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Author Topic: Prudie: Baby named after **** star  (Read 649 times)

Offline Lynn2000

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Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« on: August 01, 2018, 10:25:20 am »
I keep thinking about this Dear Prudence:
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/07/when-you-share-a-name-with-a-famous-or-infamous-person-and-more-advice-from-dear-prudence.html

Basically, the letter-writer and his wife are having a baby soon and his wife wants to name the baby after her dying grandfather, to whom she is very close. The husband balks because the name is also that of "a very well-known male **** star" who has apparently also crossed over into mainstream films. The wife is completely unaware of this. The husband is worried that his son's future employers will google his name and come across the **** connection--apparently this guy was popular in the 1980s.

I find this so ridiculous and bizarre. Well, first of all I can't think what the name would be, not that I'm a great authority on the subject. The only thing that comes to mind is Ron Jeremy. That's two names, Ron and Jeremy, and you can't possibly object to either one alone on these grounds. Now if she wants to name the baby Ronald Jeremy Smith, surely it would be easy to convince the wife to just give one slot to honor her grandfather, and maybe another grandfather's name in the other slot. (Maybe their last name is Jeremy, and the grandfather's name is Ronald, which would make things more difficult; but the letter-writer doesn't say or imply this. And anyway, just put Ronald in the middle.)

I just keep thinking, is her grandfather named Alotta Fagina or something? I mean if it's been good enough for an elderly man his whole life--if he doesn't get hung up on when he tries to order a pizza, for example--then it's probably okay for a kid. By the time he's applying for jobs this celebrity's heyday will be about 50 years past! Maybe run the idea past Grandma, or Parent/aunts/uncles, to see if they discourage it on the basis of it being a difficult name to live with. My dad shares his extremely common name with a celebrity, and people still occasionally make comments about it, so I find it unlikely that people so close to Grandfather wouldn't realize his name was a problem, if it was.

Another thing is, normally when you know someone with a certain name, you think of them first, and only later any famous people with the same name. So when I hear the name Jane, I think of a friend and some relatives with that name, and only later people like Jane Austen or Jane Seymour. So I find it kind of weird that the husband goes immediately to a **** star name, and not his wife's grandfather, to whom she is so close.

It just reminds me of the time I told a friend that my cousin had named her new baby Michael Scott Smith, and the friend's immediate response was to snicker and go, "Oh no! Poor kid!" I ran through the initials, the possible nicknames, and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Finally my friend said, "Michael Scott is the bad boss on The Office!" I rolled my eyes so hard. Michael and Scott are both extremely common names, family names for my cousin. Most likely neither she nor her friends watch The Office, and I doubt little Michael's peers will either! Give me a break.

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Offline wolfie

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2018, 10:29:47 am »
I rolled my eyes for the same reason. Unless the name is really really unusual I doubt that would come up in a google search. Plus now I want to know the name too.

Offline Airelenaren

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2018, 12:12:57 pm »
Taking a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pornographic_performers_by_decade, I'm going to assume that the name is either Kristen or Rex (since those are more unique than most of the others, and I just can't see an old man with the birth name Chocoball). Probably Rex (it sounds old and outdated enough to not be immediately reckognized as a normal name).
If that is the case, I could imagine people associating it with the **** star, if they have heard of him.
That said, if it were my son, I'd simply make sure to tell him the reason behind his name so he can later inform everyone who might be confused.
And in case he would (as an adult) learn about the **** star and be uncomfortable with the name, he could always go by his middle name.


Offline Lynn2000

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2018, 12:29:06 pm »
Someone I went to high school with named her son Rex. He's about 3 years old now. It's a pretty trendy name at the moment, like other "old person names" that are coming back, plus names that have an X like Angelina Jolie's Pax, Maddox, and Knox. Otherwise I think of Tyrannosaurus rex, kings, and Rex Harrison.

Not to say you're wrong, just that there's a lot of other associations for that name that I think would be more common for people.

Probably Granddad is named Chocoball. Suddenly everything makes sense...  ;D

Offline Kiwi Cupcake

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2018, 12:31:06 pm »
I need to know the name before making a judgment. Unless it's completely unusual and recognizable and will automatically bring to mind of that person, he's being unreasonable for not allowing a name that belongs to her dying granddad.

