Mmm, I had that as a kid, but then, it still happens now; a minority of people are just, like, allergic to my basic presence. I assume it is autism-spectrum-related but who knows.
I sometimes wonder, if people aren’t willing or able to knock it off, perhaps it’s better to be open about it the way kids are. I mean, I’m fairly certain I’ve been rejected for jobs and social relationships purely because people find me “weird”, and I would very much prefer it if they could just come out and say that. I could get quite exercised about this.
I am a bit in a hurry right now, so sorry for not responding very carefully worded. Names are very complicated, and bear a burden of cultural contexts which is massive. And we’re deep in an intercultural exchange here, I think.
My baseline is that humans are terrible. Parents are no exception. And protecting children even from their parents is a great achievement of modern times. And this does not only include bodily harm.
In detail, the laws and especially their enforcement are problematic. But in general, I am all for challenging the responsibility of parents to name their child like they want to. If they are not up to this responsibility, prevention of harm for the child trumps their right as parents.
Bottom line:
I agree with your observation and most of your arguments, but I come to a different conclusion.
One of my favourite New Yorker cartoons (wow, does that scream “I’m white” or what) is a class photo of a 1980 preschool with the caption, “Scott, Jennifer, Scott, Jennifer, Jennifer, Scott, Scott, Scott, Mrs Teacher, Scott, Jennifer…”
One thing I found interesting is that the name “Chad” (from incel lore) peaked around 88 then quickly dropped off
So these incel types, who tend to organize online and be around a certain age, have picked a name that brings up a very distinct image of an era - almost like they’ve got some issues around k-12 that should be worked out.
Anyways, sorry if I’m not articulating this well but it’s a weird thing I noticed playing around with the SSA’s tool.
I understand your point and have no argument with it… but would you concede that anyone of the Waud family should give careful consideration as to whether or not they name any of their children Richard?
They definitely cycle. Look at Emma and Sophia. Forty years ago, those were the names of old ladies. No one (in the US) was naming babies Emma or Sophia.
Emma was extremely common around 1890. Then it fell away, becoming extremely rare from around 1940 through 1980. Then (having been reactivated by headquarters?) it came surging back.
Check out Baby Name Voyager to see how the popularity of zillions of names has changed over time.
The whole Jonathan Swift allusion made me question if it were real or not. Apparently it is, and the name an odd coincidence.
I bet they went through some real care in coming up with the name: “Look, I think perhaps ‘Swift’s Baby Meat’ is perhaps not ideal, let’s look at some variations of that…”
I was feeling judgey about the multiple boys names that are last names. If it has “son” at the end, it’s a patronymic last name, people.
Apparently it’s an Indo-European thing; feminine nouns ended with an “-a.” Traces still remain in various languages, to differing degrees.
Looking at the list, it strikes me that it’s also an issue of name origin - it seems like in English, male names are far more likely to have Germanic or Celtic origins, female names Latin ones. (So yes to “Mary” but no to “Mario.”) Even names that seem like gendered variations of each other - e.g. Olivia vs. Oliver - have these different origins. I wonder if it’s another example of how words of Saxon vs. Norman origin took on different connotations that impacted their eventual meanings and how we use them still (“cow” vs. “beef”), or has more modern origin (influenced by “romantic” Romance language cultures).
Actually that idiot playboy Bruce Wayne adopted a circus acrobat of all things whose last name was Grayson. Who does something like that, sometimes I think that guy is not right in the head.
