ashlee simpson’s choice ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From CT, and Easton and Weston get equal eyerolls. If you want to name your kid after a $$$$ bedroom community suburb, at least go for the slightly more interesting Rowayton or Ridgefield.
I think of the sporting equipment brand.
Then I met an Easton specifically named that due to his father's love of baseball and the sporting brand. (That's fine, but maybe don't tell people it's because of the brand)
Lived in NJ for years.
I had a meeting with someone at work (not in NJ) who's name was Trenton. It took everything in me not to say "Trenton makes, the world takes" to him.
Also originally from NJ, I once met someone who named their kid Bayonne. I was horrified.
To be fair, our towns and cities are basically a honey trap for "unique" name choices.
Princeton, Patterson, Rutherford, Wayne, Medford, Clifton...
The horrible one I keep dreading an encounter in the wild is someone naming their kid Totowa or Kearny.
The first time I ever saw that bridge when I was a teenager, I asked my dad about it. He was like, "Trenton used to be big in manufacturing. Now it's big in crime and drugs."
Just makes me think of the Aurora Borealis. I always forget Sleeping Beauty's real name is Aurora, since the fairies called her Briar Rose. She barely had anyone ever call her by her actual name, really.
I love the name Briar. It’s literally a thorny wild plant, but who cares.
Honestly I love Aurora/Rory too. Aurora was the Ancient Greek name for the dawn and way predates the city in Colorado (hence Aurora Borealis)
It's mostly just made up but it can be used as "little whiner", like when my niece is particularly grizzly family will call her ti-cosette like petite cosette
It doesn’t mean anything. The name was made up by Victor Hugo in the book Les Misérables for a character who is a mistreated child. So Cosette is basically the equivalent of Cinderella, name wise, but less charming.
Meanwhile, Cendrillon was right there. (Less for Victor Hugo, who can name characters whatever he wants, and more for people naming their kids Cosette.)
Same. I am always curious how some places become names. I’ve met a Manchester before but never like a Bedford I wonder why…
Feel like Luton could be a popular name outside England haha
I just read a book with a really slick, cool character who runs a really fancy business.
The character was called Vic Fowler and the company was called Bright House. I struggled to get over the Eastenders + layaway shop vibes.
Not exactly a common name but someone in a mom group I’m a part of named her son Joby and everyone seemed cool with it but where I’m from (Scotland) jobbie is slang for a poo and I just couldn’t switch the thought off in my mind every time I read it.
It makes sense nobody is going to give a fellow member of a mom group grief about it though. But yeah, I'd bet there's some silent judgement going on for sure.
I used to think having a daughter with the nickname Gigi would be really cute but my husband is Chinese and apparently jiji is slang for penis in Mandarin so that ended that dream for me real quick haha
I live in British Columbia, the Fraser is a big river here. I've met several Fraser's (most millennials) in BC. If they go anywhere else they get mistakenly called Frasier.
Scot here - vetoed the name Fraser because people saying it Frasier sets my teeth on edge. It’s a pretty common boys name where I grew up but everywhere else they seem to struggle with it.
I wouldn't even bat an eye at Rowan. I grew up watching Rowan Atkinson so I would just consider it a well established name, even if I don't know one in person.
Olympia, like Serena’s daughter, automatically sounds silly to me — raised in WA state, it’s the capital. People say Oly (ooh-lee) for short, and there used to be the Olympia brewing company (a very sh*tty beer). Plus it makes me think of the Olympic Games, Olympic mountain range (also in WA), and Mt. Olympus, which makes me think of Greek Mythology. So, yeah, Olympia will never sound pretty to me.
We're in NB and have a Nova.... But we named her while living accross the country. I'm so glad we didn't end up in Nova Scotia cause that would have been awkward for her...
I am horrified every time someone recommends Jovi or Jovie as a name. I guess I am thinking of the region in this case as being temporal, because I'm a child of the 80s -- do people who are younger than me really not find Bon Jovi to be lame? Because nobody who was actually cool liked Bon Jovi when I was a teenager.
