On the subject of names, my DD's name is Sonnet. Like the word. Its amazing how some people want to put two t's, not just one, and say Sonette like Jenette . Weird.

It seems some names that were once considered more vintage have become more common. Some we know of for girls are Agatha, Edith and Vivienne. My dad’s name was Owen, and as a kid I always thought it was kind of odd. For years he was the only Owen I’d heard of. However, it’s become much more common, at least with people we know.

On the topic of uncommon names, here's a first name encountered by someone doing volunteer work at a school in a low income neighborhood. (I may have mentioned this here before)

La-a.

Any takers wishing to spell out the sound of the name when said aloud?

Ladasha

I believe it is an urban legend.🤷‍♀️ Assigning it to low income😟 Kind of not cool.

It's a well-known urban legend. It has circulated in emails, social media, and "I know a teacher/nurse who met this child" stories. It's been repeatedly debunked by folklorists and fact-checkers as an example of a modern urban legend.

@hobbitmom what a beautiful and unusual name you gave your daughter!

What a hoot! An unexpected display of awesomeness! Or, maybe not quite as intended.

These very self-confident writers just above will likely be quite disappointed to learn that the unusual name I mentioned was one encountered by one of my sons. When he was an undergrad, volunteering to tutor students needing extra help at a school not too far from his campus. Arranged by the on-campus volunteer placement center.

To my knowledge, none of the internet sites I visit are purveyors of legends, rumors, or the like. Unless that's something likely to pop up on one of the several legitimate and respected newspapers I have digital subscriptions for, or the few sports sites I read that are free to visit Those plus this site are about all of my online travels, so I don't usually encounter such things.

Anyway, the very skeptical person I am (which can't be a surprise to anyone) never repeats and has a "reject/ignore" default for anything encountered lacking reasonable provenance or source.

Either way, it is an urban myth. No disappointment here. Why would there be?

Interesting that it actually happened to your son. Who’d a thunk?

A quick internet search brings up several "stories" about La-a, LaDasha. Too many to not consider it an urban myth or legend. Your son may have very well heard it, but many others consider it just a myth or legend.

Just a couple of sites I found discussing it. Snopes even discusses it. I realize Snopes is questionable, but ironic it's on that website.

La-a (pronounced “Ladasha”) | USC Digital Folklore Archives https://share.google/w9WG6qbWHpF4BaXb0

"Weird name story" - Behind the Name https://share.google/05KQi8Ykf7lg9C8x6

@Olychick . Thank you. I like it, and, more importantly, she does too.

when our son was born, we had settled on his first name immediately. we went back and forth about middle names. i wanted a particular one, my husband wanted "devereaux", the name of a character played by spencer tracy in his favorite movie (broken lance). i agreed but told him to leave the "x" off so we compromised.

when pippin was a puppy and started eating solid food, she was a messy little girl. when they were giving "call names" to the litter, the breeder's husband started calling her "pigpen" because she was so sloppy. she was supposed to be a show dog and the breeder decided "pigpen" was just beneath her so she changed it to "pippin".

my given name is "charlene". my brother was 18 months old when i was born and couldn't pronounce it so he called me "nina" and it stuck. somewhere along the way, i became ninapearl for some obscure reason. 🤷🏼‍♀️

we raised 2 siberian husky puppies. the female we named "juneau". every time i called her name, i heard my husband in the other room say "what?", he thought i was asking him a question..."do you know...?" so when it came time to send her registration papers in, we gave her a middle name, she was "juneau what".

we named the male "flag", just because. whenever he was let out in the yard after dark and since he was mostly black, all we saw was the white tip of his tail bouncing across the yard so his middle name became "ontheplay". he was "flag ontheplay".

I had neighbors, Eric and Jill, who had two daughters. Jill told me that because her and Eric's names were so plain, they wanted more exotic names for the girls. One is Autumn and the other Symone. I like when someone has an interesting name.

When my sister was born, my mom asked me what we should name her and I said Dodie - which became her nickname until she was around 12. Her actual name is totally unrelated.

My mom and her 3 sisters all had nicknames.

My mom was born in Sweden. Her name was Birgit, pronounced "beer-git."

My dad wanted to name me that and my mom said no. She came to the U.S when she was 16, and her name was always mispronounced many different ways. Or she was called "Bridgit."

As she got older she started going by Betty.

There used to be another urban ledgend about names. Someone knows a nurse or teacher who tell of a couple who had a baby and when they went to name it they saw it had already been given a name so they just used that. The name was Female pronounced Fem ah lee. Poor dumb people of course. Closely akin to the two black girls in line at the grocery store where one told the other with a sigh of envy that she was going to get a baby so she could get welfare too. I have known people who claim to have heard this conversation themselves.

" Your son may have very well heard it, "

I'm so glad you think so, that's important to me. He heard it, saw it written, and used it.

My DH introduces himself (and this is not his real name but it’s similar) as John. No one calls him John, not even me nor his mother. Everybody calls him Johnny. His legal name is Jonathon.

I have no idea why he introduces himself this way.

I just remembered an awkward naming situation. When DH and I had our first child, we did not have a firm boy’s name in mind, except that we both had Harrys as close relatives and would probably use that name in some way.

Sure enough, we had a boy. In the delivery room, DH commented that we didn’t have a name picked out so of course my doctor said, ”Well, name him after me!” DH and I looked at each other in consternation - the doctor’s name was Peter. Uh, I don’t think so ……

This is an amusing site about unusual names and spellings:

That name isn't a tragedeigh, it's a murghdyrr

I think I once posted this here in another thread regarding names. Years ago I worked with a woman whose name was Diana. Everyone, all her family and friends, called her “Di.“ She became engaged to a guy whose last name was Arria, pronounced ”Ah-ree-uh.” She told us she was considering keeping her maiden name.🤭

@ littlebug - perhaps he prefers that name? I used to want my name to be Carrie, but nobody ever would call me that 😏

“Is your pointed criticism to suggest that my experiences are less important or valid than yours? I hope not.”

