As we are struggling the last few days of the pregnancy to settle on a name for our baby boy, I came across this site, http://www.intelius.com/. It is a database search where you can put in the first name (and even last name) of your choice and the state in which you live in and it will tell you all the people in public records with that name. I found it really cool because some of the names on our early list and our narrowed down list fell into that category where people would say “those are not real names” and well we just didn’t want a made up name. It was surprising to see how many of those supposed made up names actually belong to real human beings of all ages. So if you are doubtful or questioning whether a name you like is too unique or maybe too popular, check it out at that site and see what comes up.
My husband and I like both classic and unique names and we live in an area of the country where both are widely accepted so we are lucky. Our challenge has been more about finding name that is not already taken by one of our close friends or relatives. We actually have 7 friends pregnant and due around the same time most of which are having boys which has made it even harder.
All names were “made up” at some point. All language was just “made up.” That’s why they keep adding words to the dictionary - like frenemy
Also, just because someone has a name doesn’t mean it’s not “made up” (by most peoples’ standards… i.e. “newly created,” like Abcde and Laquisha). [name]Wendy[/name] was “made up” for [name]Peter[/name] [name]Pan[/name], and I bet you’ll find a lot of Wendys on Intelius!
Oh, wow, it’s actually more than slightly unnerving that you can buy a report on a person (criminal records etc).
The [name]Oxford[/name] has frenemy listed as ”a portmanteau of friend and enemy which can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or a partner who is simultaneously a competitor.”
Like [name]Wendy[/name], [name]Thelma[/name] was also a literary invention. So was [name]Mavis[/name] ([name]Chaucer[/name]).
I disagree that everything is made up at some point. Language developed with the human species- people learned to use sounds to communicate. Words and language developed out of that. It was a slow development- no one sat down and said, “Okay, so this stuff is going to be called water, this stuff is going to be called dirt, and I’m going to be called [name]Bob[/name].” The vast majority of names and words that we have are simply built upon words that are already in existence. This building is the reason we have language families- [name]Romance[/name] languages are not the same, but because the all come from the same root, they share plenty of similarities (for example, the French “un” and the Spanish “uno”). They were not made up. They simply branched out of what was already in existence, going back all the way to the dawn of language. Frenemy is a combination of the words “friend” and “enemy”- words that have been in use for hundreds of years and whose etymology goes back thousands. Few names are totally made up. [name]Kaylee[/name], for example, is often called a made up name, but when you break it down to [name]Kay[/name] and [name]Lee[/name], you get two names that have been in existence for quite a long time. They have simply been smushed together. This is a development of names and language, not people randomly making up names.
In your digression you’ve missed the point of my post, but that’s okay. Hopefully it will be new information for someone else who is reading
So by that logic, if a name like [name]Kaylee[/name] (kay + lee) should not be regarded as “made up,” what should? Random mashups of letters that have never been associated with one another before in any language, dead or still in use? That sounds like something that would be difficult enough to “make up” (without sounding insane: “Meet my daughter, Siuaehcg”) that we should applaud the ingenuity required for such a task, rather than be annoyed at the fact that it’s “made up.”
I get a lot of “that’s a made up name” around here, from people who simply have never heard the name before and are not aware of its origins. I think it’s ridiculous. My only point is that the fact that a name isn’t found in your run-of-the-mill name book should not be a reason to discount it. If it works, it works… who cares if anyone’s heard it before. That should be a plus, says I.
Of course, if someone’s seriously going to name their kid Siuaehcg, we may have something legitimate to be annoyed about.
I’m not arguing that there are no made-up names out there (Abcde would certainly qualify) only that they are few and far between. Mash-ups, in my opinion, aren’t made-up, only smushed together. No one would ever say Maryrose is made up, so [name]Kaylee[/name] should be governed by the same rule. Random names put together from sound, not composed of other names and lacking etymological history of any kind, are “made up” in my opinion. And I’m all for unique names- just nothing totally random, like Siuaehcg.