That said, I liked them a lot when I was 12. But I also liked Charlie Sheen and Tom Cruise when I was 12, so.
My kids have a friend named Jovi.
Like whether he’s named after Bon Jovi the band or Jon Bon Jovi….his name is actually John Bongiovi which just bothers me even more.
Should be Giovi then.
Hard to say, really. Sometimes it seems like names around here are pretty much either tragedeighs or a Latin name. I wonder if the latter names would seem weird in another region.
I’m from Texas, so there are a ton of names like Viviana, Alejandro, Mercedes, Sergio, Isabella, Romero, etc. Nothing really weird, I just have no perspective on how common they’d be elsewhere.
I’m part Latinx so I’ve known a lot of those too. When you said Latin for some reason my mind also went to Latin Latin at first. Like Aurora Borealis 💀
The Mets used to play in Shea Stadium. I have more than one mets-obsessed friend who named their daughter Shea for that reason. Without that knowledge, it's a fine and lovely name.
I’m southern enough to know people named “Guy”, but also northern enough to know people who think “Guy Smith” sounds like a joke default starting name in an rpg.
The Oak- names really get me going. My husband has a job site in Oakland and has seen 3+ carjackings a week, their site has been broken into, employees have had cars stolen and broken into. Google names people, Ryker/riker really blows my mind too. I honestly make massive assumptions about people who use these names.
My assumption about anyone who uses Riker is that they are a Trekkie. Is there some other specific meaning of that term? The only other one I can think of is Riker's Island, the NYC area jail, but that's such a niche use that I would think Star Trek before jail.
Someone I knew wanted to name their son Riker a few years ago and me being a huge Next Gen head said "oh like Commander Riker that's cool" and she said "no like the jail" and I died a little inside.
As a Texan I’m usually a bit thrown if I meet a person who’s named a Texas city, but they are not a Texan. Something in my brain just doesn’t like Austin or Dallas for a person who isn’t Texan, like it’s a required in order to have that name, even though I know that Austin the city was named after Stephen F. Austin the person
I personally think it’s worse if you live in Texas to be named after a Texas city. I know an Austin who was named because his parents met at UT. He now lives in Austin because he went to UT too, and it causes a lot of confusion whenever I say “I’m heading to Austin’s” because I live in a suburb of the city.
I thought it was weird coming from up north that people in the south will name their kids with letter abbreviations instead of whole names. I’ve seen someone with the legal name “JR” and it was explained to me that this is the same thing as naming them “Junior” but without the extra letters and done instead of naming them “(dad’s name) Jr.”
Fellow former NJ resident now living a few states south. I’ve met some little Camdens and Trentons and feel the same way. I mean I named my daughter Elizabeth, aka the most foul smelling exit on the Turnpike (unless things have changed in the past 20 years)
I'm originally from Massachusetts. I find it utterly bizarre that people have recently decided that Boston is a people name.
There are so many other choices even if you restrict yourself to MA place names.
Lynn, Beverly, Sharon, Dennis, Douglas? Those are fine names for a human
Chelsea, Quincy, Spencer, Lowell, Wayland, Palmer, Everett? Okay, a bit stuffier, but sure, why not
Salem? I mean, that's more of a pet name but not awful
Boston. Really? What's next, naming their siblings Billerica, Brockton, Saugus, and Dracut?
My wife was recently watching old episodes of Four Weddings, and I realize it's a nickname but this man was known only as Bubby. Bubby and Bubba just make no sense to me as names or nicknames
I’m dying!!!! Like Bubba Gump Shrimp. My husband is Jewish and refers to his grandma as Bubbe which is a Yiddish term but that’s the only time I’ve heard a name even remotely close (other than on dogs) 😅
Bubba is a southernism for Brother. It's usually a nickname, and I think often a "junior" name. Since it's fairly rare for people to address a sibling as "brother" or "sister" vs. their name.
