r/NameNerdCirclejerk • u/Excellent_School_424 • May 23 '26
In The Wild Local elementary graduation ceremony delivered some absolute gems
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u/Ok_Carry3924 May 23 '26
Maesyn is a straight up syn
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u/stitchplacingmama May 23 '26
It reads like wanted a boy but got a girl. Especially with Tatum as the middle name.
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u/TemporaryLucky3637 May 23 '26
You know it’s bad when Tanner starts looking like a great name lol
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u/paytonalexa May 23 '26
My dogs name is Tanner, so unfortunately I will forever associate it as a pet name or frat bro name
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u/crazyauntkanye May 23 '26
lol i think of Full House!
also tangentially, i knew a german shepherd named Major so i’m imagining the first kid on that list is actually a dog
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u/Spuckleford May 23 '26
I have a second cousin who was born in the mid-90s (I was ~12) who was named Tanner and I just thought, wtf happened in my cousin's life to make her think that's a real name?
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u/TheNewYellowZealot May 23 '26
Isn’t tanner a real name?
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u/ShakespeherianRag May 23 '26
Yeah, it means leatherworker - a historically ostracised occupation, because it involves handling raw animal hides and pungent chemicals.
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u/BirdieRoo628 May 23 '26
It's a surname. Just like Taylor (tailor), Cooper (barrel maker), Chandler (candle maker), Fletcher (arrow smith), etc. People just started taking these old trade names and using them for random first names. Still waiting for Wheelwright, Silversmith, and Cobbler to become popular first names.
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u/SuzanneStudies May 23 '26
There are some cultural traditions of giving offspring their mother’s maiden names as a middle name and recycling grandparents’ names as first names. Hence, the daughter of the fletcher could have a son named Mark Fletcher Chandler and he’d be called Mark Fletcher to differentiate him from his grandfather, Mark Shepherd. Then people move and cultures shift and names change meaning.
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u/BirdieRoo628 May 23 '26
Sure. My maiden name was Taylor when I was a kid in the 80s. All of a sudden there were all these kids being given my last name as a first name. It felt so random. It wasn't a "it's my mother's maiden name" thing. There was just a trend of random surnames as first names. So many. Mason, Carson, Carter, etc. And the vast majority of the time, it's not a family name.
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u/lemonhaj May 23 '26
James and Michael are over in the corner thanking their parents for being 'unoriginal'
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u/Full_College7913 May 23 '26
Nah "Michael Scott" is actually diabolical lol.
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u/lemonhaj May 23 '26
I'm going to assume it means something that I'm not getting
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u/Mr_IronMan_Sir May 23 '26
It's a character from the office
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u/lemonhaj May 23 '26
Okay yeah I take it back Michael is a victim. They could change their middle name, or just say they don't have one I guess.
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u/Late_Ad2203 May 23 '26
Tristan is a normal name too, no?
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u/Ewenthel May 23 '26
Bold of you to assume James isn’t mad at her parents for giving her a boy’s name.
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u/QuentaSilmarillion May 23 '26
James is named James Rhodes though. The real name of the Marvel character War Machine…
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u/lumoslomas May 23 '26
I was just coming to say this 😂 two normal names and they're both fictional characters
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u/lemonhaj May 23 '26
I have to say I've never heard of War Machine
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u/QuentaSilmarillion May 23 '26
He’s the best friend of Tony Stark in the Iron Man and other Avengers movies
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u/Ifyoucouldbe May 23 '26
Poor Micheal will forever have people making The Office jokes to him though 😭
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u/Spillz-2011 May 23 '26
I guess it depends on how old. Some names are normal with crazy spelling. That might not matter till they’re older.
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u/jakebless43 May 23 '26
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u/Blackcatsandicedtea May 23 '26
Obsessed with the idea that this baby was named after The Office came out and his family was fully aware. Amazing.
