A name to make Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa not feel so bad.

Posted February 3, 2008 9:33 AM by Josh Jasper

Coming soon on the SciFi Channel.. Doctor Doctorow's Daughter...

"Bweeheeheeh!!!"

Congratulations to the whole family.

Posted February 3, 2008 9:47 AM by Serge

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

The only problem with this is that my plan to breed an SFnal master-race from the offspring of my friends is suffering a setback, as most of them seem to be girls.

...Hm. Actually, maybe that's not so bad.

*ducks and runs*

Posted February 3, 2008 9:54 AM by ebear

Wonderful names, especially the beautifully Victorian 'Emmeline'.

Posted February 3, 2008 9:56 AM by Fragano Ledgister

But Fragano, won't "Poesy" get misspelled? A lot?

Posted February 3, 2008 9:59 AM by joann

I'd expect Emmeline to be the spellcheck-bait. Poesy has three syllables.

I also expect young Doctorow to team up with Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette at some point.

Posted February 3, 2008 10:06 AM by Diatryma

Diatryma @ 6... Add Kal-el Cage to the team and no criminal mastermind will be safe.

Posted February 3, 2008 10:32 AM by Serge

I'm kinda sad I didn't have a chance to procreate and snag Fibonacci before it became one of those hip new names of 2008.

(No Taylors, Ashleys, Madisons, Jordans, or Mackenzies here. Love the name, Cory!)

Posted February 3, 2008 10:34 AM by pixelfish

A possibility: the young lady *will* have the power to transmute metal and fight crime.

Maybe the rest of us just need to unlock the power of creative naming?

Posted February 3, 2008 10:44 AM by Tim

joann #5: As someone who hates his given name, which gets misspelled A LOT, and who, consequently does not use it professionally*, I expect so.

* My father wanted his children to have unique names. Consequently, he imposed truly awful names on my brothers, my late sister, and myself. My younger brother, initials N.E.H.P. Ledgister is known professionally as 'John'. My baby brother, intials, H.T.H. Ledgister, is known professionally as 'Brian', I use my initials for academic publication.

Posted February 3, 2008 10:49 AM by Fragano Ledgister

Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *GRIN*

Posted February 3, 2008 10:55 AM by xeger

Congrats! Enjoy the babymoon!

I had a student named Emmaline once. She liked to sign things "Emma ______"

Posted February 3, 2008 11:13 AM by kouredios

“Fibonacci Nautilus”

Her responses in life shall ever have proportion and depth.

Posted February 3, 2008 11:17 AM by Tom Barclay

It's a great name, but...I'm imagining the schoolyard is going to be rough, even if she just goes by "Poesy". Unless she's going to be homeschooled. Or her classmates are singularly high-minded.

Whatever her name, Welcome to the World, small human. May you shine bright and do great work, and be much loved.

Posted February 3, 2008 11:33 AM by Madeleine Robins

Holy moley, if my middle names included “Fibonacci Nautilus,” I think I’d have the power to transmute metal and fight crime.

She's Cory Doctorow's kid. What's to say she can't?

Posted February 3, 2008 11:45 AM by Adam Lipkin

Madeleine Robins @#14:

In my experience, if kids want to pick on you and your name is ordinary, they'll just assign you a new one.

Posted February 3, 2008 12:10 PM by Mary Dell

Holy moley, if my middle names included “Fibonacci Nautilus,” I think I’d have the power to transmute metal and fight crime.

Are we to understand that you can't do those things now? Surely you jest!

Posted February 3, 2008 12:15 PM by annalee flower horne

Congrats to all, Welcome to Poesy, and may you learn to sleep when you can.

What color of cape will she get?

As to names, oddly enough mine (which isn't so rare as Fragano's.... around 500th for frequency among males in the US) is so I am told; though when combined with my family name, so singular, no one in the US has it.

That amuses me, because the only other person I've ever known to share my first name was my grandfather, and we had different middle names; but the same initial. We also had the same habit of using a diminutive of our middle name as our actual name.

For reasons complex the first time I went to his house I was 19. Wiped out from a flight, lost luggage, and then a 10 hour drive I'm walking in the door; at some late hour, and see my intitials on the mailbox.

Disconcerting.

Young Ms. Doctorow has a splendid name. I am glad there is no acronym buried in it. I wish her, and her parent, all the joy of the world.

Posted February 3, 2008 12:22 PM by Terry Karney

Huzzah! Welcome to the world!

Posted February 3, 2008 12:36 PM by Velma

Congrats!

She's Cory Doctorow's daughter. If her parents are any indication, I suspect transmuting metals and fighting crime will be the least of what she can do. I, personally, look forward to it.

Woo hoo! Happy day!

Posted February 3, 2008 12:46 PM by John Chu

I already had the "but won't their name lead to bullying?" argument with Cory, and lost.

But I think they missed a trick in not giving her an extra middle name:

\', NULL, \'

(See also XKCD ...)

Posted February 3, 2008 1:10 PM by Charlie Stross

Welcome, Poesey!

Because this seems like a completely appropriate place for it, here's Shriekback's Cradlesong. The song that almost made me want to be a parent:

Sing a cradle-song now, as the light fades around us
And you breathe like the ocean, lying small in my arms
See it all in a moment - you so young and unclouded
Shining bright as a lion - feel the motion of time
As the world rolls away from the sun.
I can feel your life burning - unlived moments within you
Further than I can see...

May the fire be your friend and the sea rock you gently,
May the moon light your way - till the wind sets you free

I remember your face as you cried for the first time
The cold air of the world and the fierce light of day
And the cruel separation in a world washed with tears;
Numbed with pain to unfeeling - May you hold to your truth
As you walk the dark night of unreason
The stone walls which surround us - may your spirit fly round them
Like the wind from the sea...

May the fire be your friend and the sea rock you gently,
May the moon light your way - till the wind sets you free

May you never know hunger: may you love with a full heart -
The light stay in your eyes...

May the fire be your friend and the sea rock you gently,
May the moon light your way - till the wind sets you free
May the fire be your friend and the sea rock you gently,
May the moon light your way - till the wind sets you free
(Lyrics by Barry Andrews)

Posted February 3, 2008 1:12 PM by Zak

Given what my peers managed to do with Julia Ellen, I suspect that there are no good names when grade-school kids get their tease on.

Congratulations, and best wishes. May Poesy, et'c. be like my son, who fooled me into thinking babies were easy and I was invincible.

Posted February 3, 2008 1:28 PM by JESR

How completely awesome.

Posted February 3, 2008 1:28 PM by ethan

pixelfish #8 : Yes, there's one "Taylor" here, but I guess it's from the mother's last name. ;-)

Posted February 3, 2008 1:28 PM by Irene

JESR #23: Given what my peers managed to do with Julia Ellen, I suspect that there are no good names when grade-school kids get their tease on.

Ethan. Seriously. No one could ever come up with anything. Didn't stop people making fun of me, but that was one avenue that was shut off from them.

