Nine-year-old More Reasonable than her Parents

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In summary: I've known two guys named Kelly. One is a Marine and the other is just some loser. My history professor last year was named Tracy. Naming your child after a relative or friend is a much better idea than naming them after a celebrity. It's pretty common....I've known two guys named Kelly. One is a Marine and the other is just some loser. My history professor last year was named Tracy.
  • #1
lisab
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/24/odd.names/index.html

Poor girl! Why would parents sadle their child with such a terrible name?

A New Zealand judge has made a 9-year-old girl a ward of the court so that her name can be changed from Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii, the country's national news agency reported Thursday.

The article lists some other strange names, like Number 16 Bus Shelter...but doesn't say if Number 16 is also changing (his/her :confused: ?) name.
 
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  • #2
My fav is twins called Benson and Hedges. You could have got the same comical effect by naming your kids Bill (william) and Ben, but naming them Benson and Hedges is just plain tacky.

I always thought it would be funny to have the name John Thomas.
 
  • #3
mjr. Major Major Major, if you know whom I mean.
 
  • #4
neu said:
My fav is twins called Benson and Hedges. You could have got the same comical effect by naming your kids Bill (william) and Ben, but naming them Benson and Hedges is just plain tacky.

I always thought it would be funny to have the name John Thomas.
I don't get the humor in Bill and Ben, nor in John Thomas. My cousin has that as first and middle names but everyone calls him JT.
 
  • #5
My mother has a http://www.pottyfartwellandknob.com/" (warning some names may offend) from the UK which are all real. Theres some strange ones, but none as weird as Talula does the hula.
 
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  • #7
I think giving your child a really stupid name is deplorable, but how in the world does the judge get off stripping parental authority for something like a name?

I doubt her parents would ever call her by her full name unless they were really upset by something (and somehow I have a hard time believing they get quite the same effect normal parents do). Talula isn't that outrageous of a name and the girl has already found a solution to even that small annoyance - her friends call her K.

Whatever happened to the idea that kids have to wait until they're 18 to screw up their lives and, until that time, it's the parents' job to do that?
 
  • #8
BobG said:
Whatever happened to the idea that kids have to wait until they're 18 to screw up their lives and, until that time, it's the parents' job to do that?

People realized it's a load of crap. By the way, beating your kids has been against the law for a while now, too. Hope I'm not the first to tell you this.

If I ever meet someone who has a weird name, I am going to sucker punch their parents.
 
  • #9
WarPhalange said:
People realized it's a load of crap. By the way, beating your kids has been against the law for a while now, too. Hope I'm not the first to tell you this.

If I ever meet someone who has a weird name, I am going to sucker punch their parents.

On the scale of horrible things a parent can do to a kid, naming them Talula isn't even close to beating them. How is her name worse than giving a kid the middle name of "Leslie" in honor of a grandparent in spite of the fact that Leslie is normally considered a girl's name nowadays (or of naming your child Jan, then moving to America - a lack of foresight if not exactly an act of maliciousness).

For that matter, how in the world could my parents name me Robert when I was born on March 10, then move to 1010 Robert Steet right before I turned 10. My teacher thought I had some kind of attention disorder! (This is a true story, by the way.)

It's a name, for crying out loud! I think she'll get over it with enough therapy.
 
  • #10
BobG said:
On the scale of horrible things a parent can do to a kid, naming them Talula isn't even close to beating them.

In the long run it adds up. You go through school with a sentence as a name and you will be pretty scarred, too.

How is her name worse than giving a kid the middle name of "Leslie" in honor of a grandparent in spite of the fact that Leslie is normally considered a girl's name nowadays (or of naming your child Jan, then moving to America - a lack of foresight if not exactly an act of maliciousness).

My Profs name is Leslie and Leslie Nielson is one of my favorite actors. I've never met a "Leslie" that was a girl in fact. I've known two guys named Kelly. One is a Marine and the other is just some loser. My history professor last year was named Tracy.

My point? It's pretty common. Naming a boy "Jennifer" is the same as naming him "Bus Stop Ash Tray" or whatever. "Gaffs" such as naming a boy "Jan" then coming to the US are much more common and people are a lot more understanding. You pronounce "Jan" rhyming with "Yawn", not "Man".

You can't play the "It's Swedish!" card if your name is "Office Max Paper Clip".

For that matter, how in the world could my parents name me Robert when I was born on March 10, then move to 1010 Robert Steet right before I turned 10. My teacher thought I had some kind of attention disorder! (This is a true story, by the way.)

Your teacher either made a bad joke or is pretty stupid.

It's a name, for crying out loud! I think she'll get over it with enough therapy.

I'm still not understanding your motivation. You'd rather the kid suffer for something the parents did, than to quickly smack them upside the head and get it fixed?
 
