There’s a story spreading on Facebook and other social media about a mother who tweeted:
Hashtag Jameson was born at 10oclock last night. She weys* 8pounds and I luv her so much!!!!
No, I am not including a direct link or screenshot, as I do not think we should be hunting down and mocking this woman to her face. We can, however, totally mock her behind her back, and not just for not knowing how to spell weighs or love.
Lady, there’s an app for that.
[Image source: Apple, Inc.]
Is this poor child, who, as we see from the featured image that was included with the original Tweet is actually pretty darn cute, really saddled with the name Hashtag or did the mother just not know where the # was on her keyboard and figured it was the next best thing? There was a couple in Israel last year who named their child Like, after the Facebook feature, but then Love is an actual Hebrew name (Ahava). Techcitement writer Dani Weiss-Bronstein weighed in on some other interesting Hebrew names she’s come across:
“My friend had a girl named Ta’ut (Mistake) in her class. And she knew another girl named Achzava (Disappointment) whose parents had wanted a boy. Yay for permanent damage! And [husband] thought I was nuts that I wanted to name one of our children Beowulf.”
I feel sorry for those kids, but I also can’t help wondering how, assuming this is a legit story, Hashtag and the rest of these seemingly unfortunately-named children will feel in 20 years. I doubt Twitter will be around at that time, at least in the form we know now. Imagine a child from even four years ago being named MySpace or some 10 year old saddled with the name Geocities; how would she even explain either of those outdated names to her friends? Could be worse though, Hashtag’s parents could’ve named the child Usenet.
We now leave you with the immortal song-stylings of Mister Johnny Cash.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1BJfDvSITY’]
That’s nothing… Rabbi Pesach Wolicki received a phone call for “Mr. Pee-satch Wall-ick-eye…” I’ll never forget *that* story. And my name, Ra’anan, is an adverb. Means “refreshingly”. Like, “Johnny Dangerously”…
Actually it’s an adjective meaning refreshed. The adverb would be מרענן.
Could be worse. My adopted sister named her first daughter Metallica.
A history lesson:
Back in the ’70s, there was a vogue for unusual names; lots of hippie types named their kids “Sunshine” or “Harmony”. Among them, there were a number of celebrities who gifted their progeny with unique names; David Bowie named his son Zowie, Barbara Hershey and David Carradine named theirs Free, and Abby Hoffman christened his boy America. Today, Zowie Bowie is called Duncan Jones, Free Carradine is Paul, and America Hoffman is named Allen.
Back in 1985, when I changed my last name (gave myself a fatherectomy), there was a long list of people on the court docket who were also changing their names. Sunshine was becoming Susan, Harmony was changing to Helen, etc. There is little doubt that 20 years from now, little Hashtag will be forking over a handful of cash to the courthouse to become Hayley or Hannah or some other name.
I did some work for children’s services and I must admit drug addicts pick some odd names for the kids that get removed from their care. I recall names like Raygun, Powerful, Doctor, Godzilla, & Gonorrhea on various documents.