"Say My Name, Say My Name" - Destiny's Child

Good and snowy morning peeps!! Here in the east we are experiencing our first "major" snow storm of the season! Contrary to the newscasts you might be seeing on the west coast, this is nothing unusual for this time of year and we "New Yawkers" are going about our business as usual! Now, back to the business at hand. I'll call this the name discussion partie deux! In writing about names the other day, I came across some interesting information about names. Much of what I discovered reinforced my idea that what we are named and what we name our children, does indeed impact on how we perceive our selves and how others perceive us. Furthermore, studies were conducted with college students, teachers and employers, to determine how names influenced their opinions of others, how teachers expect students to perform based on their given names and how employers decide who to hire.The most interesting studies are the ones that purported to correlate criminal activity with specific names; some concluding that having an uncommon name and being more likely to show up in the juvenile justice system are intertwined.  Essentially, most of the studies support the notion that unusual, uncommon, or so-called "ghetto names" greatly affect people's perceptions of each other. That being said (I dislike that phrase, but will use it anyway) I will predict that most of the criminals in the near future, will most certainly be the children of celebrities!

More unusual celebrity children names:

Jermajesty and Jaafar, sons of Jermaine Jackson

Moxie Crimefighter,  daughter of Penn Jillette

Tu Morrow, child of Rob Morrow


Audio Science, child of Shannyn Sossamon

Rocket, child of Robert Rodriguez,

Pilot, child of Jason Lee


CoCo, child of The Arquettes


Kyd, child of David Duchovney


Destry, child of Steven Spielberg


And did you know that Punky Brewster's real name is Soliel Moon Frye? or that her half brother's name is Meeno Peluce?


In 2005, actor Shia LaBeouf supposedly said, "name your kid Billy or Timmy! Who better than him to give that advice? Why me of course! Here are my suggestions:

If you must name your child after, let's say furniture for example; make sure you use the French or Spanish word for it. That way, it won't sound "ghetto," it'll sound "exotic." Therefore, instead of chair you can name your child "Chaises" or "Silla."

Maybe you want to name your child after an animal; at least choose a cute animal name like "Bunny" instead of "Rabbit" or "Lamb" instead of "Sheep." If you choose to name your child after a cat or dog, choose a cute breed name; for instance, "Calico" or "Papillon." I know that some of you like to name your children after alcohol, so try the good brands at least: Christal, Cognac, Chardonnay, rather than Tequila, Ripple!

Don't get me started on perfumes!  Chantilly and Chanel are always cute! Aviance or Emeraude is pushing it. How about those other names like, Precious, Passion, Fashion, Queen, Princess, King, Mister, lady, Man, etc.etc. I know people with these names folks...so do you! Some of us are such avid readers that we name our children after magazines: Essence, Ebony, Jet...don't deny it! Whew! It's a good thing I am not having anymore children because I am inclined to name my girl Indigo Blue after the Rainbow Brite character. I've always thought it was a cute name! I also like Teal or Stage for a girl. My boy might be named Max, Rocky, Duke (not a dog but royalty) or Biff, because I find these name particularly masculine sounding. Stormy for my daughter or Logan for my son...I am an X-Men fan! I tend to shy away from names that sound "too ethnic", but once pondered "Shaka Zulu!" Just kidding!