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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><B>-----Original Message-----</B><BR><B>From:
</B>Steve, Kim and Harrison Smith <<A
href="mailto:skhsmith@PRODIGY.NET">skhsmith@PRODIGY.NET</A>><BR><B>To:
</B><A
href="mailto:FLING@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">FLING@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</A>
<<A
href="mailto:FLING@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">FLING@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</A>><BR><B>Date:
</B>Tuesday, November 30, 1999 3:03 AM<BR><B>Subject: </B>Re: baby
names<BR><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV>Very interesting article. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In answer to your question, </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2><<Did I miss something? What
question?>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>the pressure wasn't too bad, if you consider putting a list together of
about 50 names (for each sex) then arguing away as you whittle them down to
five, then putting together a virtual debate on which one you feel is most
appropriate. . . actually, ours was pretty easy. We both liked it and
luckily when he arrived, he did too.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Something you want to tell me??????</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><<Huh?>></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A href="mailto:alexa.champion@EROLS.COM"
title=alexa.champion@EROLS.COM>Alexa Champion</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
href="mailto:FLING@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG"
title=FLING@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>FLING@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, November 29, 1999
10:20 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> baby names</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I thought some on the list might be interested in this
article. Lots of connections between naming, generations, race,
class, gender, etc. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sorry for the html coding. <BR><BR><A
href="http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56149-1999Nov28.html">http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56149-1999Nov28.html</A><BR><BR>Playing
the Name Game With Baby</DIV>
<DIV>by Alysia Bennett</DIV>
<DIV>Monday, Nov. 29, 1999</DIV>
<DIV>C4<BR><BR><p>Once upon a time, before Frank Zappa named his
son Dweezil and his daughter Moon Unit, before Demi Moore named her
girls Rumer and Scout, there lived a boy named Jack and a girl named
Jill. Plain folk with plain names.</p><BR><p>Now, meet
generation next. The mothers and fathers of children named
Sun-Everlasting God, Dezire Messiah, Treasure, Sincere, Heaven Lee,
Nobility, Trinity and Diamond. Sounds like a liturgical recitation, but
these are the actual names of local children born within the last few
months. Forget about names for the new millennium (Annikin and
Millennia). It doesn't get any better than
this.</p><BR><p>But why would parents choose such names and,
as entertaining as they are, what effect, if any, will these names have
on the children? They can't all be rock stars, pro wrestlers, super
models and movie stars – occupations where an unusual name might
be an asset.</p><BR><p>And although the best and the
brightest of them may be computer engineers, scientists or even
teachers, how does Sun-Everlasting God get elected in a secular society?
Certainly, Dezire Messiah will have a tough time in Hollywood; there's
already a Diamond in pro-wrestling. And who will ever believe Sincere
is, well, sincere?</p><BR><p>Clevland Evans, associate
professor of psychology at Bellevue University in Nebraska and author of
"Unusual and Most Popular Baby Names," has written extensively
on the subject and believes he may know the answer to the first two
questions.</p><BR><p>"American culture has always been
the most individualistic culture in the world, but we're even more that
way than we used to be. This idea that everybody should be unique, and
that you need to give your child a name that expresses that, is very
popular in the culture. In particular, I get all sorts of e-mails and
responses from people all the time who want to know what the most
popular names are so they can avoid giving them to their
children."</p><BR><p>Local birth announcements for the
past few months are a testament to just how creative some parents can
be. Take a look and a quirky pattern emerges in the form of six
categories: deities, personal traits, liquor, precious stones, the
rampant and seemingly indiscriminate use of the accent mark, and people
who like to use the letter "y."</p><BR><p>Perhaps
recognizing that what a parent decides to name a child is often
visceral, Evans notes that talking about socioeconomic differences
usually is difficult. "That's one thing that Americans have such a
hard time with," he says. "Nobody is offended when I point out
that African Americans, on the average, have a different set of names
than white Americans, but I have a lot of people in the U.S. that get
really offended when I point out that upper-middle-class people have a
different set of names they like [to use] than working-class people do.
Americans like to think that we are a classless society and the only
thing class means is that you have more income, and otherwise, we are
all alike. No, there are a lot of tastes and other things that go along
with [it], than just income."</p><BR><p>Take for
example the upper middle class, he says. Although they are looking for
new and unusual names too, they opt to go back and revive something
that's not being used much at the moment – names like Emma or
Henry. "They're reviving these old things, where the working class
are the ones who will pick up on names that are new, names that have not
been used as first names until recently." The name Brittany, he
says, is a perfect example. "Until about 30 years ago Brittany was
only a province of France."</p><BR><p>The wealthy, he
says, are less likely to choose that name. "Wealthy people want
antiques. They like old stuff because they are socialized to appreciate
the past ... the past has been good to their family, their
culture. With poorer people, the past hasn't been necessarily good to
them. Focusing on the future is what is positive for them, and so newer
things are what they like."</p><BR><p>Looking at
people's tastes in clothing or furniture, he says, is further proof that
socioeconomic factors play a part in the choices we make. "Poorer
people are much more likely to want newer styles, where more wealthy
people are more likely to go for things that are more traditional. It's
the same way in baby names."</p><BR><p>As for cultural
differences, he points to the use of alcoholic beverages as first names.
