Is Wrath Gordon the Greatest Name Ever?

Tyler Cowen's father wanted to name him Tyrone; my father was keen on calling me Trajan (at the time my parents were living around the corner from Trajan's Forum in Rome...) But do kids with unusual names really suffer as much as their mothers might imagine? It seems not.

“Researchers have studied men with cross-gender names like Leslie,” Dr. Evans explained. “They haven’t found anything negative — no psychological or social problems — or any correlations with either masculinity or effeminacy. But they have found one major positive factor: a better sense of self-control. It’s not that you fight more, but that you learn how to let stuff roll off your back.”

Mind you, years ago I can remember hearing about a Mrs Warmwater in Portsmouth who, despite pleading from doctors and nurses, insisted upon calling her newly-arrived son Luke. This is great however:

“Names only have a significant influence when that is the only thing you know about the person,” said Dr. Ford, a developmental psychologist at George Mason University. “Add a picture, and the impact of the name recedes. Add information about personality, motivation and ability, and the impact of the name shrinks to minimal significance.”

But even if a bad name doesn’t doom a child, why would any parent christen an infant Ogre? Mr. Sherrod found several of them, along with children named Ghoul, Gorgon, Medusa, Hades, Lucifer and every deadly sin except Gluttony (his favorite was Wrath Gordon)...

"I can’t tell you,” Mr. Sherrod said, “how often I’ve heard guys who wanted their kid to be able to say truthfully, ‘Danger is my middle name.’ But their wives absolutely refused.”

Shame on them then...

Comments

[Robert]

Apollo Creed?

[dearieme]

Rusty Pipes.

[Nick]

In college, I worked at a museum, where I once signed up for a membership a gentleman by the name of Troy Doom. I still believe this to be the greatest name I've ever heard.