My name is also a good example of how difficult it is to name your child interestingly; my parents figured that with the last name "Robinson" their kids needed interesting first names, and at the time, Ethan was such a one--uncommon, but not bizarre. Now it's the third most popular baby name for boys. Having grown up the only person in my world with my name, it's really disconcerting to hear it yelled by new parents all the time.

Posted February 3, 2008 1:33 PM by ethan

As someone saddled with Ebenezer for a middle name, I heartily approve of Fibonacci Nautilus. And Poesy is just sweet.

Thing is, trying to avoid bullying is like trying to avoid illness. It won't work, and if it did you'd have someone who wouldn't be able to cope with the smallest troll. If it wasn't her name, it would be something else, anything else.

Posted February 3, 2008 1:41 PM by NelC

Terry Karney @ #18 writes: What color of cape will she get?

No capes!

Posted February 3, 2008 1:50 PM by Niall McAuley

Congratulations to the Doctorows! That said...

This is, in the words of Spider Robinson, one of those sorts of names from which parents should be prevented by governmental fiat from giving to their child. An adult who wants to take on a name like that voluntarily is a different story.

"If it wasn't the name, they'd come up with something else" doesn't cut it as an excuse. Why GIVE the bullies a free pass? Make 'em WORK for it, says I!

Posted February 3, 2008 1:53 PM by Lee

Beautiful baby girl
Poesy Emmeline,
Born on the morning of
February three,

Promised the world remade
Uncompromisingly,
Knowledge uncensored and
creation free.

Posted February 3, 2008 2:02 PM by Caroline

(The fourth line is pronounced "Febru'ry three." Also, can it actually be true that the internet does not contain a website with a large list of double-dactyl words?)

Posted February 3, 2008 2:08 PM by Caroline

I heartily approve of lengthy baroque strings of middle names. Reminds me of L. Frank Baum's stuff. I have two middle names myself, as do all of the kids of my Dad's family... Maybe it goes back to the Dutch? Dad's family universally ended up using the third of their names, because the first two were stanger, I guess... Makes it very easy to tell when a pest or other irritant called, "Can I speak to Ms. Jan?" My sister and I have the start of a sort of generation pattern in our names, with the third name being botanical, Rose or Heather.

And there's nothing whatever to worry about with lots of middle names... No one knows. The only time it comes up is in middle school when you bet people that they can't guess your middle name. Now, if she decides she'd rather be Emmeline, she might be embarassed when substitutes constant call out "Pooosy?" on roll call, but other than that there's no teasing potential. C'mon, who knows anyone's middle name?

And word, ethan #26. For 20 years I was the only Madeline ever anywhere... Now there are parents using "parent jump yells" at tiny Madelines all over the place. I'm kinda pleased, though, because starting around 20 years from now everyone who reads my name will assume I'm 20 years younger than I am.

Posted February 3, 2008 2:10 PM by Madeline F

Excuse!? How vanilla and ordinary does a name have to be before it's not an excuse, pray tell? And since when does anyone need an excuse to give their child a distinctive name, one that means something to them and will, hopefully, mean something to the child? Godsdamnit, nautiluses are beautiful, and the Fibonacci series is beautiful, and who wouldn't want such beauty in their name?

My name is Nelson Ebenezer Cunnington, and I'll fight anyone in this bar who doesn't like the name Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow.

Posted February 3, 2008 2:12 PM by NelC

Lee, she's got more names than royalty. The schools will only care about the first two, leaving the rest to used or admired as she likes. She's not really in much danger of being bullied over them. 'Sides, she's a Doctorow. Bet all her peers will have wrappings just as fancy.

Posted February 3, 2008 2:21 PM by pericat

Zak: You remind me I need to get a recording of that (which is one of the most lovely of lullabies, though I am also fond of Jimmy Buffet's Little Miss Magic about which he said, "If you don't write a lullaby for your kid, you go to Hell") for friends of mine who just had their first child born last week.

Thanks.

Posted February 3, 2008 2:28 PM by Terry Karney

Terry: It's on the album Big Night Music which is now apparently somewhat expensive. There used to be a source from which you could buy lots of out of print stuff (more or less) directly from the band, but I can't dig up a link for it now. It was on the old incarnation of their website.

Posted February 3, 2008 2:45 PM by Zak

Serge @ 2

Coming soon on the SciFi Channel.. Doctor Doctorow's Daughter...

"and Other Islands."

Congratulations to the family.

Posted February 3, 2008 2:52 PM by Bruce Cohen (SpeakerToManagers)

Zak: I know where to find it. I have friends with copies, I just have to get ahold of them.

Not having a copy, one forgets about the really good stuff which is out there.

Posted February 3, 2008 3:03 PM by Terry Karney

Congratulations Cory and Alice!

Welcome Poesy!

Who else other than Cory and Alice would manage to get a good math trick into the birthdate*?

2^3=8

*Yes, it's the American way of tracking the date, but it's still a rather nifty coincidence.

Posted February 3, 2008 3:05 PM by Tania

Bruce Cohen @ 37... Script by Gene Wolfe? Sounds good. Starring Parker Posey as Poesy's evil nemesis?

Posted February 3, 2008 3:10 PM by Serge

So here I've been for the last few months trying to come up with baby names that are interesting and unique and cool, and making the (now-obvious) mistake of thinking I was getting close. Nice way to up the ante, Cory!

(And an absolutely beautiful baby. Is it just me, or does Poesy really kinda look like him already?)

Posted February 3, 2008 3:18 PM by Suzanne

Suzanne #41: So here I've been for the last few months trying to come up with baby names that are interesting and unique and cool

Please, in your search for a cool baby name, take into consideration the likelihood that a name you pick might result in perpetual taunting and schoolyard beatings and get reality checks from outside opinions. Check for caustic rhymes especially and don't underestimate the cruelty of children other than one's own precious little snowflake.

Posted February 3, 2008 3:33 PM by Earl Cooley III

Earl Cooley and lee... On the other hand, if they hate you, one of them will find a way to twist the kid's name into a taunt, no matter how safe the name may have seemed.

That being said, if I had a daughter, I'd want to call her Athena.

Posted February 3, 2008 3:42 PM by Serge

Congratulations!

I never got bullied over Genevieve Jules. Over other things, sure. But not over that.

I will admit that I had one of the more run-of-the-mill names in my Sunday school class, which included Lucretia, Harpswell, Sigrid, and Eben.

Posted February 3, 2008 3:45 PM by G. Jules

I think I'd rather give the bullies an easy target. It may be better for them to go for the low-hanging fruit than look deeper at the intended victim. I was Cassiopeia for much of second and third grade, but it wasn't the name that really hurt-- it was the teasing. I got just as much teasing for being smart, being new, and having no social skills as for being named Cassie, and that actually hurt.

Posted February 3, 2008 4:02 PM by Diatryma

Welcome, Poesy!

