"Destiny"

[imthelonely-one.livejournal.com]

My best friend is pregnant, and I really want to support her, but she is seriously considering naming her daughter this and I just... It seems awfully trashy to me. Her family and aquaintences like it, but that doesn't surprise me seeing as how she lives in a super white trash housing complex. I really want to convince her that naming her kid something like "Destiny" "Kaighlee" or "Mercedes" etc. will NOT be doing the poor girl any favours. But at the same time, I really don't want to seem pretentious? 

It's not that, I just know that name descrimination is real, and I don't want my best friend's little girl to be held back in life because she thinks it "sounds cute". Should I just butt out? I keep suggesting alternatives but I don't know. Maybe I should just leave it alone.

Oh, and sorry if anyone here happens to love that name, or named their daughter that!

Comments

[hwar.livejournal.com]

Suggest Faith to your friend. Faith and Destiny seem like similar names to me, not necessarily in their social or cultura context but from the parents' side, the naming impulse side.

That being said, one of my husband's cousins named her daughter Destiny Paris. But they call her Paris. Once you know a baby with the name it becomes less awful. Slightly less. Anyway, I think you shouldn't diss on Destiny too much, but maybe keep suggesting names you like.

FWIW, re: "white trash", this is terminology I grew up using but no longer do because as an adult I am aware of its implications. Namely, that specifying white trash implies that the rest of the trash is non-white. It's an expression deeply soaked in racism as well as classism. I think that is part of what people are responding to about your original post. I'm sure you used it thoughtlessly to characterize a group of people but I encourage you to think about it and change the words you use to indicate your true meaning. :)