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Another Bad Baby Name Avoided!

Two days ago, my wife (who rocks, by the way) gave birth to our second son:

Baby Eli

 What did we name him?

Dungeon Dragon Gygax of course.

Just kidding. Actually, his name’s Eli. Man, wouldn’t it rock to have a kid named Dungeon Dragon? According to my co-author, Michael Sherrod, men often want to name their kids funny things, which is why I say that and my awesome wife rolls her eyes. (Michael’s example is giving your kid the middle name “danger.” No really, check out the article about us in the New York Times, if you haven’t already. I just saw it today because, well, my wife was having a baby.)

Incidentally, there is no one in the U.S. federal census named Dungeon and only a smattering of Dragons. Too bad, I guess.

The Name Police

I came across this video which, considering our topic, was quite apropos. Enjoy:

Obligation

It seems like every blog has to have its “mission statement” post at the beginning, explaining the premise, rules, and so forth. As I have never been one to shirk the heavy weight of obligation, here’s mine.

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That book deals with truly terrible names that have shown up in historical documents (like the U.S. federal census) and this blog will explore a lot of stuff surrounding that, from information about names and naming, general baby naming stuff,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

Oh, and I’m not against shameless self-promotion. If you haven’t bought my book yet, go buy it (it’s only $9.95). And if it’s not out yet, wait for it and then go buy it. It’ll be released in March 2008 by Ancestry Publishing. So there you go. I’ve fulfilled my obligation to the blogging gods.