What were they thinking??

Being a travel consultant, you encounter all sorts of names. After hearing them, you end up wondering what their parents were thinking when they named their children. You'll see why..lol

Now, in the Philippines, having been under the Spanish rule for years, we've adapted the names commonly heard in Spain like Jose, Jesus, Maria, Cristina, Carmen, Rosario, etc etc etc.. In the provinces, I guess they preferred to be creative and original. I'm sure some of you have heard the name Luzviminda which could have the following nick names like, Luz or Minda. Actually Luzviminda is short for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao... The three main islands of over 7000 that make up the archipelago. Luzviminda doesn't sound so bad. You'd know right away it's a female name. Here comes the "unusual" one. Just recently I had been talking to a lady who wanted to make some reservations for her relatives back home. She was making the reservation but her son (based in LAX) was going to make the payments. So in the course of making the reservation, I had put her as reference and had to put her son's name so that we had a contact in LAX. So I asked her for the son's name and she replied without taking a breath.. "Pantarphil for Paniqui, Tarlac Philippines" Now since she was talking fast, all I got was the Tarlac Philippines. So I said, "Ma'am, I need the name of your son, not where he's from". She said "it's Pantarphil! Short for Paniqui, Tarlac Philippines!". I was like,, ooooo k. I thought Luzviminda was already out there but Pantarphil??? Least we know he won't forget where he's from.. lol

A while back I had encountered more names. Last Name: De Jesus. Common last name used back home. Nothing unusual about that. Wait until you hear the first names --

Gandhi Maverick, India Nephilim and America Gabrielle

Yup. I'm serious. Those were their names. What were they thinking??? Don't they realize the effect on the kids when they get older? Course these three would probably have nick names that are completely way off of their actual names.

Speaking of nicknames... there are the common ones like, Lizzie short from Elizabeth, or Stephie short for Stephanie, Malou or Marilou from Maria Lourdes, Rosie from Rosemarie to name a few. Again, in the Philippines, they have to be different..lol

Baby is a common nickname. The name they have on their birth certificate could be Zenaida, Consolacion or Rosalinda. Who knows why they prefer to be called Baby. And of course, there's Jun Jun, Jing Jing, Bebot, Bing, Jong, Tet, and the list goes on.. what could their real names be?

So for those of you that are in the process of having a baby, please give them names that they can be proud of. Something that won't give them a hard time when they get to school. And if you decide to coin names together, at least make it something pleasant and not something that sounds like it was from outer space. But that's just my 2 cents on that.