Most people won't have this problem, but one of our criteria on choosing kids' names was universal pronounceability. At our wedding, the American pastor asked, "Do you, You-vay, take this woman...." He's German and his name is Uwe, pronounced approximately Ooh-va. The pastor knew that, but he was nervous. After hearing all sorts of variations (one of our favorites was "Hoover"), we were a little sensitized. Later nicknames and/or taunting are pretty much out of one's control, though, although it's possible to tempt fate.

Posted February 3, 2008 4:03 PM by Debbie

Welcome, Poesy! Go easy on your folks for a bit - they're about to find that their world changes a whole lot more than yours. It's worth it in the end†, but it's not easy getting there.

On names:

We chose to give our kids unremarkable first names and unusual middle names. Our son's middle name is Beowulf; our daughter's is Chenoweth.

I agree that names that can be distorted into insulting words, or initials that spell dreadful things* are to be avoided.

But I think it's still good to do something interesting.

-----
† Or, even, the very early middle. Pretty much any time after your first smile.

* Among the combinations possible with my current full name: ARFS, ARS, ASS. Before I got married the worst you could do was ARF, but that R was acquired at 18. I grew up with ASF, which is nice and safe.

Posted February 3, 2008 4:55 PM by abi

Abi... About middle names... This reminds me of years ago, when I was in LA chatting with someone I had corresponded with for some time. The subject of middle names came up, and she said she was very embarassed about hers. After some hemming(*) and hawing, she took a deep breath and confessed that it was 'Marie'. My reaction was "So what about it?" It was eventually explained to me that the name is perceived differently in America than in a francophone environment.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Bay Area, there's a young girl whose father is black and whose mother is from Mexico, and her name is Chantal because, when I told my co-worker about that French name, he fell in love with it.

(*) Not David.

Posted February 3, 2008 5:29 PM by Serge

Congratulations, in the general sense, not being acquainted with the family personally. Hey, good news is always good news.

Apropos names, at university, me, Rosalind and Portia just formed the society for those afflicted with the names of Shakespearian heroines and left it at that.

And actually, I never got that much teasing over my name.

Mostly it gave me a handy means of telling more educated teenage boys from the less well read. The latter would come out with 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?'. The latter would expect to get points for 'Hark, what light through yonder window breaks?'(etc) The more of the verse they knew, the longer I had to think of a crushing put-down.

Husband doesn't have a middle name, nor does his brother*. When elder son was drawing up his family tree in his first term of school**, husband explained this lack by saying 'we were too poor'. Five-year-old son dutifully repeated this to the entire class, so I left husband to tackle that one at parents' evening.

*for no readily apparent reason that his father can recall
** a way of introducing all the children to the many and varied versions of family structure nowadays, when they're of an age to accept whatever they're presented with as just part of the world the way it is.

Posted February 3, 2008 5:38 PM by Juliet E McKenna

Serge: Being of Czech/Irish descent, and spending my middle youth in L.A., I don't see the problem with Marie. My eldest sister has Marie for a middle name, as does my mother, and her mother. Maria was common in the neighborhood.

As for teasing about names... kids will do it. I can think of several ways to call Poesy which would reduce the odds, but hey, kids can be nasty, they'll find something, and beating parents up for the name they give kids seems less than cricket.

My first name isn't common. It wasn't what I got teased about. The worst moments about my name came from my second grade teacher, who insisted I didn't know how to spell it.

I am told I was in tears when I got home. Same teacher who got upset with my mother for instilling her values in me.

Posted February 3, 2008 6:05 PM by Terry Karney

I sorta hate to point it out - but her diminutives, while including Poe-y and Emmy ... also include Fibby and Naughty. Though I suppose it's only fair to give the child something to rebel -with- when she's a teenager.

--Dave

Posted February 3, 2008 6:16 PM by David DeLaney

I think we're losing sight of the important things here.

Hurray, healthy baby!
Hurray, healthy mother!

Posted February 3, 2008 6:20 PM by TexAnne

TexAnne... Agreed. Huzzah for the Doctorow family!

Posted February 3, 2008 6:37 PM by Serge

TexAnne #52: Agreed!!

Posted February 3, 2008 6:52 PM by Fragano Ledgister

I have some friends who named their kid Bug. But they were nice and stuck it in the middle after a perfectly normal Andrew. And then the Social Security Administration sent the card— "Andrew Rug." So the mom called and said, "Rug? Why Rug?" and they replied, "Well, we thought you couldn't possibly have meant to put Bug." "And Rug is better?"

I have a very pretty, very feminine first name. (Also very long, hence the initial when commenting.) My middle name is after my grandfather. I love the combo.

Happy birthday, Poesy.

Posted February 3, 2008 7:50 PM by B. Durbin

I have no middle name at all, and a first name that's pretty bland; one the bullies couldn't do anything with. So of course, I wasn't bullied - NOT. And I always envied people with nifty names; Fragano, I think your name's terrific, I'm sorry it caused you trouble.

Diatryma's right, in my view. Give 'em low-hanging fruit - they're going to be mean anyway, no sense in making them get imaginative.

Posted February 3, 2008 8:07 PM by Bruce Cohen (SpeakerToManagers)

I work at a school that is attended by, among others, a Sojourner, an Evo, and a Bear, none of whom are teased for their names. The weird-name bar is getting raised pretty high these days, and most grade-school kids that don't have unusual names themselves have friends who do.

Actually, the thing that *really* amuses me is that we've got an Ella, a Bella, an Isabella, an Isobel, an Annabelle, and an Anna. Most of whom are friends, and play together, which makes calling them in off the playground a fun challenge.

Posted February 3, 2008 8:41 PM by Nona

Serge, #43: You're missing my point. Yes, it's probably true that no name is "safe". But why provide an easy target? The idea that it's OKAY to deliberately set up a kid for truly vicious verbal abuse just to satisfy the parents' egos (or because "it'll teach them to have a thick skin" a la "A Boy Named Sue") is what I'm objecting to.

There's a reason that my official legal signature includes only a middle initial, and that I am prepared to lie like a rug if need be to keep my middle name from appearing on any sort of bureaucratic paperwork.

Posted February 3, 2008 9:37 PM by Lee

I predict that, for some period of time during the next twenty years, she'll hate her given name(s), and perhaps hate her parents for saddling her with this.

And that she will cope by insisting on being called by some other name -- perhaps something like "Tiffany Angel" or "Mary Jane" or "Herbert George John Wellington".

And that her parents will cope reasonably well with this.

Meanwhile, they all have my Best Wishes.

Posted February 3, 2008 9:38 PM by Don Fitch

When I was on the paper in HS, there were three people yclept Terry on staff. It took about three weeks (if that) for the rest of the staff to find three different intonations of the word, and for us to only answer the one meant for us.

What was amusing was when someone came into the room, looking for one of us; three heads would swivel to see who it was.

