This past week, yet another celebrity had a baby and gave her a bizarre name. Beyonce now has a daughter named "Blue Ivy." Her husband's name is Jay-Z, so I wonder if the baby's legal name is "Blue-Z." Haha.
That's not what I want to address, however. Being a name-enthusiast, I read an article on the story behind Blue's unorthodox name, and found out that she is named after her father's best selling album, Blueprint. Seriously.
My inclination is to be very unimpressed by a name that is a nod to a great accomplishment of the parents; it seems like one of the more arrogant things a couple can do name-wise. Imagine Michale Phelps naming a daughter "Goldie" after his Olympic medals, or President Obama naming a little girl "Blanca" after the White House or "Paz" after his (joke of a) Nobel Peace Prize (and those are all legitimate, established names, unlike "Blue")! It's one thing to name a child for something you aspire for them, like "Justice" or "Victory," or for something that played a significant role in the parents' life ("Rainier" if they met skiing, or "Iris" after the flowers his beloved Grandma planted by her porch). And it would be perfectly acceptable for little Blue Ivy to name her own daughter "Blue" as a nod to her father one day. But honoring yourself so much in your child's name...I don't know, it just seems so presumptuous! Can you imagine asking a guy why his parents chose his name, and him replying that it was the name of the main character in a novel his dad wrote? I feel like it should be the other way around, naming something else after your offspring (having children, by the way, is a far greater accomplishment than just about anything else we could do!).
I mentioned this to my husband, and he brought up the point that having a "Blake Jr." could be considered arrogant as well. I concede that this is true, although I consider junior names to be more about family and legacy than pride.
What are your thoughts? Should I name my next child "Dare" since I won the DARE essay contest in 6th grade (Blake won his too, so it would be doubly meaningful...)?
Blue is bad enough but Blue Ivy is even worse! Bad parents! Your next blog post should be on interesting boys names, so I can steal one and have atleast one name picked out!
ReplyDeleteI think that any name that is an ego trip for any reason (whether it's a "named after" situation or you're trying to be snotty about a weird name) is no good. I think naming people after family members leans more towards a legacy thing and less towards a pride thing, but sometimes I think the legacy should be stopped if the name sounds really dated.(Ichabod Aldophus, for instance). I dunno. My personal preference, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI think parents should generally try not to pick names that will embarrass their children later, and even if it wasn't an egotistical nod, Blue Ivy is one of them.
My grandma's name was Myrtle Dale. I'd love to commemorate her but would have to settle for something like Hadassah, which means myrtle. Apparantly my g-ma even hated her name and went by the lesser of the evils, Dale (which I could see as a middle name).
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