  • #11
BobG said:
(or of naming your child Jan, then moving to America - a lack of foresight if not exactly an act of maliciousness).
What a thread. JT's brother is Jan. What's wrong with that name? According to this site, it's not that uncommon.

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html"
 
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  • #12
WarPhalange said:
In the long run it adds up. You go through school with a sentence as a name and you will be pretty scarred, too.



My Profs name is Leslie and Leslie Nielson is one of my favorite actors. I've never met a "Leslie" that was a girl in fact. I've known two guys named Kelly. One is a Marine and the other is just some loser. My history professor last year was named Tracy.

My point? It's pretty common. Naming a boy "Jennifer" is the same as naming him "Bus Stop Ash Tray" or whatever. "Gaffs" such as naming a boy "Jan" then coming to the US are much more common and people are a lot more understanding. You pronounce "Jan" rhyming with "Yawn", not "Man".

You can't play the "It's Swedish!" card if your name is "Office Max Paper Clip".



Your teacher either made a bad joke or is pretty stupid.



I'm still not understanding your motivation. You'd rather the kid suffer for something the parents did, than to quickly smack them upside the head and get it fixed?

How many of your friends call you by your full name?

Bus Stop Ash Tray and Office Max Paper Clip aren't the same thing as Talulah Does The Hula From Hawaii. Eddie Bus Stop Ash Tray or Joshua Max Paper Clip would be. The point that neither Eddie or Joshua make sense in the sentence just emphasizes that the offending portions of the name are their middle name.

It might be embarrassing to write on a school application or a job application (although most only ask for a middle initial), but she doesn't use her whole name on a routine basis.

Scott Will Your Sister Leius would be worse than having the name Scott Lilliwhite Leius, but both would be embarrassing middle names even though Lilliwhite might be the maiden name of the mother. (Or, in the case of my kids, they have two middle names each, with their mother's maiden name being the second middle name - they can leave it out if they want without anyone noticing).

Talulah isn't a name I would choose, but there's nothing offensive about it. I admit there's a problem with the middle name, but only because other kids will remember her middle name a lot longer than they would a middle name like Lilliwhite. And face it, with a last name like Leius, the other kids would make up the middle name Will Your Sister even if Scott's middle name was Thomas.

(Now I've done it. Not only will I get flamed in this thread, but a guy with a baseball bat will be stalking me around town. Fortunately he only hit 28 career home runs in a 9 year career, so getting hit by him can't hurt that bad.)
 
  • #13
BobG said:
How many of your friends call you by your full name?

Bus Stop Ash Tray and Office Max Paper Clip aren't the same thing as Talulah Does The Hula From Hawaii. Eddie Bus Stop Ash Tray or Joshua Max Paper Clip would be. The point that neither Eddie or Joshua make sense in the sentence just emphasizes that the offending portions of the name are their middle name.

It might be embarrassing to write on a school application or a job application (although most only ask for a middle initial), but she doesn't use her whole name on a routine basis.

Scott Will Your Sister Leius would be worse than having the name Scott Lilliwhite Leius, but both would be embarrassing middle names even though Lilliwhite might be the maiden name of the mother. (Or, in the case of my kids, they have two middle names each, with their mother's maiden name being the second middle name - they can leave it out if they want without anyone noticing).

Talulah isn't a name I would choose, but there's nothing offensive about it. I admit there's a problem with the middle name, but only because other kids will remember her middle name a lot longer than they would a middle name like Lilliwhite. And face it, with a last name like Leius, the other kids would make up the middle name Will Your Sister even if Scott's middle name was Thomas.

(Now I've done it. Not only will I get flamed in this thread, but a guy with a baseball bat will be stalking me around town. Fortunately he only hit 28 career home runs in a 9 year career, so getting hit by him can't hurt that bad.)
Bob, nowhere does it say her first name is only Talula, her first name could be the whole sentence. Since they use the whole sentence when they say her name, I think that's the problem.
 
  • #14
Evo said:
Bob, nowhere does it say her first name is only Talula, her first name could be the whole sentence. Since they use the whole sentence when they say her name, I think that's the problem.

Well, they did name her Talula Does the Hula ...

I guess it's a huge leap to assume they wouldn't do something so obnoxious as to use the whole sentence every time they said her name (the article really doesn't give enough details to know this one way or the other).

If that's the case, I don't think changing her name will end her grief.

As that couple ages, one parent will die and the other will become senile, but remain undiagnosed. The girl will be supporting her live-in surviving parent, who'll sing Toyota commercials 20 hours a day. The only relief will be when she's taking the parent for a ride. Then the parent will read every sign they pass out loud ... and the parent won't read very fast, so the girl will never be able to drive more than 15 mph until they get out into the country where there's no signs. I wish they would have told us what they changed her name to. I don't want to stand next to her in the DMV line.
 
