Nicolas Cage, big-time Superman fan, has tagged his brand new baby boy with the name Kal-El Coppola Cage. "Kal-El" is of course Superman's real name and means, in Kryptonian, "He who will get beaten up in school, a lot."
Not that I have a problem with Cage and his super-homage. It makes as much sense as any other way to name your child -- I favor pulling out random Alpha-Bits, myself -- and it honors someone, albeit fictional, who clearly has made a great impact on the Oscar-winning actor.
But, please, someone, think of the children.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
How can they infict such NAMES on their children?
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
AWESOME.
:Father of Junebug, Super-K, LiteBrite, and Inkling:
Posted by dropofTapioca (Member # 7867) on :
That kid's going to take up martial arts, I swear.
Posted by Art Vandelay (Member # 8690) on :
You forgot to mention George Foreman. He has ten kids, and at least four of them are also named 'George'
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
It'll be pretty funny when these kids join gangs and take on imposing aliases like "Steve" or "Wendy."
Good job Chris! You make Wednesday special.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
ROFL at that column! Yeah, some people think I gave boring, common names to my kids -- but having grown up with a sister with a very "unusual" name, I saw what could happen if you try to be unique. None of that for me!
Farmgirl
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
I like Moon Unit. It has a really great ring to it. But I'd never give it to a child.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
Scott R:
This is probably such a stupid question... But are those nicknames or real names? I only ask because you talk about them like they're real names. Which, ya know, is cool. Very creative... But they sound more like nicknames... see... it's a stupid question... but you never know!
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
Well, what can you expect from a man who likely married one of his wives (Lisa Marie Presley) at least partly because of his obsession with her father?
Yes, I think that some of the names celebrities give their children are kind of silly (although I personally wouldn't include Scout, Rumer, and Tallulah in those, as I think they are very cool names), but at least we don't have a list like they do in France where, if the reporting I've heard is correct, there is a list of officially approved names and one can only name one's child one of those names.
Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
Man, it's easy enough to convince 3-year olds they can fly without naming them after superman.
Posted by Boon (Member # 4646) on :
My mother named her daughters Jeryl Rayann and Viola Bessie.
I named my children Daniel, Jennifer, and Thomas. Anyone want to hazard a guess why?
Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
quote: at least we don't have a list like they do in France where, if the reporting I've heard is correct, there is a list of officially approved names and one can only name one's child one of those names.
Not anymore. Actually we never really had a list, it's just that the law was old so you was supposed to give a christian name to your children, so some people started to annoy parents who wanted to call their children with other names (like Mohamed or Awah) so now the law has changed and you're free to call your child like you want as long as it's not prejudiciable for him (you can't call your child a$$hole, for exemple).
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
Farmgirl, what was her name?
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
Actually I'm pretty sure they have a list like that in Argentina (I think that's the country). My friend's parents couldn't name him Gali because it wasn't on the approved list so they named him Kevin instead. Now that he's in the states, he goes by Gali.
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
I laughed out loud while reading the entire last paragraph.
Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :
My Argentian friend's sister is named Galit. Is that on the approved list, but Gali isn't? My real name is a name that probably very few non-Jewish Americans can pronounce correctly (it's not Jaime. Every time I go to the Doctor or any other place where they call me my real name, I've never once heard it pronounced correctly. That's why my nickname "Jaime" was made. I don't think I'd last if everyone person I met I had to explain how to pronounce my name.
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
That was an awesome column.
I had to fight for the names I have for my children, my husband would have been happy with extremely plain names, he thought some of my choices were "too fancy."
Let's see, what all did he reject as too "weird" for his kids...
Audrey (my personal fave, I love this name) Zoe Cecilia Claire
Men. Not that I'm unhappy with the names I do have, I think, personally, all my kids have wonderful names. It is a little frustrating to have multiple Emily's everywhere we go, though. There are four in her gym where she takes gymnastics.
Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
quote:Man, it's easy enough to convince 3-year olds they can fly without naming them after superman.
True. As I recall, it really hurts when you find out you're wrong. And I don't mean emotionally.
These celebrities who want odd names for their children could always do what a friend's friend's psychology teacher apparently did, which was not name the child until he's six, and then let him choose for himself. As I recall, that one wound up being officially named "Bubble Gum", with no one but himself to blame for that ten years later. I mean, it's not his *parents'* fault, right?
