I had an Emmett for a college roommate

Fred, is this the same Emmett I knew who fell through an uncovered manhole? (No porn intended. There was an open manhole in the street and this guy in college named Emmett fell through it one night.)

I could have been named "Hulda" after one grandmother. I could have been named "Eda" (not bad, but rife with teasing potential for a fat kid like me) after the other grandmother. Dad's mom was quite unhappy that they didn't name me "Henrika" after her mother. Thankfully, my parents named me "Heather Rae," just before the great in-Heather-ation of the US girl children.

I knew a guy named Glenn who was really looking forward to having a son and calling him Glenn, Jr. So he named his daughter Glennys.

(He also -- rightly -- pointed out that it could be worse, he could be George Foreman.)

Fett?

AHhahahaha! I nearly aspirted my tortilla chips just then.

Huh. I wonder what here experence was like. I lost track of her by our senior year in high school when Star Wars came out. She probably missed most of the potential teasing.

My eldest aunt is Paulette. Same reason. (Grandpa named Bob.) (No, I kid. His name was Paul, although we called him Boomer.)

Snerk.

I LOVE the name Boomer. I can categorically state that I loved the name before BSG modern, but I can't claim to have been immune to Dirk Benedict.

Vet the accents, dammit!

Dude, that's way too day-job-related. This is my fun internet! It's like indoor pants, but with speeling.

it could be worse, he could be George Foreman.

Lord, that man needs to just invest in some gene testing and post the results in a blog or something. They're your kids, George. We get it.

Was that cultural or just your parents being your parents?

A bit of both I think. I got a first name that worked both in English and Farsi and a 14 letter last name (with 2 hyphens). I think they figured that was enough.

Told my mom she could pick any middle name, she could talk to my friends if she wanted, but not me. For my 18th birthday, she had it done up in pretty calligraphy for me.

Happy Birthday MM!

Finally, an alarm clock even more annoying/cute than Clocky?

Jeez, what next? Will some company actually send a fussy two-year-old in footie pajamas over to your home to pitch a fit at the appointed time?

My other grandmother had a beautiful 19th century name, Lelia. Which no one but her siblings ever used, because my oldest cousin on that side called her "Mamoo" as a toddler and it stuck like Super Glue. Sadly, none of her grandkids or great-grandkids were named after her. (Since I was her favorite, I guess it falls to me to continue the tradition. Oh well, maybe I'll buy a parrot at some point...)

I think that name list is full of crap. It's like the middle class white kid list.

I run into a lot of Juans, Samanthas, Marias, Carlos, (even a Juan Carlos!), Joses. More than Jayden.

Noah and Grace have common names, which is fine by me. But when we picked them, we knew of no other kid Noahs or Graces. It's all good. They'll be who they are with or without a fancy name.

My favorite notmine!grandma name is Mahtapani. It oculd be a pasta, but the pronounciation is lovely. Heavy on the TAP.

My given middle name was Ann, which I dropeed like a disease when I hyphenated by last name.

t /issues

I always wished I had a cool middle to default to...or any sort of cool nickname. My father's name for me? Buggy.

Yup, Kat. The census or social security lists are much more accurate.

And both Noah and Grace have been on my list of possibles for 30 years. My grandmother was a Grace. And I always associate Noah not with the ark, but with the dove. So it's a name filled with peace. And now it's a name I strongly associate with a certain little hyper-expressive tyke in LA.