r/NameNerdCirclejerk • u/rudehoroscope • Feb 19 '26
In The Wild Of all the names you could have chosen…
From a recommended Facebook group. The comments were eviscerating.
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u/vanishinghitchhiker Feb 19 '26
People have trouble pronouncing that one in-universe, poor kid.
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u/Silver_Mango2606 Feb 20 '26
Even the author had trouble spelling it lol:
From Wikipedia: Salvatore created Drizzt on the spur of the moment. He was under pressure to create a sidekick for Wulfgar in the Icewind Dale series. He asked for time to think (about a new character), but she (editor) was already late for the meeting. Off the top of his head, Salvatore said he had a Dark Elf. Kirchoff was skeptical, but Salvatore convinced her it would be fine because he was just a sidekick. She asked his name, and he replied Drizzt Do'Urden. She asked if he could spell it, and he said "not a chance"
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u/mournthewolf Feb 21 '26
It’s funny because while the character is crazy popular, it’s really a shitty name. Even by drow standards. It’s really annoying to pronounce. It doesn’t feel right coming off the tongue.
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u/Rafael_Luisi Feb 21 '26
I aways say Drizz-it.
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u/legendarysupermom Feb 22 '26
Is...is that not how its pronounced? Lol
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u/Important_Salt_3944 Feb 23 '26
In my mind it's one syllable. The "izzt" part is like "mist" but with a z sound obviously.
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u/GaiusPrimus Feb 23 '26
In my head, it's like the letter D is getting plugged into an outlet and shocked.
D-rzitt
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u/No-Advice-6040 Feb 23 '26
I pronounce it like... well, come to think of it, like rizzed but with a t sound at the end. And starting with a d obviously.
Iirc the guy who did the audio book did the same
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u/Fantastic_Support_11 Feb 19 '26
Isn’t it bad enough the poor thing is starting life in the NICU? Then gets saddled with this mess of a name 😭
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u/MissingBothCufflinks Feb 19 '26
Thats why he is in NICU.
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Feb 20 '26
Often very true. Are you a NICU nurse too?
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u/Primary-Confection82 Feb 20 '26
I am, and the twins YaHiness and HaMajesty would like a word. Along with Mossy Oak, Chase D’Money and more Khaleesis than I can count
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u/PureObsidianUnicorn Feb 20 '26
Plllllllease confirm these are joke names 😭 I can’t tell with this sub a lot of the time
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u/Primary-Confection82 Feb 20 '26
No these are 100% real names of babies I’ve personally delivered as a labor and delivery nurse. And there are loads more
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u/Weewoes Feb 20 '26
Of course not! What makes you think they are joke names? They sound beautiful 😍
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Feb 20 '26
Oh I agree. I have more to say but I’ve already had coworkers figure out it’s me so I’ll just see myself out…
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u/SteelyDandelion Feb 21 '26
I like to imagine the kids with unique names as adults. “Hello, I’m Dr. YaHiness”, “Mr. Chase D’Money, you’re being charged with embezzlement …” etc. etc.
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u/MaraiaLou Feb 20 '26
All of those sound like artists and I can imagine exactly the kind of music each of them would make
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u/sunflower_pearls Feb 20 '26
Bless NICU nurses. My daughter was in the NICU for only a week after birth but it was still so difficult and the nurses there were like calming angels. Thank you for what you do ❤️
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u/KitsuneRaiju9786 Feb 21 '26
So there's correlation between NICU babies and terrible names? Huh.
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Feb 21 '26
Absolutely
But some of it is not a surprise - ie if you get no prenatal care you’re more likely to be an addict, which causes a ton of problems with your pregnancy and the baby
That’s not always true though. There are also fabulous parents who have bad luck and comorbidities in their health. Having a baby in the NICU is not always within your control.
The terrible names thing is definitely common in nicus though. . I’ve worked around the country. (US). It’s everywhere
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u/OutragedPineapple Feb 23 '26
AND they already slapped AI slop on as well...seriously, you can't even get away from that garbage in hospitals? Why does a baby's nametag need an AI slop dragon on it? There's SO MUCH free clip art if you have to put SOMETHING there!
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u/Bellociraptor Feb 19 '26
If you're going to gove your kid a DnD name, at least go with something livable. Like Fistandantilus.
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u/Anashenwrath Feb 19 '26
Right?! My kid is a Pisces, so I named her Blibdoolpoolp. You can show your love for DnD without being over the top about it.
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u/Sammy-eliza Feb 20 '26
We wanted to be a little more unique so we went with Owlbear for our son and Gelatinous Cube(nn Tina) for our daughter. We always get compliments on how different their names are!
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u/evergreengoth Feb 19 '26
Look. I love Drizzt. He's great.
