First off, family, and friends, no we DO NOT have anything to announce. Believe me, we enjoy our lifestyle (and our sleep) and our kids’ names are "Early Retirement" and "Tahiti", not necessarily in that order.
Did anyone else catch that wire service blurb in yesterday’s paper on the growing penchant for baby names that are just initials? In the olden days a kid that went by "DJ" was really named something like "Damion Jerimiah" and since even the parents were eventually embarassed they shortened it to initials. Unofficially. But now simple initials are becoming official names.
Apparently it was kick-started by the popularity of KT Tunstall, and the mistaken perception that since she doesn’t put periods after her initials her real name is "KT." Actually it is "Kate Tunstall." But now we have a whole wave of people naming babies "KT" instead of "Katie," "DJ," etc. And someone even named the fruit of their loins "D". Just "D", presumably for "Dee". And one guy actually suggests naming progeny numerically, such as "1."
There are some benefits, such as the time it takes to sign your name. I already sign with just my initials, a habit I picked up many years ago when I shattered my right wrist in a stupid biking accident. Yes stupid. I simply fell over while trying to show off my biking prowess by balancing at a busy intersection instead of putting forth the miniscule effort of putting a foot down. Signing with just my initials is quick; so quick that my wife picked up the habit, and since she has the same initials… hmmm… where did I put my credit card??
However naming a newborn blob "D" is going a bit far. I can see the headaches that will cause in the future. It could even be analogous to the infamous Y2K problem of several years ago… how many electronic forms require more than one letter? Is this a form of parent cruelty? At least one baby naming website thinks so.
Short names are fine, but eliminating vowels? As one gal says, "vowels carry the life force of language, and a first name consisting of only consonants attracts very physical experiences." I won’t analyze that second part very much, but it’s probably something new parents don’t wish for their new offspring. At least until they’re 18.
However "D" still sounds a lot better than "Moon Unit."
Eric H says
Eric’s unbreakable rule of baby naming: never use a name of which the bearer has to repeatedly spell or teach the pronunciation.
KT? Katie, Katey, Kathy, Kay T?
DJ? DJ, D. J., Dee Jay, Dennis James?
At least the pronunciations are straightforward.
Jason Yip says
This reminds me of the Freakonomics chapter on baby names. I wonder more about what kind of parents name their children two initials than the name itself.
Mike says
My father is 80 years old and his name is RJ, so this is not an entirely new phenomenon. Many times when I was filling out paperwork for college, financial aid, etc. they would send it back to me requesting my father’s “real” name instead of his nickname.