What's in a Name?

I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats awaiting the announcement of what Britney Spears named her new baby. Of course by now you've heard, it's Sutton. This caused me to rush off to see if Sutton is an actual name or something she made up (like Jailynn, which was reportedly her "girl name"). It is indeed a name, but along the way I found a bulletin board where people help each other come up with names for their kids. Now, look, I'm all for using less common names, names that mean something to you and all. But people, your child is going to have to be called whatever it is you name him for the rest of his life (or at least to age 18) so let's try to give your child a real, honest to goodness name. Not a random selection of letters you pulled out of a Scrabble box, not something you made up because you like the sound. No one wants to spend the rest of his life spelling his name and then saying "no, it doesn't mean anything, it's just some sounds my mom liked." Here are some of the things pregnant women on this board were actually considering: October (what will you call her, Ocky?) Hutch (that's a piece of furniture) Swink Loomis Broden Montag (This is German for Monday) Espen Kairick Merrick Manuka Bryntyr Tryggvi Calla (And calling her "Lily" as a nickname - I couldn't make this up) Digby Tristram Jock (JOCK????? Because he'll never be called "Dumb Jock" or "Strap" right??) Shepherd (I can't even begin to list the things wrong with that) One woman had already given her child a hyphenated middle name, which, just to be polite, I won't actually use here, but it was basically two little old lady names hyphenated together, like Edith-Meredith. One was trying to make a pronounce-able word out of her and her husband's first names combined. I apologize if any of these are your name and you love it. Feel free to comment and tell me what a jerk I am to suggest that Bryntyr is not a perfectly charming name for a little boy (?) and I humbly apologize to my friend who named her daughter Eleanora - clearly, when I suggested that was not a great name, I had no idea how much worse it could have been ;-)