Friday, May 23, 2008

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.


8 comments:

Coco said...

TV show names I hate in real life?

Buffy: because you are not, and you never will be as cool as Sarah Michelle Gellar on that show.

Denny: should be off-limits unless you own a restaurant and happen to be serving me omelettes and sausage links.

Carson: I realize that poor Daly guy actually has that name and it isn't the product of some writer's bad imagination. But he's terribly dull. Sad times.

Beaver: Eventually this kid will reach fifth grade and unleash an apocalypse upon himself for completely, totally obvious reasons.


That being said, whoever decides to name their kid "Butthead" might produce the next "Boy Named Sue." :)

DAN BUCK said...

Two names come to mind.

The first is an ACTRESS name. The blonde detective on "Without a Trace" is actually named Poppy.

The second is from the short-lived tweener sensation "Blossom." I guess I have a thing against lame flower names. WORSE YET, Blossom's best friend's name was "Six."

Anonymous said...

Xander: cool for the funny guy who is best friends with a vampire slayer. not cool for your kid. plus, what a horrible name to have to teach your kid to spell!

Whitney said...

I always hated the names Tia and Tamara from Sister Sister....

archie

tootie

question for the dada drummer? Is Hudson from the previous entry on your approve or dissaprove list...it really got me thinking...Hudson is my grandma's maiden name and it maybe would make a good baby name for me in the future???

Anonymous said...

Because I loved Bewitched, Samantha. Love. It.

And, I refer to one person, whom I do not particularly care for, but with whom I must still periodically interact, as Derwood.

Mrs. CL

Anonymous said...

Dan--you may be an awesome fake Irish dancer, but you are misguided. Poppy is WAY COOL!

As I mentioned recently, I like Horatio on David Caruso (CSI: Miami), but can't imagine naming a child that.

Always hated the name Harley on some girl in a soap I used to watch--Y&R? Wonder when we'll see Nevaeh on TV for the first time?

Mark Osler said...

Here is my list:

1) John Boy
2) Lucille Ball
3) Guido the Killer Pimp
4) C3PO
5) Bob Newhart

Mark Osler said...

Oh, I forgot one:

3a) Ox