Posted February 3, 2008 9:48 PM by Terry Karney

I'm with Lee at #58. In fact, when I first read the post, I thought it was about somebody getting a new pet. And even leaving possible bullying aside, having to tell everyone how to pronounce and/or spell your name for your ENTIRE LIFE doesn't sound like much fun to me.

Posted February 3, 2008 9:52 PM by Tehanu

She looks like a baby! And boy, does she have the option of a lot of nicknames!

Posted February 3, 2008 10:19 PM by Marilee

Someone named Poesy Emmeline may spend her life saying "Hi, I'm Emma," or "Hi, I'm Poe," or "It's Poesy, damnit, don't you people read?" depending on her personality. Nothing so unpleasant there.

And yes, having an uncommon name can get you picked on, just like having an uncommon skin color can, or wearing a leg brace, or liking chess, or being good at a sport favored by the other gender, or being tall, or being short. People pick on each other. But mandating ordinariness isn't a benefit to anyone. Conspicuousness may be risky, but it's difficult be extraordinary without being conspicuous. I think many parents who choose conspicuous names for their children are trying to bless them with extraordinary lives.

Posted February 3, 2008 10:51 PM by Mary Dell

Congratulations on a healthy baby! May they gather their naps where they may.

I was one of two Elizabeths when I started school, but I'm the only Elizabeth I know that managed to stay Elizabeth to adulthood. Not that I can really take credit for that, my mom HATED the nicknames for it, and refused to let anyone shorten my name. I'm trying to see how I like Anwen for a girl or Stefan for a boy at the moment. I want something that is unlikely to be duplicated in every class, and need something that works reasonably well in both the US and the UK. If I'd had kids when I was in high school, I might JUST have been able to miss the rush of Hannahs and Rebeccas, but now I'm afraid it's too late, and unfortunately Esther has become increasingly popular as well. Maybe I should go with Heather or Britney... they should be out of vogue by now, right?

Oh, and since Elizabeth was hard to make fun of, they just made fun of my last name instead. Q-bert, Cue ball, etc. There are endless variations, even though my parents were careful to give me a "plain" name. So yeah, kids will find something to make fun of, I wouldn't worry too much about middle names hidden away. She can claim them when she's ready to.

Posted February 3, 2008 11:08 PM by EClaire

Um, well, congratulations!

Posted February 3, 2008 11:36 PM by Randolph Fritz

Giving bullies a name to target is like a lizard with a detachable tail-- the cat jumps and catches something, but it's not something that hurts. It was much easier to recover from, "They call me Cassiopeia!" than from, "No one talks to me and I'm never going to have any friends."

What is wrong with Marie as a middle name, if I may ask? Most girls near my age have Anne, Marie, or Elizabeth for middle names, with Renee and Kathryn distant runners-up. I'm a Rose, and my sister is Ruthann(e?)*.

In terms of name-based kid-scarring, my mother gets an honorable mention. My brother is a John Michael-- he was meant to be Mike but Mom was still in the hospital, and Dad called him by his first name. At some young age, he wanted to know his middle name; it couldn't be Michael because that was part of his first name. So Mom said Fred. JM Fred Krahe.
He believed her until sixth grade or so, when his teacher asked if he really had an extraneous Fred in his name. And Mom says his face just fell. I think she'll be paying for that therapy.

*I feel I must explain that the parentheses, question mark, and in fact the asterisk are not part of her name. I don't know how to spell it.

Posted February 3, 2008 11:52 PM by Diatryma

Diatryma #66: I feel I must explain that the parentheses, question mark, and in fact the asterisk are not part of her name.

So it's not like SanDeE*, Sarah Jessica Parker's character in LA Story?

Posted February 4, 2008 12:04 AM by ethan

What I know is that if I ever find myself, in the comments to a post such as this one, hotly charging that the parents are "deliberately set[ting] up a kid for truly vicious verbal abuse just to satisfy the parents' egos", I hope someone puts a word in my ear. Or, alternately, breaks out the elephant tranquilizers.

Yes, I made a (mild and appreciative) joke about the infant's given name. If making jokes like that about my friends is going to be taken as license to trash them like Lee does in #58, then I don't want to play this game.

I read comments like Lee's #58 tehanu's #61 and I literally don't understand what kind of social miscalibration could possibly make their authors think it was appropriate to talk like that in this thread. Do those comments' authors think the people they're discussing are remote extraplanetary intelligences whose feelings can't possibly be hurt by this kind of cost-free judgmental nastiness? Alternately, were these commenters raised in a fucking barn?

Posted February 4, 2008 12:15 AM by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Heartiest of congratulations to the parents (and to Baby Poesy, when she's old enough to appreciate them)! Many sleepless nights, and great joy, lie ahead. And, has been pointed out, what a choice of nicknames, when the time comes.

My mother acceded to the cajoling of my paternal grandmother to give me a Good Family Name, then, in her typical passive-aggressive manner, refused to call me any other but the single-syllable name she'd had picked for me in the beginning. Convinced that my long Scottish name would open me up to ridicule, or (even worse!) being called Mac like my dad and his brothers (and by that time she had "major issues" with my dad), she also registered me for school under that simple name, Mike. So, instead of spending my school years correcting people's pronunciation of Leoghann, I got made fun of for Mike (which, second to David, was the most common name in every single frickin' year I was in school).

After a couple of years, the Mike taunts got old, but by then I was gap-toothed. Then I was fat. Then I was too smart. Bottom line is, if kids are gonna make fun, they just are. I wasn't a fighter, so I developed a thick skin.

HOWEVER, my fervent hope is that Miss Doctorow doesn't have to develop a thick skin, and that she lives a life filled with wonder and joy.

Posted February 4, 2008 12:31 AM by LMB MacAlister

I just saw that one of the commenters on BoingBoing asked if she was being released under a Creative Commons license, which made me laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh.

Posted February 4, 2008 12:33 AM by ethan

Patrick #68: Alternately, were these commenters raised in a fucking barn?

It's the internets. More rat, less roof.

Seriously, WTF? Are any of us who were picked on in school under the delusion that if only we'd had a different name we'd've been sitting pretty at the popular kid table? It's a beautiful baby and a beautiful name -- as a community haven't we reached the level of sophistication and collective self-acceptance where we can appreciate and be happy for the uniqueness and individuality of our own?

Posted February 4, 2008 12:56 AM by Suzanne

The Doctorows' chosen names are insanely great, their bearer is utterly adorable, and of course joy is the keynote emotion here.

Plus having the wilder choices in the middle, as commenters have noted, means she will have lots of selection but need not make any single exotic name public unless she wants to. Don't know Alice D, but Cory D is one of the smartest people I've ever met. Think we can safely trust the parents' good sense here.

So it's not as a comment on these specific parents' choices, but re the wider discussion of names that CAN have negative repercussions, that I give you the quite snarky site Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing:

http://notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html

Posted February 4, 2008 2:06 AM by Bob Devney

Congratulations, Doctrows! I think they're excellent names; but then again, my middle name IS Romana.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:15 AM by Lucy S.

