Americans huh? What are they like?

[Clary]

(No offence intended to any sensible Americans posting on here)

Our local football magnate who is American took his kids to an Easter service and his pic is in the paper. His kids are called Brock (boy), MacCall, Avery and Quinn (all girls). These are not first names are they? And they all sound like boys? names to me too.

Oddly enough the dad is called (wait for it?) Andrew.

My ds had an American friend called Peter, who is about 15 now. He is the only youngish Peter we know.

My Godmother had her head in her hands weeping when her daughter called her daughter Ryannne.. My Godmother was just five miles beyond incomprehension over that name. They are Irish, the parents of that baby, but they did live and work for a while in the US!!

Ryanne's mother's name is Jennifer though,and I have a theory that all Jennifers give their children slightly odd or extremely unusual name.

nah expat - over here seems to be the tradition of taking a common name thinking of the most demented way to spell it and that makes them unusual.

As they're so keen on using surnames as forenames for boys, can you imagine the following:

Darling

Cox

Hiscox (my fave)

Brock sounds like a porn star's name to me.

Americans are also very fond of the 'surname as first name' thing - Carter, Cooper, Taylor, Mason etc.. Didn't Miranda call her kid Brady in Sex and The city?

In Friends when Rachel called her daughter Emma i remember thinking that was a fairly dull and uninspiring name considering the character was quite funky and worked in fashion. But in the US Emma is a very unusual name and not heard often - so probably is considered avant garde.

I also think it's amusing that names we would consider pretty naff here are very popular middle class choices out there. Eg: Eric, Colin, Kevin, Michelle.

I actully like the name Quinn for a girl, but it does sound like quim, as in fanjo!

I'm telling you, Aussies appear to be similarly afflicted with Naff Name Disease as well.

I used to work with a guy called Randy, and whenever I phoned him his assistant would say:

"hold on, I'm just trying to get Randy for you!"

LMAO.

Ha ha. Working the chat lines harpsichordcarrier??!!

A workmate called her son Bran?? It always makes me think of 'brown' said in a Northern accent. Poor boy will almost certainly have to endure being called a flake. Lady in question was a bit of a crusty so guess she was looking for something 'wholesome' and earthy..

i climbed with a man called 'Bran'.

people were always cracking cereal jokes around the poor chap.

Nancy66, you know what has always bugged me about Miranda's baby in sex and the city (and I obviously have waaaaay too much time on my hands to even think about this) but she called him Brady after her boyfriend, Steve Brady. But then they got married. So was that baby then called Brady Brady?!?!?

This reminds me of Nancy Mitford -"the Americans like art so much they name their children after it"

littlelamb I always wondered that about Brady Brady in sex and the City as well

Avery very popular here in Canada, so much so that people often mistake my (very rare) Evie for Avery [hmmm].
Also Carson, Reilly (boys and girls) Arielle, Piper and I could go on.

one of my first ever jobs entailed calling an american sub. my contact there would answer the phone thusly; 'Hi! I'm Randy! How can i help you today?!'
was a trial to stifle the sniggering i can tell you.

The Australian trend seems to be for noun as name. There are a few Reefs, Storms, Ravens and even a little Rage in antipodean pre-schools if essentialbaby.com.au is to be believed.

brock is definitely a boys name, but quinn and avery is either i think. never heard of maccall.

MadameCholet, you are excused because I am not American.

I know a few Averys & Quinns (girls).

And like Hellish; Carson, Arielle, Reilly. Also Randy. Several.

Isn't MacCall the brand of those really frumpy dressmaking patterns?

Well, I guess I'm glad I did my middle-class duty and gave my son a typical naff name.

I'm going to really disagree with you Nancy 66 about the name Emma. When DS was born, we wanted that for a girls name, but it was the 1st most popular girls name the year before. When DD was born a 2 years later, it was the 2nd most popular. I don't think we've gone much of anywhere (except for his current class with only 2 girls in it) that there hasn't been an Emma.

I knew one Randy growing up, and we did know what it meant, and he got teased non-stop about it. I knew one Quinn, too, and nobody knew about the quim implication until people disliked her so much, they went to the trouble of finding out something about her to make fun of, and dug deeply and found a goldmine.

Dooney, my DS has a 'chavvy' name, apparently so you're not alone

I think that came across as more bitter than intended. Names are so personal in likings, there are always going to be loads of people who don't like the names you choose for your child. There's names that come up on the baby name threads that I find waayyyyy too old-fashioned for my taste, or, my personal favorite, names that seem like people chose them by throwing a bunch of Scrabble tiles in the air and calling it good.

So in review, middle-class naff names and chavvy names are always better than naming your child after a vagina, a sound, candy, last names or Princes Tiiamii or however you spell it.

(I forgot, I knew of a Brock growing up. Someone my mom's age. He looked like a panda bear personified, except for he was really pale and blonde. But he still managed to look like a panda bear somehow.)

My friend here in Texas has a boy called Braxton. Weird, no?