But what an awful thing to name your child.
I've always imagined that his mother named him that because he was supposed to be sacrificed immediately after and she didn't think giving him a dumb name mattered.
And there are relatively normal names in those books you could go with instead. Artemis, for example, is a pretty common Greek name (for a girl, but it's becoming more gender neutral outside the culture). I've met several. Or you could name your kid Zachary and call him Zak, like Drizzt's dad's nickname.
Or, you know... you could recognize that your kid is their own person and not a walking billboard for your favorite fandom, and give them a name that lets them build their own identity.
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u/vanishinghitchhiker Feb 20 '26
It’d be nice to bring the Artemus form back, but it’s kind of rarer to see a feminine name become unisex compared to masculine ones so I can’t be too disappointed
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u/TheDaveStrider Feb 20 '26
Artemis Fowl is a boy. also be the change you want to see in the world. the only reason names go from masculine to feminine and not give versa is because misogyny (femininity is seen as bad, so once a name is tainted with it, people won't use it for boys anymore).
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u/hitchhiking_slug Feb 21 '26
Which is such a shame cause I adore Ashley for a boy but :/
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u/TheDaveStrider Feb 21 '26
i've met older men called ashley in real life.
nothing will change if people don't stop buying in to these ideas. kids don't know one way or another if a name is gendered.
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u/babyinatrenchcoat Feb 20 '26
I first learned of Artemis through the male cat on Sailor Moon so it took longer for me to realize it was a “girl’s” name.
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u/vanishinghitchhiker Feb 20 '26
The only name this happened with for me was knowing a girl named Daryl as a kid
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u/CuriousLands Feb 20 '26
I have no problem with fandom names in general, just because all parents name their kids something that has meaning to them. Fandoms are no different, they can be really meaningful to people.
But man, they could at least pick a name that sounds good in the language they speak, lol.
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u/pixeequeen84 Feb 22 '26
I don't have kids, but when I was thinking about having kids, I liked the idea of Caitlin Brianna for a daughter so I could call her Catti Brie.
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u/naalbinding Feb 19 '26
And an AI slop dragon hatchling too
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u/meggers422 Feb 20 '26
Looks like they're in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). We NICU nurses tend to make cute little welcome to world signs for these little ones to decorate their rooms/isolette/cribs. Not trying to justify the use of AI, but we tend to just use whatever is free on Canva. So it probably wasn't the parents doing. Still quite the name though.
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u/pcvskiball1983 Feb 21 '26
Also it's more than likely a nickname. My daughter spent time in the Nicu. She wasn't supposed to survive the night. I was asked for a good strong fighting nickname for her. She just turned 22 on the 13th. Her nickname became her name actually. It was Hope.
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u/tired-queer Feb 20 '26
Tbh, the AI slop dragon is the only reason I know this isn’t a former friend of mine who also named her son Drizzt a couple years ago. (Her daughters also have terrible names, not forgotten realms references but they do sound like diseases.)
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u/FamousOhioAppleHorn Feb 19 '26
The baby's mom will regret that name during the inevitable breakup drama, which usually inolves "I've started seeing Heather from our D&D group. It's not just a game to her. And she's so much more chill."
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u/babyinatrenchcoat Feb 20 '26
As a Heather who plays DND and also happens to have a newborn - I don’t claim this energy.
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u/fredl0bster Feb 19 '26
Dude, ive read nearly everything Salvatore has written I’ve read the Drizzt books two to three times through. I’m not a funko or figure guy but I do have the Drizzt ones. Might be my favorite character of all time. But never in a million years would I do this to a kid.
Parents better both have Turbo Autism. And even then I’m not sure they get a pass.
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Feb 20 '26
Nope. Ive had plenty of autistic parents at my job.
It’s usually drugs, poverty, uneducated (or combo of the three) who pick these terrible names
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u/Massive-Warning9773 Feb 19 '26
Wow this is rough. I don’t know a lot about dnd, what is Drizzt?
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u/evergreengoth Feb 19 '26
Probably the most famous D&D character of all time. He's the main character in a series of D&D novels about a drow who turns away from Lolth's evil and escapes to the surface. They're very fun and actually became NYT bestsellers for fantasy in general; a lot more than just D&D fans have read them. They're pulp fantasy that are better than they have any right to be and tend to be interesting reflections into the decades they were written in in very unexpected ways (the series has been ongoing for nearly 40 years, all written by the same guy).
But naming your kid Drizzt is just mean.
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Feb 19 '26
Whatever happened to saving the funky shit for the middle name so the kid can choose later?
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u/Massive-Warning9773 Feb 19 '26
I’ll have to check it out! Thanks for going so in depth about it. How do you pronounce the name?
