Mercedes, Athene, Rebecca

Another thing comes to mind. What are your thoughts on ethnic names and those who opt to Americanize them. Many of my former Chinese coworkers chose an anglo version of their name, but most of the Indian and Arabic ones did not. I always liked for them to go with their own preferences. There were a few that took me awhile to get the pronunciation right. Another coworker had to correct me for my sloppy pronunciation of his name. Yohan (rhymes with wand not hand).

Finally, and along somewhat similar lines, what do you all think of the trend of names that go to extreme of spelling or other irregularities? Many are the butt of jokes for being too "ghetto." Again, I think personal choice pretty much trumps all, but there are some names it seems unfortunate to saddle a child with, though if they become famous, the uniqueness is often seen as a plus. Oprah's name was supposedly a misspelling of the biblical name Orpah.