Me, I'm just bemused at (what strikes me as) the wild implausibility of the idea that a child named Doctorow might actually get dumped into or left for long in one of the festering holding pens where unsupervised children are allowed to torment each other in lieu of getting an education.

I think it's a lovely set of names Poesy has. I can't wait to learn what color of cape she may demand.

Having been named "Daniel Boone" by my own parents, I used to hear a fair bit of singing about "my" purported habit of running up a tree in the manner of some unspecified member of a folk whose racist designation rhymed with the relative size of some bear -- also featured in the song -- not smaller than me. Considering that I lived so deep in the woods that there was no TV, I'd never heard the TV theme song this was supposedly a parody of, any more than I'd ever seen a member of the putative tree-running-up folk in question, so all of this odd singing just tended to leave me bemused.

Since I was being educated at home, I could easily just shrug at this sort of teasing, walk away, and go home to my books, which were friendlier. I tend to think the uncivilized thing is leaving children trapped in environments where they might be bullied without defense or recourse. Thinking that leaving them there is actually good for them? Barbaric.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:40 AM by Daniel

I keep having this bit of doggerel run through my head. I hope that by sharing it, it will go to where it will do the most good.

Welcome to Earth, sweet little Poesy
Perfect in form from her head to her toesies.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:53 AM by Tania

The thing that really trips my trigger about kids' names is that it is, in the most absolute sense of the word, non-consensual. An adult can choose to be known by pretty much any name, no matter how bizarre, and I'll just shrug. But the child has no option.

I really hope that I'm wrong about all this, and that Poesy Emmeline will grow up loving her name. There are, after all, exceptions to everything -- but that's not the way to bet.

Posted February 4, 2008 3:06 AM by Lee

I think those are wonderful names, I only wish my parents had put as much love and thought into my own name (instead of naming me outright after my great-grandmother, and scoring a sort of evil name givers trifecta: doesn't suit, no-one can spell, first name rhymes with 'pees').

I note that young Poesy's first two given names are perfectly delightful, while her other given names, which are beautiful and inspired, will fly right under the radar of any idiot name-calling peers.

I think it's a beautiful name for a beautiful baby. Much happiness to the whole family.

Posted February 4, 2008 3:09 AM by flowery tops

Terry@60: I read once that in the early days of the magazine The Bridge World, Ely Culbertson called out "Hey Al!" and Alvin Roth, Albert Morehead, Alfred Sheinwold, and Alphonse Moyse Jr. all answered, "Yes?"

So Culbertson pointed at Roth, saying: "You are Al." And the others in turn: "You are Albert, you are Freddy, and you are Sonny." Such was the force of his personality that these names stuck to the respective men for the rest of their lives.

(I don't know that the story is true, but it's cute, and that is how those four men were known.)

Posted February 4, 2008 3:40 AM by David Goldfarb

@ Lee #76: C'mon, at least, the girl has plenty of names to choose for herself if she decides she doesn't like the first. IMO, Emmeline is beautiful, and she can even shorten it and go with "Emma".

Posted February 4, 2008 3:54 AM by Irene

I wonder if she'll ever dig through assorted blog archives to find all the threads that welcomed her to the world (and what a scary thought that is--there having been an internet before your birth). At any rate, welcome to this world! It's not perfect, but it's the best world we've got. Obviously, by the time you will find this post we will be living under water, so that will be quite a bit cooler.

As for the whole name business, all I can say is that if I encountered that name in fiction, I'd suddenly be very interested in finding out more about that character... and her parents. Then again, my middle name is Zenon.

Posted February 4, 2008 4:06 AM by Daniel

We're over the moon this morning, folks. She's just over 24 hours old at this minute. A million thanks to everyone who posted -- especially the poetry and photoshops (I cried at the former, laughed hysterically at the latter). She slept in our room last night, in a bassinet and sometimes on us when she was fussing. I nodded off this morning around 6AM with her chuffing like a railroad engine, nuzzled in my throat.

Posted February 4, 2008 4:39 AM by Cory Doctorow

You know, my best friend in high school was Barry Nicholas Scott Watkins. So we made the nickname: Harry Dickless Twat Twatkins.

I think worrying about the nickname abuse angle is somewhat overplayed.

Posted February 4, 2008 6:22 AM by bryan

Mary Dell #63; Let me assure you, having a name that people find hard to pronounce+ and spell* gets old very, very fast. And having an 'uncommon' skin colour can lead to some very interesting experiences, such as getting beaten up for being a 'n....r'. That's not a matter I take particularly lightly.

+ My name is not 'FRAGann-o', Fernando, Fergana, or a number of other variations.
*As witness the letters I receive addressed to 'Fregano', 'Fragana', 'Fragand', and 'Fragane'.

Posted February 4, 2008 6:42 AM by Fragano Ledgister

Cory Doctorow #81: Congratulations!

Posted February 4, 2008 6:46 AM by Fragano Ledgister

A remarkable name for a remarkable girl, who I'm sure will break hearts (and databases) in the years to come...

Posted February 4, 2008 6:55 AM by Pete

You can second guess the whole naming thing too much - who could have known in advance that a TV show called The Young Ones would give kids a strange idea of what people called Neil are like, or indeed that Larry Hagman would portray a character in Dallas with the same initials as my brother?

Also, I've had to spell my names all my life and I now look on it as an interesting test of organisations and people (assuming I haven't been narrowly missing Neal Wilcocks all these years).

Also, congratulations, welcome, and so on.

Posted February 4, 2008 7:00 AM by Neil Willcox

When I was in school, there was a popular kid whose surname was "Cox." No one made anything of it (despite the rich opportunities presented by the homynym, "Cocks"). There was an unpopular kid whose surname was "Greene" whom the alpha girls called "greener" and made mericless fun of, making horking snot noises when she went by.

Whether you get made fun of, and what they choose to make fun of, is entirely dependent on your social confidence and popularity, not what your name is. You could be named "Motherfucker Tinydick" and if you were the big man on campus, they'd call you "M-man!" You could be called "Lisa Smith" and if you were the unpopular kid, they'd call you "Lezzie Shit."

Posted February 4, 2008 7:28 AM by Cory Doctorow

hmm, well the nickname for Rasmussen was for at least a year "Harass My Ass mussen" because, I assume, I was sort of an annoying bastard.

That admission made, I really think that Oregano Ledgister guy has a point too.

"A remarkable name for a remarkable girl, who I'm sure will break hearts (and databases) in the years to come..."
My first daughter will be named Select *

pronounced Select Star Rasmussen.

Posted February 4, 2008 8:20 AM by bryan

As someone with a funny last name and someone who was bullied mercilessly in school, I can't say that I think the two had all that much to do with each other.

