How do you say "stupid name" in French?

I am going to be heading off for a three week drumming adventure in Europe tomorrow. I'll collect any stupid names I find abroad and report back to you all later in June.

Peace!

TV Names: An Afterschool Special

You may notice that the FABULOUS new New York City themed baby name poll to my right is missing four names that were suggested on an earlier blog posting. Those names were the totally awesome Carrie,Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte.

I left them off the poll because 1) the were not nearly ridiculous enough for a poll and 2) I wanted to initiate a conversation with you about TV names.

Some TV shows have given us awful names: Opie, Wally, Beaver, Marcia, Jan, Screech, Chrissy Snow. These are scars we may not recover from as a culture. I worry.

Any writer who names a character over twenty "Madison" or "Brayden" needs to be fired. Immediately.

Happily, some TV shows demonstrate taste and knowledge of appropriate naming trends for the character ages. The four urbane divas on "Sex and the City" are well-named and fashionable without sporting monikers that would NEVER be worn by women of their ages.

A few good shows have walked the fine line of using popular CLASSIC names for adult characters, thus achieving both plausibility and a trendy sound. Best example of this is probably "Will and Grace."

It goes without saying that soap opera names are a root cause of advancing evil in the world. Brick, Nash, Dante, Ridge, Thorn. 'Nuff said.

But I am going to go ahead and declare that the WORST name EVER to come out of a TV show and into reality is Chandler. On a quirky adult male character it had panache. On your baby (male or female) its an atrocity.

Other TV names you love or hate? Let's hear 'em.

New York State of Mind

As you know, I have recently issued yet one more ruling against the stupid baby name Brooklyn (in all its permutations). Well, a reader calling himself "Shallow End of the Gene Pool Guy" is protesting against the edict because he longs for some way to honor his beloved homeland of New York City in baby name form.

Though I am highly suspicious of all place names for babies, the Dada Drummer is nothing if not a gracious dictator. So I send a plea to you: please suggest some New York themed names that our fellow traveler might find useful as non-Brooklyn alternatives.

For example: Lincoln (as in Center!)

P.S. Before you even suggest them, these are totally off the table:
Tribeca
Soho
MOMA

Just FYI....

Having a baby girl? Congrats. But here are some basic rules you need to keep in mind...

Acceptable: Georgia
Unacceptable: Jorjah

Acceptable: Emily
Unacceptable: Imalee

Acceptable: Cassandra
Unacceptable: Kassidee

COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION:
Brenleigh
Brooklyn
Karmah
Rylee
Nevaeh

You're welcome.

Best Baby Name Site Ever. Period.

Go visit the totally brilliant Baby Name Bible site maintained by my naming heroes Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz. The "advice" section is awesome. Check out these great articles:

How Not to Name the Baby
Are We Ready for Aoife?
The Perrils of Neu Spellings

And play around with the cool "alternator" feature that gives you insight into names you might like based on what you think you already like!

Also, go ahead and report any baby names you have given (to real babies, people, not facebook fictional babies). The authors are always collecting new names and tracking trends. Why don't I have this job???