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Baby names seem to get stranger every day, but what are the weirdest baby name tales of all time?

Crazy baby name stories come from Hollywood and beyond, stem from misguided parents, illogical bureaucracies, and influences beyond human understanding.  They involve money, ego, publicity, lawsuits, and the forces of destiny.

Here, the top ten weirdest baby name stories we know.

1. The Family Named George

George Foreman may be multi-dimensional in his professional life, but the championship boxer/food grilling visionary has a one-track mind when it comes to baby names. Foreman named all five of his sons George after himself – they’re George Jr. and Georges III, IV, V and VI — and also named one of his six daughters Georgetta.  How does the family tell all those Georges apart?  Georges III through VI are called Monk, Big Wheel, Red, and Little Joey.

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Abby Sandel of Appellation Mountain focuses this week on some bold and daringly unusual girls’ names that made baby name news.

Some weeks I’m astonished by the range of names we can choose for girls.

We love our children regardless of gender, but when it comes to talking baby names, many of us seem to be on Team Pink.  The statistics bear this out: almost 79% of boys born in the US in 2011 received a Top 1000 name, while the same is true for just 67% of girls.

2012 social media babies Like and Facebook were both girls, and rumored baby Hashtag is also supposed to be a she.  Meanwhile, former #1 name Mary has plummeted to #112, while her male counterpart, John, remains a relatively common #27.

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Sometimes we feel we’ve heard every name in the book…..until someone introduces us to a new one.

Actually, that happened just now, when our friend the wonderful photographer Fran Liscio, who took the picture of me and Linda on the home page, just wrote to say she’d heard an unusual name in a 1941 movie called Smiling Through — Moonyean.  Had we ever heard of the name Moonyean?, she wondered.

Nope, we told her: She’d stumped the masters.

Which made us think it might be fun to challenge YOU to stump the masters, i.e. tell me and Linda and the rest of the Nameberry community about an unusual name you’ve heard that you think we may not have come across.

All names already in the Nameberry database are off limits, naturally.  When you suggest a new name, all documentation — movie character lists, newspaper stories, non-U.S. baby name sites — are helpful.  Plus tell us as much as you know about the origin, meaning, and background of the name.

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