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...it's not that terrible here in Germany (in my opinion). I don't fancy hyphenated names, but they're WAY better than some of the invented names Americans come up with sometimes. I'm not saying this to offend, really, it's just that to me, there are many more horrible first names in the U.S. But that's not really odd, if you think about it: You can give your child any name you want, in the States, as far as I know, whereas here in Germany, names always have to be approved of by the local civil registry office and they generally check if the first name you'd like to use appears in some offical names book or database or if it's kind of "forbidden" (like Hitler or so). There's no binding rules, as far as I know, but on the whole, the executives do a pretty good job, I think... A few exceptions might show that - apart from maybe different culture which also influences naming a lot - in Germany, too, people would maybe like to use more "kreatyve" names sometimes. Think of the "Pepsi-Laura" or whatever it was case and some other ugly names that were approved of (I can't understand why, but again - sometimes it's a bit random at the registry office, really).

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Well, as far as I am concerned, I also don't approve of many naming habits I've read of or heard of in the U.S.A. and I find some of them more terrible for the children (e.g. one thousand different spellings of Jaden, including Jayyden, Jaidyn, Jaedyn, Jaydeen......) than those in Germany, as Anna-Laura certainly is less complicated and way more beautiful, if this term is even apt here.