A long time ago, I remember reading a strip featuring the arrival of a babysitter. The teenager introduced herself at the door, and while I can't remember the exact words, her speech bubbles went something like this:
My name is Typhanni. Just like "Tiffany", but with a "ph" instead of an "f", 2 "n"s and the "i" and "y" switched.
I thought it was hilarious that she had to go into such a long spiel to explain how her name is so different from the original spelling.
Little did I know that this innocent little comic strip would be a foreshadowing of the recent trend of parents trying to conjure up "unique" spellings of ordinary names for their children. Things like "Madysynn" instead of "Madison". Worse yet, totally newfangled, weird names! This trend is made fun of a lot in a blog that I read regularly: STFU, Parents!
If you haven't read that blog, I highly recommend it. The blog owner posts screenshots (along with some funny personal commentary, which really makes reading it worthwhile) of parent overshare on Facebook-- pictures of dirty diapers, children's injuries, placentas(!!), mama drama, you name it, it's on there. It can make for effective birth control! And lest you think it's a child-free, child-bashing forum, it's not. I'd venture to say that most of the readers are parents themselves. We're just shaking our heads in wonder and disgust as we marvel at why on earth fellow parents would feel the need to overshare the less glamorous parts of parenthood. Strangely enough, a lot of the oversharing parents featured on the blog name their children something out of this world.
It's getting to the point where seeing a common name, spelled in an ordinary way (like "Katherine") is something of a rarity!
Which brings me to another "One Big Happy" strip that I came across recently, and enjoyed enough to share with the STFU, Parents site. It certainly sums up how most of us blog readers feel about this onslaught of unique (or should that be: "yoo-neek"?) baby names, and not just from celebrity parents!
Right on, Ruthie! Those kids are gonna need those blessings!
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