Trane?
 

Both what?

I'm confused and ketchup is confusing me even more...

Edited to add a Gilda Radner "nevermind" b/c I get it now...

for luv or $$
 

realityblurred --

The first season of For Love or Money ends Monday night, as Rob chooses either Paige or Erin, and Paige or Erin select either Rob or money. The money, however, isn't quite what it appears to be: Unlike lump-sum payment prizes offered by shows such as Survivor, producers will pay the $1 million out over 40 years. The New York Post reports that's about $25,000 a year before taxes; if one of the women takes the money, she can also choose a one-time payment of about $800,000, which is still $300,000 more than Big Brother's cheap-ass prize.


Glad to hear that the one-time payment option is available.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

Leagl -- Consider the ramifications of having moderator TOS violators.

Penske -- It's time to up your retainer again. Call me.

Gatti(both sides)gap

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

The article is right, though, having distinct spellings listed separately is confusing. I discovered, though, that my spelling is the most popular spelling of my name, which baffles me because people ALWAYS try something different first.

Only one of my top 5 favorite girls names makes the top 1000 (but it is rising with a bullet - a faux-ethnic name, incidentally). Only one of my top 5 boys names seems to break the 300 mark, and all but one are declining.

Having suffered through having a diminuitive of my name that I despise forced on me by a confused teacher in charge of a class full of like-monikered rug-rats, I firmly, totally believe in naming kids fairly uniquely, even if it results in mispronunciations and misspellings. Fortunately, it seems I will be able to do that using traditional family names.

BR(Mareona! Ghriogair!)C

Math is hard.
 

Guess the new york post is content to ballpark it.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

I couldn't disagree more strongly. Name your child what you think is a nice name and fuck everyone else's opinion.

I used to not like my name, which is unusual. But it's me. People who can't pronounce it or butcher its spelling usually don't listen and just pick a name in the small pool of names they have in their head that sounds somewhat like my name. It's annoying, but it's usually only the first of many annoying things the person will do.

I always find it amazing that people ask you what you plan on naming your child and then criticize the names you're thinking of. What do these people think when you give your child the name they told you was stupid?

Every name is going to pose a problem to someone. Every name can be made into a joke by other kids and if it can't, they'll pick something else.

Who the fuck wants a world filled with a bunch of people who all go by the same 20 names?

TM

oh no!
 

I think a FOX/AI conspiracy is behind his death and Luther Vandross' incapacity. Making room for Ruben, those bastards.

TM

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

And remember, everyone, we need the ordinary to be extraordinary. Without those Roberts and Madisons out there, the Olgas and Jezebels of the world would just be other names.

What I find disappointing is that some formerly interesting names (Zoe, for example) are now being spoiled by overuse. Let's face it, there aren't a lot of kids that can live up to a name like Zoe. Or Sinclair or Cherise.

I believe in screwing up simple names, adding an umlaut or other exotic symbol or naming someone with what is normally a nickname. Making the ordinary unusual. Based on this approach, I decree that henceforth anyone daring to use the name Zoe for their child should make their kid spell it with Greek letters.

G-Qbed


(Editted to catch typo, showing that I read my own messages too much)

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

I hated my unusual name when I was growing up, and now I love it. I've thought about going down to a single name and dropping the last name entirely, but people suggest that lawyer is not a cool enough occupation to accomplish this feat. If only I was a singer or actress....

TdF Stage 1 (spoiler free for stage 2)
 

Yes, but they *do* have naked hippie protesters: a group of anti-Running of the Bulls animal rights activists stripped (with the exception of an occasional pair of plastic bull's horns) to protest the cruelty to the animals (damned Fascist cops kept them off the actual course). Viva Espana!

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

People can't pronounce/spell your name? People are more horribly ignorant than I thought. Fuck, dude, if your name was like Melchior or Laertia something, I could understand, but that's just shameful pig ignorance.

(rethinking theodosia)

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

And what amazes me is that people still disclose what they will name their child before it's too late to change it, given the number of people involved.

But, I agree, it's pretty odd that people would say "that's a bad name" to a parent a month before the child is born, but would never say that a month after the child is born.

I guess the general problem is that everyone is going to have weird associations with certain names that will cause them to say it's a bad name. Would you ever give your child the name of an ex? Or a hated grandparent? Of course, everyone else has exes and hated grandparents, so they bristle when you suggest one of those names.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

Theodosia is a lovely name. And she'd have two namesake saints, each of whom are martyrs. http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php?lst=T

Another good saint's name is Eulalia. There are not a lot of Eulalia's out there.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

Ugh. Major peeve of mine as well. "Oh, that's a stupid name" is topped only by "oh, I dated a guy with that name once, and he was a real asshole!" (Hon, d'ya think you'll be able to tell the diff between my newborn son and your ex? Or is that a toughie?)

For this reason we told absolutely no one, except my wife's parents and my sister, the name we had decided to give Sidd, Jr. Most people are judicious enough not to criticize a newborn baby's name after the baby's born and the name is already settled.