Well, dagnabbit, Elmer. You‘re…choke…correct. I did fail to consider it was YOUR experience. Can’t disagree with a persons experience, just their opiion. Having no memory of ever sharing yours, it was incorrect for me to holler hogwash to yours.

Mea Cupa. Marti

PS Oooh, that felt good. Im now all puffed up with rightousness. 😄

EJF, when did your son encounter the La-a reference? I heard it from an acquaintance (who was a teacher in TX) more than 10 years ago.

He didn't encounter a reference, he encountered a girl in elementary school. She was a third -fourth or fifth grade pupil, I'm not sure. He worked with her as her reading tutor for most of the school year. I think his own school classes ended in late April, early May so that he wasn't with her for her entire school year.

He went to the elementary school and her classroom twice a week for an hour or perhaps a bit more each time.

He finished undergrad in the class of '07. He was very busy during his two upper division years so I suspect it was during his Freshman or Sophomore year. Let's call it the Sophomore year, that would have been the school year 04-05. Over 20 years ago, time sure flies.

One thing I thought of, two people I know, were named the shortened version.

I can't tell you the number of times my boss gets an email addressed to Dr. William Smith, but he was born with Will as his name. His mother says on video, when I was in Buchenwald (which is could be or might not be the exact camp, because she was moved at some point), I was the daycare worker, and I took care of this beautiful baby named Will, and I knew one day I would have a child and I would name him Will. She never wanted his name to be William. ALL OF THE NAMES I JUST GAVE YOU WERE FICTITIOUS.

This name is not fictitious. I have a friend who was named Peggy when she was born, not Margaret. I think she has spent her entire life trying to tell people she was not Margaret! She'll never look here, she'll never be traced from here, so I don't care if I tell you.

My brother was named John, after my father. He was always called Jack and legally changed his name at some point. I see nothing wrong in people calling themselves whatever they want. It really isn't anyone's business but their own.

“I heard it from an acquaintance (who was a teacher in TX) more than 10 years ago.”

Dadoes, it’s amazing how many have heard of teachers who have come across this name!

Then there was the girl with the unfortunate name, Debbie Schitz. So she went to court and changed it. Now she's Veronica Schitz! 😆

LOL Annie! I wonder if folks shorten her name to Ronnie Schitz.

(Thinking about lettuce right now)

Not a nickname, but this was first for me - a guy with the first name Earltwan, in a local news story.

roxsolid, technology is likewise amazing for enabling teachers across the country to share their experiences and trivia.

Absolutely, dadoes.

Paul Simon had it right.

”These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all

The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder”

You left out the last line, which I think changes the meaning from your extracted lines:

" And don't cry baby, don't cry
Don't cry "

When asked, many popular music composers often say that lyrics mean whatever the listener thinks they mean. I think you've maybe gotten off the path a bit but hey, it can also be what you WANT it to mean.

Someone I know went to La-a’s wedding. Her new husband made a toast thanking the guests for coming, then toasted his best man and La-a who he had caught in bed together that morning. He wished them the same happiness together, that they had both brought him over the years.

“La-a.

Any takers wishing to spell out the sound of the name when said aloud?”

You never did answer. Did I get it right? I love quizzes like this. Jasdip, gives out chilidogs to the winners. 🤠

Laminiusa.

tj

tsug, nothing yet. Working on it.

I think there’s an extra letter in there?

Small car in California?

Oops. Laminusa. Could be Lablanka too.I suppose -)

tj

Whoosh! 😄Yes, those work, too.

Lakshita? Heck, I had to look up names that were more than Laura. Surely, you don't mean that since it would be so obvious.

Rob, the answer is Ladasha

The dash isn’t silent. 🤠

well then, whoosh is correct. Right over my head.

P.S. I get it now :)

Oh, sorry rob.

The whoosh was meant for me. I missed what tsug was saying in their post.

I thought it was a whole new puzzle. Laminiusa.

I guessed ”small car in California”. (Mini in Los Angeles USA)

As for La-a…..

The answer was Ladasha and was given way back in this thread. Or maybe it isn’t the answer, but that is the joke I have often seen. It’s become an urban legend. But Elmer never really said if it was correct or not if that is what his son told him.

He seemed a little upset after asking for any takers. His reply:

”What a hoot! An unexpected display of awesomeness! Or, maybe not quite as intended.

These very self-confident writers just above will likely be quite disappointed to learn that the unusual name I mentioned was one encountered by one of my sons. When he was an undergrad, volunteering to tutor students needing extra help at a school not too far from his campus. Arranged by the on-campus volunteer placement center.

To my knowledge, none of the internet sites I visit are purveyors of legends, rumors, or the like. Unless that's something likely to pop up on one of the several legitimate and respected newspapers I have digital subscriptions for, or the few sports sites I read that are free to visit Those plus this site are about all of my online travels, so I don't usually encounter such things.

Anyway, the very skeptical person I am (which can't be a surprise to anyone) never repeats and has a "reject/ignore" default for anything encountered lacking reasonable provenance or source.”

The answer was never really verified. 🤷‍♀️

I was merely jesting rox :) I can laugh at myself. It went so far over my head, it didn't mess up my hair.

No mention of Mrs. King naming her baby Nosmo? Story is that she was being wheeled into the delivery room and she saw a sign from above, NOSMOKING.

Who is Mrs. King?

Mr. King’s wife