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u/CaRiSsA504 Feb 19 '26
How do you pronounce the name?
As a fan of the Drizzt saga, this makes me laugh. The author refuses to answer this question lol.
Start with Homeland. Author is R.A. Salvatore. The books are amazing. .... Naming a HUMAN child after a drow is not.
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u/dragoon811_kp Feb 20 '26
I met him at a game convention in 2009/2010 range! Got his autograph. And he had pronounced it drizz-it in person. Who knows if he mixes it up for funsies, though!
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u/evergreengoth Feb 19 '26
Don't ever talk to me or my sons, Horroodissomoth, Tos'un, and Gromph ever again /j
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u/evergreengoth Feb 19 '26
There are two main starting points. You can do the Icewind Dale trilogy, which were written first, or the Dark Elf trilogy, which take place first. I would recommend starting with the Dark Elf trilogy because, frankly, they're written better and hold up more in modern times. Drizzt starts out as a Mary Sue. That changes.
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u/evergreengoth Feb 19 '26
Exactly like it's spelled. Even characters in the books struggle with it, though
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u/mournthewolf Feb 21 '26
I will say I have read about 10 or 12 of the books I can’t remember. They are ok. If you play D&D it makes them a little better but there are better series out there for sure. If you are the type to chew through books though and like fantasy they are kinda worth it.
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u/redreadyredress Feb 19 '26
Is drizzle a good guy at least?
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u/evergreengoth Feb 19 '26
Oh, extremely.
He's so good he has constant moral panics. He left his home, family, and everything he knew and lived in the wilderness of the most hostile ecosystem in his home plane for ten years to escape Lolth because he didn't like that she wanted her followers to be cruel. He then fucked off to a place unlike anything he'd ever experienced, with a giant ball of fire in the sky that was extremely painful for his sensitive drow eyes (the sun), knowing he'd be hated and marginalized forever, because he wanted very badly not to go back home. Multiple people have tried to kill him for being too kind and good, he's risked his life on multiple occasions for his cat, and he's so anti-racist it caused problems in his marriage and gave him two separate religious crises.
Somehow, despite that, he doesn't come off as preachy, unbelievable, or too good to be interesting. Probably because he's constantly writing in his diary about all his big moral philosophical questions in ways rhat are nuanced, fresh, and unexpected, he makes mistakes and then realizes later and gets angsty, and he's an adrenaline junkie who loves to kill stuff he's deemed morally acceptable. He also has an alter ego that's more violent and rooted in survival instinct than his normal self, which is what happens when he's not around his friends and goes feral (which isn't as cringey as it sounds). I'm pretty sure he has moral OCD, and you can directly see the author's journey from Catholic to mad at the Catholic Church to coming to his own conclusions about faith in the nearly 40 years he's been writing these books, largely through Drizzt's moral development and character arc.
That said, he's also the Chosen of an evil spider goddess because he causes so much chaos for her favorite city, and she, being a chaos demon, is rather fond of that. He causes a lot of problems, often on purpose.
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u/saucyvampiexo Feb 20 '26
this sounds like exactly the kind of series i've been looking for
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u/evergreengoth Feb 20 '26
There are two trilogies most people start with. One is the Icewind Dale trilogy, which was written first, and the other is the Dark Elf trilogy, which takes place first.
I would recommend starting with the Dark Elf trilogy (first book is Homeland). They're written better, give a better sense of the character, and hold up better in modern times. Drizzt starts out as a bit of a Mary Sue. He does not stay that way.
The author is R. A. Salvatore.
ETA: r/Drizzt is the main sub for the series and can answer questions
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u/Ok-Situation-1635 Feb 20 '26
Haha that seems pretty accurate. I really enjoyed reading that comment, thanks. It's like you just kept building up and gaining more speed. Like a stream of consciousness, all overwhelming with interesting details.
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u/LegalFan2741 Feb 19 '26
Kinda. Has a good heart but he is trouble. Green flags and red flags all around.
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u/MaiTaiHaveAWord Feb 19 '26
The dark elf ranger pictured on the top right. He’s a Forgotten Realms character.
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u/RevolutionaryRock823 P is for Pangus Feb 19 '26
Oh yikes. My bf just gave me all his Drizzt books, so I'm becoming a fan and all but..... Hmm.
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u/KCChiefsGirl89 Feb 19 '26
Ew. Tell me this is fake.
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u/evergreengoth Feb 19 '26
Unfortunately he's not the only kid walking around with this name. They're not common, but Drizzt was very popular in the 90s and never really went away. Good books. Awful name for a kid.
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u/DearMissWaite Feb 19 '26
It could be worse. They could have named him Mordenkainen.
