As I have revealed in some past posts, I am always fascinated by the distribution of proper names in the populations I serve. For example, in performing infant baptisms, one gets a look into the names people are giving their babies.
In the ministry of marriage preparation one gets to see how people one generation removed from those babies were named. On my chart of weddings in production, I notice that nearly half (44%) of upcoming brides are named either Danielle or Amanda. Eccentric and verbose as I am, I have a special fondness for girls who have gerundives for names. No Mirandas yet.
The men reveal no pattern. In fact, there are no two with the same name.
9 comments:
Wait a few years. The Ashleys are coming! After that, variants on Catherine/Caitlin. I think half the girls that Big Brother knows (he's 17) have that name.
Father Charles is there any prescription anymore for baptised infants to have the names of Saints? I know back in the 90's there were some bishops in south america (specifically Argentina) who said they would no longer be baptising infants with non Christian names (for the last 20 odd years Spanish speaking countries have been inventing names that sound vaguely English).
Is there any uniform law on this, or is it yet another example of variance from diocese to diocese (or parish to parish)?
Can. 855 Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to take care that a name foreign to Christian sensibility is not given.
Father Charles, thanks for that. But I guess "foreign to Christian sensibility" can be subjective. Meaning, as long as a girl is not named "Bootylicious Jones" or something it's OK. Do you ever do any suggestions to parents in that direction?
Also, another gerund nomenclature for you; Armando : )
My parish is predominently African American. Children and their parents' generation often have very creative names. The grandparent generation names are generally names the White community would call "normal"...
Parents want their children to have unique names. Sometimes the name combines parts of other people's names. The children do not appear to suffer ill effects from the unusual names, since so many of their friends have them also.
Fortunately, one doesn't see names that are so outlandish that they would be a problem in adulthood.
Pennyante, they're lucky. My wife taught high school for a number of years. The most interesting names that crossed her roster were, Female (fee-mal-ee) and Shithead (shiteed). I joke not about the spelling of that second one. Female's mother told her that the hospital nurses gave her that name, it was on her wristband after she was born.
Pennyante ~ Then apparently the parents you know aren't naming their kids "Majestic" "Supreme Knowledge" and "Divine Understanding" (seriously, in English!) Or "Anus" or "Vagina". Again, no kidding.
No, Adoro... nothing outlandish like that. Our children have names like Shayonna, Kamryn, Keeya, Tyshell, Chanice and Deshawn. There are also Gabriel, Micole, Tonja, Isaiah, Annella and others...
I feel for those children with names that you and Corey have shown us.
When I worked in East Palo Alto, I saw the usual roster: LaJames, Francheska, Belluh. I always really felt for Latrina.
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