By far the most common question I get about my book is “What do you think motivates people to name their kids these things?” I don’t think anyone could come up with one single answer, but the fact that these kinds of names show up in every census in every state, not to mention that everyone has their own first-hand stories of so-called “bad baby names,” suggests there’s more to it than just a trend.

In general, my theory is that most people who name their kids crazy things fall into one of three categories: they are legitimately just being silly, they are well-meaning but ignorant of the name they’re bestowing, or they have some personal and special meaning behind the given name. I’ll talk about the first two later, but “Tm” left an interesting comment on Assignment 1 that talks to the last point.  The following is from a personal history that Tm sent me that expands on  the story some as a father explains to his son the origin of his interesting name:

“Ever since I set eyes on [your mother] she was the only one for me. So when she turned [my proposal of marriage] down I was a very much upset….So I told her that I was going away but if she should ever change her mind, just send me one message, ‘Return Richard’, and I would return as fast as my horse could bring me. At least in this case, the old provervb ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’, proved true, for it wasn’t many months until the message came to me, ‘Return Richard’. It was such a precious message that when your were born I insisted that Return Richard was to be your name.”

Now I think that’s romantic, and a story like that makes a name like Return not so hard to take, at least from my perspective.  A name bestowed for a special reason doesn’t have quite the same bite.  I suspect stories like this lie behind many of the crazy names in history, but what do I know?

Posted: March 25th, 2008 under Book, Name Highlight.
Comments: 2

Okay, here’s a short one at the end of a long week (for me…it’s amazing how the theory of two kids pales so dramatically to the reality of two kids).

We’ve all heard the scuttlebutt about Matthew McConaughey wanting to name his kid Budweiser (and that his brother did name his kid Miller Lyte…nice). That’s its own topic and certainly lends some support to Michael’s theory about bad baby names being the fault of the men. Anyway, I did a check on Ancestry.com and was disappointed by both Budweiser and Miller Lyte. I did, however, find a Bud Weiser:

This guy must have been in a circus or something. He shows up in Ohio in 1910 as a lodger and lists “Singer” as his profession. Everyone around him are singers, acrobats, comedians, and the like. It’s an interesting list. (One of them is named “Fread Great.” In the context, I wonder if it was supposed to be “Fread the Great.” We’ll never know).

There was also a girl named Miller Light in the 1910 census, at least according to the index, but the image is distorted and so I’m not going to open myself up to the experts on that one.

Oh, and incidentally, my co-author Michael Sherrod is going to appear on The Today Show on Monday to talk about the book, so check it out.

Posted: March 14th, 2008 under Name Highlight, Name Media.
Comments: 2

Okay. We’ve seen some occurences of weird and bad names, momentary losses of good judgment (depending on how you look at it). Now we’re going to see a descent into naming madness.

So here’s a family (the Walkers) from Alabama as they show up in the 1860 U.S. federal census. Note the names of their sons: Bud, Little Bud, Buddy, Little Buddy, and Least Buddy. I thought it was bad that my wife and all her sisters have the same middle name. I can’t imagine family dinner at the Walker house: “Bud, stop hitting your brother! No, not you Little Bud, you’re not doing anything wrong! No wait, did I say Bud? I meant Buddy! Buddy, stop hitting Little Buddy. Least Buddy, stop crying!”

I guess it speeds things up when they’re all being bad.

Thanks to Ginger from Prattville, Alabama for this one. She posted this comment in the RootsWeb Review, a weekly newsletter from RootsWeb.com. They always have fun name stuff, so if you want you can subscribe and check it out.

Posted: February 26th, 2008 under Name Fun, Name Highlight.
Comments: 1

So here’s a nice reference to our book: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/family/archives/132057.asp?from=blog_last3.

If you read the comments, you’ll see an attempt to undermine my honor, claiming that we got the “Ima Pigg” wrong and it should be “Ima Hogg”. Don’t believe it. Regardless of the famous Texan, “Ima Hogg,” there is in fact an Ima Pigg as well. She was born somewhere around 1890 and lived in Oklahoma at the time of the 1930 census. Look for yourself.

Of course, this is a married name. I don’t know, ladies. Is this a deal breaker: “Will you marry me? If you do, you’ll forever be known as ‘Ima Pigg’.”

Posted: February 21st, 2008 under Book, Name Highlight.
Comments: 2