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Do you get a kick out of different types of names? And wonder why kids' parents gave them those names? I had a guy named Supreme help me at a business in the Toronto area when I was there over Canada Day weekend. He said it was more in synch with the Motown group than with the Oldsmobile product. There was a guy who worked at one of the hotels I stayed at in Portugal last summer. He was very cool. Portugal has a huge diaspora that includes Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Goa (near India), and more. His name was Majeek, and I think it was a spin on Magic. He was definitely not from Goa, nor South Asian, so it wasn't a name from India. But, coming back around to the U.S., there was a guy who worked at a big box retailer who would bring out my on-line orders. He had a great name: Daejohn. It made me think of dijon mustard ... or that he could be John by day, but someone else at night. If you're going to name a kid, be sure to ask yourself how you would like going to school and into the workforce with that name.

Don't get me started on the lists above. I will come back around to take a swipe at those. One of the things that sort of irritate me is how people name a kid with a foreign first name a few generations down as if to culturally appropriate or channel the culture. I've seen kids with names like Enzo, Giovanni, and several others. These people do not speak Italian, they probably have never been there or their going there is brief, and their connection to the country is tenuous. It's just recent trendy stupidity. Enzo comes from Vincenzo, so name that kid Vincent. And give that Giovanni the name John. (I know I can't tell people what to name their kids.) I find this a little insulting since Italian-Americans went through discrimination up until the last few decades and this is when their parents who had come to North America named them Michael, Joseph, Louis, Mark, and other "normal" names. And it's likely that these types described above were more connected to the culture. So, it's ludicrous that people who are removed from the culture have the foreign names. And it's also these people, who with a great grandfather on one side, clutter the consular channels to get dual citizenship for God knows what. * end of rant *

Becoming a grandparent in March 2024, it has been interesting listening to my son and daughter in-law talk about names for the coming grandson. Names are interesting and parents need to take into consideration the name but also pronunciation. My wife being Korean, English as a second language has a really hard time with R's, L's due to the lack of use in her native language. So as it has come up, some names are harder for my wife to say than others. Typing this I draw a blank on the half a dozen names they told us they are considering, but they did rule out strange names such as how some famous folks have called their kid Apple. Doing a bing search on top 2023 baby names, the Bing search engine returned the following: According to Parade, some of the most unusual baby names for 2023 include: Aero Alaska Ari Ashlynn Aspen Astrid Azure Bear Beckett Birdie Bode Brynlee Cadence Cami Case Caspian Charlize Cheyenne Cora Crew Cyrus Dagon Dahlia Damon Daphne Darra Daxton Dawson You can find more unusual baby names for boys and girls in Parade’s article 1. Another source, The Mummy Bubble, reports that some of the new arrivals to the top 100 most popular baby names include Blake, Brody, Kai, Rupert, Tobias, and Nathan 2. Mumsnet has also compiled a list of 200 unusual and unique baby names for both boys and girls 3. Finally, Fatherly has predicted that the following 20 unusual baby names could dominate 2023: Luxury Aurelia Maeve Eloise Alice Aurora Isla Luna Ophelia Iris Aria Nova Eden Freya Luna Arlo Atticus Theodore Jasper Levi You can read more about these predictions in Fatherly’s article 4.

I was wrong about the SS United States' speed on the Blue Riband winning crossing. Maybe you don't give a rat's a$$, but I'll still correct myself and tell you. I believe it was averaging around 35 knots, which might be 41 mph. It was NOT 41 knots. I wouldn't want a transatlantic crossing on any great ocean liner to be over in 4 days or less. Since there are no ports of call on the route, you can settle in for 5 or 6 days and take in all the different and interesting things there are to do on board.