Baby, What A Name!

Today the Saskatoon Star Phoenix published a supplement featuring various children born in Saskatoon over the last year. So of course I'm going to comment on some of the names. If these are your children please realise I'm not criticising them. I'm criticising YOU. After all the kids are innocent victims in all this.

Jerrica-Is someone a fan of '80s cartoons perhaps? Jerrica was the civilian identity of Jem, the title character of the cartoon of the same name. Of course I'm assuming that the j is pronounced as such, and not as a y or an h, or worse is silent, which isn't impossible these days.

Camilla Elizabeth-Presumably inspired by the current wife of Prince Charles and our Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II.

Jayla-I'm not much on the name Kayla, and Jayla comes across as even more jarring. And of course the poor kid will be saying "No, not Kayla, Jayla" regularly for the rest of her life.

Ayvee-Where they going for Ivy, and didn't know how to spell it? It's not hard to look spellings up, folks! And spelling it that way deliberately is just punishing the kid, who will be spelling her name and/or correcting its pronunciation over and over again forever. Just look at my last name, I know what it's like. And Ayvee is baby sister to Daireli. An ethnic name, or just something the parents made up?

Deagan-An Irish family name apparently. No doubt Deagan will be correcting his name a lot as well, unless the family uses his middle name Joseph instead.

Kynyn-I have no idea where this one comes from, and I suspect there might be a bit of confusion for him(the middle name is Christopher), as I'd guess a lot of people will assume it's a girl's name.

Ebony-Kind of an odd name for what appears to be a white girl. After all ebony is generally black.

Weylen-I think they were looking for Waylon, unless its a surname.

Ruari-An old Celtic name. Nothing wrong with honouring your heritage, but it's still a name that will be a bit of a bother for the boy.

Autumn Trinity-Oddly enough Autumn was born in May.

Kali-Hmm, you might be tempting the fates giving your daughter the same name as the Hindu embodiment of death.

Jaslene-Another made up name?

Jeirus-Another odd one. His parents are Jhun and Lovelee, so funky names apparently run in the family.

Maximus-Is this a possible trend? I had a post on here a good while back about a Saskatoon child given the name Maximus. I still think it sounds like a name for a Roman gladiator, not a 21st Century Canadian boy, but presumably everyone will call him Max.

Jaxon-There are several of these. Jackson looks better to me, but at least it's a name most people will pronounce easily.

Kazden-Another head scratcher. His middle name is Matlock, presumably a family name. I doubt most folks would name their son after a geezerly TV detective.

Breeze-A name that might get the poor girl called Airhead or something equally nasty when she gets older. One of her five siblings is named Reo.

Tawny-Likely to make folks of a certain age think of Tawny Kitaen, Whitesnake video chick. Another one of those names that sounds more appropriate for pets than offspring.

Ireland-Giving kids place names as first names is not uncommon, and at least it will be easy to pronounce. It will cause her less trouble than her sisters Sydnea and Jazmine.

Bree-Seems to have some popularity these days, but it always makes me think of a secondary character from the original Battlestar Galactica, and no doubt makes others think of cheese.

Alexus-Most folks spell that with an i, not a u.

Silas-Funny to see such an old fashioned name on a contemporary kid.

Jet-Hey, I like planes, but I wouldn't name my kid after one.

Well, I wasn't as mean as I thought I would. Of course there weren't any really horrific monstrosities to bemoan. For real horrors check out Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing.