Minor things that bother you

[Beltway]

Part of the problem is that both of those are surnames, and it irritates me when people give surnames to their kids as given names.  In my opinion, that's the type of name that's most likely to jump across the gender gap.  Taylor, Hunter, Carter, Madison, Lenox, Quinn, Presley, Reagan:  these names don't stick to just one gender as much as other names do because they aren't really first names at all.  They don't have centuries of history behind them as single-gender given names.  Both of the examples you gave didn't gain popularity as first names until the last hundred years, so it doesn't surprise me that they've floated from one gender to the other.

What I call last name first names.

I am not sure why parents would do that for girls. I personally prefer feminine names for girl babies.

Some names like mine have been used for first names and last names, it about equal frequency.

But generally use masculine names for boys and feminine names for girls, that is my preference.

I have heard that "Madison" became a female given name because of a 1980s movie where a mermaid washed up in New York City and needed a human-sounding name, and there was a sign for Madison Avenue nearby. I think that being considered a weird first name was even a plot point after that.

When I hear Madison I think of Madison, WI

[Max Rockatansky]

I think it is amusing that my wife has about the most generic Caucasian sounding female name (Jessica).  Several people who have worked for me were genuinely surprised to find out that Jessica is Hispanic because her name doesn't meet their expectations.  One person who worked for me once told me after meeting Jessica "I thought you'd married a leggy blonde girl" based off the name.

[vdeane]

Benedict Cumberbatch was an odd choice to play Khan.  He wasn't bad in the role but I was expecting someone more like Ricardo Montalbán.

They wanted Benicio del Toro but it fell through for some reason - which is how fans were able to guess what was going on before they even shot the movie.

[TheCatalyst31]

I have heard that "Madison" became a female given name because of a 1980s movie where a mermaid washed up in New York City and needed a human-sounding name, and there was a sign for Madison Avenue nearby. I think that being considered a weird first name was even a plot point after that.

When I hear Madison I think of Madison, WI

There's a pop singer named Madison Beer, and given how big Wisconsin's brewing industry is, whenever I hear her name I think of local alcohol before I remember that's a person. Apparently it's her birth name too, not a stage name.

[CoreySamson]

I really don't like the idea of joke pronouns. There's an entry field for it on Discord, and it's quite common there. I often can't tell the person's actual gender.

For telling the person's actual gender, it's no worse than their leaving it blank, is it?

Are there actually people that get offended if you were to leave it blank?

[Molandfreak]

Part of the problem is that both of those are surnames, and it irritates me when people give surnames to their kids as given names.  In my opinion, that's the type of name that's most likely to jump across the gender gap.  Taylor, Hunter, Carter, Madison, Lenox, Quinn, Presley, Reagan:  these names don't stick to just one gender as much as other names do because they aren't really first names at all.  They don't have centuries of history behind them as single-gender given names.

I have heard that "Madison" became a female given name because of a 1980s movie where a mermaid washed up in New York City and needed a human-sounding name, and there was a sign for Madison Avenue nearby. I think that being considered a weird first name was even a plot point after that.

Not really IIRC, Tom Hanks's character just commented that it "wasn't really a name," but he went along with it.

[bugo]

I've seen it observed that eventually people are going to start naming boys things like "Beer" and "Missile" and "Tank" and eventually those will somehow become girl names too.

That sounds like some of the characters in Idiocracy:
Frito Pendejo
Beef Supreme
Upgrayedd
Not Sure
Velveeta Jordan
Hank BMW
Dr. Lexus
and President of the United States, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho.

[Rothman]

Part of the problem is that both of those are surnames, and it irritates me when people give surnames to their kids as given names.  In my opinion, that's the type of name that's most likely to jump across the gender gap.  Taylor, Hunter, Carter, Madison, Lenox, Quinn, Presley, Reagan:  these names don't stick to just one gender as much as other names do because they aren't really first names at all.  They don't have centuries of history behind them as single-gender given names.

I have heard that "Madison" became a female given name because of a 1980s movie where a mermaid washed up in New York City and needed a human-sounding name, and there was a sign for Madison Avenue nearby. I think that being considered a weird first name was even a plot point after that.

Not really IIRC, Tom Hanks's character just commented that it "wasn't really a name," but he went along with it.

Her real name shattered windows...

[1995hoo]

.... Madison ....

Of course, nowadays a lot of these parents would consider that one too "old-fashioned" and they'd name their kid something stupid-looking like "Madysynn" or the like (when I typed that, my iPad autocorrect actually suggested "Madyson").

Regarding the name "Taylor," there was a woman in my law school class with that first name. One of the professors called on "Mr. [her last name]" and was quite embarrassed to learn that he was actually calling on a female (he apologized, of course).

[kphoger]

I think it is amusing that my wife has about the most generic Caucasian sounding female name (Jessica).  Several people who have worked for me were genuinely surprised to find out that Jessica is Hispanic because her name doesn't meet their expectations.  One person who worked for me once told me after meeting Jessica "I thought you'd married a leggy blonde girl" based off the name.

Funny thing is, I've met a couple of girls named Jessica in Mexico itself.

I really don't like the idea of joke pronouns. There's an entry field for it on Discord, and it's quite common there. I often can't tell the person's actual gender.

For telling the person's actual gender, it's no worse than their leaving it blank, is it?

Are there actually people that get offended if you were to leave it blank?

