I wonder if there isn’t an analogous boy version of the “President or stripper?” test for girls. That test, if you’ve never heard of it, has you taking your preferred Girl Name and inserting it into the following formulae:
“...the president of the United States, _____ _____!”
“...and now on the center pole, _____ ______!”
Thus naming your girl Champagne Brandy Lexxxus fails miserably, unless you have really warped ideals.
We haven’t, as a society, had a habit of giving some boys “stripper names” (whatever those would be for a boy), but if there’s something similarly frivolous in the air for boys—and this article suggests a possibility or two—I wonder what a good specific test would be.
Also, I also consider many baby names overthought. It’s an important decision, to be sure, but I wonder just how much Communication of Your Values occurs thereby.
In any case, if he uses his own birth first name from here on out, poor gentle-chief Calum (from the linked article) will have to endure “can you spell that again?” for the rest of his life. If I were Calum, my main lesson would probably be that Mommy didn’t really think ahead to that part.
Good point. I think there are male stripper names - they appear in soap operas. I remember a movie with Sallie Field in it portraying a soap actress and she was forever exasperated with her male model co-star, who’s soap opera name was ‘Bolt’. I think Fabio used to fall into that category. As for Calum, well kids generally hate being different from the others for awhile so he’ll shorten his name to Cal or use a middle name or do SOMETHING to try to pass for normal.
When I was teaching, I had kids (usually girls) who would get irritated with me because I could not immediately pronounce oddly spelled first names. I know their Moms wanted their names to be unique, by adding vowels etc, or using a y instead of an i or whatever, but it really just made them more difficult to decipher at times. I always bit my tongue and didn’t say, “Look if you’re Mom could spell, I could pronounce you’re name.” Something most parents probably don’t think of, but their kids will live with the consequences of their cuteness.
Oh, what a Calum-ny! Given the rise of gays, the "stripper names" test is entirely appropriate. Lance, Rod, Randy, Harry, and Jayden are all obvious stripper names. Dunno about Calum...