Anyone run across any really strange names? I have a teacher friend who swears she taught a Larceny Mo'Nay. I've met a kid named Bam Bam myself. No, that wasn't a nickname, his parents gave him that name.

On the more goth side of things, I once knew a short black guy named Byron who sometimes wore ruffled shirts and top hats. Also, a bubbly blond goth girl named Ligea. Seriously. Her parents were hippies.

Oh, and there was a politician running for office named Robert Smith, so "Vote for Robert Smith" signs appeared everywhere. Hee.

Anyone else find any odd or strangely appropriate names?

I used to work with a guy named Mowgli. I was rather impressed.

There was one middle-eastern kid named Shithead (pronounced "Sha-theed") in my 6th grade elementary school class.
The teacher always thought someone in the office was fucking with him when he read the attendance.....

Interesting story told in this fashion:

Teacher: *while calling role-call, stops at an unusually spelled name(la-a)* Lah-ah? Leh-ah?
La-a: It's La-a (pronounced Ladasha).

No joke, this girl got so mad when the teacher pronounced her name wrong. Shit, I would, too, if I was her...

centurion: Haha, Shithead.

According to U.S. Social Security Administration records, between the years of 1965 and 1982 there were at least 42 baby girls born in the U.S. who were given the name "Morticia." (There could have been more, but the SSA only provides data on baby names with a minimum of 5 occurrences in any given year.)

The SSA recorded a total of 10 baby girls born in the U.S. who were given the name "Chlorine." (5 in 1919 and 5 in 1924).

The SSA recorded a total of 303 baby boys born in the U.S. between the years of 1995 and 2010 who were given the name "Lestat."

-- Nephele

Nephele, in your INFINITE power of G-net administration, can you tell me how many "Lestats" were born around the 16th century?

It's just that you've sparked my curiousity when you brought forth how many "Lestats" there were born with the name between 1995-2010.

BTW, my real name is Matt. I kinda hate it, if only because it's short for Matthew. I won't give you my full name, but let's just say to me, when you put it all together, it sounds real goody-goody. A biblical name for my first as well as my middlle name does that

As for what I'd like to change my name to, I'm not sure. People have told me that I look like a "Mark" in the past. I'm not really feeling that name. I'd probably pick a name that to me, strikes as a "strong" name, like Victor or Richter. Both names to me say, "I'm a strong silent type."

I wish I could, but one would have to delve through numerous surveys, censuses, church records, etc. to compile that kind of information. And, are you asking how many children were named "Lestat" throughout the world, or just in the U.S.? If we're talking about "Lestats" born and named in the U.S., census records didn't even list first names prior to 1850.

The Mormons are probably your best source for finding individuals given the name of "Lestat" throughout the world and throughout the centuries (as either first names or more likely surnames). The Mormons make genealogical research a part of their religion and they've compiled billions of records for this purpose. Check out their website at FamilySearch.org. The Church of Latter Day Saints makes their resources freely available to all.

As for those Lestats recorded by the U.S. Social Security Administration who were born between the years 1995 and 2010, I think it's a safe bet that their parents were influenced by the movie Interview with the Vampire, which came out in 1994.

A lot of parents are influenced by movies, television, and celebrities when naming their children, and that's when we're most likely to see a rise in unusual names. Here's a link to an article I wrote for Nameberry.com, regarding the rise in popularity of some names due to a Spanish television network series titled Nuestra Belleza Latina:

Name Popularity List: Two new Latin names and how they got there, by Nephele

-- Nephele

The hard part would be the software most digital genealogy databases use, which normally require [at least part of] a surname in all queries. You'd need access to the raw data in spreadsheet format, and then make your own way of searching threw it. This makes that sound like it's easy to obtain, for most collections it isn't.

On FAG there's no surnames of "Lestat," "Lioncourt." or "De Lioncourt." Lioncourt sounds plausible enough as a surname that I actually expected some kind of hit on that one.

I recall one of those paragraph long "odd stories" on yahoo talking about a genealogist working in England who came across a 16th century person named Dot Com, so anything is possible.

Some of the names on that list are just hideous and I pity the kids that have to endure them until they are old enough to change them

The chances of "*" not being an option in the surname field are slim.

Doesn't work on rootsweb, familysearch or fag.

Familysearch returns error "Do not use only punctuation marks in searches. However, you can use apostrophes, hyphens, and periods with letters."

FAG returns "You must enter at least two characters in the surname field. "

And rootsweb returns only entries where someone literally put "*" as the entry's last name.

That makes me a sad panda with some knowledge of databases.....

I never would have guessed that he was a user of MaryJane with a name like that

That lame name is better suited for an animated Disney frog, than a hard-drinking, knife-toting drug fiend.

In Nephele World, his name change would have to be a cool anagram of his original name, Jeffrey Drew Wilschke. Like Jeffrery Wick'dwheels. Wheee!

-- Nephele