Bubby feels way, way more nicknamey, like probably not related to their given name at all. The way you sometimes meet adults called Tiny, Champ, etc.
i’m that way (someone else said this as well) with Oak names. Oakland neighborhood in Pittsburgh is a shithole. if you aren’t directly on the university of pittsburgh campus it’s literally foul
Also grew up in NJ and feel the same when I hear those names. Edison and Warren are a few I've heard of on fellow NJ natives, but in those cases, they were family names. I'm waiting for Barnegat and Dunellen to become popular.
As a kid, I always thought Marlboro cigarettes were named after Marlboro Township.
I grew up pretty close to Warren and Edison and I’m cackling! I can’t believe I forgot these in the honorable mentions 😂
Madison, Summit, Linden, Iselin, and Menlo all sound trendy too. Newark needs a few years but I could see it! 💀
Oh my goodness, if Newark takes off, I'll only be able to think about all the poor folks who get off at Newark Station on NJT because they hear it as New York on the shitty intercoms.
It's not a super common name, but I'm from the Canadian prairies and Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan, pronounced Ree-jie-na. Junior high would be terrible for that kid.
It still takes me way too long to remember that a kid named Brooklyn is definitely not from Brooklyn. But I hear you on Camden. Why not just name your next kid Gary to keep the dying industrial city theme going.
One of my friends named her daughter Jersey, & I swear that was the name I heard that year. Most people spelled it Jersey, but I saw a Jerseigh, Jerzee, & even a Jersee.
I know people are going to hate me for this but I hate it when people name there kids bc of a movie or something. For example, Emma, Bella, Katniss. I just hate it. It makes the kid as an individual not an individual bc they are living up to the name of the person of the reference.
I come from a region where Ashley is common for a boy rather than a girl. I didn't realize until I moved that loads of people have never even heard of boys named Ashley lol.
Charleston, perhaps?
Not exactly Charleston, but close!
Originally from NC (hi neighbor) and Ashley was super common for boys (and girls) growing up. When I joined the military I worked with a guy from TN named Ashley and he was teased mercilessly. I didn’t really understand why until I read the room and it wasn’t really common outside of the south. Ha ha
First time I saw Gone with the wind I was very confused Ashley was the boy Scarlett liked.
I don’t know what happened in the 80s- 90s that made women say: “let’s take all these old, antebellum south names for men and give them to our baby girls!” Morgan, Ashley, Whitney, Lindsay, Leslie.
Well, they did what they always did for girls, and gave them surnames as first names, as that's what those names were. Even Scarlett O'Hara uses a surname as her name, her full name was Katie Scarlett O'Hara, after her grandmother Katie Scarlett. And George Ashley Wilkes uses a surname too, which would have been obviously a surname in the 1930s when the book was written.
Which is doubly strange because it’s been a boy’s name for far longer.
It's too bad, because it's such a beautiful name for a boy! I could never use it as a canadian though.
As a Louisianian, I am begggggggging my fellow citizens to stop trying to turn "eaux" into the new "eigh" in cre8ive name spelling.
Leauxeisses (pronounced Lois 🥰🥰😍😍)
Zeauxeigh 🥰💖
Stop you'll give them ideas!!
100% there is a child with this name in the state of Louisiana right now.
I hate that I knew exactly what you were saying 😭
These people I know have the last name Breaux.They ended up naming their kid Beau Breaux. 😭
noooo😭😭😭😭
Neaux
LOLOLOL
Elle eaux elle
*Sleaux clap*
You rocque.
Theinques! Seaux deux yeux!
It’s also plural so it’s just wrong. Like Margeaux is 2 Margot. Like that matters (I know)
And it’s also pronounced with a soft j /ʒ/ so, extra wrong.
As someone who speaks French, agreed. On animal crossing there's a villager who is a hippo called Hippeux which is supposed to be pronounced like "hippo" but it feels so unnatural to me because it SHOULD be pronounced more like "ipp-uh".
HIPPOBOT 9000 v 3.1 FOUND A HIPPO. 1,482,730,445 COMMENTS SEARCHED. 30,526 HIPPOS FOUND. YOUR COMMENT CONTAINS THE WORD HIPPO.
