What's in a Name?

When I was in French class many years ago, we got to select French nicknames. In grade school, I was known as François, while in high school, I adopted the nom de plume Jérôme. As you can tell, I like names with goofy French letters.

Similarly, most of our kids have English nicknames in our classes. They tend to be common names like Sally, James, Catherine, or Eric. We have, however, had some odd ones:


- Big Bang
- V.I.P.
- Barry Bonz
- Conian (this was frustrating because I suggested the perfectly good name "Melissa" for her)
- Obama
- Ophelia (strange, but cool)
- Routine
- Feedback
- Triple X
- Leonardo da Vinci

I got a new kid in my class today, and to my delight he asked me to give him an English name. Now, I could have been creative, like a former co-worker who named a girl in his class "Gogimandu" (Korean for "pork dumpling"). However, I went with Aiden, because it's unique in our school, and yet still far more normal than "Barry Bonz."

More bizarre children's names to be posted as they enroll.