  • #15
Evo said:
Bob, nowhere does it say her first name is only Talula, her first name could be the whole sentence. Since they use the whole sentence when they say her name, I think that's the problem.

That's what it sounds like the problem is, they've given her a whole sentence as a name. What happens on the first day of school each year when the teacher looks at that name on the attendance sheet? Of course, given the space limits on a lot of computerized forms for things like registration and exams, it could be worse, her name could be getting chopped off as Talula Does...

Talula isn't bad, she probably could have survived until she was 18 by just saying all the rest of the words were here middle names. Though, I seriously question the judgement of parents that would give a kid a name like that. Maybe there were more issues than just her name that became apparent in court to have had their parental rights stripped away.
 
  • #16
My given name is Harley because I was named after my father, so kids who heard my given name at school had to throw in Davidson. I was nicknamed "Skip" so I heard a lot of "Skip to my Lou, my darling", and "Skipper" both of which I hated. When a biker friend of mine wanted to buy a dresser, and I wanted to buy his Wide-Glide, I went to the dealership with him so that we could swap checks, title applications, etc, and when he saw my name on the paperwork, he looked at me in shock and said "Why didn't you tell me!?". I had ridden with him for several years, and he always called me Skip, like everyone else that we hung with. BTW, his last name is Marley, and he named his English Spaniel Harley, so every time the dog got in trouble and Rick's wife yelled at him, I jumped a little.
 
  • #17
turbo-1 said:
My given name is Harley because I was named after my father, so kids who heard my given name at school had to throw in Davidson. I was nicknamed "Skip" so I heard a lot of "Skip to my Lou, my darling", and "Skipper" both of which I hated. When a biker friend of mine wanted to buy a dresser, and I wanted to buy his Wide-Glide, I went to the dealership with him so that we could swap checks, title applications, etc, and when he saw my name on the paperwork, he looked at me in shock and said "Why didn't you tell me!?". I had ridden with him for several years, and he always called me Skip, like everyone else that we hung with. BTW, his last name is Marley, and he named his English Spaniel Harley, so every time the dog got in trouble and Rick's wife yelled at him, I jumped a little.

:smile:

Harley's a great name! I do know a lot of dogs named Harley, though. We named our daughter Molly (not Number 16 Bus Stop), and there are tons of dogs named Molly.

My favorite uncle growing up was Uncle Skip (not his given name, but he was called Skip since he was born).
 
  • #18
Skip? Over Harley? Why? Harley is such a cool name!
 
  • #19
My mother purposely chose my name so people couldn't shorten it into a nickname. Instead they lengthened it at school.
 
  • #20
lisab said:
:smile:

Harley's a great name! I do know a lot of dogs named Harley, though. We named our daughter Molly (not Number 16 Bus Stop), and there are tons of dogs named Molly.

My favorite uncle growing up was Uncle Skip (not his given name, but he was called Skip since he was born).
I went to a local credit union today to pass the title of my '05 Softail to the buyer (who grew up in my home town). The loan officer had to comment on my name. She thought it was funny, and commented on it a couple of times. I'm glad my parents didn't call me Suzuki. I have owned and ridden only Harleys for almost 25 years, and registration-time might have been a real hoot for the tax collectors.
 
  • #21
WarPhalange said:
Skip? Over Harley? Why? Harley is such a cool name!
Two Harleys in one household was too much for my father. My mother had intended to name me Peter James, but in a drug-hazed post-delivery situation, she decided to make me a Jr. My father re-named me with a nick-name that he liked.
 
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Related to Nine-year-old More Reasonable than her Parents

1. What is the meaning behind the title "Nine-year-old More Reasonable than her Parents"?

The title refers to a nine-year-old child who exhibits more rational and logical behavior than their parents in certain situations.

2. What is the significance of using a nine-year-old as the main focus of the title?

The age of nine is typically seen as a transition period between childhood and adolescence, where children start to develop their own thoughts and opinions. The title highlights the idea that a child at this age can sometimes possess a more reasonable mindset than their parents.

3. Is the title meant to be taken literally?

The title is meant to be taken figuratively, as it is not always the case that a nine-year-old is more reasonable than their parents. It is meant to provoke thought and challenge societal norms about children and their behavior.

4. What inspired the concept of a nine-year-old being more reasonable than their parents?

This concept was inspired by the common saying "out of the mouths of babes," which suggests that children can sometimes offer insightful and wise perspectives that adults may overlook. It also challenges the notion that parents always know what is best for their children.

5. How does this title tie into scientific research or theories about child development?

There are various theories and studies in child development that suggest children at the age of nine start to develop their own sense of reasoning and critical thinking. This title highlights the idea that children can sometimes possess a more rational mindset than their parents, which aligns with certain theories about child development.

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