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They Fuck You Up, Your Mum & Dad

Ulalume said:
You don't want to know how many kids named "Reagan" we have around here. Whether it's after the late president or the girl in The Exorcist, either option is troubling. :p
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I can't help but wonder how many were named for Linda Blair's possessed character with the spelling 'Reagan', and how many were named for the Gipper with the spelling 'Regan'. :cool:
 
Yithian said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regan_(King_Lear)
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This being a red state, I can say with confidence that most of these kids weren't named after the character in King Lear. ;)

Naming habits are funny. Most of my 20 year-old son's classmates had surnames as first names (including the girls). My 15 year-old's peers have place names (Austin, Houston, Dallas, Dayton...) My youngest son's class list is straight out of the Old Testament: Ezra, Micah, Isaiah, Nehemiah, etc. When the teacher calls out the kids names at pick-up time, I find myself mentally reciting out of habit "Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers..." :D
 
Perhaps I'm too middle class for my own good, but all of my English friends have Christened their childen with Biblical (but not the alien-sounding ones), Roman, or Greek names (especially for girls and not the preposterous ones).

I have a question: how many of those long African-American female christian names are of African origin and how many are simply made up? Transjanica, Shemonique and stuff like that.
 
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Ulalume said:
... Naming habits are funny. Most of my 20 year-old son's classmates had surnames as first names (including the girls). My 15 year-old's peers have place names (Austin, Houston, Dallas, Dayton...) My youngest son's class list is straight out of the Old Testament: Ezra, Micah, Isaiah, Nehemiah, etc. ...
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At least in the USA, baby naming preferences shift in discernible waves that are reasonably construed as fads or fashions.

I was working with the Social Security Administration from the late 1970's through the mid-1980's. One aspect of this job was access to the stream of incoming applications for new children's SSN's. This allowed me to see trends I might otherwise have missed.

At the tail end of the 1970's we were on the down side of the fad for unusually formal or fanciful female first names (some of which were surnames; some arbitrary nouns for things like virtues; and some place names). This was the period when parents went out of their way to craft new spellings for 'Ashley' and other such monikers.

As we moved into the early 1980's it was wall-to-wall Biblical names for males. There were months when I swear every newborn boy was named either Jacob or Joshua.

These fads eventually passed, only to resurface after a few years' lapse.

It can be difficult to evaluate such fads when a particular name can be attributed to multiple possible inspirations or sources. For example ... Austin, Dayton, and Houston have long histories as surnames as well as place names. Dallas has a long history as a surname and given name - extending much farther back than the Texas city.
 
EnolaGaia said:
... This was the period when parents went out of their way to craft new spellings for 'Ashley' and other such monikers. ...
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During the early 1980's I witnessed a strange naming fad in our SSA office's service area - one that was unique in my experience.

'Michelle' was a quite popular girl's name at the time. Circa 1980 there seemed to have arisen a desire to give a newborn girl this name, but only if it was customized. At first the customization was limited to spelling variations of the same name (e.g., Mechelle, Mychelle). This led to variant names that were obvious spin-offs - e.g., Nichelle, Nyshelle. Then it got even stranger ...

The final phase of the Michelle Madness involved deconstructing and re-imagining the original base name (Michelle) using spaces, hyphens, and / or apostrophes. This led to given name monstrosities that looked more like dictionary pronunciation guides than names.

I recall there was a breakdown when one mother registered her new girl using a mutated-Michelle-name with no fewer than three apostrophes strewn along its length - something our data systems wouldn't accept at all.

In a way, the strangest part was that this progression unfolded in a fairly clear fashion - as if the area's mothers were competing for name weirdness, implying they were all somehow cognizant of the ongoing game and how extreme one had to be to achieve uniqueness as of any particular date.

... And it was always Michelle. I never saw any analogous runaway naming gaming on other given names.
 
I remember about twenty years ago hearing (probably at Silverknowes Park, in Edinburgh) an upper middle-class father shouting at the top of his voice "Indonesia! Sumatra! Jakarta! Come back immediately, or your ice-cream will be ruined!".

My immediate thought was whether there was an Indonesian father, possibly, somewhere, shouting almost the same thing at his three daughters (Merchiston, Leith and Caledonia) to 'come and get their frozen tofu!'.

Merchiston would inevitably be the dutiful eldest....Leith, the awkward middle-child. And Caledonia, the eternal baby of the trio.

Names are strange things...

EnolaGaia said:
And it was always Michelle. I never saw any analogous runaway naming gaming on other given names
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An effect of Michael Jackson's androgynous '80s iconicity?
 
When Mrs Yith was pregnant with our daughter, I was convinced that the child was a boy.

While we had decided on a few options for girls' names--in the unlikely event I was wrong--I had picked Conrad Arthur 'Yithian' as my son's name.

I was wrong.
 
Ermintruder said:
... An effect of Michael Jackson's androgynous '80s iconicity?
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Interesting notion, but I tend to doubt it. As I recall, the Michelle Madness was well underway by the time Thriller was released (late 1982) and Jackson became the hot celebrity of the day.
 
ramonmercado said:
Tory councillor names son after Margaret Thatcher
Robert Gledhill and Abbie Maguire say they called baby Thatcher Stephen Maguire because they wanted a name that stood out
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/19/tory-councillor-names-son-after-margaret-thatcher
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I went to primary school with a Robert Gledhill, wonder if it's the same one? He used to build custom stuff out of Lego, without any instructions - he made an enormous Star Destroyer when we were about 8. Enormous.
 
