AlyxWRONGzandia

A baby in the paper today - Alyxzandria.

I really don't think z following x works. It's superfluous. I feel like I have to say ALYX (pause) ZANDRIA in order that the z isn't swallowed up. Ditto for double x, such as Jaxxon, of which there is one in my extended family. I always want to say JAX - SON.

Poor baby Lyxy, I don't know why the parents only massacred the first half of the name. Why not go all the way, like Alyxzandreeyah? So yooneek.

Th@t's s@d!

A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@," claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said Thursday.

The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.

"The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming.

While "@" is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out "T" sounds something like "ai ta," or "love him," to Mandarin speakers.

Source: Reuters

Spelling variations: Mackenzie and Caden

I was sifting through some information about naming patterns of 2006 at babycentre.com, and found the following.

There are 45 ways parents have spelled Mackenzie in 2006, the girls name with the most spelling variations: Mackenzie, Mckenzie, Mackenzi, Mackenzee, Mackinzie, Mackensie, Mackenize, Mackinzy, Mackinsey, Mackenzy, Mackenzey, Machenzie, Mackynzi, Mackinze, Mackenziee, Mackanzie, Macinzee, Machkenzie, Macenzie, Mckinzie, Mckenzee, Mckenzi, Mckynzie, Mckinzee, Mckenzye, Mckenzy, Mckenzey, Mckenze, Mckenize, Makenzie, Makenzi, Makenzy, Makensie, Makynzie, Makynze, Makenize, Makynzye, Makynzi, Makinzy, Makinzie, Makinzi, Makenzee, Makinze, Makinsy, Mykenzie.

And Caden, the boys' name with the most variations: Caden, Cadin, Cayden, Caiden, Caeden, Caidan, Cadyn, Caydan, Caydn, Caidyn, Cadan, Cadon, Cadaan, Caedon, Caedan, Kaidan, Kaiden, Kayden, Kaidyn, Kaidynn, Kaidon, Kaidin, Kaden, Kaeden, Kadin, Kaedyn, Kaedan, Kadyn, Kaedon, Kaedin, Kadan, Kadon.

Bleh.