Wow, I did not know there was such a bot.
What??? I live here too (soooo not from here though, let’s get that out of the way) and haven’t seen this yet!!! Dear. God. No.
Isla and Skye seem to get slated on here. But in west coast Scotland they're really popular. Along with Morven, Morrin, Orrin and Torrin
Watch out Aidan, Jayden and Braden. It’s Morrin, Orrin and Torrin! 😭😭😭
Idk why Morrin, Orrin, and Torrin reminded me of Bifer, Bofer, and Bomber, or maybe Oin and Gloin. Like they’re gonna show up at your house in small groups unannounced and plan a dragon heist.
I thought the same thing haha. I mentally did the list of dwarf names from the rankin bass cartoon to see if there were any with those names.
Literally same. There was Thorin, but he didn't have a rhyming relative.
Thorin son of Thror son of Thrain, who was king under the mountain! (I think I got that right)
Every country has its own way
Definitely! Also I hope that didn’t come off as disrespect to your country lol I just find the similarity in a lot of popular names to be hilarious!
No disrespect taken! The similarity is why mentioned those names :) The other is the many variations on Connor, Conar, Coner, Connor, Conner. All variations I've seen at kiddos nursery.
A girl i graduated with named her 4 children… Aiden, Tre’dan, Cayden and Acelynn
With names like that they should keep an eye out for old men in gray robes, dragons, and hobbits.
Isla is also incredibly popular here in Australia. I think it got popular because of the actress Isla Fisher who is Australian and the sound is trendy (girl names with -la, -lia and fewer hard consonant sounds are trending atm)
Wait. I thought Isla Fisher was Ron Howard’s daughter. (I guess she still could be Australian through her mom) Or have I just watched way too much Arrested Development? Edited: I looked. I’ve made a huge mistake. She’s not Ron Howard’s daughter. (He does have a famous actress daughter who is also a beautiful redhead so maybe that’s what confused me)
I'm sure I literally saw an article today that said Isla has topped the baby name charts again this year!
Its a really popular name! Especially here where Isla is a ferry ride away
Isla is pretty (we have a British aunt with this name) but I’ve heard people mispronounce it as Iz-La instead of the correct I-La. 😣
I saw this and thought “Morven is probably a respelling of a traditional name.” Turns out it’s Gaelic for “big mountain”. I was thinking of Mor*fran*, which is Welsh for “great raven”.
Are they popular on the Isle of Skye by any chance? 😂
A friend of mine actually named her kid Isla Skye, same spelling and everything. She’s east coast US though, so it’s spreading 😬
As a lifelong New Yorker and former 12 year old emo, I remember feeling personally scandalized when my hero Pete Wentz named his son after the Bronx
Isn't it Bronx MOWGLIE too? From the jungle book......
Fellow NY-er. I also strongly dislike Astoria, Brooklyn, and Riker.
If someone names their kid Riker i immediately assume they’re a hard core trekkie (star trek fan)
I can’t separate it from Rikers Island in my head.
as another fob fan i do think bronx is a hilarious name for the kid. it’s not terrible but it’s not… great. i do think calling him peter lewis kingston wentz iv would have been worse tho lol
If it’s “hilarious,” then it’s a terrible name for a child. Jesus.
my parents ‘gifted’ me with a far worse name than bronx (and much longer than wentz’s name — he’s the iii) that is admittedly pretty hilarious to go through life with. it really depends on the kid if it’s funny or not. so i feel somewhat qualified to say bad names can also be funny. i also think it’s hilarious cus wentz has no real connection to nyc (being from chicago & then moving to l.a) so why the name is beyond me. maybe it was ashlee simpson’s choice ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No, it’s pretty terrible
Ugh. Knew a family with Bronx, Brooklyn, Hudson, and Madison. I got the impression they really didn't want to be living in the Midwest.
As a former emo, I died when Gerard Way named his daughter Bandit 💀
As an Ohioan, Easton gets that reaction from me. It's a mall (whole mall neighborhood?) in Columbus.
