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Bad Baby Names on the Brain

Started by SharonBell, March 12, 2008, 10:52:13 PM

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SharonBell

Bad Baby Names on the Brain
Author: Matthew Rayback Published Date: 05 March 2008
http://learn.ancestry.com/LearnMore/Article.aspx?id=12538&sssdmh=dm13.159787 

The U.S. federal census really changed the way I look at the world. Really. And I'm not talking about how it taught me more about my roots.
Let me explain. Together with Michael Sherrod, I wrote this book, Bad Baby Names: The Worst True Names Parents Saddled Their Kids With—And Now You Can Too!—which takes a look at bizarre, funny, and terrible names that have actually graced the pages of the census.

Take, for example, the name Title Page. Or how about Magenta Flamingo? Ghoul Nipple? Mann Pigg? The list goes on and on. And on. In fact, Bad Baby Names has somewhere around 2,000—shall we say—unconventional names: Mary A. Belcher. Deuteronomy Temple.

In the beginning, the idea for the book came from a group of names collected by the hard-working digitizers and indexers at Ancestry, who keep a running list of funny things they see in their work.

But from there, the project took us down a slippery slope of madness and confusion. Why would anyone name their child Hell Grimes? Or Lucifer Carmendo? You can argue all you want about historical context (for example, the name Fanny, which shows up in abundance in this book, really wasn't bad in the good ol' days), but Hell and Lucifer are fairly unambiguous.

So here's what I meant when I said the census changed the way I saw the world: partway through the project, we gave up on the list and started just thinking of any topic we could. Clothing? Try these names on for size: Shirt Duggan, Fedora Spurlock, or Socks Brockington.

How about numbers? We found every number from one to twenty, by tens to a hundred, and thousand, million, billion, and infinity—all as first names.
Hungry? Have a sandwich with Sandwich Green, Hoagie Hoagland, Mayo Head, or Tuna Fish. And keep in mind that almost every first name in this book shows up multiple times.

After a while, we were more surprised by what we didn't find than what we did. Take, for example, the seven deadly sins: we found 149 people named Lust, seventy named Greed (with forty-two named Avarice), twelve named Sloth, twenty-four named Wrath, seventeen named Envy, and 830 named Pride. But for some reason, there was no one named Gluttony. So it's okay to name your kid Wrath Gordon or Envy Burger, but not Gluttony? (Although I think Envy Burger is a good substitute.)

Today, I can't go anywhere without wondering if the things I see will show up in the census. I go to the movie theatre: popcorn? soda? On a hike: mountain? trail? Honestly, it could be anything.

The first question everyone asks me about this book is, "Why would people name their kids that?" quickly followed by "Did you see any patterns?"

To answer the first question—frankly, I have no idea. All I can say is that they are there. I looked at every single name in this book on the digital images of the censuses on Ancestry, and the names are definitely there. How they got there is a different story.

As for the second question, I can say that I definitely saw a pattern, which was simply that there was no pattern. These names showed up in almost all fifty states and in every census from 1790 to 1930, with no rhyme or reason.

When Jana Lloyd, the editor of the Ancestry Monthly newsletter, asked me to write about our book, she mentioned that many readers had expressed interest in a tome of wacky names. I'm happy to say we can finally deliver. Bad Baby Names is available now pretty much wherever you can buy a book (including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and our own Ancestry Store) for $9.95. Come on. Let the census change the way you see the world too.

Editor's Note: Watch for an interview with the Bad Baby Names authors on the Today Show on Monday morning, March 17th.
Matthew Rayback is an Editor for Ancestry Publishing, a property of The Generations Network, Inc.

"Be good and you'll be lonesome." Mark Twain

www.sharonbuchbinder.com

Ed

Fascinating, and hilarious. Thanks for that, Sharon - I laughed out loud a few times :grin:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

neilmarr

In non-fiction, the best ideas are so ofen the most obvious. This should do well. Thanks, Sharon. Neil

SharonBell

I use my ancestor's and family names in my stories--but none are like these!!  ;D
"Be good and you'll be lonesome." Mark Twain

www.sharonbuchbinder.com

starktheground

Ghoul Nipple?!!!! And I thought my boyfriend had it bad (his middle name's Peniel).