Susie O'Brien on baby names - Adelaide Advertiser

[~TT40~]

that whole dash thing reminds me of what my brother and i did in highschool, was our nicknames: me= am&a and my brother = n@ was never offical, but i use to use that on my books etc.

[Trillian]

I haven't read the article yet, but before I do I wanted to say thats a bit unfair about Erin though, I have an Erin and it's an old name, not something new or modernised.

ETA - I had to LOL at the bit about the cat sitting on the keyboard. I read a birth announcement in the paper a while back for a boy called 'Maisyn', which is apparently 'Mason'. And the Erin thing is definitely a bad association thing. That was always a problem when we were deciding on names - names I loved were given the thumbs down by DH because he 'knew a Justin at school and he was a ****head' LOL. And some of it certainly has gone too far. Creating spelling is one thing and can be tolerated, but calling your child something that is totally random is just dumb, it really is. I know that it is their child and they have the right to call them whatever they want, but it really is just dumb. I remember reading in the Daily Telegraph ages ago about a child in Western Sydney that was called 'Fully Sic'.

[Junglemum]

She wasn't having a crack at the spelling of Erin Trill, or saying it was made up. It was used as an example of a name she doesn't like. Her sister was going to use it, told her and basically said 'Ewww'. We all have names that conjure up images of specific people that we don't like, Erin was one for her. My list is huge! lol I think it's a pretty name.

[Trillian]

Check out this site too Stupid Kid Names the language is a bit full on and not all of the names are that bad really, but some of them are shockers and rightly deserve to be on a site called stupid kid names LOL.

[butterfly_warrior]

As a teacher, naming your child is close to impossible.

I could sit here and say that every single Mitchell I've ever taught has been a nightmare, and it's true and the name has very negative associations for me. That's not to say that there aren't lovely Mitchells out there - just that none of them ever ended up in my classroom.

Would I use the name myself? No.
Would I automatically assume a new Mitchell I come across is also a ratbag? No. I actually look forward to the day when someone may actually be able to redeem the name for me! As my nephew is doing a great job of doing with his (not Mitchell! But another name that has strong negative associations for me).

Also, as a teacher... creative spellings are a pain in the bum. Yes, it's also a pain to have three Jessicas in the one class (has happened!), but it's no less painful if there's a Jessica, a Jessika and a Jessikah or something like that. It's actually more painful because you end up having kids getting irate because you spelled their name wrong!

I also have a personal hatred of unisex names... when you just get the list of names and you're looking at Jordan, Morgan, Kim, Jesse... It can be really embarrassing!

BW

[toomanyshoes]

As a teacher, naming your child is close to impossible.

I could sit here and say that every single Mitchell I've ever taught has been a nightmare, and it's true and the name has very negative associations for me. That's not to say that there aren't lovely Mitchells out there - just that none of them ever ended up in my classroom.

Would I use the name myself? No.
Would I automatically assume a new Mitchell I come across is also a ratbag? No. I actually look forward to the day when someone may actually be able to redeem the name for me! As my nephew is doing a great job of doing with his (not Mitchell! But another name that has strong negative associations for me).

Also, as a teacher... creative spellings are a pain in the bum. Yes, it's also a pain to have three Jessicas in the one class (has happened!), but it's no less painful if there's a Jessica, a Jessika and a Jessikah or something like that. It's actually more painful because you end up having kids getting irate because you spelled their name wrong!

I also have a personal hatred of unisex names... when you just get the list of names and you're looking at Jordan, Morgan, Kim, Jesse... It can be really embarrassing!

BW

I've known 3 Nicholas Johns, all of which were little rat bags. I still know 1 of them and he's actually grown into quite a nice person.

[Marlene]

As a teacher, naming your child is close to impossible.

I could sit here and say that every single Mitchell I've ever taught has been a nightmare, and it's true and the name has very negative associations for me. That's not to say that there aren't lovely Mitchells out there - just that none of them ever ended up in my classroom.

Would I use the name myself? No.
Would I automatically assume a new Mitchell I come across is also a ratbag? No. I actually look forward to the day when someone may actually be able to redeem the name for me! As my nephew is doing a great job of doing with his (not Mitchell! But another name that has strong negative associations for me).

Yep, I got told this over and over when I named my son Mitchell (apparently no one had ever known a "nice" Mitchell, lol). But i did it anyway because I really liked the name You would love to have my boy in your class...he's an A grade student, a sporting champ, a role model for his classmates and has awesome manners. Not that I'm bragging or anything, LOL. At home, hmmm, slightly different story...he definitely has that "cheeky" Mitchell side, hehehe.

[*LittleMissSummer*]

Growing up i was told that my name was very unique and nowadays my name doesn't even compare to half those going around.

The article was great, though i didn't agree with what she said about the name Erin, i've never come across a skanky girl called Erin so maybe that was having a crack at one she went to school with..