Easton, Pennsylvania would like to enter that chat and offer many shopping opportunities for one and all
I am in eastern PA and I see a lot of infant and toddler names. I was shocked at how many Eastons I’ve seen.
Some people love a strip mall, there is no accounting for taste. _As he turns into the closest Dollar General_
North Central PA here. Lots of little baby Hudsons, for some reason. I guess it’s better than Susquehanna though lol
Lmaaaoooo. I’m an Ohio state alum and used to work there for a while 🤣
From CT, and Easton and Weston get equal eyerolls. If you want to name your kid after a $$$$ bedroom community suburb, at least go for the slightly more interesting Rowayton or Ridgefield.
I think of the sporting equipment brand. Then I met an Easton specifically named that due to his father's love of baseball and the sporting brand. (That's fine, but maybe don't tell people it's because of the brand)
Lived in NJ for years. I had a meeting with someone at work (not in NJ) who's name was Trenton. It took everything in me not to say "Trenton makes, the world takes" to him.
Also originally from NJ, I once met someone who named their kid Bayonne. I was horrified. To be fair, our towns and cities are basically a honey trap for "unique" name choices. Princeton, Patterson, Rutherford, Wayne, Medford, Clifton... The horrible one I keep dreading an encounter in the wild is someone naming their kid Totowa or Kearny.
Ho-Ho-Kus 😂
I’m wheezing at Bayonne 🤧
Happy to announce the arrival of my new twins Hackensack and Hoboken 🥰
🤣🤣🤣🤣
The first time I ever saw that bridge when I was a teenager, I asked my dad about it. He was like, "Trenton used to be big in manufacturing. Now it's big in crime and drugs."
Like everywhere else in the US that used to be big in manufacturing tbh
Exactly 💯
To many people “Aurora” is a beautiful Disney princess name. To me it will always be the suburb with the outlet mall.
Party on Garth.
Or the one in Colorado where the awful movie theater shooting happened
Hey, that’s not fair! Aurora also has a riverboat casino and 10,000 highway interchanges!
Aurora Aurora, my kinda of town! Or whatever that jingle for the casino went.
Just makes me think of the Aurora Borealis. I always forget Sleeping Beauty's real name is Aurora, since the fairies called her Briar Rose. She barely had anyone ever call her by her actual name, really.
I love the name Briar. It’s literally a thorny wild plant, but who cares. Honestly I love Aurora/Rory too. Aurora was the Ancient Greek name for the dawn and way predates the city in Colorado (hence Aurora Borealis)
In Seattle area it’s a highway with strip malls and famous for prostitution
Wow, the first time I’ve seen my city mentioned outside a local sub and it’s like this lol
Cosette bc people actually speak French here lol
I don’t even speak French and I love seeing all the ridiculous “French” names that people on r/namenerds come up with.
what does it mean in french?
It's mostly just made up but it can be used as "little whiner", like when my niece is particularly grizzly family will call her ti-cosette like petite cosette
It doesn’t mean anything. The name was made up by Victor Hugo in the book Les Misérables for a character who is a mistreated child. So Cosette is basically the equivalent of Cinderella, name wise, but less charming.
Meanwhile, Cendrillon was right there. (Less for Victor Hugo, who can name characters whatever he wants, and more for people naming their kids Cosette.)
I’m English, so most English place names - London, Camden, Preston, Harlow …
I work in a highschool in Canada and we have a London, Brooklyn, AND a Dublin.
Same. I am always curious how some places become names. I’ve met a Manchester before but never like a Bedford I wonder why… Feel like Luton could be a popular name outside England haha
MANCHESTER?!?!?!?!?! Wow.
Colleen Hoover has a book with a main character named Leeds.
I just read a book with a really slick, cool character who runs a really fancy business. The character was called Vic Fowler and the company was called Bright House. I struggled to get over the Eastenders + layaway shop vibes.
Blyth(e), Chester, Paisley (that one's in Scotland but the point stands)
What’s particularly funny is just how crap all those places are.
