Naming a baby is one of the most important decisions parents will make.
It’s not just about giving your child an identity, it’s also about their future. You want them to be proud of who they are and have something with meaning that can represent them as an individual. But sometimes people get so caught up in what other people think or doing something different that they forget some simple rules for naming kids, and as a result, they end up with nerdy names like “Aloysius” and “Agatha.”
Here are the top seven nerdy names mistakes that people make.
Nerdy Names Mistake #01: Using a Last Name as a First Name
For example, “Gregory” or “Anne.” This is just weird. It’s like you’re trying too hard to give your kid an identity and it comes off inauthentic at best, and self-absorbed at worst. Plus, they’ll spend their whole lives answering questions about where their last name is (or worse yet having to change it later). Not worth it! You should only use family names if there some significance behind them – for example one of your grandparents’ surnames was special to your family because he won’t be able to see his grandson be named after him.
Nerdy Names Mistake #02: Inventing a New Surname
There are so many great last names out there that you can use for your kids, why not just choose one of them? It’s usually the more traditional ones that end up being used as first names anyway, like “Clarence” or “Dylan.” Plus it makes things easier when they apply to school and have to fill out forms – if their surname is different from everyone else’s name on the list, it will probably get lost in translation and someone has to track down who this person is (or worse yet trying to figure out when they switched their last name to something else).
Nerdy Names Mistake #03: Using a One-Letter Name
The only time this is acceptable are if the parents have already agreed on “T” or “Z,” but even those can still be spelled out in full. Otherwise, just say no because it’s going to make reading any of your kid’s school/birthday cards really difficult (especially with some people who might not speak English as well) and will also probably anger teachers and other family members who want an accurate way to address them. It gets even worse when you start getting into initials – there was someone we knew in elementary school that had three first names, all starting with C. And if this is too much effort, you can just use the baby’s middle name as a first.
Nerdy Names Mistake #04: When You Give Your Child a First Name that Starts with “R” and Last Name That Starts with “P”
Again, this person has an extra letter they have to cut out of their last name every time they sign-up for something or fill out paperwork – so it might be best to avoid this one if possible unless your child really wants both names spelled out in full on all documents. And there are also some people who will misread your kid’s name because he/she sounds like Pierre when reading. (It seems like most parents think of these things later once their kids are born!)
Nerdy Names Mistake #03: When You Give Your Child a First Name that Ends with “I” and Last Name That Starts with “P”
Parents who do this probably think it’s cute, but there will be the inevitable time when your child has to spell out their name for someone in an important meeting. And meanwhile some people might take offense at its similarity to ‘piss’ or get confused by his/her gender identity. So if you want more than one letter in each word of your kid’s name – just make sure they’re both starting letters!
Chris Dyer is CEO & Founder of Preloved Apparel & Good Trade Partners LLC
Nerdy
Capitalize titles of books, movies and TV shows.
Don’t use “of course” or “as usual.”
Use a comma before the word ‘and’ in lists. This is true even if it’s just two items on your list – we want to know that you’re not done yet! Only capitalize proper nouns (people, places). The rest should be lowercase. For example: His name was John Smith but now his name is Bob Jones Punctuation goes inside quotation marks unless there are parentheses around them. So this sentence would read as such: He said,”I’m going home”. But if I wanted to add more emphasis I could say “He said, ‘I’m going home.'”
Don’t capitalize words that end in numbers or symbols. So “pink” but not “PINK”. However, if the word has a number/ symbol at the beginning then it should be capitalized for consistency’s sake. For example: She drives an 80s Acura IntegraContent Warning Statement: This blog post may contain language and topics some readers will find offensive. Parental discretion is advised when reading this content to children as young as 13 years old. Themes include strong profanity (including racial slurs), violence and sexual references.
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Mistake #
Mistake Description
Analogous Name (a name which is similar to the mistake)
Moral of Story: Avoid this Mistake!
Not capitalizing a letter at the beginning of your first or last name. This can make you look lazy, like you don’t care about yourself or presentational skills. Your full name should be written with all caps and in sentence case every time it’s on display–whether that’s when sending someone an email, writing on social media, filling out forms online..everywhere. It also looks bad if people have to guess what part of your first or last names are even capitalized because they’re not sure where one word ends and another begins! The first letter of your first and last name should be capitalized at all times.
Using a nickname as an alias on social media or other public forums instead of the full, legal version. This is a mistake because it will make you seem unprofessional to employers/clients who may not know what abbreviation stands for–even worse if they would have never gotten to see that part in the first place! It also makes people confused when trying to get back into contact with you, which can lead them down dead ends searching for information about you. You don’t want anyone thinking there’s more than one person out there with your same name; pick something new!
Some popular nicknames are: ME – my friends call me this BEN – my friends call me this DANNY – I go by “Danny” on social media and other public forums. JACKIE- This is what everyone calls me, even on Facebook! FRAZER- When people know me as Frazer they typically just use that instead of the full name. FAUSTO- For some reason most of my friends have used Fausto for years but it’s not really a nickname..just kind of stuck with them after too many drinks one night? ;) FRANKIE- Some people might call you Frankie if they’re trying to be funny or ironic. It’s also common to see your last initial only in an email signature when someone has been
