If you hear a child's somewhat unusual name and you've heard it on a TV show or movie...

[Anonymous]

Declan is a Gaelic name and pretty common (in New England at least).

[Anonymous]

People are going to assume whatever they want about the name you picked, whether you got it from that source or not.

I get that a lot - people assume I named my daughter after our current Secretary of State. The only way she factored into my decision was that I knew lots of people weren't going to start using the name any time soon because it is so tied to her, which made it more appealing to me given my dislike of popular names.

Anyway, yes, people probably probably will think this - oh, well, not much you can do about it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Declan is a Gaelic name and pretty common (in New England at least).

Yeah ... see http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/135/58163.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are going to assume whatever they want about the name you picked, whether you got it from that source or not.
I get that a lot - people assume I named my daughter after our current Secretary of State. The only way she factored into my decision was that I knew lots of people weren't going to start using the name any time soon because it is so tied to her, which made it more appealing to me given my dislike of popular names.

Anyway, yes, people probably probably will think this - oh, well, not much you can do about it!

OP here. You're right. I'm just going to have to forget about it, it's not such a big deal anyways in the scheme of things. It's not like I named her Oprah or Madonna, where there is only one, anyways.

Declan, go back to the other thread! Declan has spread like a virus from thread to thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you give an example of a particular name? For instance the Brandon/Dylan fad 20 or so years ago was certainly thanks to 90210, but I feel like movies and tv are far less influential with the rise of the internet.

If I'd heard of a kid named Declan, I'd think he was named after the character on Lost, or that he was African American.

It's an Irish name, you twit. I mean, you racist twit.

[Anonymous]

I predict Addison will become more popular since Gray's Anatomy.

And Sawyer will be more popular too - the characters in One Tree Hill just named their baby Sawyer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you give an example of a particular name? For instance the Brandon/Dylan fad 20 or so years ago was certainly thanks to 90210, but I feel like movies and tv are far less influential with the rise of the internet.

If I'd heard of a kid named Declan, I'd think he was named after the character on Lost, or that he was African American.

It's an Irish name, you twit. I mean, you racist twit.

Thinking Declan is AA is not racist.... it might be ignorant, but not racist.

[Anonymous]

People are always going to associate names with where they've heard them before - be it in their personal life, TV, books, etc. I've never gotten into Lost, so wouldn't think of characters from there as I don't know them, but throw Sawyer out there, and my brain automatically fills in 'Tom.'

Unless you give your kid an 100% unique name, people they meet will likely have preconceived ideas about the name - but generally, especially if it's just a weak association with entertainment, those ideas will just be replaced with associations with your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you give an example of a particular name? For instance the Brandon/Dylan fad 20 or so years ago was certainly thanks to 90210, but I feel like movies and tv are far less influential with the rise of the internet.

If I'd heard of a kid named Declan, I'd think he was named after the character on Lost, or that he was African American.

Really? Declan is Irish!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp, I disagree. Once upon a time Brittany (not Britney) was an upscale name. So was Tiffany.

When was Brittany ever upper class? Tiffany became a name some while after the jewelry store became popular at the turn of the last century, so to me it's sort of nouveau. Plus isn't one of Donald Trump's kids called Tiffany? That sort of seals it for me....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp, I disagree. Once upon a time Brittany (not Britney) was an upscale name. So was Tiffany.

I don't see upper class people naming their child Brittany or Briney, except on TV. Tiffany is iffy +/-.

It started there...and then moved down.

[Anonymous]

If a kid is named after someone's heritage, I would certainly back off. Wouldn't you?

Anything too common or too cutesy is simply annoying.

I'm glad the parents might like the name, but even they must get sick of something too common or cutesy. I've had people sniff at my names, and I think the snifflier than thous are just white trash for acting that way.

But the funniest is when somone thinks their name is so unique, and they scream it at the top of their lungs as many times as their lips can form the name, in succession......then ten other parents start doing the same thing to get their kids attention. Turns out there are 500 (so and so's) at the playground! Funny!

Funny story. There was once (a really annoying name who happens to be a member of ABBA) who was trashing a local ice cream store during his visit. Breaking chairs, standing on furniture. We were watching the whole thing. The parents weren't doing anything but telling the kid how fantastic he was, so we started singing "Dancing Queen". Went right over the parents heads, which made it even more funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Brittany, Tiffany, Ashley, Emma.......YUCK!

I think Ashley and Emma are in a different category than Brittany or Tiffany. To me. (And no, I didn't consider naming my daughter either of them so I don't have a personal stake in it.)

I would put Ashley with Tiffany and Britney or Brittany.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp, I disagree. Once upon a time Brittany (not Britney) was an upscale name. So was Tiffany.

When was Brittany ever upper class? Tiffany became a name some while after the jewelry store became popular at the turn of the last century, so to me it's sort of nouveau. Plus isn't one of Donald Trump's kids called Tiffany? That sort of seals it for me....

If you meet someone over the age of 35 named Brittany, chances are she comes from a well to do family. The Freakanomics book has a chapter explaining how new names start out with wealthy families, then trickle their way on down to the common folks, then eventually go out of style. Then the cycle repeats.

http://slate.com/id/2116505/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you give an example of a particular name? For instance the Brandon/Dylan fad 20 or so years ago was certainly thanks to 90210, but I feel like movies and tv are far less influential with the rise of the internet.

If I'd heard of a kid named Declan, I'd think he was named after the character on Lost, or that he was African American.

It's an Irish name, you twit. I mean, you racist twit.

Thinking Declan is AA is not racist.... it might be ignorant, but not racist.

Really? I see it as a pretty racist remark. I can understand where it comes from, but that doesn't any anyway make it less offensive, or OK.