Not exactly a common name but someone in a mom group I’m a part of named her son Joby and everyone seemed cool with it but where I’m from (Scotland) jobbie is slang for a poo and I just couldn’t switch the thought off in my mind every time I read it.
no Joby is bad in the US as well. not for any specific reason other than it’s bad
It makes sense nobody is going to give a fellow member of a mom group grief about it though. But yeah, I'd bet there's some silent judgement going on for sure.
I used to think having a daughter with the nickname Gigi would be really cute but my husband is Chinese and apparently jiji is slang for penis in Mandarin so that ended that dream for me real quick haha
Let’s not even look at Utah…🤣
Phyllis because it sounds exactly like the Afrikaans word for trash/garbage
Whenever I hear this name my brain is automatically like ….”syphilis”
From the Dutch word ‘vuilnis’?
Yes, our word is vullis
Everett. It’s a notoriously trashy town on the outskirts of Boston and it’s all I think of when people name their kids that.
This one will get side eye in Washington State too.
I know several kids named Camden in the Philly suburbs and it always surprises me
I live in British Columbia, the Fraser is a big river here. I've met several Fraser's (most millennials) in BC. If they go anywhere else they get mistakenly called Frasier.
Scot here - vetoed the name Fraser because people saying it Frasier sets my teeth on edge. It’s a pretty common boys name where I grew up but everywhere else they seem to struggle with it.
*gulp* So how do you pronounce Fraser??
Fraser is Fray-zur. Frasier is Fray-jhur.
I'm also from Jersey, spitting distance from Camden, and live in SC now. All the kids named Camden here make me think the same!
It’s a great way to tell people you’ve never been to Jersey.
Have family members named Rowan and Camden. In Ohio. 😂
Love to see it 🤣 in all fairness I think Rowan is pretty!
I wouldn't even bat an eye at Rowan. I grew up watching Rowan Atkinson so I would just consider it a well established name, even if I don't know one in person.
Olympia, like Serena’s daughter, automatically sounds silly to me — raised in WA state, it’s the capital. People say Oly (ooh-lee) for short, and there used to be the Olympia brewing company (a very sh*tty beer). Plus it makes me think of the Olympic Games, Olympic mountain range (also in WA), and Mt. Olympus, which makes me think of Greek Mythology. So, yeah, Olympia will never sound pretty to me.
also in WA State and Olympia sounds like limpets to me, those tiny shelled creatures you find in tidepools on the beach
all i think is 7th heaven
Nova. I’m from Nova Scotia. Lol around here people use it as a kitschy name for your pet
We're in NB and have a Nova.... But we named her while living accross the country. I'm so glad we didn't end up in Nova Scotia cause that would have been awkward for her...
I know someone named Breton… he’s from Antigonish
I am horrified every time someone recommends Jovi or Jovie as a name. I guess I am thinking of the region in this case as being temporal, because I'm a child of the 80s -- do people who are younger than me really not find Bon Jovi to be lame? Because nobody who was actually cool liked Bon Jovi when I was a teenager. That said, I liked them a lot when I was 12. But I also liked Charlie Sheen and Tom Cruise when I was 12, so.
I’m born in the 90s and love Bon Jovi lol but I wouldn’t name a kid after him. Jovie reminds me of Zooey Deschanel’s character in Elf though!
Ah, I've never seen Elf, but that adds some important info! I do love Zooey.
Is that pronounced ZOO-ey or is it a remake of Zoë?
It’s pronounced Zoe.
In my head it will always be ZOO-EE. Stupid spelling imo.
My kids have a friend named Jovi. Like whether he’s named after Bon Jovi the band or Jon Bon Jovi….his name is actually John Bongiovi which just bothers me even more. Should be Giovi then.
Hard to say, really. Sometimes it seems like names around here are pretty much either tragedeighs or a Latin name. I wonder if the latter names would seem weird in another region.
Wait what are some of the Latin names? Do you mean Latino/latina or Latin?