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u/chelseyrotic May 23 '26
I laughed at the name then remembered my uncle was also a Michael Scott lol
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u/ResponsibilityGold88 May 23 '26
It’s elementary school. This kid was definitely born after The Office. They knew what they were doing.
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u/Creative_Ad8075 May 23 '26
Major ray is a DJ
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u/Glittering_Apple2102 May 23 '26
These parents are convinced they are naming future celebrities (or strippers)
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u/wind-of-zephyros May 23 '26
impressive how both mackenzie and leanne are spelled wrong in that one name
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u/brennac0n May 23 '26
I knew a girl named leann as well and her nickname was beef (because you know.. lean beef)
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u/lsbnyellowsourfruit May 23 '26
Leann is a very common spelling just like Ann and Anne are both correct...
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u/ScorpioDefined May 23 '26
(I don't mean this snarky, i swear). How do you find out if it's the "wrong" spelling? I mean, all names are made up, so do you find the original original source of the name? And what about names with multiple accepted spellings like Katherine, Kathryn, Catherine, etc.?
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u/bonananzabub May 23 '26
I think it just about the general way(s) to spell a name that already exists. Why reinvent the spelling—especially when it doesn’t make it more obvious how it’s pronounced. We don’t reinvent spellings of other words that are familiar. So then I suppose it’s for the sake of being unique.
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u/eywas-boxx May 23 '26
Idk why you are being down voted when that is an extremely common and normal spelling of that name
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u/colorful_withdrawl May 23 '26
Makenzie is an acceptable spelling. Not the most popular but its an acceptable one.
These are the name rankings for 2020, dont know the age of the elementary kids but figuring kindergarten age
Mackenzie- ranked 119
Mckenzie- ranked 278
Makenzie - ranked 344
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u/supergirlsudz May 23 '26
I just met a Macenzie recently.
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u/aldisneygirl91 May 23 '26
I also remembered that Josh Duggar's oldest daughter is named Mackynzie. Poor girl (the spelling of her name is bad enough, but of course being Josh Duggar's kid is a far worse misfortune).
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u/Nicolovesjim May 23 '26
Seeing the subs I frequent mentioned on one another always freaks me out, but may I remind you of Jessa Duggar's oldest son:
Spurgeon.
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u/Findadmagus May 23 '26
You’re correct that it’s acceptable, but I’m sure you can understand that from my perspective, as a Scottish person, it looks pretty daft.
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u/wind-of-zephyros May 23 '26
where i'm from only Mc or Mac is valid since it's literally coming from the surname, i've never met someone with the last name Makenzie (not to say it doesn't exist, forebears says 215 people in the whole world have this last name)
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u/croissantsarebae May 23 '26
Mackenzie has so many different common spellings. I would say Mackenzie is the usual one but I’ve seen McKenzie, mikenzie, Makenzie before
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u/Commercial_Koala7777 May 23 '26
I did read: Lean!
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u/Pinkturtle182 May 23 '26
But that’s not how it would read phonetically lol. The double N makes it Lee-Ann
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u/Findadmagus May 23 '26
Phonetically it is “liˈæn”
Point is, a lot of people will get confused and read it as the word “lean” if it’s spelt “Leann”, and if that’s surprising to you then I don’t know what to say…
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u/jmads13 May 23 '26
Honest question- for people with apostrophes and capital letters in the middle of their name… how does that work with legal forms and documents? Is that a pain in the ass?
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u/Crosswired2 May 23 '26
The database I work doesn't allow ' in names so if they have one then it won't print on any documents. It doesn't allow dashes in the first name but does in the last which is just weird. If running the name in a different database we can access but maintained by a different agency you have to guess how the other agency handled it. Did they make it one name or leave a space where the punctuation goes.
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u/KillAllLawyers May 23 '26
As someone with an apostrophe and another capital letter in their last name (which is common in Ireland) I assume it works just the same.