In the real world, no.  But I'm sure there are companies out there that require you to put it in your e-mail sig.


By the way, it's really interesting to study the history of Frank Zappa's kids' names.

[Beltway]

Funny thing is, I've met a couple of girls named Jessica in Mexico itself.

I knew one locally that went by Jess for short.

[mgk920]

My nouns are all still amateurs.

And that person over there only uses antinouns.

Mike

[kphoger]

Funny thing is, I've met a couple of girls named Jessica in Mexico itself.

I knew one locally that went by Jess for short.

One of them, I think, actually spelled it Yésica.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I like the Star Trek TV shows a lot better than the movies, even the TOS movies.
A movie is so expensive and it MUST appeal to a broad audience, so they can't use the background that fans learned from watching the shows too much, and they have to explain a lot that slows things down.

The thing no one wants to admit is that First Contact, which is the only TNG movie anyone liked, was really just a basic action movie in a Star Trek setting.

A good joke to play on your TNG fan friends would be to invite them over to watch First Contact, and then watch the entirely unrelated TV episode with the same name instead of the movie.

[Beltway]

Funny thing is, I've met a couple of girls named Jessica in Mexico itself.

I knew one locally that went by Jess for short.

One of them, I think, actually spelled it Yésica.

That name has been around for a long time (think news anchor Jessica Savitch (1947-1983)) but hit a high peak in baby name popularity late 1980s - early 1990s.

[Max Rockatansky]

Funny thing is, I've met a couple of girls named Jessica in Mexico itself.

I knew one locally that went by Jess for short.

One of them, I think, actually spelled it Yésica.

That is traditionally how the name is said in Spanish.  Oddly my wife's name is short-handed by her family to "Seca."  The youngest of the nieces was actually introducing Jessica as her "Seca" instead of "Tia" for years.

Then again, Jessica's brothers go by "Gordo" and "Flaco" instead of their actual names.  She tells me it is a Mexican thing to give everyone nicknames.

[kphoger]

She tells me it is a Mexican thing to give everyone nicknames.

Yes.  My favorite so far has been a guy who goes by "Chili Bean" (pronounced chilibín).

[kphoger]

When I'm looking at a specific location in Google Maps, then I zoom out a whole bunch with the [ – ] button, then I zoom back in a whole bunch with the
[ + ] button, it doesn't take me to the same spot.  This bothers me.

[kphoger]

I just noticed that the new Papa John's logo has the apostrophe omitted.  The company name still has an apostrophe, so that bothers me.

[gonealookin]

I just noticed that the new Papa John's logo has the apostrophe omitted.  The company name still has an apostrophe, so that bothers me.

When I was working in title insurance, I was writing a policy for "99¢ Only Stores".  That was the corporate name, or at least the entity I was dealing with; it didn't have "cents" written out, it used the "¢" symbol.  Which our lame-ass proprietary information processing system was unable to deal with.  I couldn't insure "99c Only Stores" or "99 Cents Only Stores" because that would be the incorrect name of the insured.  I probably entered "99c" into the system and then manually drew the line through the "c" on the policy I sent out, but any time anyone subsequently pulled up that policy it was going to spit out the wrong name.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

They made the logo change several years ago to distance the brand from the founder and former chairman who became nationally toxic for a number of douchey things.

[kphoger]

They made the logo change several years ago to distance the brand from founder and former chairman who got in trouble for a number of douchey things.

This kind of thing cracks me up.  Removing an apostrophe from their logo somehow distances themselves from the guy?  Yeah right, gimme a break.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

They made the logo change several years ago to distance the brand from founder and former chairman who got in trouble for a number of douchey things.

This kind of thing cracks me up.  Removing an apostrophe from their logo somehow distances themselves from the guy?  Yeah right, gimme a break.

I mean, yeah, the logic is a bit of a leap. It's still John's, but no longer "that" John's, or something.

[gonealookin]

They made the logo change several years ago to distance the brand from founder and former chairman who got in trouble for a number of douchey things.

This kind of thing cracks me up.  Removing an apostrophe from their logo somehow distances themselves from the guy?  Yeah right, gimme a break.

I mean, yeah, the logic is a bit of a leap. It's still John's, but no longer "that" John's, or something.

It does prevent some porta potty company from calling itself "Papa Johns".

[1995hoo]

They made the logo change several years ago to distance the brand from founder and former chairman who got in trouble for a number of douchey things.

This kind of thing cracks me up.  Removing an apostrophe from their logo somehow distances themselves from the guy?  Yeah right, gimme a break.

I mean, yeah, the logic is a bit of a leap. It's still John's, but no longer "that" John's, or something.

It does prevent some porta potty company from calling itself "Papa Johns".

The leading such vendor in the DC area has been Don's Johns for as long as I can remember. They suddenly got a bunch of free publicity in January 2017 when people assumed, based on the the name, that the then-incoming president owned the company. The publicity turned out not to be bad because people quite correctly pointed out that the individual in question would not have used a name like "Don's Johns." He would have used "Trump Toilets" or similar because he always uses his last name.

Don's Johns is a ubiquitous enough name around here that when I was growing up, people didn't say "outhouse" or "port-a-john" or the like. "Dad, I have to go." "OK, there are a few Don's Johns over that way." (Didn't matter if they were instead provided by Jiffy John or some other competitor.)