I'm kicking around a story idea that will probably never go anywhere, but it requires the female protagonist to have a first name she absolutely loathes beginning with 'M'.
Suggestions please.
AJ
I'm kicking around a story idea that will probably never go anywhere, but it requires the female protagonist to have a first name she absolutely loathes beginning with 'M'.
Suggestions please.
AJ
There's a dead tree book I've read where the female main character's name is "Moonflower Freedom Refreshing Breeze Joplin Duvall-Wenstein". Her parents were uber hippies.
There's also Frank Zappa's daughter, Moon Unit Zappa.
I know a couple of people like that in real life, except their mother didn't bother with the spaces. So the guy is named something like: LeafMarijuanaHashishGanjaGreenReef. I can't recall his sister's name.
I know a couple of people like that in real life, except their mother didn't bother with the spaces.
They must have loads of fun at tax time. :)
Moonflower
'Moonflower' would be a candidate but I don't think it's quite awful enough. I can imagine someone actually liking it.
ETA Continuing the 'moon' theme, would any parents be weird enough to name their daughter Moonshine? Or Moonglory?
AJ
'Moonflower' would be a candidate but I don't think it's quite awful enough.
But the character in question, it wasn't just 'Moonflower', it was 'Moonflower Freedom Refreshing Breeze Joplin' and that's not including the last name.
What sort of girl is she? That might help explain why she would loathe the name. The first ones that some to mind for me are Myrtle and Mildred. Maybe Mabel or Matilda?
One of the easy ways to do this is with a name that is deeply important to a specific culture or religion -- which the character is not a part of. An obvious example would be something like Mohammed; not only is it an exclusively male name, but if the character isn't Muslim then having the name could be seen as offensive to people who are.
You don't have to go this far, though. Figure out the character's age, back track by that much plus 2 - 10 years, then find the most popular films, TV series, and books from that era and see if any main character names jump out at you. For example, there are currently a lot of girls named Hermione in their late teens.
One of the easy ways to do this is with a name that is deeply important to a specific culture or religion
That's something along the lines I was thinking of. Not the name of a famous character from a religious tome, but perhaps one of the qualities the righteous like to associate with their religion. Unembarrassing examples not starting with 'M' might include Faith, Hope, Charity.
AJ
I used to work with a girl named Charity. Trust me, it's not unembarrassing. Especially given that some people will misspeak (or tease) and say Chastity instead.
Mädchen (like Mädchen Amick)
Amick's parents are of partial German descent; the name Mädchen, which means "girl" in German, was chosen by her parents because they wanted an unusual name.
Mädchen Amick is now nearly 52 and still called "Girl". I think I would be embarrassed if my parents had named me 'Bübchen' ('Little Boy').
If you wouldn't insist on beginning with 'M' I thought about 'Nevaeh' ('Heaven' backwards), and how about 'Lleh' ('Hell') which looks like it's (shortened) Welsh.
HM.
I'd need to know more, but what if it had to do with a nickname she hates attached to her name, like if her name was "Mandy" the nickname could be "Randy Mandy"
I wasn't thinking along the lines of a nickname, but something she thought so awful she refused to answer to it at school.
AJ
Parents want to honour (ensure they are in the will) of both grandmothers so name their daughter Maudalynn…
Father wanted to name his son Martin, but the child is a girl so they chose Martini. Didn't take school kids long to discover the Martini (drink) advert hook line. "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere."
ETA
You might find what you need by adding a middle name. For example if Mr and Mrs Player named their daughter Ana Louise. Sounds innocent, but…
Ana L Player.
For example if Mr and Mrs Player named their daughter Ana Louise. Sounds innocent, but…
It would be funnier if it was Mr and Mrs Plug
Father wanted to name his son Martin, but the child is a girl so they chose Martini.
I thought of appending 'Gale' to 'Martin' to make a girl's name, but my muse bridled at that.
AJ
I thought of appending 'Gale' to 'Martin' to make a girl's name, but my muse bridled at that.
Tacky, very tacky. Glad you reined yourself in.
Mr and Mrs Ringer were keen campanologists, so they named their daughter Isabell…
Guy from my hometown. His first name was Harold, but he went by Harry. His middle name was Long. And his last name was Cox. He named his son Richard, but everyone called him Dick.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39438720/harry-l-cox
I had an uncle whose first name was Charles, but he only used his first initial, and his middle name of Harry. So everyone had to ask for C. Harry Butz.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/185720012/c-harry-butz
His middle name was Long.
'Long' is four letters.
'Short' is five letters.
Therefore short is longer than long.
BTW, the Addams family movies have recently done the rounds on UK network TV. I'm not going to use the name 'Morticia' because I can imagine someone actually liking having that as a name.
AJ
I worked with a teenager about 15 years ago. Her parents were BIG Clapton fans. Her name? Kokayne.
limab
Morag
The least feminine collection of syllables that ever came together to make a legitimate female name. It's Gaelic of some form, IIRC. Pronounced more-RAG. For parents with daughters destined to have heavy flows.