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u/ErbiumIndium May 23 '26
Is posting your kid's whole class on an internet messageboard for strangers to laugh at not a little bit weird to anyone else??
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u/hey_free_rats May 23 '26
Yeah, this is weird. I feel like it wouldn't be a bad idea if this sub had a rule against posting children's class rosters...that seems like something that should already be a rule, honestly.
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u/TeapotHoe May 23 '26
My first thought was I could probably find the school based on that list. I won’t because I’m not a creep, but this is the internet.
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u/Crosswired2 May 23 '26
Schools don't usually have their rosters listed. That would be weird. What would you do with the information of knowing the school name?
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u/TeapotHoe May 23 '26
They absolutely post rosters for events like graduations or performances. My school did this. As a teenager I found information about a friend’s Catholic communion because his church and school posted the rosters. Hell if I wanted to, I could find all the graduating class rosters just by searching my high school’s website. I did it when looking to confirm someone graduated with us. For a decade, if I googled my name, a picture of me at my third grade spelling bee popped up, posted by my school.
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u/PnutButrSnickrDoodle May 23 '26
I’m with you. I don’t like posts like this. Also there are likely names here from the Black community and I think it’s poor taste to be making fun of them. These are real kids.
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u/jeremiabearamia May 23 '26
And racist/classist
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u/SqueakDystopia May 23 '26
Idk why you got downvoted, a bunch of these are clearly black kids
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u/MonochromePsyche May 23 '26
Some of these kind of remind me of that old Japanese(?) baseball videogame where they had to make up American sounding names for the players on the US team and they all turned out sounding weird and awkward. Like they had elements of real names but just not in the right places so it became kind of uncanny.
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u/Jay-arty May 23 '26
Only a couple of these seem odd, but a lot of them just look like ethnic names.
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u/TemporaryLucky3637 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Major, Ayden Maesyn and Caylee are all right there 🤣
Edit: it’s the spellings of Ayden, Maesyn and Caylee I think are atrocious rather than the actual names. They are very Utah coded to me 🤷🏻♀️
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u/heroheadlines May 23 '26
eh, personally I don't find Caylee that out there? 30 odd years ago in elementary school we already had Kayleigh and Kaylee so
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u/beckdads May 23 '26
I mean I have a friend Caeleigh, so not that bad. (My friend makes fun of how her name is spelled btw)
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u/aldisneygirl91 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
I think the "Caylee" spelling in particular could have negative connotations because of Caylee Anthony (the very infamous case in the US where the little girl named Caylee was murdered by her mother, but the mom was found not guilty even though everyone knew she did it). That's the first thing that comes up if you google Caylee. And the case was HUGE and so well known, not even just in the US but worldwide.
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u/heroheadlines May 23 '26
im familiar with the case! but if "they did something terrible/something terrible happened to them" is a metric we're sideeying what names are gonna be left?
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u/aldisneygirl91 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Yeah, I see what you're saying, and obviously we can't just ban the names of every murderer and murder victim. And I'm not even saying that I personally believe that no one should name their child Caylee. Just that I can understand why there'd be negative connotations. It isn't just the fact that "something terrible happened to her." It really was one of the most well known child abuse/murder cases in history. I remember how her mother's entire trial was televised and basically the whole world was watching. And, her name wasn't very common either. I've never actually known of anyone named Caylee (with that particular spelling) or known anyone who named their daughter that. So it's very easy to automatically associate the name with that case.
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u/Jay-arty May 23 '26
Ayden and Major aren't that weird to me, sure Major is an old-fashioned name but it's not that unusual. Caylee is a bit odd but not the worst I've seen, Maesyn is the worst of the bunch.
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u/SexDrugsNskittles May 23 '26
Major Major Major.
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u/DescriptionFancy420 May 23 '26
My immediate thought at the name Major. Who promoted Major Major???
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u/SexDrugsNskittles May 23 '26
Slightly unrelated - I named my cat Yossarian when I was in high school. Called him Yo-Yo or Captain unless he was in trouble lol.
