January 06, 2014

Hello, My Name Is...

If you say something 40 times, it comes true. (Turkish idiom)
This is why we Turks avoid talking about genies and demons. If you talk about them more then necessary, they pay you a visit, some folks say... Okay I better change the subject now.

Another scary occurence other than demons could be having a naff name, so that you wouldn't grow to a cool person for your not-quite-cool name is repeated over and over and over... all your life.
Let's say your name is Unwanted, which happened to be a real human name for more than 200 girls in India! Wouldn't life be quite tough when you apply for jobs?

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While checking some name websites, I appreciated my name again. What a cool name I have, gosh, couldn't have a better one! But I found some amazingly ridiculous names, laughed, and in the mean time felt bad for the kids... The website is http://www.stupidkidnames.com/. Check it out when you are not in your mood. It is hard to believe these names were really given to babies. Here are some examples from this site:

Ahaiyannah (Huh?)
AlyxZandyr (Sounds familiar)
Brick (Strong?)
Cactus (Sounds like a grumpy person)
Carbon (Why?)
Chaos (These parents are looking for trouble)
Chrysler (You could pick a better car, mom!)
Cymphone (A musician is coming)
Eighty (Why??)
Facebook (A man in Egypt named his son Facebook)
Hemi (A type of vehicle engine, it means.)
Hooker (Given to a boy baby.)
Hopper (When the mother was interviewed, she blamed her husband for the choice of this name.)
Jabbaraneisha (Must be Gibberish family from Gibberland)
Kermit (I wonder how Kermit's future girlfriend will introduce him to her parents.)
Kiler (WHY??)
Messer (It will mean a lot for his teachers at school)
Monoxide (A scientist is coming)
Ohia (Oh!)
President (High expectations on the baby, huh?)
Rysk (Some parents are truly realistic)
Squirrel (Imagine Squirrel grows up and applies for a CEO position...)
Sulfura (Sounds stinky)
Travesty (WHAT?!?!?!!!)
Unwanted (Check this: http://gawker.com/5852430/please-dont-name-your-daughter-unwanted)
Yeti (Why why why...?)
Zeppelin (It happened to be a girl name...)

Human genius amazes me... (Sigh)

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I enjoyed reading Freakonomics, written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. It is an unusual economics book due to the subjects it focuses on, such as: why most drug dealers live with their moms, how teachers and sumo wrestlers cheat, what the links are between children names and socioeconomics, etc.

Here is a true story from the book: In 1958, Robert Lane decides to name his baby son "Winner". Three years later, he gets his seventh and last child, and names him "Loser". The kids follow the opposite paths in life: Winner Lane succeeds(!) in having a long criminal record of three dozen arrests including burglary, domestic violence, trespassing, etc.; while his brother, Loser, finishes Lafayette College, joins the New York Police Department and becomes a sergeant.

Levitt and Dubner explain that children's names tell a lot about their families. Parents prefer names matching with their education, income and IQ levels. Babies, blessed with parents who have healthy genes and high-quality living standards, often have not only reasonable names but also opportunities of having proper education for a good life. That is why they do better at school -Levitt interprets the proper and odd names statistics. Spelling mistakes (like Jazmine, Jazmin, Jasmin,...), unique names (like Unique, Uneek, Uneeqkee,...), and ridiculous names (like Temptress, which was a mother's misspelling accident) are often preferred by parents with low income and intelligence... and maybe also a bad sense of humor, as in the Lane brothers' case.

By the way, Jasmine is the correct spelling.

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No offense, these are just statistical results. You better be cautious when naming your child. Check the dictionary, make sure you are spelling it right. If Metallica is the name you always dreamed for your baby (It happened to be a real human name, too.), just find people who have brains, ask for their opinion, take their advise and find a normal name. Just a normal name, for God's sake...

But if you are still looking for an unusual name and you want it to be cool, I recommend my name, Ayca. (For girls!)