http://www.badbabynames.net A hundred years of naming conventions flushed down the toilet Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:12:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en An interesting side effect of my research for the book is that I've developed Bad Baby Name Sympathy. I find that I start defending the name-givers. Take this blog post, for instance, about Cate Blanchett's new child and baby name. No offense to the author, but I find it hard to ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/04/14/get-over-it/ Yesterday, April Fool's Day, was a day of unrealized dreams: dreams of all the great, funny names I could claim are true. But in reality, in this case, the truth is funnier than the pranks. Really. And if you don't believe me, buy my book (more shameless self promotion, check ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/04/02/an-april-fools-roundup/ 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 ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/03/25/opportunity-and-motive/ It's amazing how having a kid takes you out of the loop for a while. Thanks to everyone who's been commenting and reading. Now it's onward and upward. Last week I ran across this article in Mental Floss magazine that's apropos. When I was researching The Book I actually came across this ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/03/24/the-longest-name-ever/ 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 ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/03/14/35/ Two days ago, my wife (who rocks, by the way) gave birth to our second son:  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 ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/03/12/another-bad-baby-name-avoided/ Here are a couple of videos of different interviews I did in Utah to promote the book. I'm sort of a shy guy and this is a little humiliating, but I hope you enjoy them. Good Things Utah, ABC Morning News, CBS http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/03/07/interviews/ 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 ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/02/26/hey-bud/ 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 ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/02/21/au-contraire/ IT'S HERE! You can now buy the book that was the inspiration of this blog. Finally. You'll notice the new links on the sidebar (of course, if this is your first time here, it's all new to you) which take you to three reputable bookstores whereat you can buy my book. ... http://www.badbabynames.net/2008/02/20/welcome-to-the-world-of-bad-baby-names/