And as for misspellings and mispronunciation, you'd be shocked how many people can't handle a simple name like "Wand". I get Ward all the time, and quite often get people who think my name is Wan, and expect me to be Asian. But my favorite are the telemarketers who try to rhyme Wand with land.

So welcome to the little Miss Doctorow, whatever her name may be.

(And am I the only one who immediately thought, with apologies to Messrs G&S:
"Hail Poesy,thou heav'n-born maid!
Thou gildest e'en the sci-fi trade!
Hail flowing fount of sentiment!
All hail! All hail! Divine emolient!")

Posted February 4, 2008 8:21 AM by Chris W.

hmm, my coworker just told me that he thought Select Star sounded like the name of a porn actress.

Posted February 4, 2008 8:22 AM by bryan

hmm, my coworker just told me that he thought Select Star sounded like the name of a porn actress.

Posted February 4, 2008 8:25 AM by bryan

Congratulations!

Also, thanks from your co-swimmers in the gene pool. The breed needs more Doctorow.

Has anyone told xkcd?

Posted February 4, 2008 8:27 AM by Scott H

Fragano Ledgister @#83:

Mary Dell #63; Let me assure you, having a name that people find hard to pronounce+ and spell* gets old very, very fast. And having an 'uncommon' skin colour can lead to some very interesting experiences, such as getting beaten up for being a 'n....r'. That's not a matter I take particularly lightly.

I'm not saying I take it lightly, either. I got tormented and occasionally beaten up for appearing neglected, and my friends were the other kids who didn't fit in--black girls, smart kids, tomboys, "sissies." There's beatings enough for everyone in school. Black kids in my class had it bad sometimes, but nobody had it worse than the kid who was getting beaten at home - everyone knew he was easy pickings.

I'm just saying that while conspicuousness can be difficult, it's not necessarily bad, and compulsively avoiding it is problematic. The things that make us cool and special often also make us vulnerable. But, given the right environment, being unusual or even conspicuous can be a good thing (Even though it wasn't for me, until much later in life).

Posted February 4, 2008 8:31 AM by Mary Dell

bryan #88: Ouch.

Posted February 4, 2008 9:46 AM by Fragano Ledgister

Mary Dell #93: You have a point.

Posted February 4, 2008 9:52 AM by Fragano Ledgister

Congratulations to Cory and Alice, and welcome to Poesy!

#1, Josh -

There was a lot of fuss when Gwenyth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their daughter "Apple" and I always wondered if the fussers had ever heard of the Zappa children. Apple struck me as unusual, but fair game because it seems of a type with names like "Rose" and "Lily."

#32, Madeline F -

We avoided middle name embarrassment by essentially not having them. My mother named my sister and me with what she called "traditional southern double names" and elected not to hyphenate them. So as far as I'm concerned, I don't have a middle name, I have a first name whose spelling includes a space. Government documents disagree, of course.

Posted February 4, 2008 10:02 AM by R. M. Koske

Cory Doctorow: Congrats, as abi says, it's a strange, wonderful, difficult ride; like nothing else and (so she assures me) worth it all.

There's nothing like holding a newborn. I got to do it last week (and will be babysitting said child tonight [his mother is taking a class, and someone needs to sit with him]).

I envy you.

Posted February 4, 2008 10:22 AM by Terry Karney

#61

Considering my last name has punctuation in it and is contantly manglicized in its anglicized form.... It's not that bad. Even when I have to tell people to look for my file/record/paperwork under the second letter of my last name. (Most computer systems don't like/recognize apostrophes and making the first letter my middle initial is a common fix/workaround.)

After a while, it becomes a litmus test. It's really easy for me to tell friend from foe and careful from careless people. This also includes people who automatically use the most common diminutive of my given name. I like my name and refuse to shorten it. I love the expression I get when friendly, well-meaning strangers ask, "Do you go by Vicky or Torey?" after an introduction.

Posted February 4, 2008 11:23 AM by Victoria

More congrats and good wishes! Even for an SF writer, having a kid may make the further reaches of this century seem a lot more real. (At least I feel that effect, contemplating neighbors' kids and my cousin's young son -- no longer entirely stuck in Boomerdom.)

Tehanu (#61): having to tell everyone how to pronounce and/or spell your name for your ENTIRE LIFE doesn't sound like much fun to me. Well, I can reel off "Like Karen, but with an F in front" without even thinking about it by now, but I tend to stick with my maiden name so I don't have to spell "Hanscom" too. (One neighbor with poor hearing initially thought I was "Farina." Oh well.)

Oddly enough, a longtime friend whose birth name *was* Karen got sick of what used to be a really familiar monicker and renamed herself a variety of things, ending up as Cynara. So I'm delighted that there's a Poesy now, instead of one more Madison or Britney.

(Faren Miller [Hanscom], daughter of Aleta Cross [Miller], daughter of Eurilla Farren [Cross])

Posted February 4, 2008 11:40 AM by Faren Miller

I haven't had to spell my full name for all of my life. Only since January 1986 when I moved to Toronto from Quebec City, then to the USA. I have stopped counting the times when I've spelled my family name only to have the person at the other end of the phoneline spell it back with vowels in the wrong order.

Posted February 4, 2008 11:47 AM by Serge

#96: My middle name is a peculiar romanization of my Chinese name. (The romanization mostly, but not quite Wade-Giles.) When I got my MD driver's license, the nice clerk at the MVA insisted that my middle name couldn't possibly have a hyphen. After I showed her my official papers, she relented. Then she insisted that the second half of a hyphenated name couldn't possibly be only one character long. I had to show her my official papers again. Given how busy she was, I have to wonder how the found the time to insist to me that I didn't know how to spell my own name.

When I moved to MA, the nice clerk at the RMV didn't ask any questions. She just assumed I was wrong, dropped the hyphen, and treated the 2nd half of my middle name as a suffix. *sigh*

When I'm feeling suitably ambitious, I may go fix this. I didn't realize what the clerk had done at first. Due to the way the RMV prints the name on the license, it actually looks correct, save for the missing hyphen.

(For some reason, I didn't have any name problems with the DMV in NY, where I first got a driver's license.)

Posted February 4, 2008 11:48 AM by John Chu

Really there's no such thing as a tease-proof name. The trick is to include a name that is normal-ish so that the kid can retreat without having to go to court.

Though I have a long and stupid story about how using one's middle name as a front name can lead to difficulties nowadays with the draft board, the Social Security Administration, the federal financial aid people, and universities, leading to the necessity of going to court to change one's name to one's name.

Luckily, my son had a passport with his name in it.

Posted February 4, 2008 12:03 PM by Lucy Kemnitzer

Lucy Kemnitzer: I know all about the use of middle names. More to the difficult, I use a diminutive of my middle name. Some where I have a trophy, which was redone from Terrence E. Karney (incorrect) to E. Terry Karney, which is no more correct.

Names are funny.

Terry is what I use, day to day (though it looks odd to me in print). E. Terrence is the more formal usage I favor. E. Terry is right out.