Something that was popular 3-4 generations ago but is now out of fashion.
Maude
Myrtle
Mildred
Modine.
Modine Gunch. The girl you get "fixed up with" when the popular good-looking couple has to double-date.
Just for the hell of it;
Mr & Mrs Tals, and their daughter, Jenny
Mr & Mrs Saur, and their daughter, Dinah
Mr & Mrs Saurus, and their daughter, Thea
Mr & Mrs Morning and their daughter Tamara
Mr & Mrs Ouncer, and their daughter, Ann
Mr & Mrs Slift, and their daughter, Fay
Mr & Mrs Phlets, and their daughter, Pam
Mr & Mrs Tiality and their daughter Bess
Mr & Mrs Masalata, and their daughter, Tara
Mr & Mrs Shwasher, and their daughter, Dee
Mr & Mrs Wood and their daughter Holly
Mr & Mrs Gulbells, and their daughter, Jean
Mr & Mrs Reece-Dancer and their daughter Mo
Mr & Mrs Path and daughter Em
Mr & Mrs Tickles ad their daughter Tess
Mr & Mrs Syrup and their daughter Mable
Domme Mina Trix and her sub miss eve
:)
Old fashioned names, such as Millicent, Mabel, Madge, Mae, Maisie, Mamie, Margaret, Margot, Maribel, Marigold, Marilyn, Marion, Marjorie, Marlene,Martha, Mary, Matilda, Maude, Maureen, Mavis, Maxine, May, Meg, Mercy, Meredith, Michelina, Midge, Mildred, Millicent, Millie, Minnie, Miriam, Mitzi, Molly, Muriel, Myra, Myrna, Myrtle
As you can see, I found a big list.
Several of those old fashioned names have experienced a revival. Especially with girl's names, all it takes is one character or actress on a popular TY show or movie to drive the revival. We know from experience: we purposely chose an Irish name for our daughter that we had never heard anyone else use for their child. When she got to preschool there were four other girls in her group with the same name - and three different spellings. Turns out that there was a popular TV character with that name that we had never heard of.
https://www.momjunction.com/articles/ugly-and-dumb-baby-names_00393862/
There are some real "what the fuck were the parents thinking" names on that list.
Mulva.
Her parents are big Seinfeld fans. Her brother Seven definitely got the better end of things.
Girl a year behind me in school growing up. Few would make fun of her name as she had 8 brothers. There idea of a fair fight was you was given the option of which one was going to kick your ass first.
Mona (full name not shorten)
Isn't there a Disney character named Moana?
AJ
Now you made me google it.
Moana Waialiki is the title character and main protagonist of Disney's 56th animated feature Moana (2016).
You could go for an obviously male name meant to honor someone in the family and she refuses to answer to it in school because she feels it makes her unfeminine and she gets teased abut it a lot. Mike, Mark, etc.... another way to go is if her parents made her first name something of an ongoing joke also in the male line... like maybe naming her Mister or Monseigneur. Anything along those lines would work especially if her personality was extremely feminine. The name would be hyper-embarrassing to her and she would basically refuse to acknowledge that it had anything to do with her.
During my former life, I cane into contact with many 'birthing persons' who might should have been sterilized at puberty.
Quite often the baby name is something ridiculous.
"Vagina Maye", "Angina", "Placentia", etc..
There was a couple girls' names beginning with "M" that I personally know of…
"Menarchia" is the worst I think.
A possibly fruitful line of search could be obscure ethnic names of random foreign natives that are either unpronounceable and thus likely butchered in English or easily misinterpreted, hold or collide with likewise obscure meanings in said native, or even random third language.
In Latvian, and for Latvian setting my probable picks could be
Malda,
while maldi = delusions, maldināt = to deceive, maldīties = to have wrong knowledge, assume wrong, "to hold wrong beliefs" or "to get lost [in the woods]"
Mora -- pronounced M(ua)ra,
while moris = mild racial slur for a person with really dark skin, or a very dirty person (covered in soot or mud).
I think that the o in Mora stands for the diphthong (ua)* makes it for a difficult name to have in international setting. That it effectively can be interpreted as "nigger" the others may not know, but she herself may have learned. (She's quite likely very blond, but might be even worse if she isn't.)
*as is the default in Latvian (official) middle dialect that nominally lacks the sound ooo entirely, other than in (great many) loanwords, that is.
(Edit: autocorrect revert, intentional -> international)
maldi
Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an archipelagic state located in South Asia, situated in the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 kilometers from the Asian continent's mainland. Wikipedia
Maldives
You mean, it's a pile of sex dolls?
Well, the second part of the compound word, -ive- doesn't immediately make sense to me, but it's not unreasonable to expand that i to a diphthong (ie) and then, when we revert from the non-standard plural and break the compound its "Maldu Ieva" ~ false/deceptive Eve, therefore dummy of Eve, yes, from the garden of Eden story, so...
What about a name that's typically associated with the older generations, like Mabel or Mallory? Or Margaret?