Naming narrow-mindedness?

[hermione-vader.livejournal.com]

I just stumbled across this forum thread on Nameberry where someone posted a letter to the editor of a magazine from a middle-aged man on the subject of naming.  Here's the letter's contents, for the link-phobic:

"I come in praise of William. Not myself, mind you, but my name. I have always been grateful my parents chose William, particularly since the runner-up was Byron, my dad’s name. He decided not to pass it along to his firstborn, having wearied of clueless inquisitors saying, “Brian? Myron? What?” In my childhood, there were legions of other Williams, but the name waned in popularity, as parents flocked to “creative” and “unusual” names such as Free, Rocket, Banjo, Apple, Sage, and Kyd. But William is surging back, climbing to No. 3 in the list of most popular boys’ names of 2011, the Social Security Administration announced this week. I take this as a good sign.

Giving your children unique names does them no favor. It is like sending them into life with an odd hat affixed to their heads, or a zebra tattooed on their foreheads. William will cause no double takes or taunts, and has a protean ability to adapt to age and circumstance. As a child, I was Billy, but when my mother scrubbed me of playground dirt, brushed my hair, and sent me off to school, I became William. At age 18 or so, Billy evolved into the more mature-sounding Bill. That’s my casual handle still, but for formal occasions, I can go to my suit closet and pull out William. Other classic boys’ names, such as Christopher, Nicholas, and Alexander, have similar virtues. So do girls’ names such as Katherine, Elizabeth, and Jessica. All have a pleasing versatility, and none will cause the bearer any woe. If you new parents really feel an urge to be creative, buy an easel and some paint. Naming your kid isn’t about you."

I get what he's talking about to a certain degree, but there aren't as many kids named Free, Rocket, Banjo, Apple, Sage, or Kyd as he thinks.  Except for Sage, those are wackier, more celeb-style picks, where as more typical "yooneek" names would be things like Braeden, Bryleigh, Myleigh, Kasen, Caven, etc.---things that sound more like syllables smashed together than names with substantial meanings.  Alarmingly, I have met children and/or parents of children with all of those syllable-based names.  Also, sometimes, parents don't seem fully aware of what they've done.  I read a blog post about middle names recently and found one woman in the comments gushing about how her son's middle name was Arkham and how awesome it was that they snuck a Batman reference into his name.  Never mind that Arkham Asylum is the mental hospital/prison. 

Then again, some people really hate their common names precisely because they are common.  And someone on the Nameberry forum pointed out that William has had the advantage of staying in favor for centuries, whereas a lot of other names that would sound "normal" or "common" to earlier generations, like Eugene or Phyllis, sound terribly outdated today.  While being the 4th Noah/Sophia/Alexander/Olivia in the class is a lot less likely today, there are a lot of other, less common options that come with easy nicknames and won't sound too ridiculous (Aurora -> Rory, Helena -> Lena).  I guess what I'm wondering this: while everyone fears being too "out-there" when choosing a name, is it also possible to play it too safe?

This letter also brings up the issues of gender, generations, and naming.  Is this an example of the older generation being intolerant towards newer conventions?  Or does it also show the gap between male vs. female naming styles?  I know one compromising problem I've read about on blog posts is that quite a few husbands nix any name that they never heard while growing up, and this reminds me of that.  Are women open to more naming options on the whole or is that not an actual issue, just one we imagine?  I do wonder if men and women approach naming differently because women are socialized to name lots of things early on (ex: stuffed animal names, doll names) whereas male toys (like action figures) often come pre-named.  This is probably too broad a generalization, but it's something to think about.

Okay, rambling over.  What do you guys make of this letter?