This man must be stopped!

Congratulations are in order once again to unstoppable Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, after he and his wife welcomed their sixth child into the world.

Readers may remember his previous offspring were given truly spectacular names. In 2016, he named his fifth child Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius Mogg.

And true to form, baby number six has been blessed with a very special moniker.

His latest little boy is named Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher Mogg. ...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jacob-rees-mogg-given-sixth-10740828

 
Some people go to such lengths to secure so many state benefits...
 
And dont realise the kid will only be known as Moggy.......probably
 
Could he be named after Pope Sixtus V, the Counter-Reformation heavyweight who excommunicated Elizabeth I?

DD-OUrHXUAEahcD.jpg
 
ramonmercado said:
This man must be stopped!

Congratulations are in order once again to unstoppable Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, after he and his wife welcomed their sixth child into the world.

Readers may remember his previous offspring were given truly spectacular names. In 2016, he named his fifth child Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius Mogg.

And true to form, baby number six has been blessed with a very special moniker.

His latest little boy is named Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher Mogg. ...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jacob-rees-mogg-given-sixth-10740828
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the-prisoner-quote.png
 
ramonmercado said:
This man must be stopped!

Congratulations are in order once again to unstoppable Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, after he and his wife welcomed their sixth child into the world.

Readers may remember his previous offspring were given truly spectacular names. In 2016, he named his fifth child Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius Mogg.

And true to form, baby number six has been blessed with a very special moniker.

His latest little boy is named Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher Mogg. ...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jacob-rees-mogg-given-sixth-10740828
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In our family, our favorite English names are Nick Buckles and Sir Peregrine Worsthorne. We make up fairytales about them, like "Nick Buckles and the magic beans" "Sir Peregrine and the dragon" etc.

Okay, I suppose British folks wouldn't find that amusing, but trust me, it is. :p
 
Strange remedies.

A former NHS worker is being investigated by police over claims she fed two toddlers turpentine to rid them of parasites.

The probe centres on private messages posted on a Facebook group in which it is claimed the substance was mixed with sugar and washed down with juice.

The unnamed mother who is under investigation used to work at Hull Royal Infirmary.

Police said there were "no immediate concerns" for the children's safety.

Private messages purported to have come from the mother's Facebook account advised on administering turpentine with "lots of juice after" to "rid candida" and other toxins. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-40951525
 
Mythopoeika said:
the-prisoner-quote.png
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Six children in this day and age? However you look at it, having lots of children is a good way to control a woman. She can't have a career if she is constantly pregnant/lactating. Once they're born she may have nannies to do the dirty work but she can't get out of actually carrying them and the effects this has on her body and opportunities to do other things. I mean, past a certain size you can't even ride a bicycle or weed the garden.

Even in mainly Catholic countries people don't have families that big. It's downright creepy.
 
escargot1 said:
Six children in this day and age? However you look at it, having lots of children is a good way to control a woman. She can't have a career if she is constantly pregnant/lactating. Once they're born she may have nannies to do the dirty work but she can't get out of actually carrying them and the effects this has on her body and opportunities to do other things. I mean, past a certain size you can't even ride a bicycle or weed the garden.

Even in mainly Catholic countries people don't have families that big. It's downright creepy.
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I think you're being unfair here, Escargot. It may be a minority preference these days, but I know a couple of people who have married, had multiple children and given them all good homes and happy upbringings. It may not be for you--and it certainly isn't for me either--but I don't view it as creepy.

And, anecdotally, my only two Irish friends (if we don't count a virtual Ramon), have four and five siblings. Neither had a a surfeit of money when young--it's true--but both had happy family lives and normal and well-adjusted (if broody) mothers.
 
Just my opinion, not bothered if anyone else agrees. As I say though, where people can choose to have fewer children even if it's against their religion they will generally do so. The burdens of childbirth fall upon women and they vote with their feet at the Family Planning Centre.

Birth rates in European countries are dropping to the point where the population isn't replacing itself. Without immigration there'd be a serious labour shortage.
 
escargot1 said:
Six children in this day and age? However you look at it, having lots of children is a good way to control a woman. She can't have a career if she is constantly pregnant/lactating. Once they're born she may have nannies to do the dirty work but she can't get out of actually carrying them and the effects this has on her body and opportunities to do other things. I mean, past a certain size you can't even ride a bicycle or weed the garden.

Even in mainly Catholic countries people don't have families that big. It's downright creepy.
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These days, women have the power to control how many kids they have. It really is entirely their own choice.
A large number of the women opting to have lots of kids may in fact be doing it in lieu of a career, because they can get enough money in benefits from the state.
 
ramonmercado said:
Strange remedies.

A former NHS worker is being investigated by police over claims she fed two toddlers turpentine to rid them of parasites.

The probe centres on private messages posted on a Facebook group in which it is claimed the substance was mixed with sugar and washed down with juice.

The unnamed mother who is under investigation used to work at Hull Royal Infirmary.

Police said there were "no immediate concerns" for the children's safety.

Private messages purported to have come from the mother's Facebook account advised on administering turpentine with "lots of juice after" to "rid candida" and other toxins. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-40951525
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It's funny how people forget these old remedies that sound dodgy but actually work.
The first knee-jerk reaction is 'turpentine - isn't that toxic?', but it has been used as a cure back in olden times.
 
Mythopoeika said:
A large number of the women opting to have lots of kids may in fact be doing it in lieu of a career, because they can get enough money in benefits from the state.
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That surely doesn't apply to Mrs Rees-Mogg!
 
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