Hot Takes? 🤭

[Rosebeth]

@writersrock

Lyle is painfully underrated.

Yes! I can’t stress this enough. Lyle is pure perfection and I’d use it in a heartbeat if it worked in my language(s).

[KJGlitter]

[name_m]Leroy[/name_m] and [name_m]Elroy[/name_m] are probably still too dated to be used, but maybe they could be anyway…?

[lemonrose]

I want to like [name_u]Landry[/name_u], but all I see is ‘laundry’

[EllieWilbury]

what’s wrong with laundry

[ethelmary]

That is such a [name_m]Russ[/name_m] thing to say

[lemonrose]

@EllieWilbury

what’s wrong with laundry

nothing just not the association i want

@ethelmary

That is such a Russ thing to say

how long before we’re seeing a laundry combo in russy’s UC?

[itsjustjack]

@ladyforgetful

the hamilton thing

I am a working theater artist. Eliza and Angelica, while they are absolutely lovely names, permanently left my own list precisely because of the Hamilton fandom (I replaced them with Elizabeth and Angela which are now more my style anyway so it all worked out haha). I hear you loud and clear on this.

Actually, a lot of fandoms have ruined names for me, come to think of it… perhaps that’s something for me to unpack for myself

(I could actually seriously do a whole rant on the theater fandom culture and all my “hot takes” on Broadway, musicals, and the theater industry, but that’s not a name thing so I’ll keep it to myself lol).

[EagleEyes]

@itsjustjack

(I could actually seriously do a whole rant on the theater fandom culture and all my “hot takes” on Broadway, musicals, and the theater industry, but that’s not a name thing so I’ll keep it to myself lol).

…maybe it’s not name related but I’d love to hear it

[itsjustjack]

@EagleEyes

maybe it’s not name related but I’d love to hear it

Ask and you shall receive lol (I’ve put it under a spoiler since it’s technically off topic).

Long comment incoming, and I honestly have even more; I tried to keep it to some of my broadest thoughts.

A few of Jack’s Theater Hot Takes (these are just my takes; if you disagree that’s ok!):

• The Tony’s matter a lot less than people make them out to, and often don’t reflect what musicals are best quality or most popular.

• Dear Evan Hansen is a just-ok musical with some good songs, but it’s fairly problematic.

• Hamilton is good, but not great, and doesn’t come close to matching the hype.

• The Secret Garden, The Great Comet of 1812, and The Band’s Visit are criminally underrated.

• Many roles in plays and even musicals have genders unnecessarily assigned to the character, when they could be equally effectively played by an actor of any gender.

• Plays deserve just as much love as musicals, and some if not many musicals should have been plays.

• Small theaters often produce better quality and more enjoyable work for fewer resources— Broadway and national tours are a lot of fun, but please support your local community theatre instead if you have one and can!

• Musical theater / Broadway fandom is often toxic and is ultimately doing more harm than good to the theater industry by enabling the status quo instead of advocating for change.

• There is still a lot of rampant racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, sizeism and ableism in the commercial theater industry and it is being swept under the rug. Notably problematic shows are still being produced on Broadway and even earning Tony awards and national tours.

• Virtual theater becoming a new and widely accepted— being not just a “temporary COVID solution” while also not replacing in person theater— is key to the survival and proliferation of the theatre industry. It is just as legitimate and valid and has its own unique advantages too few are celebrating.

• Backstage crew, designers, playwrights, and stage management deserve more credit than they get (this isn’t a hot take in a lot of theatre circles but it still beats repeating).

• In keeping with the above, spectacle should not be the ultimate goal of theater. Bigger is not always better and a lot of shows suffer from being over-designed and under-directed.

• Theater is inherently political and performance has a lot of potential to inspire change. Values in theater are important and the language and message matters, even in shows that are “light” and “fun.”

[Lei_Leo]

[name_f]Hestia[/name_f] is a cute name!! And it really should be used more

[new.romantic]

don’t know if this is a hot take but-

stella is an extremely underrated name here on nameberry. the meaning the sound, basically everything about the name stella is absolutely gorgeous! i haven’t seen anyone express dislike, but stella just never gets mentioned and i really think she deserves to be.

[Wittyusername103]

I’m honestly #nonewjames - It’s the millennial/gen z [name_u]Michael[/name_u] and It’s time it died for a bit.

[eileithyia]

This made me smile oh so much! As someone who grew up hating their name and being bullied just for being named [name_f]Stella[/name_f], thank you.

[new.romantic]

of course! you have a beautiful name!

[mssamrose]

I will now forever associate the name [name_f]Sadie[/name_f] with dogs, same with [name_u]Cody[/name_u]. Also, animal names (Fox, [name_m]Bear[/name_m], [name_u]Wolf[/name_u], etc) are just…. Not it

[tbonsanti]

I love Berlyn… I’ve never heard it before and I know it has the association with the country & it’s history, but I think it would be so cute for a baby girl!

I also love [name_u]Carter[/name_u], [name_u]Logan[/name_u], [name_u]Lincoln[/name_u] & [name_u]Noah[/name_u] for girls!

Also I don’t like the idea of honor names, they just aren’t my thing. I don’t necessarily care if somebody else uses it as long as they LIKE the name and they aren’t just using it to make family happy.

[venezio]

@tbonsanti

I don’t necessarily care if somebody else uses it as long as they LIKE the name and they aren’t just using it to make family happy.

this is how i feel too! sometimes, i feel the need to vote against honor names because i worry that the person is only considering it because it’s an honor, not because they actually like it as a name

[aiksx]

am i allowed to say that i’m a little tired of the sudden mass of new ‘make a…’ posts ? they almost have taken over the forums, and each one feels so similar to the next

[lateaugust]

it doesn’t necessarily bother me because it can be a good way for me to get inspired on combos or names. but i do wish that we had A Place for them - like a “name talk” section which I think was suggested before? then the purely “baby names” section of the forum could be used more like the girl names/boy names sections which are used more for individuals to ask questions or get advice. the combo making threads don’t really fit in bng where cafs dominate and I think someone even posted that, right now, it’s better to make two separate threads for boy names and girl names than to make one in “baby names”

[Wandarine]

@lateaugust

but i do wish that we had A Place for them

This. I think they do belong on Nameberry and it is a good idea to make the nurseries separate threads so they don’t clog up the main threads, but they’re currently the one thing that dominates the Baby Name Section, like the alphabet polls did before and the “rename me” threads before that and so on. There were talks about creating a new forum just for them back then too, but that’s too complicated to do on a whim, and most trends die down at some point so an extra category isn’t worth it. I guess we’ll just wait for this to die too? (I say while actively contributing to keeping it alive…) As long as there still are the Boy Names and Girl Names sections it’s not too bad if Baby Names is clogged up.