Fancy having Gandalf as your kid? (names parents give)
Nov 17th, 2006 by Lilian
LOL, I thought that only a small segment of folks subjected their poor kids to freakish sounding name. But apparently not. There are Gandalf, Superman (suparman?), Arsenals!!! and all sort of funny names that obsessed parents name their kids.
AS IF Peaches Honeyblossom, Pixie Frou-Frou and Fifi Trixibelle were not enough of a cross to bear, Britain now numbers among its youth 6 Gandalfs, 39 Gazzas, 2 Supermen and 36 Arsenals of both sexes.
Children, it appears, are in growing danger from their parents of name abuse. Among the worst reported cases are Dre, Tupac, Jay-Z and Snoop. These unfortunates, when they grow up, may well wonder why they were named after a variety of transient rap stars.
I wonder what’s the age of these parents when they become parent? Some of the names are best given to their pets, no?
Some names are more acceptable — and more common — than others. Since 1984 a total of 7,261 Kylies have been born in the UK, a tribute to the enduring appeal of Ms Minogue and one in the eye for her rival, Madonna, of whom there are only 288.
In the past five years the rise of the actress Keira Knightley has prompted 6,074 sets of parents to borrow her name for their offspring, while Britney Spears holds up well, giving her name to 1,611 little girls. More than 1,000 mothers who enjoyed the film Speed have named their sons after its star, Keanu Reeves. Somewhere in the country is a little boy whose parents were so enamoured of the works of J. K. Rowling that they named him Harry Potter.
Then again, who am I to say anything? After all, I was also so enamoured with my American ob-gynae and named my eldest son after him and almost name my second son after him again, using his middle name. And if my other ob-gynaes have Christian/English names, I would probably be using their names for all the kids too. Lucky the rest of the ob-gynaes are Chinese and Indian so I have no names to copy. Hahahaha.