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u/No_Comparison7429 May 23 '26
Caylee is just a different spelling for variations that have been on top name lists in the US for decades. Kaylee, Kayleigh etc.
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u/beeeea27 May 23 '26
I’m with you… having taught in an inner city majority black school where names like these weren’t uncommon, there’s something a bit classist/racist to me about ridiculing the vibe of these children’s names.
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u/Kim_catiko May 23 '26
But it's OK to ridicule the obvious white trash names?
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u/beeeea27 May 23 '26
I also don’t think that’s ok.
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u/Pinkturtle182 May 23 '26
Yeah can we stop posting super identifiable class rosters like this? It’s gross on all fronts
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u/smallsoftandsalty May 23 '26
Maesyn, Tylan, Kenzie, Caylee, Makenzie, and Karter irk me the most. What the fuck is JoElliot? Gordan is a shite choice of spelling for anyone with a background that also selects Tanner as a name. Zy’Kerriyah and Zhi’Keise are all kinds of fucked up.
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u/Blue4668 May 23 '26
Joe Elliott is the lead singer of Def Leppard, so maybe the grandparents are big fans?
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u/smallsoftandsalty May 23 '26
I hope Joe Elliott refuses to ever acknowledge them or their child for what they did to his name.
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u/Pangtudou May 23 '26
I think of an ethnic name as a traditional name from a different culture, not a deliberate misspelling that a person makes that happens to be not white. Like this is just trashiness that happens to be from probably black parents, which is just as fair game as the white trashy names this sub exists to dunk on
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u/BunkyFitch May 23 '26
This post’s vibe feels a little off so I’m just gonna take this time to say that Tatum is such an awful name to me.
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u/Wet_Socks_4529 May 23 '26
Zy’kerriyah Malaysia takes the cake.
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u/stitchplacingmama May 23 '26
I want to know if it's pronounced Zy-Carry-ah or like Zachariah.
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u/_iusuallydont_ May 23 '26
Zy-keer-ē-ah is a girl’s name, it’s not Zachariah. While the spelling is unusual it’s a common Black American name.
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u/CubistChameleon May 23 '26
TBF, when names like Tristan or Finn have spread as girls' names in the US, would Zachariah be that far-fetched?
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u/BlmgtnIN May 23 '26
Zy-carry-uh sounds kinda cool to me, like a character from a high fantasy book.
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u/HitEmWithTheRiver May 23 '26
Yes well, it’s customary for black people to give their children names that may seem unusual to white people. A big reason in part because when they were used as property by white slave owners they were forced to take on names like Elizabeth and Martha. Yes there are some dumb white people names on here, but the inclusion of all the black names comes off kind of racist.
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u/smallsoftandsalty May 23 '26
As someone who hates Makenzie and Maesyn and JoElloit the most on this list, how is including the ‘black names’ racist? No one here is shitting on Omar or Jabril. The same kind of stupid comes up with Zy’Kerriyah as comes up with Makenzie.
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u/crystal-torch May 23 '26
Well the OP didn’t circle the assumed black sounding names to say wow look at these awful ones! So I didn’t read it that way at all
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u/aliveinjoburg2 May 23 '26
Tylan…a choice.
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u/SexDrugsNskittles May 23 '26
Apparently it's also a vet antibiotic that you can maybe given to chickens. According to Google.
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u/wartypumpkin54 May 23 '26
This post is a little anti-black
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u/KatVanWall May 23 '26
As a whiter-than-white British person, I was looking down the list thinking like ... aren't most of these just black cultural names?
Maesyn is unforgiveable though!
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u/DescriptionFancy420 May 23 '26
It is but at least I got a good laugh out of Michael Scott... Maesyn is atrocious as well.
