About
This blog was created in order to support and supplement my book, Bad Baby Names: The Worst True Names Parents Saddled Their Kids With–And Now You Can Too!, co-authored with Michael Sherrod and with illustrations by Joey Gates (you can see the link to Joey’s website on my blogroll, along with a plethora of other good sites).
That book deals with truly terrible names that have shown up in historical documents (like the U.S. federal census) and this blog will explore a lot of stuff surrounding that, from information about names and naming, general baby naming stuff, random weird things that relate to names, and (I think) most interesting, historical and genealogical examinations of real people who had really bad names.
I want this to be a very interactive blog, where you the reader can contribute, so always watch for calls for information, pics, questions, and so on. You can also look at the “Pages” section to find and comment on various “assignments.”
While working in the District Attorney’s office of a large city, I came across two witnesses named Naughtya and Nicya (Ni-see-ah). They were twin sisters. The absolute worst name I’ve ever heard was that of a student my aunt taught: Chuckawucka. He came up to her before the first day of class and said “Just call me Chuck”!
hello, i write a column for the Sydney Morning Herald and life matters and would like to include an item on your book. Is Bad Baby Names available in Australia? If so, where from?
Many thanks,
Karen Pakula
Features writer
The Sydney Morning Herald
some names are just bad
I host a radio show on web talk radio called The Collectors Show and I would
like to interview you on how you became interested in collecting bad names
and discuss the book. Please write to me at hgnicoll@dow.com. Thanks.
Here are a couple more for you:
Grevus S. Robinson (for “grevious sin” where his mother found herself pregnant outside of wedlock in 1930)
Orange Redman, whose siblings in Baltimore were all named for colors.
cf. the Chicago elementary school of 200+ kids where only one name appeared twice.
or, from Ethiopia where i was in the Peace Corps, “Yehualishet”, a common name meaning “The Last Sprout” in the sense of [”For me, after _ kids, this will be] the last sprout I’m going to give birth to.”
or the prostitute’s daughter Alganesh, which means “you’re a bed.”