Most, but not all -- when I told my father, he immediately made some snotty comment about my kid's name (which is hardly an unusual name, not that that matters), thus confirming that we were right to keep the name a secret, and separately confirming that I was right to move far the hell away from my parents.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

Sometimes disaster can be averted. Or precipitated. This may be slightly outable, but I have a distant relative by marriage who, after naming a first child "Sierra" announced that she planned to name the imminent second child "Montana." Which inspired the involuntary-reflex comment from a (closer) relative (who later reported to me) "well, you'll be between a rock and a hard place then, won't you?" The prospective parents were understandably not impressed; but, whether due to this or other taunting or other unknown causes, they did in fact not name the child Montana, and instead named it McKenzie.

Not only was that not really an improvement, their last name is Phillips.

BR(walk softly, here there by tygers)C

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

People overestimate their own importance -- they seem to think that if they tell an expectant parent "gee, that's a sucky name" the expectant parent will take that into consideration and avoid the error. Once the kid is born and named, it's too late, and criticizing would just be mean.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

For names that sound like that, I tend more toward Euphemia.

But Saint's names ROCK, particularly the pre-Norman English ones and the slavic ones. http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php

(Eanswide, Frideswide, Ermenbergia, Ludmilla, Swithun)

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

This is an, um, indispensable source if you're thinking about baby names.

"An online help for parents looking for that distinctive name that says 'I'm a Utah Mormon!'"

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

The only time I have really wanted to speak up about a baby name is when family pals decided, in the spirit of oneness with the Earth, to name their impending little boy "Sunshine." Not only was this kid clearly going to get pounded daily on the playground, but his only possible future occupation would be "Director of Ecstasy Distribution."

I kept my mouth shut however, of course. And so far, he's only dealt pot.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

Ouch. You can camoflage that a bit, though, as Sunny/Sonny. If the damage isn't already done.

(I've had the "Alisdair" fight a few times.)

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

I'd rather be stuck with Sunshine than any of those.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

Euphemia's a good name, too. Very classy, if somewhat less lyrical than Eulalia.

But I'm still a fan of Theodosia. She'd also have an historic thousand year old church named for her in Constantinople. That's gotta be cool.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

I have known two women called Frideswide. They both go by "Friday". It's not that unusual in the UK, I think. Also Euphemia is fairly common - they just go by "Mia". My family tends to give unusual names as middle names - although my first name and middle name are very common and boring.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

Prior to the birth, we objected strongly to a family member selecting a popular boy name a few years ago -- (it's not a real name and we have a history of picking names unique to our family's cultures). The baby's father hated the name but this was the 4th kid, so his wife named him over her husband's objections.

I was relaying this story to some coworkers over lunch a few weeks later, and discovered two of them had named their children the same name.

D'oh.

The LDS
 

Ummmm......Interesting.

I like this one: Zestpoole


I won't even begin to venture into a conversation of the fundamentals of the LDS.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosw...f/pages/name01

Most popular names in Scotland, 2001. Shockingly, they are really similar to the American ones. Also shockingly, Niamh and Eilidh are in the top 25 for girls. (And Freya has a bullet?)

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

OH, my.

"Anfernee" says "I'm a Utah Mormon"??? I thought it said "I'm a character in High School High".

And how does one pronounce "Abcde"? Do you sing it?

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

But Freya's a Norse goddess I thought (and a damn cool name actually)--how'd the Scots take her over?

This whole discussion reminds me of the old SNL sketch "Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber" with Steve Martin--and his assistant, "Brunngilda" (Radner, of course.) :)

Utah Baby Names
 

Y'know, in a broader American culture where thinness rules, it is perhaps not the kindest nor most complimentary thing to name your daughter "Beefea."

The LDS
 

That site is hilarious.

Actually, I understand the mormons having really wacky names. It's not just that everyone in the friggin' state is names Smith, Young or Brown. It's the geneology thing. Have you ever tried to do geneological research on someone named "John Smith"? Truly, bizzare names are a kindness to their descendants.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

I've been reading the SNL book (it is a compilation of quotes of all of the SNL writers, alums and NBC execs). I'm up to the Dana Carvey/Jon Lovitz years. It is pretty good and it gives some dirt on who was boinking whom, who hated whom, etc. I give it a thumbs up.

n(Nora Dunn hated Victoria Jackson)cs

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

What porn star is named Madison?

Penske(my daughters are named Seka and Vanessa-uh uh not Vanessa with the singing career)Account

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

George Foreman, although I don't think he thinks we even need 20.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

I've thought about dropping both of my names and going by my nickname. Of course I am cool enough to pull it off, it just seems like changing all the credit cards etc. would be a major hassle.

We'll see.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

Yes, you are tres cool, but no one, repeat, no one, has successfully been able to pull off Dick since Nixon.

not7yS

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

I've thought about changing my name to one word: Hasselhoff.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

My brother has been talking about legally changing his name for years, but the pain in the ass factor seemed to override the desire to have his legal name be the same as the name he's gone by since he was an infant.

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

http://excaliburfilms.com/porn_star_...Madison_GS.htm (duh)

Less (I exist to serve) inSF

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

What if I use the French spelling, Dicque?

The Fashion of Baby Names
 

I legally changed my name a couple of years for the same reason. It's a simple process (I didn't have to appear in court or anything), and it took no time for all of my credit stuff to switch.

Honestly, it was a very freeing experience and I am glad I did it.

Anon since everyone knows I changed my name