Whites are more likely to choose names like Brandy or Sherry. Chardonnay
and Shampagne, names given to two local children, are much more likely
to be African American, he says.</p><BR><p>"African
Americans are much more comfortable creating new names for their kids.
They're more comfortable taking some of those words like chardonnay
over, but of course, they're even more comfortable just making things up
from syllables like Shamika [or] Shalonda than people of other ethnic
groups are. It's been that way since the
1960s."</p><BR><p>Ageism, he says, is another factor,
especially when choosing girls' names. He says that a lot of Americans
will not give a child, especially a daughter, a name that they know
anybody over 25 has. For some, a name that was popular in their own age
group or their parents' age group is not new enough. Part of that, he
says, is ageism.</p><BR><p>"Ask people to tell you what
are the women's names they think are ugly, that they would never give a
baby today. Most of them come up with a list of names that are the names
that are popular for women who are in nursing homes, because it is so
bad to be elderly, especially as a woman in our
culture.</p><BR><p>"Everybody thinks names like Ruth
and Ida, Bessie and Maude are ugly. They'll tell you it's the sound that
makes them ugly. It's not the sound, because you can find pairs of names
that sound almost exactly alike, but have completely different images
like Elsie and Kelsie. It's that Elsie is associated with wrinkles in
their mind [and] that makes it sound ugly. Kelsie is new, so it sounds
pretty."</p><BR><p>Culture, class and attitudes about
aging may play a part in what parents name a child, but some names might
not be explained away so easily. They border on the romantic and
fantastical, saying more about the parents as individuals than the group
they belong to. Twenty-two-year-old Loijielyn Cruz Marasigan, an
accounts payable clerk from Rockville, named her daughter Lady Marien.
The story of Robin Hood was not an influence, she says. Marien is a
combination of her nickname, Jien, and her husband's first name, Marlon.
Combining the names of the parents to produce a child's is a family
tradition, but adding Lady made it
special.</p><BR><p>"You don't want a typical
name," she explains. "We wanted it to be Princess Marien but
that was too long, so we chose Lady, and it still sounds like
royalty."</p><BR><p>"We wanted something easy to
say, pretty, feminine, but different," says Shelley D. Nembhard, a
35-year-old RN at Mid Atlantic Medical Services Inc., who moved here
from England eight years ago. She and her husband, John, an EKG
technician, named their daughter Rhayvenne Starre. Their families, she
says, "didn't know how to react, but they got used to it."
They get "a mixed reaction" from
non-family.</p><BR><p>The couple also has a 3-year-old
daughter named Chynna Raynne and an 8-year-old named Thea. "We
wanted to give them names that were different, but not something that
they'd get teased for in school," she
said.</p><BR><p>When Mysty Snelson, a 31-year-old clerk at
the National Institutes of Health, was looking for a name for her
daughter, she found the answer in a book called "Heaven," by
V.C. Andrews, author of the best-seller "Flowers in the
Attic." She named her Heaven Noelle Bradbury. Of the uniqueness of
her youngest child's name, the mother of three says, "I've noticed
that a lot of people really love her name or are really turned off by it
and ask me 'What about when she starts school?' It'll be interesting to
see how people react in the future."</p><BR><p>She may
not be waiting and watching alone. According to Evans, the name is not
so unusual anymore. Three local baby girls were given that name within
the last few months, and it's catching on in other parts of the country.
In 1998, five newborns in Nebraska alone were named
Heaven.</p><BR><p>"We live in a mass culture,"
Evans says. We "watch the same television, listen to the same
music, read the same newspapers."</p><BR><p>So, Heaven
is safe. But what about Trinity, Dezire Messiah, Messiah Emanuel and
Sun-Everlasting God? Or Nobility and Favour? What will the effect be on
these children? According to Evans, psychological research generally
shows that having an uncommon name is neutral or slightly positive,
especially for girls. However, he says, "that's for the mass of
uncommon names, which don't sound humorous or have a negative
connotation to people.</p><BR><p>"The [example] I
always use," he says, is that of "a little boy born in Florida
a few years ago named Tragedy. Obviously, if you name your child
something like that, it's going to be a negative influence. There's a
way to get too creative that people then can't take you seriously. The
happy medium is the way to
go."</p></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>