Harold Ball was our mayor. Buzz Hoff lived in the neighborhood. Rode the bus with a white girl named Mercedes.

I dated a girl in college named Rose. If I'd married her, her name would have been Rose Rose.

I dated another girl whose last name was Rose, she would not have had to change her last name. "What's your last name? Rose, what was your maiden name? Rose

I always wanted to have two sons and two daughters. Name the boys Ford and Dodge and the girls Porsche and Mercedes.

http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Apr08/17_001109_The_History_Behind_The_Mercedes_Benz_Bra nd_And_The_Three_Pointed_Star.html
Excepts from above link:
"Mercédès – a Spanish girl’s name meaning ‘grace’ – was the name of the daughter born in 1889 to the Austrian businessman, Emil Jellinek, who had homes in Baden near Vienna and Nice."

"Jellinek demanded ever faster and more powerful vehicles from DMG. From 1899, he entered these in race meetings – first and foremost of which was the Nice Week – where he would race under his pseudonym Mercédès - the name of his daughter, ten years old at the time, and a name that was well known in motoring circles. In the early days, the name referred to the team and driver – not to an automotive brand."

-Chris

"At the beginning of April 1900, Jellinek made an agreement with DMG concerning sales of cars and engines and the decision was taken to use the Jellinek’s pseudonym as a product name. In addition, it was agreed that a new engine “bearing the name Daimler-Mercedes” was to be developed."

I was referring to the two girls I saw at WalMart, not the names themselves...

The thing I like most about that is that the girls' names in particular don't follow this ridiculous convention whereby they have to be two syllables (or easily shortened to two syllables) with the second syllable being "E". Examples:

Sandy
Ashley
Chloe
Hailey
Zoe
Kaylee
Leslie
Courtney
Audrey
Riley
Mary
Muffy (puke)

Kimberly -> Kimmy
Stephanie -> Steffie
Suzanne -> Suzy
Marlene -> Marley
Christine -> Chrissy
Catherine -> Cathy
Emily -> Emmy
Samantha -> Sammy
Elizabeth -> Lizzy
Lauren -> Laurie
Jessica -> Jessie
Sophia -> Sophie
Kaitlin -> Katie
Victoria -> Vickie
Jessica -> Jessie
Allison -> Allie
Amanda -> Mandy

Where the heck does this silly convention come from? I like the names "Mercedes" and "Porsche" (preferably "Portia", from the Shakespeare) precisely because they CAN'T be forced into this stupid convention (well, that and the fact I have a certain affinity for the vehicles that share the names)... The whole sing-songy/cutesy pattern for girls' names is so silly. I'm quite glad my wife's name is similar and really can't be shortened to fit this pattern too (she's got a very uncommon Irish name; I've never met anyone else with it).

It's even worse when they start feeling the need to overly "cutesify" it by changing the trailing "e" or "ey" to "i" or "ie" or "ee" like:

Jessica -> Jessi (oh god, kill me)
Catherine -> Cathi (ick)
Audrey -> Audree

Who comes up with this stuff? Don't they realize a kid is eventually going to grow up to be a young person, a teenager and eventually an adult? They can't stay a cute little baby forever, so why stick them with a name that will impede their chances of being taken seriously as an adult? How many CEOs are named "Kimmy" or "Tiffany" (OK I know that's 3 syllables, but bear with me) or "Kaylee"?

Yeesh.

OK that's my rant for the day. Just think before you name your kids people. Or your pets. Nothing worse than having to walk your 150-pound Lab whose named "Muffin" because some idiot thought he looked cute as a puppy... Gonna' give the poor dog a complex.

Was at a school function, there was a set of gene donors there that named their 2 boys Charger and Ranger.

And a friend just had a baby, named her Calliope Blue

I agree. I have two daughters; Anna (she's never, ever called "Annie") and Brynn (good luck messing with that one).

That's just wrong.

It's even worse when you find out that his name really is Lube Master :p

On a side note, one of my close friends has a surname of "Catalano" - very strong European name with roots in Sicily and Spain. We were discussing what he should name his son before he was born and he really wanted a strong Italian-sounding name. He actually considered some of the names of past Roman Emperors and Senate members (including stuff like "Augustus", "Julius", etc.) Finally decided on Maximilian Octavius Catalano. Yea he gets stuck with the one-syllable conventional truncation in elementary school these days ("Max") but I seriously doubt anyone's going to screw with a guy named "Maximilian Octavius" later on in life. :)

Plus it's a damn cool name, I think.

I have a particularly not intelligent cousin, who has decided that he has found God. Well, he and his wife recently had a child, and wanted to give it a biblical name.

This is the honest truth...they named the kid Marcus Aurelius.

Yeah, good job there cousin! you nailed that biblical name! I can only hope that your kid is as strong as the heathen Roman who postdates the Bible, because he's gonna get his butt kicked on a regular basis!