Why do prominent Republicans give their children goofy names? Flame me if you want

[Suji to Seoul]

but look at Sarah Palin's little brood:

Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig. Can someone explain the names to me?

I know I'm being rather petty and sophomoric, but I've been given crap for my name for years and my parents were on a bible kick when I was born and gave me a name directly from the Bible that no one can pronounce right on the first attempt.

George Romney gave Willard the name "Mitt" as a middle name. WTF is Mitt? I used one to play baseball for 20 years. Is it a name?

All I can think right now is "Where did all these goofy boys names come from" bit from George Carlin.

To add to it, Mitt names his first little mutant "Tagg," as in "I wanted to punch the president for insulting muh daddy" Tagg!

Even Limbaugh's parents gave him a goofy name: Rush, which since we know he's a drug addict, is apropos!

[jsr]

1. Or boring names like SCOTT Brown, Rick SCOTT, SCOTT Walker

kinda like the middle name WAYNE among criminals.

[MicaelS]

2. It's not just Republicans...

This strange names stuff started because of Soap Operas. I kid you not. Back in the 1970s-1980s, there was a woman producer of Daytime Soaps (can't remember her name) who started naming her characters names like Chase or Taylor (both of which are uni-sexual names) and so on. In order to differentiate her show from those with more common names like John or Robert or Mary or Jane. The rest of the soaps copied her, and all this influenced those having children at the time.

[eridani]

34. There's always the option of picking your kid's name from an interstate highway exit sign

Kennedy (Expressway?), Madison (Wisconsin?) Wondering if one of these days in South King County (WA) I'll hear someone say "We're naming it Renton if it's a boy and Auburn if it's a girl."

[Freddie]

35. I know a family whose 2 young daughters are Kennedy and Reagan

As a political junkie that one makes my brain freeze.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. They're not yet calling themselves names like "Not Sure", "Frito", "Velveeta", Mountain Dew", or

"Beef Supreme", but it may not be long.

[Bombtrack]

5. Because they're narcissists eom

[Nay]

17. Well, I don't know. Years ago there was a guy on my mail route whose first name was "Vaseline."

And I'm not kidding. There was another guy whose first name was "Doctor." I guess we can figure out what his mom wanted him to be.

[2pooped2pop]

42. Peaches Pook

I once delivered checks in that name to a motel on my route.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

44. Cinnamon Parfait

We were friends in high school. I always thought it was a great name

[2pooped2pop]

46. It is kinda cool but sounds like a

really good stripper or impersonator name.

[Populist_Prole]

28. You cracked me up!

Good one! 'Idocracy' seems to just around the corner, rather than the 500 years it states.

[AsahinaKimi]

41. Just watched that the other night..

Everyone should check out that movie.. its scary because it could be true. On the other hand, when I think of weird kid names, I am reminded of Frank Zappa. "Moon Unit"? just wow...

[Populist_Prole]

47. Scarier still in that it seems more of a documentary than a comedy, some parts are true now

Though the depiction is for a decrepit dumbed down fascist police state 500 years hence, I could very well see 50 years being more accurate.

[hifiguy]

48. The difference being that Frank was an intellectual and

an absurdist, not a trend-follower. Moon has just gone by "Moon" for decades, and that doesn't seem so strange given that she was born in California in the 1960s.

When Frank and Gail had their son, the hospital would not let them name him "Dweezil" so they named him Ian something after the guys in Frank's band at the time. When their son found out his legal name wasn't Dweezil he demanded that his parents legally change his name, and told the judge as much, and got his wish.

[aletier_v]

4. Unique names create unique personalities.

Name your kid John or Mike or Bob and he's got a plethora of pre-populated archetypes to fulfill.

[oppressedproletarian]

6. How about the actress who

named her kid Apple? Forget who it was...

[aletier_v]

7. Steve Jobs?

[Indpndnt]

9. Okay.

That just made me burst out laughing!