There is a small group of people who call me Terrence, which doesn't displease me. They do it because I had a teacher, in high school, who like it, had never had anyone named Terrence, and asked if she might use it.

I didn't see the harm in it (from theater, and fandom, and I don't know what all else, having multiple names didn't seem a problem to me).

I wonder what the perception of me is to those who know me by different names. Freff had an interesting column about the power of names, I wish I knew where it was.

Posted February 4, 2008 12:13 PM by Terry Karney

When my sister-in-law and her hubby were going thru the adoption process, they asked me for suggestions for girl names. They were already seriously thinking about Aria, what with my in-law's hubby being an opera fan, and it was a fine name. I suggested Theora, which was the name of Amanda Pays's character on Max Headroom. They liked it quite a bit, but we never could find confirmation of its meaning ("opener of doors", I think) anywhere. That turned out to be a moot point since they got a boy, little Theo.

Posted February 4, 2008 12:14 PM by Serge

Faren Miller #99: Did your friend call for madder music and for stronger wine?

Posted February 4, 2008 12:23 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Doesn't everyone dislike their name at some point? I still remember being angry with my parents for not having the foresight to name me Princess Sunflower. I got over it. I even kept the "Meadors" when I got married, even though I finally had a good excuse to change it to a pronouncable/spellable name.

re: Dweezil, remember that's not the name on his birth certificate; he had it legally changed when he started school and found out what his parents called him wasn't his "offical" name. I don't believe he ever suffered from it. (Certainly not more than he'd suffer from Zappa, even if his first name were Dave.)

While I wouldn't encourage someone to name their kid "Shithead McButtmunch", I don't see how giving them any name that isn't John/Jane Smith is going to lead to lasting psychological horrors. When I was in school, everyone was John, Bill(y), Sara(h) or Jennifer. Now, there aren't any two kids with the same name in my daughter's class, and hardly two kids with the same name in the whole school. (It's a small school, sure, but there were FOUR Jennifers in my first grade class of 22 kids.) Parents have to work a whole lot harder to get their kids ostracized through something as simple as name choice. (I suggest packing sack lunches. Instant outcast!)

Most importantly - congratulations, Doctorows!

Posted February 4, 2008 12:27 PM by Cat Meadors

Cory @ 81:

I love that feeling. There's nothing like falling asleep with a sleeping baby snuggled up next to you breathing you in. I think it's a primate thing.

Again, I wish many happy years to you and your family.

Posted February 4, 2008 12:27 PM by Clifton Royston

Not that I can really take credit for that, my mom HATED the nicknames for it,

...all of them? Seriously, there are like 30, just off the top of my head. It's certainly not impossible that she hated them all, but wow.

Apple struck me as unusual, but fair game because it seems of a type with names like "Rose" and "Lily."

If we had lots of girls named "Strawberry" or "Peach", I'd agree with you. :)

Well, I can reel off "Like Karen, but with an F in front" without even thinking about it by now

When dealing with strangers, I don't even wait for them to ask, I just start spelling as soon as I've told them my surname. It doesn't help that the name's Lithuanian in origin but spelled as if it were German.

My boyfriend and I have a category we refer to as "Your Honor, the Defense rests". On trial for the murder of her parents, the accused gets on the stand and states that her full name is (to give the most egregious example I can currently recall) Moxie Crimefighter Gillette. "Your Honor, the Defense rests."

Posted February 4, 2008 12:40 PM by Carrie S.

R.M. Koske #96:

My parents elected to do the same thing with me (part of a pact with my mother's best friend to name offspring in some combination of parents' given names), and I removed the space when I went off to college, having discovered that otherwise I'd get called "Jo", which at the time did nothing for me, and I'd get letters from the Air Force Academy (this at a time when such places were most definitely not coed). Fortunately the draft board never got involved.

The best name in my family tree is a great-great grandmother: Rava Jane.

Posted February 4, 2008 12:53 PM by joann

Congratulations to Poesy and her parents!

First thought: Yay for more geeklings!

Second thought: What an amazing name! She gets the options of picking what bits of it she uses when. And can you imagine a three year old blithely explaining her entire name? The Emmeline is for Pankhurst, yes?

The names that bug me are the ones that the parents came up with to be "special" or "different" with no sense of where the name came from.

At my undergrad, working at the snackbar, I was for a while one of five Chrises working there. We weren't often all there at the same time, but there were enough times we had the "Chris?" "Which one?!" routine going. My mother picked my name with no sense of how popular it was. She liked it, and one of the main characters in The Magnificent Seven was Chris, and so I got the name.

Names with stories are more fun, I think.

Posted February 4, 2008 1:24 PM by CJ

#61: having to tell everyone how to pronounce and/or spell your name for your ENTIRE LIFE doesn't sound like much fun to me.

This is an experience common to everyone who moves from one culture to another, so I think it has some value in helping you to be sympathetic. I have a perfectly ordinary Welsh name, but I live in England where it has to be spelled out. It's not a big deal and it helps me to imagine the difficulties I might contend with if I were called, say, Dhasanawalaya Sornsongkram.

#1: A name to make Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa not feel so bad.

Wikipedia says,

Dweezil's registered birth name was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa ... He was always called "Dweezil" by his family and was unaware that this was not the name on his birth certificate. Upon this discovery at the age of seven, he insisted on having his nickname become his legal name. Gail and Frank hired an attorney and soon the name Dweezil was official.

So did he ever feel bad about it? Similarly, Moon Unit has kept her name and it seems likely that having a memorable name is an advantage to her in her profession as an actress, singer and writer.

Posted February 4, 2008 1:55 PM by gdr

CJ @ 110... Have you looked at the rest of the cast's names?

Posted February 4, 2008 2:05 PM by Serge

Our recent move has doomed our children to years of spelling their surname. "Sutherland" may be easy in Scotland, but the Dutch can neither pronounce it ("Give up on the 'th'," my husband told me. "You're now 'Sooderland'.") nor spell it.

But even in Scotland, I knew people with Scottish names that spelled them all the time. We used to joke that one of our colleagues was named Iainwithtwoi's McCorquodaledoyouwantmetospellthat?

And there is no feeling quite like having a sleeping baby on your chest, I agree.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:10 PM by abi

Back on the actual topic of young Poesy's own particular names - I have to say, it's one of the best collections of cool concepts and conjurances I've seen in...well, ever. I'm of the school that thinks names are magical, and that's a powerful set of blessings.

We're in the process of kicking around theoretical names for the theoretical child we're theoretically adopting. Finding names that are cool, have meaning, don't belong to slave holders or other jerks,* but invoke historical figures who are important to us, is really challenging.