With Rex, I think of Rex Reed (film critic) or Rex Harrison (actor). So if that's the name, the dad must know much more about *that* industry than the average person (including his own wife). :D

Offline gramma dishes

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2018, 05:25:55 pm »
Maybe Grandpa's name is Long Dong Silver? ;D

Seriously, I think the LW overestimates the number of people actually familiar with these actors' screen names.
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Offline Poesie

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2018, 06:11:57 pm »
That list of names is a hoot. Some of them (Ben Dover or Seymour Butts) sound like Bart Simpson’s prank calls. Miles Long almost passed muster as I was reading. 

ETA: back to the Prudie question, guessing it’s not just the first name that’s the problem but that their surname matches as well.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2018, 06:16:01 pm by Poesie »

Offline Winterlight

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #7 on: August 01, 2018, 07:04:33 pm »
On the one hand, people still remember Linda Lovelace's name and she didn't make a porno after the 70s. On the other hand, how distinctive are we talking here? If the wife wanted to name a daughter Linda Lovelace, then I can see vetoing it, even if it is after her beloved granny. But short of that? It really depends.

Could they reverse the name order?
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And how, and when, and where.
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Offline metallicafan

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2018, 10:24:48 pm »
The only other famous name I can think of is John Holmes.

Offline VorFemme

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2018, 11:51:31 am »
The only other famous name I can think of is John Holmes.

If you gave a baby the middle name "Sherlock" or "Mycroft", my guess would be that nobody would notice the "John" or possibly they'd think of "Watson" as the source.

Offline mrs_deb

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2018, 01:38:14 pm »
When the letter described him as 'very hairy', I also thought of Ron Jeremy.  If their last is Jeremy, yeah, I wouldn't go with Ron.  I mean, Google 'Ron Jeremy' and you get over 3 million hits.

I do know a guy named Michael Scott.  He was born long before The Office, though so it's not like you can blame his parents for giving him a perfectly lovely name that became famous decades later.

Offline GloryAndCrumpets

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2018, 01:52:40 pm »
" In other words, when a future employer plugs my son’s name into a search engine, he will be greeted with reams of videos from the 1980s featuring a very endowed, very hairy adult-film star."

Dude, your kid isn't even born yet. I guarantee you that, decades from now, when he starts to apply for jobs, nobody is going to confuse him with a **** star from the '80s.
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Offline whiterose

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #12 on: August 02, 2018, 03:23:10 pm »
Maybe I am too naive, sheltered, and overprotected.

But I could honestly not think of any names of any male **** stars at all!

Female ones I can tell you very few- mainly Jenna Jameson and Traci Lords.

I had not even heard of Ron Jeremy till I read the comments. Maybe because I was just a little girl during the 80s.

But I seriously doubt that 20 years from now, anyone's first thought about somebody named Ronald Jeremy would be some **** star from the previous century!!!
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Offline Cushy Butterfield

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #13 on: August 03, 2018, 02:17:40 am »
I lived through the 1980s and was well-versed in the popular culture of the time, and only remember three male **** stars from the era: Ron Jeremy, John Holmes and Long Dong Silver.

On the assumption that the couple's last name is Holmes or Jeremy* and the beloved grandpa's name is John or Ron, there are workarounds even for the most "What if the boss Googles him and gets a **** star?" situation.

The obvious one is middle names. Give the kid Grandpa's name as a middle name (Jonathan Ronald Jeremy, Michael John Holmes). Or give him Grandpa's name as a first name and call the kid by his middle name (R. David Jeremy, J. Thomas Holmes).

*I am assuming that no parent would actually name a child Long Dong Silver.

The Google issue may be moot. Even today employers don't Google prospects; they look them up on Facebook and LinkedIn. Twenty years from now, there may be an even more sophisticated search platform for employers/employees that would not turn up any random **** star names.

Offline cayenne

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Re: Prudie: Baby named after **** star
« Reply #14 on: August 03, 2018, 08:48:18 am »
As previous posters have pointed out, since the **** star was popular in the 80s I don't think very many people would make a connection with the name now, and also people understand that more than one person can have the same name. But I do sympathize, and I wouldn't like the association crossing my mind even if it's an unfounded concern.
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