DAMIEN! IT'S ALL FOR YOOOOU!

So...um. Yeah. I am thinking there is something wonky going on today, and the only thing I can think to blame is the dark and ominous date.

I posted an entry where I openly admit to fighting (and beating) the urge to shake my poor child clear to next Sunday, and we're at 150 comments (and counting) -- all supportive and understanding and wonderful.

And then over here, a fairly innocuous discussion about one child or two disintegrated into a near bloodbath, with hair-pulling and name-calling and people taking their balls and GOING HOME, I HATE YOU. YOU ARE A BUTTHEAD.

(I'm closing comments on that entry, and any mention of it anywhere else will get deleted, because I am Done With It. And because I am the Tyrannical Blog Overlord! Do not anger me!)

Indeed. Something wonky is afoot.

So today, I am just going to tell you a funny story about myself, so if you feel like yelling at someone, you can just yell at me and all the other innocent bloggers out there can be spared.

When I was pregnant and we found out we were having a boy, we were thrown into a bit of a naming quandary. I only liked girls' names. Jason only liked stupid names.

(I kid!)

(Sort of.)

Then I had a great idea. We could name him after my best friend from childhood! My neighbor across the street growing up -- the sweet boy I played He-Man with and carpooled to our high school graduation with. His name was unusual but not weird, and I thought it sounded great with our sort-of gruff, one-syllable last name.

"Amy," Jason said. "We are NOT naming our child Damien."

"Why not?" I whined. "No one remembers that stupid movie anymore."

"No." He told me.

"What if we spell it differently? Like Damian?"

"No."

"I cannot believe you are rejecting THE BEST NAME EVER because of some movie that NO ONE REMEMBERS ANYMORE."

"NO."

"Fine." I threw up my hands and gave in. "But you? Are a total butthead."

Obviously, we did not go with Damian (a name which I still really like, by the way, wah). But I never really let it go -- the fact that Jason would be so superstitious as to let some 30-year-old movie about, okay, a little boy who MAYBE turns out to be the Antichrist, WHATEVER, affect our decision about our son's name.

Until we were watching TV the other night and saw a preview for the remake.

"Shut up." I ordered him. "Just...shut. Up."

"What?" Jason asked innocently. "I was just going to say that it would have been really hard to hide the mark of the beast anyway, what with Noah's blond hair."

"You are," I sniffed, "still the world's biggest butthead."

(This post was totally inspired by Baby Going, but again, there is to be no yelling at her.)

(What am I saying? There is to be no yelling whatsoever. Or Damien will come eat you, or whatever the heck he did to people, because I DON'T REMEMBER THAT MOVIE.)

Comments

[flybunny]

I am with Jason on this one, I refused to consider Damien or Malachi (Children of the Corn)and probably would have had trouble with anything resembling Chucky. I also ruled out any names of girls that I hated or that Mr Fly dated. I was wierd about names like that.

Do you ever look at Noah and think he just looks like a Noah?

[flybunny]

Crap, I hit post instead of preview - didn't mean to leave that last question hanging out there.

I look at my oldest daughter and her name fits her and her personality but I think my youngest needs a spunkier name to fit her - I love her name but it seems like another would fit better. Luckily for her, her father is sane so I wont be changing it anytime soon!

[Haley-O]

(At the risk of offending anyone with a child named "Damien"...) I like Noah much better...! Sorry you didn't get your first choice, but you did choose a great name for your son.

[Danell]

"wonky" heh. "afoot" hehhehheheh...

sorry. i'm easily amused.

and your "nobody tells you" entry? totally made my day. week, even. crap, just made me feel better about the entire six months i've been a mommy.

[Babelbabe]

I went to grade school with a boy named Damian. And I went to a CHRISTIAN school full of fundamentalists. I find it hilarious. That said, it is a cool name but probably a bad idea. : )

[jonniker]

I love the name Damian too. Always have. There was this hot guy in middle school named Damian Fenton which, for some reason, always struck me as the Coolest Name Ever and if I named a son Damian, I would be guaranteed a hot son who attracted all the ladies.

And then I thought about all those ladies and people having IMPURE THOUGHTS about my imaginary son and then...EW. No baby now. No Damian.

[Amalah]

Babelbabe - Um, me too? I wonder if it was the same Damian? Because really, how many fundamentalist Christian private-school-educated Damians can there BE?

[Undercover Angel]

I wanted to name my second child Damian, but my ex-husband argued with me constantly about it. He refused to have a child with the same name as Rosemary's Baby.

You know, to this day I've still never seen Rosemary's Baby... Maybe I should watch it sometime and I'll understand what his point was in all of that...

(Incidentally, the same child almost got named Forest, because I loved the name. The problem was that Forrest Gump came out the same year - so he didn't get that name either...

[mdvelazquez]

LOL Word association! We could probably come up with an impressive list of no-no names from history/media and have an equal number of people associating good things with those names.

UA, I always think of the movie/devil when I hear the name Rosemary. I didn't see the remake, but the 1968 movie is quite good.

