girlyswot

Something weird was happening but it's fixed now, I think.

From:

amamama.livejournal.com

Ah, and there it came. *sniggers* Like they say, choosing McCain would make Palin a heartbeat away from president... *sniggers some more* But seriously, I do hope not.

From:

You're not just making those names up, are you? I knew she had five children but not the daft names.

From:

Here for proof (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin#Personal_life_and_family).

From:

ankaret.livejournal.com

Bristol is a girl? Seriously?

Actually, I suppose it's no worse than calling a boy Randy, but... *boggled face*

I think Willow and Piper are rather nice - not my taste, but certainly not anything to pull faces about - and Track and Trig at least sound sporty, but goodness, poor Bristol.

From:

LOL - I just left a comment to exactly that effect. And I sort of agree about Willow and Piper (though the latter does tend to make me think 'oil-rig'), though they wouldn't be my choice, either. It's just the combination of all five that is rather boggling.

From:

ankaret.livejournal.com

I'm staggered people haven't started up with the 'Sarah Palin only has one Bristol' jokes, frankly.

From:

Piper is actually a name I've heard a number of times here in the US.

As to the 'Bristol' jokes, no one in the US would have any idea what you were talking about.

From:

Apart from not thinking of the tasteless jokes, doesn't it sound to be a weird name, even in the US?

From:

You are making a category error. There are no weird names in the US.

From:

Which makes me think that it must be a very scary country to live in.

From:

rhetoretician.livejournal.com

"Category Error" as in Gilbert Ryle? Oh, my aching analytical philosophical head!

From:

A bit odd, yes, but not unheard of. There is an actor called Piper Laurie (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001453/).

I assume 'bristol' is naming slang for a woman's chest area? How did that come about? ^o^

From:

In my list I explained it: Bristol City = titty. Tit is very common slang for breast in the UK.

Isn't Piper Laurie Australian?

From:

Nope, she was born in Detroit, Michigan.

'Titty' was common enough when I was a child, but only by giggly children just beginning to experiment with such scandalous language. 'Boob' is the more common term here in the US nowadays.

I thought rhyming slang was just a cockney thing. It's all over?

And why would it be called 'Bristol City'? Is there anything else (geographically, that is! ;P) called Bristol, like a county? Am I over analyising this?

From:

Bristol City is a football team. There are some rhyming slang expressions that have fallen into general use. Most people would know what you meant if you talked about 'a pair of Bristols'.

From:

Bristol City is a football team ahh, that makes sense now. Just curious about the rhyming slang. Of course here in the US (particularly in the south) we have our own, unique language. For instance, you'd probably have to hear it said to begin to understand what 'mawmernem' meant. (spelling is not formalized and would change according the to regional dialect ;))

From:

rhetoretician.livejournal.com

Many important people were born in Detroit.

From:

Yes I'd heard of Piper Laurie. It was calling a child Bristol I was refering to (although Track and Trig are odd too). Piper I'd heard of and I can understand Willow but not the other three.

From:

To folks in the US, Bristol is just the name of a number of cities and towns, nothing more, nothing less. Americans like unusual names. Using the name of a city as a child's name is not nearly as weird as a lot of other names. (we have a child at camp this week named 'Princess') I remember vowing in primary school that I would never name my children 'Cathy' or 'Debbie', as there were 3 or 4 of each in every class! I suspect the baby boomer generation as a whole felt that way and went for more unusual names. As those children had children the names became even more diverse.

Remember, we are people divided by a common language. In my mother's time a fair few girls were named 'Fannie', which to US folks is just an old fashioned girls name, even today. There is a mortgage lending program called 'Fannie-Mae', to which no one in the US blinks an eye.

Here in the US, 'Bristol' is just as innocent a name as 'Fannie'. A girl named Fannie in the UK wouldn't survive a day in nursery school!

From:

I wouldn't have made the association Ros did. I'd have just thought "Why on earth would anyone call their child after the name of a city?" I did just the opposite to you. I gave my daughter a very common name that has been popular for several hundred years and, yes, there are several in her class (it's popular here in Australia as well as in the UK). I used to work in pathology labs where we saw a lot of names without ever seeing the patients the name belonged to. In all of the places I worked we used to have a good laugh at the names people had (and three, possibly four of Mrs Palin's children would come under that category) and I promised I would never give a child of mine a name anyone could find amusing! I also have a surname that is used as a first name in the US (and has caught on here too) and I just can't see why anyone would want it as a first name!

From:

ankaret.livejournal.com

I said in another comment that I thought the name Piper pretty, though not to my taste.

As for the jokes, perhaps I should have specified 'people in the UK' making them - though I'm not sure there's enough interest in the presidential race over here for it to happen.

