If you're like me, then you've probably heard at least one story about ridiculous baby names inspired by everything from car parts to female nether regions.
And I admit that I've done my fair share of eyerolling at weird celebrity baby names, like ones who name their kids after motor vehicles and grocery list items.
But according to this fascinating baby name article, mocking weird baby names might be racist. And I have to agree.
As Stephanie Pappas writes, the majority of names that people mock are often culturally based. In fact, many of the "weird" baby names listed in a recent Gawker article called 2012's Definitive List of Baby Names That Will Destroy Your Soul are actually common names in different countries and aren't even on the official name registry. Urban myth, anyone?
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The idea that people are feeling less conformist and more willing to celebrate their culture or someone else's, even if it's just because they want a name that's different than the other babies in the nursery, is actually pretty awesome.
And in truth, how many of us really know someone with the names that so often get mocked, like "Neaveh" (which is the word "Heaven" backwards)? And as Pappas states, that name is probably similar to what the name "Hazel" was back in the 1890s -- a trendy, low-class name when it first emerged.
Who's to know if these so-called "weird" names will actually be weird in a few years? Kids are way less concerned about peers with different names than we are, probably because unique names are becoming the norm.
In a way, by mocking different kids' names, we're mocking diversity, which is just as bad as it sounds.
Do you think it's wrong to make fun of weird baby names?
Photo via tamakisono/Flickr
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Comments 90
^Thank you. If you name your kids something ridiculous, you deserve to be ridiculed. Feel free to look up the word "racist" in a dictionary. It's this kind of talk that makes everyone so oversensitive.
I had a class last semester with a woman who named her son (pronounced) Lah-MON-gel-oh; only she spelled it Lemonjello. So, which cultural heritage am I being insensitive to by laughing at this ridiculous name? Kraft foods? Bill Cosby? The people of Utah, maybe? Don't care, I'm still laughing.
I used to teach pre-school and I actually did have a "Nevaeh" in my class.
Seriously. STFU about racism. It has no power anymore.
I have four kids, none of whom have "normal" names (no Janes or Johns here). People can feel free to think my kids' (and mine) names are weird and they can even have problems pronouncing them without me thinking or feeling that they are racist. As we become more diverse and accepting, my children's names might become the new normal. After all, 30 years ago "Keisha" would have been a "weird" name. It is all in our perspective and our perspective is always developing.