[jomama]

I have an uncle named Damien, so I never associated that name with evil. I just realized that some people had a problem with that name a few years ago. I'm curious to see how many Katrina's have been born after 2005.

[Chrissy]

I always loved the name Damien till I met a couple who had a 8 year old boy named that- the spell was broken- he was an evil littl thing- slammed the door on his dogs tail so it had to have it cut off at the nub (not an attractive look for a furry Shepherd, Husky, Wolf mix * I'm sure the other dogs snicker when she walks by*) But everyone associates the name with things in their past so good or bad _ I like the name but wouldn't name my child that.

[sherry]

Sign me up as another person who likes Damien. I knew a kid in high school with that name; I actually thought of him yesterday and wondered if his co-workers were teasing him.

I wanted to use the name Owen if I had a son and it was nixed by my husband just because I thought of Owen after dreaming I had a pet spider by the same name. Clearly men are all buttheads with their tyrannical name decisions.

Also, I was going to comment on your entry over yonder but got a bit overwhelmed by all the comments already there - I am so glad there are people who are bluntly telling people what it's really like having kids, that it's hard and sometimes your temper snaps. I've wanted to write about it myself and I've been too afraid of holier-than-thou retaliation in my comments; I think you might have just given me a bit more courage to say "Hey, I have two kids and sometimes one is throwing her 5th tantrum of the morning and the baby is wailing and pulling my hair and I just want to lock them in their rooms and go drink bourbon from the bottle in the bathroom." Thank you for being so damn honest.

[Heather B.]

So his name would have been Damien (Damian) Corbin Storch?

I work with a guy named Damien, he was teased all through school up until now. Actually, this came up after another coworker commented that she'd never heard that Damien was aquainted with the antichrist, until yesterday...so I guess it depends on who you talk to and the year you were born.

[Diana]

One of my son's best friends is named Damien, and I can tell you that his mother is not pleased about the movie being remade. It probably doesn't help that her Damien is a thin, quiet boy with dark hair and big, dark eyes ... just like in the movie!

[Frema]

After seeing Children of the Corn, I fell in love with the name Malachi. I was a very weird child.

[Nicole P.]

I love the name Wyatt but won't name my imaginary future son that because of the endless "Did you name him after Wyatt Earp??!!" comments. Movies and history ruin good names.

I also have thoughts of getting knocked up because everyone is taking all the good baby names and I want in on the action. Is that so wrong? :) Don't worry, frantic commenters, I would never do that. But we're gonna need a new batch of hot names for babies in the next couple years for us not-yet-preggers people.

[Jenny]

Damien is a kick-ass name...as long as his mom isn't named Rosemary...because then that would just be too over-the-top.

[Megan]

I don't mind the name Damien. It's the creative spelling of names that make me see red. To wit, 'Gennyffyr.'

Parents aim for 'creative,' but wind up with 'illiterate.'

[Rebekah]

LOL! Don't you hate it when that kind of thing happens? And isn't that movie the craziest thing you've ever seen? I kinda have to wonder what makes an actress want to be in it. Yikes.

[Elizabeth]

At least your husband's Grandpa didn't tell you at Brunch last weekend that when he first heard your daughter's name he thought it was "weird". Um, thanks Gramps, but 'Kaitlyn' is not weird. It's number four on the Babycenter list, spelled just like that!

And I'm with Megan, people need to stop with the "creative" spellings. Like "Bruklin" instead of Brooklyn, or "Madysyn" instead of Madison. Just stop that nonsense!

[sunny]

I think they always somehow become their names. I wanted a different name for my 3 year old, but was out-voted and harassed by my husband, family and friends to choose the other name we picked out.
Looking her at now, she totally fits with the name she got and the name I wanted, was all wrong. Hard to admit it, but ONCE I was wrong. :)

[Wendy]

I totally know what you mean! We've got a ton of girls names, but boys...

The baby isn't due for a while yet, but the only boy name my husband and I could agree on was a variation on my cat's name. So we've renamed the cat. She doesn't seem to care. I'm just not looking forward to my mom's reaction if we do have a boy..."No mom, we didn't name the baby after the cat"

[Amalah]

Heather - Corbin was actually Jason's choice for a first name, and I vetoed it. (Me: He will get called Corbie, and he will not forgive us for that.)

I was pushing for Noah Damian Storch up until the very end. But then after giving birth, they handed me the form and I went, eh, and let Jason pick the middle name. But since Corbin is the Latin version of my maiden name, it LOOKS like I won. And that's what really matters.

[wordnerd]

I saw an article online this morning (just e-mailed it to you, Amy-Amalah) where a woman named her child Damien BECAUSE he was born yesterday. That just creeps me out. Of course, the movie (the old one, not the remake, which I haven't seen) scared the bloody hell outta me. I don't like the name for that reason.

[Stacy]

I know this isn't REALLY your point but-- have u seen the original or the remake? The new one is not the same as the old one but the name still sends shivers up and down my spine!