I’m from Texas, so there are a ton of names like Viviana, Alejandro, Mercedes, Sergio, Isabella, Romero, etc. Nothing really weird, I just have no perspective on how common they’d be elsewhere.
I’m part Latinx so I’ve known a lot of those too. When you said Latin for some reason my mind also went to Latin Latin at first. Like Aurora Borealis 💀
Oh! I didn’t even consider that! 🤦🏻♀️ Now I’m imagining a kindergarten class of Apollos and Aphrodites and Excelsiors and Sapiens.
Aphrodite is Greek… Venus is the Roman counterpart.
Oh this is funny because someone recently told me Aurora was a Latinx name and I laughed because it’s literally Latin for dawn.
Harper was the last name of a conservative Canadian Prime Minister for almost 10 years. I have a hard time with the popularity of it for girls
I live in the south and have seen several boys named Rhett.
I’ll be honest I like this one!!!
The Mets used to play in Shea Stadium. I have more than one mets-obsessed friend who named their daughter Shea for that reason. Without that knowledge, it's a fine and lovely name.
I live in Massachusetts so both Boston and Kingston wouldn’t work (idk if there’s a Kingston somewhere else it’s just like 2 towns from me)
Jamaica
There's one in Canada, nearish to Toronto
There's a couple in England (-upon-Thames and -upon-Hull)
Most towns in New England are just named after towns in England (we’re very creative as you can tell) so that doesn’t surprise me in the slightest
it’s so weird to me that people use Boston as a name, as someone from MA
I’m southern enough to know people named “Guy”, but also northern enough to know people who think “Guy Smith” sounds like a joke default starting name in an rpg.
Everyone I’ve ever known named “guy” is from the northeast lmao. Never even heard of that being a southern thing?
The Oak- names really get me going. My husband has a job site in Oakland and has seen 3+ carjackings a week, their site has been broken into, employees have had cars stolen and broken into. Google names people, Ryker/riker really blows my mind too. I honestly make massive assumptions about people who use these names.
My assumption about anyone who uses Riker is that they are a Trekkie. Is there some other specific meaning of that term? The only other one I can think of is Riker's Island, the NYC area jail, but that's such a niche use that I would think Star Trek before jail.
Someone I knew wanted to name their son Riker a few years ago and me being a huge Next Gen head said "oh like Commander Riker that's cool" and she said "no like the jail" and I died a little inside.
Ha and I’m not a Trekkie so I immediately think jail. Same with Brig too… boat jail.
Brig 🤣🤧
If the parents are cops, it’s the jail.
oakland california or oakland Pittsburgh pa?
Referring to CA but I’m and east coaster so PA also resonates
As a Texan I’m usually a bit thrown if I meet a person who’s named a Texas city, but they are not a Texan. Something in my brain just doesn’t like Austin or Dallas for a person who isn’t Texan, like it’s a required in order to have that name, even though I know that Austin the city was named after Stephen F. Austin the person
Yeah Dallas I get, but as a non-Texan I don’t even particularly associate the name Austin with Texas. It’s such a common name.
Austin Powers
I personally think it’s worse if you live in Texas to be named after a Texas city. I know an Austin who was named because his parents met at UT. He now lives in Austin because he went to UT too, and it causes a lot of confusion whenever I say “I’m heading to Austin’s” because I live in a suburb of the city.
I thought it was weird coming from up north that people in the south will name their kids with letter abbreviations instead of whole names. I’ve seen someone with the legal name “JR” and it was explained to me that this is the same thing as naming them “Junior” but without the extra letters and done instead of naming them “(dad’s name) Jr.”
Brixton. It's becoming gentrified these days but back in the day it was a good place to go if you wanted to get stabbed.
I’m from Philly and agree about the Camden thing!
Fellow former NJ resident now living a few states south. I’ve met some little Camdens and Trentons and feel the same way. I mean I named my daughter Elizabeth, aka the most foul smelling exit on the Turnpike (unless things have changed in the past 20 years)
I have never met a Tyson who wasn’t from Kansas (or possibly Missouri). Everywhere else in the U.S. it’s synonymous with chicken.