From:

I think it is the girl called Bristol I feel most sorry for. Can you imagine the sniggering?

From:

I cannot snigger at anyone's children's names. My daughters names both get a 'huh?' from anyone hearing them for the first time. I didn't name the eldest 'Trig', but someone might think they're related! We used family names from 5 or more generations back for both of them. We also gave them more common (but still family) middle names, but they both chose to go by their first names when they were old enough to choose.

From:

Please tell me your child isn't called Cosine or Pythagoras?

*struggling to think of names that might be related to Trig*

From:

It's more a geometric term rather than trigonometry. Ironically, she teaches maths!

From:

Please tell me your child isn't called Cosine or Pythagoras?

True story: When my mom had my brother, the doctor who assisted her was one of her best high-school friends. She (the doctor) also happened to be a Greek immigrant. Mom thinks to show her gratitude by asking suggestions for a name, since my parents hadn't settled on one yet. The doctor rattles off Pythagoras, Archimede, and Aristotle. Our family name is the equivalent of Johnson in Ro - i.e., the most common one around. Can you imagine Phytagoras Johnson going to school?

Needless to say, my parents thanked the friend politely and named my brother George. :-) Oh, a few years later, the doctor had a daughter, whom she named Alexandra. Not Circe. Not Clitemnestra. Not Eurydice. Go figure. :-)

From:

kinderjedi.livejournal.com

Hmm. I'd heard about Track and Trig and assumed they were nicknames, but hadn't heard the whole list. Quite a collection.

From:

I'd heard about Track and Trig and assumed they were nicknames

Oh no. According to Wikipedia, Track was named after his grandparents' favourite sport: track and field. Could have been worse, he could be 'Synchronised Swimming Palin'. I'd like to think that Trig was named after another relative's favourite branch of maths, but apparently not.

From:

Come on, that's unfair. He would have been called Synch Palin, not Synchronised Swimming Palin. She's shortening the sport name, haven't you noticed? :-)

From:

daksian.livejournal.com

Honestly...she would have done better with the name Elvendork. As the man said, it's good for a boy or a girl! ;)

From:

Exactly!

From:

She may not be done, yet. In case you haven't read her bio on wikipedia, she's rabidly anti-abortion (and apparently, anti birth control). So Elvendork may yet be in the pipe.

From:

crumplehornedki.livejournal.com

Willow and Piper both made the shortlist for both of my girls - but Track and Trig! what was she thinking!

Elvendork would obviously be right up there if she had another child :p

From:

One can only assume that she was still high on whatever painkillers they gave her during labour. Otherwise there is no excuse.

From:

alkari.livejournal.com

I know a guy named Willow - brother of one of my schoolfriends. He'd be in his forties now.

From:

A guy? Wow.

From:

alkari.livejournal.com

LOL - he's the only person I've ever heard of with that name, so I had no idea whether it was boy or girl! I think it had been a family name way back, possibly a surname.

From:

ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com

Calling someone Bristol would definitely be weird in the UK, but it's different in the US. I remember an American girl called Devon. Still, part of me can't help wonder if her name did cause some subtle trauma.

From:

Devon Malcolm was a British athlete some years ago. Placenames as first names aren't common in the UK, but do exist. The problem is more to do with the slang connotations of that particular placename.

From:

ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com

Fair enough, although Wikipedia says he was actually born in Jamaica, and Bristol's parents are presumably not familiar with British slang, as apparently her mother only got a passport last year.

From:

nineveh-uk.livejournal.com

A bit late to this, but I recall a Radio 4 programme about WWII that incidentally noted that Devon was a (relatively) popular name among African-Americans (and particularly military familes) dated back to soldiers (who were of course in racially segregated units) being posted there. And of course once people hear it they think "Oh, that's a nice name" (which I can understand about Devon as it is reasonably euphonious, if it doesn't make you think of cider).

From:

grandma-kate.livejournal.com

Oh dear! Now Bristol is Preggers. One can but wonder if Elvendork is being saved for the first Grandchild.

Or is this is a secret plot for Days of Destiny, the American Election Special?

From:

Or is this is a secret plot for Days of Destiny, the American Election Special?

Only if Levi's best friend might also be the daddy, and they'll need a DNA test, whose results are inconclusive, b/c Levi and his best friend are in fact step-brothers: You see, long ago, Levi's dad was married to another woman, but he went hiking, hit his head, and got amnesia. Then he met Levi's mother, who nursed him back to health and...

Well, you'll have to tune in next year for the rest of the story. I can't give a way the plot for the next 2 years.

From:

grandma-kate.livejournal.com

You've got it pretty much the way it is written. All you forgot is the part about Bristol's secret identical evil twin named Pistol. She's actually the "Pistol Packing Mama".

From: