Joanna Schroeder insists it’s really not that unusual to be unusual anymore.
Folks these days are naming their kids more, shall we say… creatively. Cracked.com has a great list of the top 20 unusual celebrity baby names that includes my favorite: Pilot Inspektor, child of Jason Lee.
Personally, I love it. I like that kids don’t get teased for their names being unusual anymore – because almost all the names are unusual. When I was in high school, you could ride in a car with three different guys named Matt or Matthew, and in college I once sat at a cafeteria table with four guys named Josh and one guy named Mathew. I also knew tons of Daves and guys named Chris. Being Joanna in a sea of Angelas, Sarahs and Jennifers was a little intimidating. I always wanted to be Michelle.
My 4 and 7 year-old sons’ friends are Dolphan, Spirit, Skye, Jax, Graydon, Layne, Arabella, Mieke Jade, Atlas and two boys named Jake. You may think I selectively chose those names from a big group of other, more common names. But no, those are the names of the kids my children have hung out with in the last month. We live in Los Angeles, so maybe that makes it all clearer.
I always wonder if these kids are going to grow up and change their names to Matt, Josh or Chris. Or Bill.
How about this guy? According to NPR, he was cruising around in his life with the perfectly good name of Tyler Gold. But according to the News Times out there in Nebraska, when Tyler decided to become an entrepreneur, he thought a more distinct name might be necessary.
And thus he chose… Tyrannosaurus Rex Joseph Gold.
It’s nice that he left Joseph in there. Probably makes his mom feel better.
In some ways I think this whole thing is very cool. Maybe it’s the hippie in me, but I like that a dude feels like he can just go change his name to Tyrannosaurus Rex.
What do you think of today’s unusual kids names?
What would you think, were you to meet Tyrannosaurus Rex on the street?
Image courtesy of iJammin/Flickr
About Joanna Schroeder
Well… if his parents have a problem with it, I guess they can just call him Ty and forget the whole thing happened
I’ve often thought of changing my last name to something spectacular… But I haven’t settled on anything, just yet.
You mean it’s not already Jasmine Pteranodon?
Oo what about Spectacular! Jasmine Spectacular. Has a nice ring to it, especially if you ever join the circus.
I think Gordon is unique enough! But my 8 y.o. daughter has more than enough schoolmates and friends with curious names, some of which I won’t attempt to spell or pronounce.
Reminds me of the story about the National Guardsman that changed his name to Optimus Prime…before being deployed to the Middle East.
http://www.legalzoom.com/marriage-divorce-family-law/family-law-basics/most-outrageous-name-changes
I think it’s cool that kids have more original names than all being called Matt or Josh, as stated in the post, but sometimes it goes too far! When you can’t tell if someone’s talking about a person or a thing — that’s when the water becomes too murky for me. If we’re voting for the best celeb child name, though, Jermajesty wins hands down.