A "Madison" by any other name ...

[sparkofcreation]

To cleodhna and thebirdwoman: Okay, you asked for it ...

Okay, so I have had it up to here with people giving their kids stupid names. In the past six months, one of my co-workers' daughters named her son "Atticus"; a second co-worker named her son "Rocky" (not only that, but his middle name is Adrian, FFS) and then yesterday I got word in my email that a co-worker

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[wingsrising]

My mother's former boss named his son "Matthieu."

Our first reaction was: as though not being white (IIRC, he was adopted from Guatemala) and being raised by two gay men wasn't going to cause the kid enough grief with his peers...

I actually think some alliterative names sound fine. It depends on the name.

[sparkofcreation]

I don't think Matthieu is really on a par with Rocky. I would consider "Matthieu" permissible if either parent were from a French-speaking country. And he can easily go by "Matt" for most purposes.

I hate, hate, hate alliterative names. And I hate seeing them even more than hearing them.

[wingsrising]

As far as I know neither of them were, though. I think they just liked the unusual spelling.

[sparkofcreation]

Yeah, that bugs me, though choosing an unusual real spelling is much better than making one up.

[skington]

As Gareth will tell you, one other reason to avoid alliterative names is to fend off people asking said child "So, what super-powers do you have?"

[sparkofcreation]

Well, as a general rule, I don't consider a name that inspires one joke to deserve being automatically discarded (on the grounds that everyone will get teased about something). It's the aesthetics of alliterative names that bother me.