[Jennicut]

10. Gwyneth Paltrow.

Though I find Apple less offensive then some names...like Trigg and Track and Tagg.

[Indpndnt]

11. Gwyneth Paltrow

She must have had a healthy craving while pregnant, just to be different.

[glinda]

16. Paltrow?

[hrmjustin]

8. I grew up with a kid by the name Sunshine Love. His parents were hippies.

When he reached his majority he changed his name.

[Sugarcoated]

12. Penn Jilette

named his poor daughter Moxie Crimefighter, or so he says.

[hifiguy]

49. There was some doucherocket actor who named

his son Pilot Inspektor. Somehow I don't think that will stick once the kid gets old enough to change his name in court. David and Angela Bowie's son was named Zowie. He promptly changed it to Joseph on reaching legal age.

[Arugula Latte]

53. I think it was Jason Lee for the Pilot name.

[tomm2thumbs]

13. Flame?

Why that's my other boy's name !!

[tomm2thumbs]

14. Yes I'm joking

just to be clear

[MrScorpio]

15. Well, I don't know. I happen to like the idea of unique names

Now, that don't negate the fact that the names that Palin and Romney gave their kids are completely fucking stupid, bu when done correctly a unique name would be pretty cool.

Now I don't have kids, but if I did, I swore that I'd them after European cities. For the girls, their names would be Marseilles, Lille and Sofia, the boys names would be London, Lyon and Paris.

I only blames the examples you cited because that can't do it right.

[Art_from_Ark]

19. I don't think "Lyon" would be such a good name

since it would inevitably be pronounced "Lyin'" and the kid would get a ribbing for it in school.

And the last time there was a guy named "Paris", he inadvertently ended up getting a war started between Greece and Troy.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

18. They don't want their offspring to share a name with the commonfolk. nt

[Lone_Wolf]

20. The name "Tagg" sounds like an antagonist's name in a 80's John Hughes movie

They were usually wimpy, rich preppies too!

[We People]

21. It's the preppy male equivalent name to preppy females, for example

Boys: Track, Tripp, Trigg, Tagg,

Girls: Buffa, Buffie, Muffie, Mitsy, Bitsy...

There seems to be a pattern, but I can't explain why these names are any more appropriate than others

[Lone_Wolf]

23. It could be they have a subconscious disdain for common names

In other words, they don't want their kids to have the names of a commoner. My guess is as good as anyones.

I did find this article, but it doesn't really give the reasons why they do it.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/03/10/the-elites-top-50-baby-names.html

[mercuryblues]

40. You just reminded me about an old boyfriend

We would pull up to a nice restaurant, I would ge toff his Harly , he would rev it a few times just in case noone heard him in a 5 mile radius; then we would call each other Buffy and Skippy during dinner. The looks we got were a hoot.

[Freddie]

36. I believe Tagg is short for Taggart

A common Mormon surname, perhaps an ancestor? His other sons have "normal" names, Josh and the rest I can't recall.

[ohheckyeah]

22. Who the hell names their kid Newt? n/t

[hughee99]

50. I believe it's actually Newton. n/t

[ohheckyeah]

57. that doesn't make it much better actually. n/t

[6000eliot]

24. An attempt to seem "hip" without actually having any progressive ideas.

[left on green only]

25. I can hardly believe this thread has grown this far. .......

.....without someone championing accolades to Frank Zappa. In 1967, before he had any children to name, he came up with Suzie Creamcheese as the protagonist of his first album (viz Mothers Of Invention, Freakout album). But, some years later when his own children entered this world, he came up with the following names for them: Moon Unit, Dweezil (Dweezil Zappa - can you say it ten times without completely losing it?, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan, and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.

