A few years ago country western singer Johnny Cash came out with a song called “A Boy Named Sue” that became a big hit. The song tells the story of how the son yearned for years to track down the father who gave him that terrible name … and when he found him there was going to be some blood mixed in with the mud and beer on the saloon floor.
All turns out well however when the father finally explains to the son the he knew he wasn’t going to be there to raise him. He deliberately picked a name like SUE because the other kids would then taunt him and he would learn to grow up strong both in mind and body having to defend himself. No problem with bullying here.
Sounds kind of harsh in today’s toned down testosterone era but at least in the song the father had a good reason to give his newborn son a girl’s name.
What’s with the baby names today that parents choose? There have been lists of baby names kept for years, and trends can be seen in the popularity of certain names as they rise and fall … and new ones that spring up from the rabbit hole of pop culture and celebs.
A baby database kept by the Atlanta Journal Constitution in Georgia reveals that now parents pin names on their newborns like ESPN, Doctor, and Bacardi. Try explaining that to your kid when he’s old enough to pick you up and body slam you … but wait it seems that most baby names today are picked by mom, and who’s gonna body slam mom?
Well where’s pop in all this? Why didn’t he grow a pair and stop this name nonsense from being applied to the kid when he had a chance?
And what about the hyphenated names today that get stuck to the kid like a beer label because of the ego hangovers of the two unmarried parents that decided to bring forth and multiply first … and then figure out the consequences later, or in most cases probably not think about them at all.
What are these kids to do when they grow up and meet another person with a hyphenated name and have a baby with them? There won’t be enough letters in a can of alphabet soup to spell its name … not alone say it.
What are people thinking today? About themselves … or about their baby and its future?
Another famous country singer called Walyon Jennings sang a song with a line in it that asked “Mommas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys” followed by “Make ‘em be doctors and lawyers and such”.
Exactly. Picture your baby grown up as a doctor or lawyer or other professional and ask yourself if you want to saddle them with something worse than a cowboy name.
Well perhaps Doctor Doctor wouldn’t be too bad. Isn’t there a song about that to?
Tags: baby names, choosing baby names, hyphenated names