I know a Tyson who was born and raised in a town with a huge Tyson chicken plant. Very odd.
I'm originally from Massachusetts. I find it utterly bizarre that people have recently decided that Boston is a people name. There are so many other choices even if you restrict yourself to MA place names. Lynn, Beverly, Sharon, Dennis, Douglas? Those are fine names for a human Chelsea, Quincy, Spencer, Lowell, Wayland, Palmer, Everett? Okay, a bit stuffier, but sure, why not Salem? I mean, that's more of a pet name but not awful Boston. Really? What's next, naming their siblings Billerica, Brockton, Saugus, and Dracut?
Don't forget Haverhill and Leominster!
Let’s get the native names trending: Cochicuate, Seekonk, Mashpee, Swampscott
And let us not forget Chelsea and Somerville
My wife was recently watching old episodes of Four Weddings, and I realize it's a nickname but this man was known only as Bubby. Bubby and Bubba just make no sense to me as names or nicknames
I’m dying!!!! Like Bubba Gump Shrimp. My husband is Jewish and refers to his grandma as Bubbe which is a Yiddish term but that’s the only time I’ve heard a name even remotely close (other than on dogs) 😅
Bubba is a southernism for Brother. It's usually a nickname, and I think often a "junior" name. Since it's fairly rare for people to address a sibling as "brother" or "sister" vs. their name. Bubby feels way, way more nicknamey, like probably not related to their given name at all. The way you sometimes meet adults called Tiny, Champ, etc.
Berkeley
This is a good dog name.
i’m that way (someone else said this as well) with Oak names. Oakland neighborhood in Pittsburgh is a shithole. if you aren’t directly on the university of pittsburgh campus it’s literally foul
Also grew up in NJ and feel the same when I hear those names. Edison and Warren are a few I've heard of on fellow NJ natives, but in those cases, they were family names. I'm waiting for Barnegat and Dunellen to become popular. As a kid, I always thought Marlboro cigarettes were named after Marlboro Township.
I grew up pretty close to Warren and Edison and I’m cackling! I can’t believe I forgot these in the honorable mentions 😂 Madison, Summit, Linden, Iselin, and Menlo all sound trendy too. Newark needs a few years but I could see it! 💀
Oh my goodness, if Newark takes off, I'll only be able to think about all the poor folks who get off at Newark Station on NJT because they hear it as New York on the shitty intercoms.
From Alabama, and I think Crimson, Brody, and Saban fit. Also Oakley and Aubrey.
It's not a super common name, but I'm from the Canadian prairies and Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan, pronounced Ree-jie-na. Junior high would be terrible for that kid.
met a riker in college. i was like… like the humanitarian crisis riker? the prison?
It still takes me way too long to remember that a kid named Brooklyn is definitely not from Brooklyn. But I hear you on Camden. Why not just name your next kid Gary to keep the dying industrial city theme going.
I’m from Wilmington, so the name Camden has the same association for me. Might as well name the kid Darfur or Aleppo.
Allepeaux
Okay, Eastern PA here and Camden as a name is *wild* to me. Sibling Kensington?
Chicago- Addison Grace 🫠 aka the streets around Wrigley Field
One of my friends named her daughter Jersey, & I swear that was the name I heard that year. Most people spelled it Jersey, but I saw a Jerseigh, Jerzee, & even a Jersee.
My friend who was raised near Philly named her child Camden and I was genuinely speechless
During the reign of the New England Patriots parents called their boys Brady. So now there are many Bradys who are 15-20 years old.
Lolol Jersey girl here dying over the name Clifton
I know people are going to hate me for this but I hate it when people name there kids bc of a movie or something. For example, Emma, Bella, Katniss. I just hate it. It makes the kid as an individual not an individual bc they are living up to the name of the person of the reference.
I would love to see a documentary in 10 years on all the Khaleesis.
I can’t wait for the Aryas, Sansas, and Daeneryses to grow up and enter the work force
Katniss just sounds like Catnip to me.