Thursday Thirteen- 13 names that people in Alberta really used on their children

(Otherwise known as "How To Get Your Child Beat Up in the Schoolyard.")

This post was inspired by Jen from Just Another Jen who did a post about odd NFLer's names. I commented that my mother registers babies and she really gets some doozies. When I was little my favourite was "Paris Eiffel." Recently, she had a young girl who gave her baby 26 names, starting with each letter of the alphabet. Yes, people are crazy. When I was searching for names for Sophie last year I used the Service Alberta website of all the first names used in 2005. Needing something for Thursday 13, I decided to take a peek at the 2006 list.

I tried to stay away from names that were reflective of the heritage, for while they may be strange and unpronounceable to me (much like Saoirse is too others) they obviously mean something to those parents (much like Saoirse does to me.)

The Boy Names:

1. A.K.I.L No, I'm not joking. That is really some childs name. I wonder what the initials are meant to stand for.

2. Aryan At first glance, not a bad name. It's just that suddenly visions of Hitler and men in white robes and pointy hats came to me. I wonder if it is supposed to be a play on Aaron? 10 babies have this name. I suspect at least one or 2 have slightly more than racist parents.

3. Coo-nah It's just a bit weird.

4. Diezel-Blaze The parents of this child were on the news when the CTV did a report on the Vital Stats list and of course they focused on the unusual. I don't know if it's so much unusual as childhood torture.

5. Jacob-Danny-Micheal Perfectly fine names on their own, but stick them altogether and you have yet another bullied child.

6. Ulysses Quite possibly big fans of James Joyce. Or Greek mythology. Maybe even spacecraft.

The Girl Names:

7. Charlatan Essentially they are calling their child a fake. Or they were really big into The Charlatans UK.

8. Dusty-Storm Why, oh, why would someone do this to their child?

9. FleurdeMay Oh I wish they gave you the date of birth. I'm betting this baby was born to French parents on the first of May. A flower for spring and the Virgin Mary and all that. I think this one is very sweet. I don't imagine 8th grade boys will feel the same way.

10. Irish Even with my obsession of all things Irish I think this is a silly name. We did have a kitten once that Taylor named Irish and that made me cringe. Poor kitten, I stepped on its head and killed it. 2 2006 babies have this name. 6 were called Ireland. Which I did throw out to William to see his reaction. Much as I suspected, he was not in favour.

11. Paradyse At least spell the word correctly. Paradise is bad enough, the other is just cruel.

12. Tuba What. were. they. thinking? What makes someone name their child after a gigantic musical instrument?

13. William A nice name for a boy. But then Taylor used to be more popular with the boys and now it's the other way round. Who knows what could happen to William in the next hundred years?

Other contenders for my 13 included: boys- Adonis, Amadeus, Excell, France, O'ryan and Victordean. Girls- Autumn-Jewels, Morningstar, Pari-K, Peaches, Spirit, Starlight and Trail-Dance.