"Just as much as you wonder
About me being here with you
That's just how much I marvel
At the corny thing you do
You told your mom
Your stoked on Tom
Then you went sleezing in a cheezy bar
Plastic boots and plastic hat
And you think you know where it's at"
(written before Paris Hilton could possibly have been conceived)

"I remember do do
I remember do do
They had a swimming pool
And they thought it couldn't happen here"

But I kinda think that Frank Zappa was a little to the left of most Republicans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa



edit to ad link and last line.

[Electric Monk]

26. You mean Jeff Christie?

http://pssht.com/biography/rush_limbaugh.html

[Hamlette]

27. honey boo boo? nt

[Populist_Prole]

29. No flames, just agreement.

It's gotten out of hand in affluent suburbia. Like they're "trophy kids" or something.

Another one that drives me up a wall down south here are the confederate die-hard provincial types who name their kids obnoxiously waspy or antediluvian names to demonstrate their still lingering defiance to the rest of the country and its "furrin" influence.

[madamesilverspurs]

30. Family hereabouts had sons named Cheyenne and Maverick,

named for characters in TV shows. When I worked as a directory assistance operator, we had access to lists of names that had unpublished numbers. Some of those names -- suffice it to say I wanted to smack the parents for doing such things to a child.

Puts me in mind of an old joke, though:

Fella goes to court to petition for a name change.
The judge asks his given name, the man replies "Joe Shit."
Cringing, the judge says he can understand the man's petition.
"What would you like to change your name to?" he asks.
"Bill."


-

[Nay]

59. I know the type. A former coworker names his 2 kids after 2 pistol brand names.

[Raine]

31. I know a person named Sidikat pronouced city cat. She's a nurse and always has to go

through an explanation about spelling and pronouncing it. I also know someone whose real name is Bunny both of these are from Democratic families.

[quinnox]

32. well. I think Willow is a super cool name

While I agree some of those other names are goofy and preppy rich sounding, to me Willow is a unique and really cool name for a girl. I also don't think the name Mitt is so bad. It is kinda dog like but solidly masculine. As for the unique names thing, I'm for it. Do we really need another Joe or John or Michael or Paula or Cindy?

[southmost]

33. Ha! I was thinking the same thing a few hours ago

obnoxious 'prep' names

[Mike Daniels]

37. Well, on the Dem side you have Apple, Dweezil, Moon/Moon Unit, Lourdes....

I really don't think embarrassing your kid with goofy name is the exclusive providence of any side of the political spectrum.

[B Calm]

38. Tagg. . I wonder how many kids slapped

him in the back of the head, yelled tag your it, and then ran off down the school hallway!

[Chiyo-chichi]

39. You forgot Tugg Romney

[eppur_se_muova]

43. This doesn't answer your question, but it's interesting reading ...

http://www.mengelfamily.com/naming/namingcolonial.htm

I came across this while trying to document a Quaker tradition of giving family names as first names -- Johns Hopkins' first name came from a great-grandmother's family, for example.

[GoCubsGo]

45. "Tagg" is short for "Taggart". See: "Atlas Shrugged"

The protagonist in this hunk of literary crap is named "Dagny Taggart".

[Arugula Latte]

54. Oh, jeez, that makes it ever more pukeworthy.

Seriously, that family just makes my skin crawl.

[elehhhhna]

55. iirc, taggart was a mormon prophet's name

[elehhhhna]

51. Here ya go:

Track - trackmarks
Bristol - misspellingof Bristle
Willow - BillOReilly
Piper - conceived in a small plane
Trig - Roy Rodger's horse
Tripp - drug reference, again, see "Track"

can't 'splain the Romneys

[ieoeja]

52. People should stick to good English names like these:

For Girls:

Ecgwynn
Eadgifu
Ælfgifu
Æthelflæd
Ælfthryth


For Boys:

Ælle
Ceawlin
Æthelberht
Rædwald
Oswiu
Penda
Wulfhere
Æthelbald
Offa
Cœnwulf
Æthelstan
Eadred
Eadwig
Æthelred
Ætheling