by Robert Wilkinson
On a lighter note, it seems May is the month for articles about baby names. Today we found that according to Social Security records, some parents have a very bizarre sense of what to name their child.
I really would NOT want to be some of the parents of these people when they get older and realize their parents played a very cruel joke on them at birth. This article from Today titled “Harshit and Abass: Worst – and real – baby names” gives us a list of some of the worst names ever given to a human being. You will recall that NeZ (New Zealand) banned a whole bunch of names that are okay in the US, including King, Princess, Justice, Justus, Major, Queen, Rogue, Christ, and Lucifer. This list from the SS Administration pushes that envelope over the top!
Among the names given to children in the US in 2012 are (for girls) Anally, Assia, Money, Pryce, Rosary, Shady, Stonie, Vegas, and Younique. For boys, Havoc, Abass, Carrion, Emperor, Harshit, Kartier, Maximum, Patch, Princeten, Rage, and Vader.
There are more over at the article, so by all means check it out. I suppose these are in the ball park, given that some US parents have actually named their kids Superman, Metallica, Moxie CrimeFighter, Kal-El and Pilot Inspektor, as I found out in the May 6 article about NeZ banning certain names.
Anyway, I figure this is just another look into the creative mindset of totally clueless people living out a fantasy in their child’s name. Carrion? Really? I just have a feeling that a girl named “Stonie” might take a bit of teasing from other kids once she hit a certain age. And naming a boy “Rage” just sets him up to, well, do just that.
Of course, “Moon Unit” and “Dweezle” are already famous names in American entertainment. And I suppose if someone named Carrion or Anally wanted to, when they hit 18 they could change it to something like “Dude” or “Dudette,” or “Emperor Metallica of Vader Moxie,” Emovam or Emo Vamo for short. The possibilities are endless!
© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson
Harshit, more commonly spelled Harsheet, is actually a totally legit Indian name meaning "full of joy." Just sayin'.
Posted by: Globetrotter | May 31, 2013 at 05:40 PM
Hi Globetrotter - I absolutely agree. It's actually a beautiful name, and is not strange to a billion people or more. From the original article: "Harshit – Harshit and Harshita are Sanskrit names with a lovely meaning: full of happiness. But they don’t translate well into English."
Given that many Americans are hung up on body parts and functions, while that name may work well for scions of the subcontinent, Americans are still prone to react in a juvenile way to other languages that sound like body parts and functions. And the US is poorer for that. The pop culture and those in its thrall are just SO hung up.....
Posted by: Robert | May 31, 2013 at 06:10 PM
Those names sound like the ones used in the movie "Idiocracy". Also, people have to get a license to fish and to get married, but anyone can have a baby. What in this world.
Posted by: anon | June 04, 2013 at 03:53 PM