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ArchivesYou know? This isn't a bad idea!
in reply to a message by Nanaea
Of course I'm not talking about this example, but we talk about stupid parents who name their kids stupid names, and actually, in extreme cases, it is a form of mental abuse that no one can touch. We finally have child protection acts, but before that, the rare people who tried to help abused children would contact the ASPCA for lack of an appropriate organization.
We need to protect kids from being named Booger, Hitler, Robot and Scarz!
Yeah.
We need to protect kids from being named Booger, Hitler, Robot and Scarz!
Yeah.
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Replies
Yes I can see your point Andrea. But I can also see Nanaea's side. Who's to decide what names are "silly". I like quite a few off the wall names which, I'm sure lots of folks would think were silly. I didn't actually use them to name my two children (John & Megan) but, if I had chosen to, I wouldn't want someone telling me it was aganst the law. After all, if a person gets stuck with a name they abhor, they can always have it legally changed
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** they can always have it legally changed **
True, Cheryl, but how many 10-year olds do you suppose go to court to change their name? And THAT'S when the damage is done, NOT when hey're old enough to have the savvy and the 500 bucks to make the change.
I'm really torn over this issue cuz I don't relish the notion that the guvmint can dictate what we name our kids, but perhaps someone somehow should be protecting innocent children from total morons who possess the minimal talent to reproduce themselves.
- Da.
True, Cheryl, but how many 10-year olds do you suppose go to court to change their name? And THAT'S when the damage is done, NOT when hey're old enough to have the savvy and the 500 bucks to make the change.
I'm really torn over this issue cuz I don't relish the notion that the guvmint can dictate what we name our kids, but perhaps someone somehow should be protecting innocent children from total morons who possess the minimal talent to reproduce themselves.
- Da.
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It ain't a good idea...
I'm 100 percent with you, Daividh, about telling guvmint where they can put their dictates. And I wonder whether the issue of what parents choose to name their children may someday come under the same line of fire as the issue of whether or not spanking is to be considered child abuse. (Personally, I am not an advocate of spanking -- unless it's being done between consenting adults.)
I think that any parent in the U.S. and the majority of European countries (I'm ruling out certain cultures here where it's customary to tag an unpleasant name on an infant in order to make the child less attractive to demons) who is seriously contemplating a name like "Shithead" for his/her unborn child is already going to be exhibiting other signs of instability -- signs which shouldn't go too easily unnoticed by the rest of society.
The pregnant woman may be smoking, drinking, or shooting crank. The father-to-be may be abusing the family pet.
My point is this: The abuse -- and potential for abuse -- will have begun long before this child is born and named. Society has to be able to identify toxic parents before they even get to *be* parents.
Never mind expending energy and resources in compiling official lists of "acceptable" and "unacceptable" baby names, or hiring prosaic bureaucrats to determine for the rest of us what's "silly" and what's "stylish". That stuff is nonsense. A child about to be born to parents who are probably already showing their resentment of that unborn child in other ways, is going to need far more substantial protection than a visit from the Name Police.
-- Nanaea
P.S. Andrea? "Zero" ain't such a bad name for a kid if one is fondly remembering Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel. :)
I'm 100 percent with you, Daividh, about telling guvmint where they can put their dictates. And I wonder whether the issue of what parents choose to name their children may someday come under the same line of fire as the issue of whether or not spanking is to be considered child abuse. (Personally, I am not an advocate of spanking -- unless it's being done between consenting adults.)
I think that any parent in the U.S. and the majority of European countries (I'm ruling out certain cultures here where it's customary to tag an unpleasant name on an infant in order to make the child less attractive to demons) who is seriously contemplating a name like "Shithead" for his/her unborn child is already going to be exhibiting other signs of instability -- signs which shouldn't go too easily unnoticed by the rest of society.
The pregnant woman may be smoking, drinking, or shooting crank. The father-to-be may be abusing the family pet.