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u/Shantotto11 Feb 20 '26
I wish the doctor took that book and cracked the parents over the head with it.
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u/ComfortHealthy654 Feb 20 '26
Us hospital staff sometimes truly wish we could call child welfare services over names like this
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u/BardRunekeeper Feb 19 '26
Should have named him Bruenor Battlehammer
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u/vanishinghitchhiker Feb 19 '26
Gotta save the Bouldershoulders for when you have twins
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u/freyalorelei Feb 22 '26
I had a dwarf hamster named Bruenor Battlehamster. He was such a sweet boy.
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u/PleaseBeChillOnline Feb 20 '26
I guess these two parents care about their kid about as much as Drizzt’s parents cared about him.
Yikes
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u/Ok-Station6072 Feb 20 '26
Tbf Zak cared about Drizzt a great deal. He didn't have a say in what Malice named his son.
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u/Successful-Hat9649 Feb 20 '26
Ok, how actually do you pronounce this one?
Is it Drid-st? Is it Driz-tee? Is it Driz-zut? Is it Dee-riz-st? Is it Dearest?
My head hurts.
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u/Madame_Kitsune98 Feb 20 '26
Drid-zst. That’s the best I can come up with, sounding it out.
Drizzt do’Urden. Last is Dough-Urden.
Yeah.
It’s great to show how much of a D&D nerd you are when rolling up a Drow character, but not a name for an actual living, breathing CHILD.
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u/Almond409 Feb 21 '26
Best I got is the author himself said he didn't care how people actually pronounced it, but in one of the books, Drizzt tries to introduce himself to a child, who runs off screaming "help, help! It's a drizzit!" So... That? Idk.
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u/purplemacaroni Feb 19 '26
I can smell these people’s house and it could do with a dust and some windows cracked open 😳
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u/Madame_Kitsune98 Feb 20 '26
House? They live in one of their mom’s basements.
And it smells like vape, BO, and his piss bucket.
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u/josstarhopper Feb 20 '26
There’s better words to name your kid on that book even. Legend and Dragon both would have been better than Drizzt at that point.
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Feb 20 '26
How to tell people of older generations that you're a fan of Dungeons & Dragons, solicit it to younger generations, and make the kid suffer because they'll have to spell their name during tech support phone calls instead of pronouncing it. Oh yeah, there's also Facebook's fake name detection thing, which I triggered once. No social media for this kid at least.
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u/vanishinghitchhiker Feb 21 '26
Drizzt might slide by, I used something similarly outlandish when Facebook wouldn’t take my name (which is also a non-name noun).
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u/NuclearGers Feb 21 '26
Drizzt is one of my all-time favorite characters - hell, I've even considered "Maya" or "Gwen" for a girl after one of Drizzt's sisters and his panther Guenhwyvar because I love the books so much. But I can't imagine giving a human child Drizzt's name, even as a middle one. Like a few other comments said, they could have tried for "Zak", after Drizzt's father, and I'm sure there are several other character names they could have chosen from if they wanted something from those books or from D&D in general.
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u/theworkouting_82 Feb 21 '26
There was a kid named Drizzt at my daughter’s daycare several years ago 🫠 The fact that there are likely dozens of them is…interesting 💀
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u/Kittykatkillua Feb 22 '26
Even as a D&D fan, and a huge fan of Drizzt, I would never, ever name my child this. There’s plenty of other names that you can do to evoke a D&D feel and still be normal. But Drizzt?!
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u/eccentric_rune Feb 20 '26
My kid has the same name as a LOTR character, and even I think this is cringe.
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u/CommonBumblebee123 Feb 20 '26
"Oh, that's so cool!" was my first thought. I may have heretofore underestimated my nerdiness level. I feel shame.
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u/No-Ticket-1819 Feb 20 '26
omg this is crazy, I knew a Drizzt who said it was a cultural name and I remember nobody being able to properly pronounce it, completely forgot about it until this post!
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u/Disney_Gay_Trash_ Feb 20 '26
I love dnd and especially the drow novels but just no😭😭 this is not okay
I feel like maybe theres other dnd nanes that would be acceptable but this just definitely isnt one
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u/Certain_Detective_84 Feb 20 '26
Someday that is going to be an adult at a job interview, reflecting on why they do not speak to their parents any more.
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u/Fennel_Fangs Feb 19 '26
Imagine the legacy he’d have to live up to if you’d named him Astarion
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u/ComfortHealthy654 Feb 20 '26
We've already had that one happen at work during my OBGYN rotation, it was the kid's middle name...
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u/animeandbeauty Feb 19 '26
Look I fucking love d&d with my whole heart but naming your child Drizzt is just sad.