Other notables: My sister's teacher Mr. Bell named his daughter Blue, my mother went to school with a Candy Kane, and I went to school with two siblings named Buffy and Bucky who wound up legally changing their names as teenagers to Jennifer and Mike.
Of course, who am I to talk? On a whim five years ago, I left the nice, normal name my parents gave me at home and started going by the name I wanted when *I* was six... Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Fad names run in generations. In my son's class there were Britneys as far as the eye could see.
Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
The Buffy I knew was born before the Vampire Slayer originated, although I'm not sure if that makes it better, or worse.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Oh dear. I'm the one who wanted to name her daughter Rainforest. I got Rayne, which is still a great name as far as I'm concerned.
But then, I'm a Jennifer, one among millions in my generation.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
You forget one thing-- these kids won't have to deal with the common playground. They'll probably be sent to super-rich-people-private school, where either teasing will not be allowed or teasing THEM will not be allowed or everyone will have weird names. Heck, maybe they'll all go to boarding school together. That would be scary. In any case, if even that doesn't work out, their parents can afford private tutors.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
quote:The Buffy I knew was born before the Vampire Slayer originated, although I'm not sure if that makes it better, or worse.
Me, too.
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
quote:My Argentian friend's sister is named Galit. Is that on the approved list, but Gali isn't?
No idea. I'm not even sure if it is Argentina. I know it had something to do with Jewish names though.
I know a Biffy. Not sure I'd be happy with that particular name...
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
Kal-El? קל-אל?
LIGHT-HEARTED GOD?!
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Is that the translation, JH?
Posted by Omega M. (Member # 7924) on :
quote:Stephen Baldwin named his daughter Alaia, a hauntingly beautiful name that ensures she will never, ever get correctly spelled mail.
I came up with this name years ago when I wanted to name a beautiful woman in a (fantasy-esque) story I was writing. I wonder how many other people have done the same? (I pronounced it to myself as "uh-LAY-uh.")
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
You know, I kinda like the notion of being named something that could be translated as "whimsical deity."
Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :
I like certain names- especially those that have a certain connation, sound or have meaning to me.
Hence, my son Connor Scott.
Connor, because my ex-wife and I liked the name when we heard it in the Highlander movie (though I didn't like much else done in that universe).
Scott, after a certain writer whose site I (and you) frequent.
If he had been a girl, it would have been Alexandra Brooke.
I also like the names Liam, Noel, Gunnar, and Sihaya (What Paul Atreides called Chani). Those last two I really like, but am not sure I could actually do that to my child.
Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :
I think "easy" is a more common translation of kal than "light-hearted". The Easy God. Ok, nevermind. Your version makes more sense.
Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
I had a dream once where the overarching plot was that I had to convince my sister to name her new daughter Maribelle or the world would end. I woke up and thought "Maribelle. I've never heard of that but it's kind of pretty." and it's stuck in my head ever since.
I read Alaia as ah-LIE-uh in my head.
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
Yep, deliberately Kal-El. The creators of Superman were Jewish.
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
quote:Originally posted by Anna:
quote: at least we don't have a list like they do in France where, if the reporting I've heard is correct, there is a list of officially approved names and one can only name one's child one of those names.
Not anymore. Actually we never really had a list, it's just that the law was old so you was supposed to give a christian name to your children...
Thanks for that, Anna. It's good to know that.
Astaril...on the idea of letting a child name him/herself when they get old enough. Long ago, my dad worked with a guy whose parents did that. He picked Clyde. Go figure. Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
I know a baby named Kojack Maverick James Chuke, but I'm pretty sure his sisters (he's the youngest of six under 10) are calling him Jack which should stick.
Also one of my riding instructors was named Fern but no middle name, she was told she could pick at 10, she chose Umbrella. Her cousin got to change her first name at 6 from Reesa to Belinda (it was her choice).
Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
Back at my old stomping grounds (East Wind Community, in the Missouri Ozarks), about half of the kids had unusual names and half the kids had regular names. It didn't make any difference in school though -- most of the local kids had unusual names. (It was fascinating to look at the county paper's list of school kids' names. Around 1992 seems to have been when parents really got in to unusual names -- so kids born in 1991 were Doug, Bob, Sarah, and James; then kids born in '92 were, oh, Madison, Ashkalee, Mason, Kayrsten, and Juno.)
Anyway, most of the community kids with unusual names were fine with them. Zooey changed his name when he was 10 -- to Jasper, which is about as unusual. Ariel did change his name to something more normal -- Tony. (Around the same time that he started wearing a long black coat and taking karate lessons.)
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
I had a client once named "America Faun" Her mom was, not surprisingly, a hippy.
Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :
I just found in wikipedia's entry for Superman:
quote: Superman's Kryptonian name, Kal-El, resembles the Hebrew words for "all that God is"
Posted by Evie3217 (Member # 5426) on :
I guess if Nicholas Cage named his kid Kal-El, then that means there's still a chance that my kid's middle name can be Danger.
Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
When I met LoQuacia (dead serious) and Ebony Blanchard, I decided to stop making comments. Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Is your last name Mouse, Evie3217?
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
You know, I hate the name "Apple", but at least people will be able to pronounce it. I taught a girl in Primary named Keeleigh-Shae. Pronounced "Keely-shay." Poor kid was six and couldn't spell her own name; signed all her papers "K.S."
(I wonder how her parents came up with that name. Pig Latin for "Shaquille" and then messed with it? Or did it come to them in a dream?)
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
I named my kid Ephraim (pronounced eh-FRY-im). He is the only one in his class with that name, but no one seems to think it is unusual, and no one has any trouble pronouncing it correctly.
Outside of the Jewish community, though, people want to pronounce it "EE-frem". He always corrects them. We tell people to remember "I don't bake 'im, I don't boil 'im, I FRY 'im"
His nickname is "Fry".
In nursing school, I had a professor in OB-GYN nursing who told the class of a woman that she assisted in labor an delivery who named her baby girl Lochia.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
My mother had to help talk some parents out of naming their kids some pretty awful things when she was in L&D.
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
I love the name Jasper, and it's the one I use for male RPG chars. I don't think I'd name a kid that, though.
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
I named my frog Jasper.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:Outside of the Jewish community, though, people want to pronounce it "EE-frem"
I'd pronounce it "eh-FRAYM."
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
I did meet a woman at a clinic named Candida (the yeast of yeast infection fame).
Posted by Uhleeuh (Member # 6803) on :
When I was training to be a volunteer at our local Adult Probation Office, I met a guy with the name Napolean Nation (It reminds me of the Wal-Mart/Natalie Portman film and the name Americas/us Nation).
He gets a lot of questions about Napolean Dynamite until people learn his full name.
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
Astaril, is it something in the water here? I know a guy whose parents let him choose his middle name when he was four, and he's been "Snuggles" ever since.
Candida is also a Latin word, meaning "bright, pure, shining". Maybe they didn't know it was a disease too. Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson:
quote:Outside of the Jewish community, though, people want to pronounce it "EE-frem"
I'd pronounce it "eh-FRAYM."
Just proving that there is more than one way to be wrong. Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
And, Jaime, if I might ask, what is YOUR unpronounceable name?
Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
At the very least, I can thank these celebrities for making me feel better about my name. I was actually quite fine with it and all its mispronunciations until my mom explained that my name was from a cheap romance paperback with a Fabio lookalike on the cover. Haven't been able to feel right about my name since.
My children will have simple Bible names. Luke, Mary, Peter, etc. Which is funny, cause I'm not even Christian.
Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :
Hey, I did say that it could be pronounced by Jews...*sticks tongue out at Tante*
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Chris, I just got a chance to read the article. Priceless. Just wait until I share it with little Frodo.
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
We already got a gift addressed to "Barin Marx." We were fairly sure it was for Aerin, so we opened it.
I wanted Aerin to have a name that was unusual, but not outlandish. Everyone seems to love it. I had a pretty good perspective on names. My name is Kira, so I know what it's like to have an unusual name. I've also worked with children, so I know about outlandish and popular names. The Y had 8 Taylors of both genders - it was very frustrating for the Taylors and the staff.
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But they sound more like nicknames... see... it's a stupid question... but you never know!
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