My point is this: The abuse -- and potential for abuse -- will have begun long before this child is born and named. Society has to be able to identify toxic parents before they even get to *be* parents.
Never mind expending energy and resources in compiling official lists of "acceptable" and "unacceptable" baby names, or hiring prosaic bureaucrats to determine for the rest of us what's "silly" and what's "stylish". That stuff is nonsense. A child about to be born to parents who are probably already showing their resentment of that unborn child in other ways, is going to need far more substantial protection than a visit from the Name Police.
-- Nanaea
P.S. Andrea? "Zero" ain't such a bad name for a kid if one is fondly remembering Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel. :)
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I agree with you Davidh and Nan, and...
I don't know of Zero Mostel, although the name sounds familiar.
Well, this is a heavy topic, and it's very enjoyable to discuss it with intelligent people. (That means everyone who's contributed to this date) :)
Andrea
I don't know of Zero Mostel, although the name sounds familiar.
Well, this is a heavy topic, and it's very enjoyable to discuss it with intelligent people. (That means everyone who's contributed to this date) :)
Andrea
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You're a schmartie, yourself, Andrea -- but c'mon. A Broadway babe like you has *got* to know who Zero Mostel was. Does *The Producers* ring a bell? :)
-- Nanaea
-- Nanaea
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"I vas born in Dusseldorf und zat is vy zey call me Rolf!"
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Is this an impression of Zero Mostel? OK, I'm getting a clue...
LOL!
LOL!
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Not even close, Andrea. Go rent the danged movie and check him out yourself. The man defies description!ession of Zero Mostel? OK, I'm getting a clue...
rst
rst
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OK.
!
!
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Also rent "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" while you're at it. Oh yeah, and...
Zero was also the original Tevye in the Broadway production of *Fiddler on the Roof* (long before the movie version came out). He also appears in Woody Allen's *The Front*, as Zero had actually been one of those actors (as portrayed in the movie) blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.
-- Nanaea
Zero was also the original Tevye in the Broadway production of *Fiddler on the Roof* (long before the movie version came out). He also appears in Woody Allen's *The Front*, as Zero had actually been one of those actors (as portrayed in the movie) blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.
-- Nanaea
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Sounds like I'll recognized him when I see him.
:)
:)
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I'm not talking about silly names like Fanny and Lulu...
I know a family with two daughters of these names. I'm talking about mental abuse, like the kids named Zero and Shithead.
Check this one out about the kid whose parents named him Adolf Hitler (then their last name), and was pressured by society to change it. They changed it to Winston Churchill (last name), but obviously they were messed up because the kid wound up messed up.
I'm not talking about literary censorship, but of course someone will call it that. I'm talking about obvious mental abuse through naming a child. It's an extremely powerful thing, and while Zelda and I have scorned many a Hugolina namer on haggisbutt, there's a big difference between naming your kid Precious Promise Princess and naming her Flie-Fornication. (Didn't make either of these up.)
I know a family with two daughters of these names. I'm talking about mental abuse, like the kids named Zero and Shithead.
Check this one out about the kid whose parents named him Adolf Hitler (then their last name), and was pressured by society to change it. They changed it to Winston Churchill (last name), but obviously they were messed up because the kid wound up messed up.
I'm not talking about literary censorship, but of course someone will call it that. I'm talking about obvious mental abuse through naming a child. It's an extremely powerful thing, and while Zelda and I have scorned many a Hugolina namer on haggisbutt, there's a big difference between naming your kid Precious Promise Princess and naming her Flie-Fornication. (Didn't make either of these up.)
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Sometimes it's hard to tell when our Andrea is being serious. n/t ;)
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Except, Andrea, you might just have the luck to get a semi-literate Civil Servant...
...who insists that it's "not appropriate" to name your child after that blue, Hanna-Barbera cartoon dog, "Huckleberry Hound"... ;)
-- Nanaea
...who insists that it's "not appropriate" to name your child after that blue, Hanna-Barbera cartoon dog, "Huckleberry Hound"... ;)
-- Nanaea
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