I think I hit “Peak Mike” in 6th grade (early 80s) when a class of 24 had 4 Mike\Michael\Mikey
2 Likes
My brother dodged that bullet (b. 1951) by going by Mickey, and then Mick. He was surrounded by Mikes, but rarely met another Mick.
3 Likes
No @OtherMichael’s?
4 Likes
He gets positively surly when we call him Michael.
4 Likes
There seems to be a 100 year rule with baby names. Agnes, Harriet, Archibald and Stanley are all trendy now. So, the One Weird Trick of baby naming may to choose a 70 year-old name that will become trendy when your kid is an adult.
Personally, I might just go with “Hieronymous” (“Ronnie”) if we have a boy. After 500 years that name is due for a comeback.
3 Likes
Archibald?
I would actually go with Nicodemus (Nick for short). It is Greek for “crusher of people”.
3 Likes
In the early 1900’s I would have expected more names that were either obviously French or at least not obviously British. Not so much in recently years, true.
2 Likes
Can confirm
You gotta be kidding me. Harriet the Spy and Flat Stanley notwithstanding, I thought those names were as permanently dead as Bertha, Egbert, Flossie, Clarabelle, Aloysius, Mildred, Gytha, Edith, Beauregard, and Adolf.
Okay, maybe you’ve seen a Mildred or Edith at a local preschool, but their mamas oughta be ashamed of themselves.
(No, not really, their names are perfectly lovely for a given value of lovely, and a guy named Donald is the last guy who should be name-shaming anyone. But you know how it is. Next thing you know, there’ll be some kid named Otto…
Oh. There is? Ah.)
1 Like
But why? OK, I guess I understand Liam, people want their kids to have a very particular set of skills, skills acquired over a very long career. But the only Mason I can think of (other than the guy who rebuilt our walls recently) is Jackie, and I can’t imagine anyone currently of childbearing age intentionally naming their kid after Jackie Mason.
2 Likes
A friend was looking for a different name for his son, I suggested Bogart. They went with Cooper, and found there was a crowd of them! You can’t predict the way the herd will turn.
What I can’t figure about biblical naming is why some and not others? There’s a shitload of names in that book, why so many Zacharys and no Habakkuk’s? There was a Malachi in my daughter’s class. We needed an “A” name for my son and I couldn’t convince the wife to go with the big kahuna Abraham, my Ukrainian grandfather’s Jewish name. She thought it too old fashioned. Interestingly, his secular name was Adolf, in the 30’s he started going by Abe.
1 Like
Especially after some of the more questionable political comments he’s made lately.
Maybe it’s a reference to the Freemasons who secretly run the country 
1 Like
The most controversial of the Dilbert characters, whom Scott Adams introduced upon becoming radically pro-life.
Flossie is short for Florence IIRC. Although Florence Welch might have an issue with you calling her name unhip, keep in mind that Florence was originally a unisex name. As a boy’s name, it’s done for.
Still popular among cows.
Aw geez, stifle it, willya?
I actually like this one. No joke. It’s a classic Southern Gentleman* name. I’ve even known a few guys named Beauregard, Beau, or Bo. Although it’s not a common name, maybe it needs to be.
*in its intended sense, not its boingboing sense
Yeeeeeeeah it’s dead. Dead dead dead. Stick a fork in it dead.
Although my grandparents’ doctor (born around the turn of the century) was named Adolf, and I have had at least one classmate named Osama.
1 Like
I’ve heard this name mispronounced Mariachi, completely by accident.
Didn’t know that. I guess I stopped reading Dilbert too long ago. Hmm. Not as long ago as I stopped reading Major Hoople, but probably before I stopped reading Doonesbury (and the Sunday funnies altogether).
Wouldn’t surprise me. I only ever knew one Flossie (probably born circa 1900), and she was a good friend of my Great Aunt Mildred (whom everyone called Midge). I wouldn’t be surprised if Flossie’s given name was Florence. She looked like she could have been a “Flo” as well. Their bridge group also included a Pearl and an Opal as well, and I know those names somehow came back.
Sure, but the cow thing alone prevents humans from choosing Clarabelle these days. Well, that and the clown.
Dat’s only if youse leave off the final h, dere, Edit’.
It certainly has that Foghorn Leghorn quality to it. Like Jefferson Davis Hogg’s kid brother might have used it.
How long you think it’ll be before another baby is unironically named Donald?
2 Likes
Nah, see what happens is that after all the Aunt Beatrices and Uncle Ezras die off their names become fresh again because they’re no longer tainted by association with actual living people. They also take on a kind of retro chic. Egbert is fugly, but personally I like Edith.
Tangentially speaking, my wife is a teacher and I once had a dream that she was cheating on me with Flat Stanley. The really insidious thing about him was that you could lock all your doors and shut all your windows, but he could still slip through the cracks.
2 Likes
There’s a Harper in Jr’s preschool class. Along with a Violet, a Genevieve, a Drake, an Emerson and a Campbell.
2 Likes
I wasn’t serious, but I was apparently truthy. What’s the over/under on Scott Adams introducing a cloyingly pro-life character named Egbert?
How about Ruby, Jade, and Esmeralda (emerald)? Is Diamond a name?
Completely normal name.
I like it, but it still feels fusty to me.
Drake’s name isn’t even Drake.
I take it these are both girls? As girls’ names, they don’t sound too bad to me, but as boys’ names, Emerson is fusty and Campbell doesn’t quite work.
1 Like
My kids (7 and 9 now) have had a couple of Emersons of both genders as classmates. My daughter has known a couple of Genevieves, but they’re (disappointingly) all pronounced Jenna-veev, instead of Jhon-veeyev.
My daughter and I like Esmeralda, since we’ve been reading the Tiffany Aching books, and Esmerelda is Granny Weatherwax’s first name.
Might be the funniest thing he’s done in a while! So… congrats for being funnier than Adams!
4 Likes
I’ve always found the “series” names fascinating for what gets left out. The spring & summer months but nobody named March who came in like a lion. Flowers but no Kudzu, The Virtues but no baby named Diligence. Animals seem out in the US, I had a grandfather named Wolf. Bear and Lion are common Israelis names. Lets not forget Mowgli the Frog. How about metals? Little baby Iron?
Gotta say, we played it safe with our 2 children, those born in the 60’s remember kids getting teased for odd names. At least in urban areas that’s now an obsolete sin. Kids are still kids but in our diverse K-8 NO ONE got teased for their crazy names whether they were Ebonic or Uzbeki. It was astonishing.
1 Like
