Web of Language: What to name the baby? Forget grandma, hire a consultant

[James Smith]

Ski 15th East: works for me


--- Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:

> Reminds me of the party game of chosing one's "porn
> star" screen name on the basis of a formula. One
> formula is the name of your first pet + the name of
> the street your family live on when your were born.
>
> --Chalrie
>
_____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 21:33:40 -0500
> >From: Dennis Baron <debaron at UIUC.EDU>
> >
> >There's a new post on the
> >
> >Web of Language:
> >
> >What to name the baby?  Forget grandma, hire a
> consultant
> >
> >Today=92s hi-tech parents can now do what
> corporations have done for =20
> >years: hire a consultant to devise a name to
> capture the essence of =20
> >their latest product.  There=92s a growing number
> of =93nameologists=94 =
> >=96 =20
> >on line and in print =96 intent on selling
> prospective parents the =20
> >perfect baby name. ...
> >
> >Until recently, parents looking for baby-naming
> help had few =20
> >resources: family and friends, ethnic or religious
> traditions, or =20
> >books like the 1930s classic, What shall we name
> the baby?, resources =20=
> >
> >which list names for boys and girls, and sometimes
> suggest what the =20
> >names might mean....
> >
> >But now that the name consultants are on the case,
> promising to =20
> >reduce the stress of baby naming and turn a process
> fraught with =20
> >tension into a rational, easy-to-follow recipe,
> finding the perfect =20
> >baby name is as easy as microwaving dinner. Because
> consultants earn =20
> >their fee by telling other people what to do,
> parents who can=92t make =20=
> >
> >up their minds about names will no longer have to
> take their baby =20
> >home from the hospital with a birth certificate
> reading =93Baby.=94 ...
> >
> >.  A pair of California writers, Whitney Walker and
> Eric Reyes have =20
> >gone into business as baby name-brokers, using
> scientific rigor =96 or =20=
> >
> >what passes for it =96 to come up with the perfect
> naming formula ...
> >
> >Find out more -- read the rest -- on the
> >Web of Language
> >
> >www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
> >
> >
> >Dennis Baron
> >Professor of English and Linguistics
> >Department of English
> >University of Illinois
> >608 S. Wright St.
> >Urbana, IL 61801
> >
> >office: 217-244-0568
> >fax: 217-333-4321
> >
> >www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron
> >
> >read the Web of Language:
> >www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society -
> http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society -
> http://www.americandialect.org
>


James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.



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