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[theinevitable]

there are so many awesome ancestral names in my family. I am always kind of sad that there were so many good last names, and I ended up with a boring one. All crazy Irish names on one side, all crazy Spanish/apparently Sephardic names on the other side, and I end up with a pretty-uncommon but ultimately boring English name.
My grandfather's mother's last name was "Hoare," though. At least I dodged that bullet.

[Carlos del Vaca]

My grandfather's mother's last name was "Hoare," though. At least I dodged that bullet.

I knew a chick in college whose last name was Kuntz.

[littlefallsmets]

Did she major in Bond Girl Studies?

[V-Adore]

Mandy. It's gotta be Amanda, yes? I love that name, because I had a friend named Amanda who was kickass.

Ding ding ding. Ironically, I decided by the time I was about six that I wasn't going by "Mandy" anymore, and these days I pretty much only let my grandparents get away with it. (And my parents, admittedly, but only on occasion.)

[robot_god]

My parents fourth choice for my name was "Ajax," but they settled for their #2 choice.

I wish I was Ajax.

[Victoria Waterfield]

Ding ding ding. Ironically, I decided by the time I was about six that I wasn't going by "Mandy" anymore, and these days I pretty much only let my grandparents get away with it. (And my parents, admittedly, but only on occasion.)

See, I was actually hoping you were a girl named Mindy. Or a guy named Andy.

[colmore]

My first and last names are so boring as to be presidential surnames, and they aren't Van Buren.  My middle name (grandmother's maiden) can be traced to a Welsh castle that dates back to at least the 9th century.  And the Normans didn't take us.  I guess the moral here is that if your family has owned property in Britain for a long time, there's pretty much no limit to how far back you (or in my case, your dad) can go with genealogy.

[colmore]

"Boy named Sue" is right on.  Dealing with the social handicap of a weird name toughens you up for the adult world where people will give you even harsher disrespect for even more meaningless reasons.

I plan on giving my children ridiculous Victorian names, or the adjectival forms of obscure virtues.

Little Gertrude Vivian and August Maximilian Adams might have a tough time on the playground, but at least the jackets of their collected poems (posthumous after joint suicide) will look great.

[jay-ell]

Ding ding ding. Ironically, I decided by the time I was about six that I wasn't going by "Mandy" anymore, and these days I pretty much only let my grandparents get away with it. (And my parents, admittedly, but only on occasion.)

My cousin waited 'til she was seventeen to decide she was making the switch to "Amanda," but none of us can remember until we're halfway through.  This results in her name almost always coming out as Man....nda." 

Awkward. 

My dad wanted to name me Courtney Lynn.  Mom wanted Jamie Jean.  (Dad's name is Gene.)  I got Jamie Lynn.  Thank heaven for small favors.  I'm not a Courtney, and Jamie Jean just sounds country. 

To answer inev's question, Pedro decided before he met me that he wanted to name his son after himself.  I was cool with that (I love his name, anyway) as long as we didn't call him "Junior."  We're pretty like-minded when it comes to names, we both like unusual names and we both like the idea of honoring our families by naming our children after grandparents, etc. 

"Hero" is a departure from this, but the middle name, Elizabeth, was my great-grandmother's name.  If she turns out to be a boy after all, or if we have another son later, he'll be Robert Eugene (after my parents, Roberta and Eugene).  Pedro, however, prefers my grandfather's name instead of my father's -- Elton -- but I hate that name so I nixed it.  If we ever have another girl, Pedro wants to name her Jamilyn [unspecified middle name] (after me) and I want to name her Catherine Grace (after Catherine the Great and also my mom's youngest sister; Grace is for Pedro's mother, Graciela).  But he doesn't like the nickname "Cathy."  (I keep reminding him that Catherine also = Cat, Kit, Catie, etc.)  So: no, we never had names with weird associations, but there are some names one or the other of us just doesn't like.  There are plenty to go around, though.  I never understood why some couples could never reach agreement on this.  Pedro and I always found it pretty easy. 

[AugustWest]

I'm sorry, but if your child's first name is "Hero" their middle name must be "Protagonist". 

It's not just good sense.  It's the law.

[jay-ell]

I'm sorry, but if your child's first name is "Hero" their middle name must be "Protagonist". 

It's not just good sense.  It's the law.

Come on, AW.  That's a boy's name! 

[jaydub]

Those of you who have kids-- did you run into problems where you had bad associations with names you liked? There are a lot of names that are ruined for me, I think, because it would be weird to name my child the same as an ex girlfriend, or that kid in high school who blasted Kenny Chesney when pulling his truck into the parking lot every day.

Oh yes.  My wife liked "Shannon", but the name has associations for me with one of the nastiest tempered girls I've run into (junior high days).  I liked "Jason" for a boy, but my wife hated some kids in high school with the name.  Its a good thing gestating a kid takes so long.  Plenty of time for name negotiations.

[V-Adore]

"Boy named Sue" is right on.  Dealing with the social handicap of a weird name toughens you up for the adult world where people will give you even harsher disrespect for even more meaningless reasons.

I plan on giving my children ridiculous Victorian names, or the adjectival forms of obscure virtues.

Little Gertrude Vivian and August Maximilian Adams might have a tough time on the playground, but at least the jackets of their collected poems (posthumous after joint suicide) will look great.

I really like August as a boy's name (although I associate it not with Victoriana but with German farm people -- it was my grandfather's middle name), and I've liked Vivienne as a girl's name since the first time I heard it. Then again, I also have to deal with the legacy of my father's Ancestral Middle Name (all the dudes in his family for about five generations have been Something Enrique -- I would have been Andrew Enrique, had I been male), so I suspect I'll have to go with a normal male name by default just to balance it out.

[jay-ell]

I don't know -- August Enrique has a nice ring to it, methinks. 

He can always go by "Rick" if he really hates being unique.  But August isn't such an unusual name any more, either -- Pedro's good friend from high school named his son August.  I don't know if there is such a thing as a truly unique name any more. 

Except for Moxie CrimeFighter Jilette.  Any time someone give me a hard time about "Hero," I just tell them about Moxie. 

[linnea]

I love the names Milan and Lenny, but I obviously couldn't name any future children that. Moxie CrimeFighter? Jesus. I couldn't saddle a child with a name like that, but go figure I guess.