*some pre-enlightenment jerks are grandfathered in, but Napoleon is right out, no matter what my husband says

Posted February 4, 2008 2:12 PM by Mary Dell

Abi @ 113... having a sleeping baby on your chest

At the end of February last year, I flew to the Bay Area and stayed at my sister-in-law. Due to many flight delays, I had a splitting headache and could barely stay awake. That didn't keep my SiL from handing over her 6-week-old baby who promptly fell asleep on my chest. Next thing you know, I heard someone whisper my name and I realized I too had fallen asleep. I'm still bummed that my SiL didn't take a photo of Serge and Theo.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:15 PM by Serge

#108, Carrie S.

I think Peach would be a fine name, but I agree that Strawberry would be pushing it.

#109, joann

I've never quite gotten why people seem to have such trouble with the idea. If I introduce myself with three names, why do they think that somehow the "middle" one isn't important? I mentioned it, didn't I? People I don't use my last name with get a pass, because there's often a pause after the introduction that leads me to believe that they think I have a really odd last name. (Need to figure out a way to prevent that.)

I was really charmed in the eleventh grade by a classmate who, on discovering that I preferred to use both, immediately switched his habits. We'd been in classes together for something like five years at that point. (Yes, I'm one of those annoying people who has a preference, but doesn't feel it strongly enough to actually correct anyone. The preference doesn't lead to any hard feelings if it isn't followed, so why make a fuss?)

My husband sometimes makes a fuss on my behalf, which I also find charming.

#61, Tehanu -
Having to tell someone how to spell your name is annoying, true (my first name is difficult to enunciate so even though it is easy to spell, I often have to spell it out for clarity) but manageable most of the time. The last time I got really irritated was the week I moved to a difficult to enunciate street in a difficult to spell town with my difficult to enunciate first name and hard-to-spell last name. Changing my credit card and bank information entailed spelling all four, every time. Not fun.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:16 PM by R. M. Koske

Mary Dell @ 114... No Napoleon? How about Serge?

Posted February 4, 2008 2:17 PM by Serge

Following on #114, Fragano, I have a question for you over on open thread C...it's a bit off-topic here, I think.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:29 PM by Mary Dell

I think Peach would be a fine name, but I agree that Strawberry would be pushing it.

Whether it would be or not (I am strongly of the "no nouns in the local dominant language[s]" school, myself), it isn't common for children to be named after fruits the way it is for girls to be named after flowers. Hence, "Apple" is a strange choice of name.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:32 PM by Carrie S.

gdr,

This is an experience common to everyone who moves from one culture to another,

this has me thinking of parents who name their children in tradition with a culture that is not the culture of the place the children are born.

my brother & sister-in-law gave their firstborn a hebrew first name, hard to spell & hard to pronounce (it has a chet (velar fricative) in it; her one set of grandparents can't even say her name right). and they didn't give her an "english" or easier middle name to fall back on, or any middle name at all. i kinda thought that was unfair.

my husband's folks went way in the other direction: japanese ancestry on both sides, not only did they give their kids "normal" (very common) english first names, they buried their japanese middle names after another very common, no history, "mainstream" middle name for each kid. like so even if they were asked their middle name, they wouldn't have to mortify themselves by saying something japanese. i find that silly, but again, not my business.

i'd really like to give our godwilling future children one hebrew & one japanese name each. i think if they're easy enough to pronounce, there is no need for "culturally unmarked" disguise names.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:48 PM by miriam beetle

sorry,

(it has a chet (velar fricative) in it;

just for the sake of correctitude, & because naomi libicki might call me on it, it actually has a chaf, not a chet, in it. still the velar fricative, unless i'm misremembering that term, too & naomi (or other linguists) can correct me.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:54 PM by miriam beetle

R.M.Koske #116:

It gets even more complicated because I'm convinced that there's a pronunciation difference between "Joann" and "Jo Ann" involving a pause, almost a glottal stop, in the middle of the latter, which I just Do Not Like to hear or even, really, to contemplate.

As to changing names on the fly, it's rare that it happens completely gracefully. My husband spent many many years being known by a family nickname. At the time he got his first book published, he decided that he had an identity crisis, or at least a problem with identity management, sufficient for him to decree that he should now be known at all times by his real name. The next several months were somewhat interesting and provided much insight into the thought processes of friends and co-workers.

Posted February 4, 2008 2:58 PM by joann

Peaches Geldof (Bob's daughter) is fairly well known in the UK, full name (according to Wikipedia) Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof. I like Poesy's name better.

Posted February 4, 2008 3:05 PM by Niall McAuley

Congratulations on Poesy for being born, and the parents for ahem facilitating the process.

Fun fact: poessie, which with a bit of creativity you can pronounce Poesy as, is the Dutch (well, Amsterdammish) name for a small cat or kitten.

Posted February 4, 2008 3:06 PM by Martin Wisse

Belated congratulations, Cory! And Bright Blessings for mother and child, good health, long life, and good fortune to all the family!

Victoria 98: Hear, hear. I'm a Christopher who is always Christopher, never Chris (as Our Host is never Pat—and Our Hostess never "Terry," which is a mistake it would never have occurred to me anyone would make, had I not heard with mine own ears an otherwise-quite-reasonable person make it). I have preferred Christopher since childhood, but wasn't assertive enough to insist on it until I became an adult. Consequently my family still calls me Chris, and it's a little grate each time.

These days I just introduce myself as Christopher, and let the litmus test begin! People who automatically call me Chris without asking have a very bad first impression to overcome. People who ask make a much better one, but the platinum ring goes to the people who call me Christopher without asking, because heck, that's what I said, isn't it? I prize such ones above rubies.

Please note: This is why I use people's first names on here exactly as given, punctuation and capitalization (or lack thereof) and all. If, like Mary Aileen, you are using your two-part first name, let me know and I will try to remember.

Since salesmen use calling you by a nickname as a trick to fool you into unconsciously thinking of them as a friend, I find it's helpful if I don't correct them when they call me Chris. They use your name over and over to try to wear you down, but it just keeps reminding me that they are NOT my friend and do not have my best interests at heart. It's improved my sales resistance enormously.

Terry 103: 'E. Terry Karney' sounds like a Cordwainer Smith Underperson species.

Carrie 108: We have an intern named Torian where I work. I once told him that if he ever does drag he should use 'Tori-Ann' as his drag name. He's a straight boy, but he laughed anyway.

CJ 110: The plethora of Chrises is one reason I'm Christopher.

Posted February 4, 2008 4:09 PM by Xopher

Xopher @ 125... The plethora of Chrises? Wasn't there a DC comic-book by that title in the mid-1980s. Wait. That was Crisis on Infinite Earth.

The only person who ever was allowed to call my wife Suzie was her granddad. Unfortunately, Sue's youngest sister kept referring to her as such with her own kids. It looks like the name is going to stick. As for what the kids call me, they actually use my name, with a nearly correct pronounciation. Nope. No Surge. And this is a name that can't be shrunken down.

Posted February 4, 2008 4:37 PM by Serge

#119, Carrie S.

I can see that it is uncommon, but it just doesn't ping my "uncommon enough to be comment-worthy" meter. I was more startled by the a