Smelly Dog or 007?

Photo: My nephew

Most parents put a lot of thought into naming their children. I met a lady today and her daughters were named Passion, Precious, Princess, and Pierre. As a child grows up they realize their assigned name and move through life usually without much protest. This concept always makes me wonder if we really like our names or are they just another part of life we learn to accept. Not to compare having kids with owning gerbils but, when I first got my gerbils I had a lot of trouble trying to give them a name. How was I to know if the gerbils would like me calling them by a weird human name. For about a month to satisfy my friends inquiries I told people they were called "1 and 2". As time went on, I got beyond this phase and started calling them Boris and Yeltsin .
My friend recently mailed me an article on BBC's website discussing Malaysia's recently publication discussing undesirable names. Apparently, this list was published after many Malaysian's applied to change there names. Names like "Hitler, Smelly Dog, or 007" made it on this list.