The American Spectator

p> IN THE NAME OF NAMEOLOGY br> Re: Paul Beston’s Branding Up Baby : /p>

Paul Beston is one of my favorite TAS writers because he finds the absurdities in small familiar things that matter. And names do matter.

My Greatest Generation parents would no more have asked for help in naming their eight children than they would have in conceiving them. They stuck to the conventional methods of the time, plucking most of our first and middle names from the family tree and selecting from the popular names of post-war period. To this day, neither however, has any remembrance of the origin of my unusually spelled name. I dread doctor’s waiting rooms where the nurse invariably calls for DEE-ANNE and I have to stand up. For some reason, my own wife likes to call me that, too. I’m very sensitive to names.

I believe Mr. Beston’s point was that today’s parents view the process of naming their own child as an act of marketing, with predictably insane results. Saddling an innocent child with a trendy, goofy name seems an act of extreme cruelty and probably makes school roll call a nightmare. The solid Tommies, Johnnies and Billies of my day have given way to the Dylans, Calebs, and Trevors of today. Not to mention the Lexus’, Mignons and faux-Islamic names that abound.

p>While probably not outsourced, a very good college basketball player from Oklahoma appeared in the NCAA tournament burdened with the name Jihad Muhammad. What were his parents thinking? Not a name that would look real good on a political banner anytime soon. I wish him luck. br> — Deane Fish br> Altamont, New York /p>

Good day,