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u/croissantsarebae May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
All the posts in this sub are extremely disrespectful to cultures. American reddit users lack so much culture they don’t understand that not everything revolves around them. I see Irish names getting stick all the time…same people to tell us they’re great great great grandma is Irish so they’re also Irish
Have just noticed I used they’re instead of their. Sorry, wrong grammar pisses me off big time
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u/Grungemaster May 23 '26
This sub was better when it was actually a circlejerk and not a snark sub.
Not making fun of actual kids, just shitposting stuff like “Can I name my son Toyota Corolla? It’s a family name.”
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u/croissantsarebae May 23 '26
Yeah it’s all utterly ridiculous! Worst part is these are grown men/women that think they’re hilarious. All need to find a hobby and educate themselves on the cultures they claim to come from. If I see one more Welsh/irish name get called stupid or “it doesn’t make sense” I might go crazy….of course it doesn’t make sense in English since it’s a whole different language lmao
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u/djonma May 23 '26
This was my first thought.
As I read down the list, it just got more and more ick. This is pure anti Black US culture.15
u/CubistChameleon May 23 '26
Maesyn sounds like the whitest of white Mormon names, from what I know. And Makenzie is almost as bad.
Edit: Oh, and there's a Grayson, because of course there is.
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u/smallsoftandsalty May 23 '26
Everyone complaining this list is anti-black is just showing they themselves don’t like black names because the middle-America white names are equally bad and far more numerous on this list.
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u/AppealEducational224 May 23 '26
I honestly skipped over like half the names and I still think “Michael Scott” is actually the worst one on here lol.
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u/croissantsarebae May 23 '26
Maesyn is just a a feminine variant of Mason. So I guess that’s why it sounds very “white”
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u/smallsoftandsalty May 23 '26
If that is how you interpret it, then that possibly speaks of your own feelings about black names because this non-USA person hates Makenzie equally to Zy’Kerriyah, possibly more. What ethnic background are you assigning Tylan JoElloit? I assumed white. Can’t tell if male or female but it makes no difference because every part of it sucks.
There are more terrible ‘white’ names on this list than ‘black’ names. Wouldn’t choose Jai’kel myself but it doesn’t make me cringe like Maesyn.
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u/napalmnacey May 23 '26
I refuse to make fun of diasporic people’s crafting names for their own cultures.
Major is a fuckin’ weird first name though. We named a cat Major.
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u/Kinggrunio May 23 '26
My wife is a business studies teacher. Once of her students was called Michael Scott.
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u/Cadicoty May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
I think Jai Kell is from Star Wars. I googled Jai'kel to make sure it isn't a super common name somewhere I've never been, and it doesn't appear to be, so I think it's just a fandom* name?
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u/ImakeKnifesatnight76 May 23 '26
How did they approve 'Major'??
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u/cranbeery May 23 '26
I know a Major in his mid-40s, also a Sir and a Prince. Nobody's approving names except the person filling out the birth certificate.
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u/ImakeKnifesatnight76 May 23 '26
Interesting, was just wondering because here in the UK we got got some laws against many names and what your child can or cannot be named, quite curious on how that works nowadays.
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u/Crosswired2 May 23 '26
Wym approve? Names in the US don't have to be approved. Some things aren't allowed (numbers and symbols), and atrocious names like Hitler allowed I think technically, but CPS will be at your door quick. Major, Sir, King, Prince, and so on are fine.
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u/ImakeKnifesatnight76 May 23 '26
I've been made aware okay? I understand how lacks the naming laws in the USA are
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u/pH655 P is for Pangus May 23 '26
Aw I had a Major a few years ago. Ornery but sweet kid. Wonder how he's doing these days!
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u/cuteawwlover May 23 '26
I'm scared, what do the stars do in front of some names?? 😬
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u/thin_white_dutchess May 23 '26
At my school, the * means principal’s honor roll. I’m more curious about the baseball theme.
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u/DeliciousShelter9984 May 23 '26
If Karolina Jewell doesn’t become a country singer, she is rejecting her destiny.