People I Know / People Named After Cars

As an aside to my post last week, I have determined that I know a lot of country people (i.e. rednecks).  I feel certain I would take the cake in “southern” names among my friends and acquaintances.  If you feel you can beat the following, by all means let the group know.  I know most of these are nicknames, but everyone of these people are commonly called by these names (* indicates I am related to this person):

2 JoJo’s; 4 Bubba’s (1*); 1 Skeeter (*); 1 Skeeta (*) – or Little Skeeter, depending on how old the person is; 1 Bo Jack; 1 Billy Joe; and 1 Jimmy Dale. 

 

Now, on to today’s feature: Parent’s who name their kids after cars:

I saw this on a news site a few weeks ago:

Craig and Sondra Harrington have a 6-year-old daughter by the name of Lexus. Their twin daughters born on 28th October last year have been named Porsche and Audi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) keeps lists that are AJC analysis of Georgia Department of Human Resources birth records from January 1990 through July 2007.  I have barely scratched the surface of the site, but, in Georgia alone, here are some of the most popular names of people named after cars (with the total in parenthesis):

Sienna (133); Aurora (156); Kia (116); Avalon (20); Camry (60); Elantra (18); Infiniti (13); Nova (29); and Lexus (160).  This doesn’t even take into account the creative spellings some parents use, like: A’lexus, Lexxus, Lexis and Lexxis (maybe these last two just have attorneys for parents). 

We can all understand the appeal of the fancy, prestigious car names, but what were these parents thinking?

Chevelle Jai Smith (birth announcement from St. Joseph’s hospital) – She was obviously named after the place where she was conceived.

Taurus Merriweather – (TN Bar Association) – Come on, if you are going to name your kid after a car, couldn’t you pick a better one than the Taurus.  Why not just name him “LameCar Merriweather” or “Sensible Ride Merriweather” or maybe “Middle-Aged Whiteguy Merriweather”? BTW, there were 51 people named Taurus in Georgia.