Collection of my views, interests, and life experiences (some of which tend to be related to cheapness)
The Wallet Blog
Bad Bugs
Warranty Help
Online Learning
Privacy Policy
This site does not collect identity or contact information from internet users to this website. This site may however, collect non-personally identifiable information, for example, browser type, operating system, time spent on the web site, or referring link. This is done via a counter by sites like Google Analytics.
This site also uses third-party advertisements. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).
DoubleClick DART cookies - This website also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (interest based targeting). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history. DART uses 'non personally identifiable information'. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers. You can opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
Third party sites and advertisers have their own policies regarding the collection of personal information. As a visitor to this site, you agree that it is your responsibility to make yourself aware of these third party privacy policies. This site will never intentionally engage in spamming. We respect your right to privacy. Privacy policy subject to change.
If you choose to provide comments, you agree to make yourself aware of the Blogger Privacy Notice.
My Baby Naming RulesA co-worker became a father this week, and this got me thinking about what makes a good baby name. I've put together a list of four attributes for a "good" name.
- Fairly unique - Names are suppose to identify a person. If a name is shared with too many others, the name loses its usefulness as an identifier. Confusion results. This is a somewhat qualitative rule that can change over time. Some examples of overly common names that I don't think there would be argument over include "John", "George", and "Jim".
- Two syllables - Unlike the last one, this is a very quantitative rule. A two syllable name has the advantage over a one syllable name in being able to be heard more easily. If there's a cough while the name is said, it's less likely to mask the entire name. Based on this, some may ponder a three or more syllable name. But then it gets too long and cumbersome.
- Can't easily be abbreviated - This is also another reason why names shouldn't be more then two syllables. Three or more syllable names are more likely to be abbreviated into a one syllable name. When this happens, the advantage of having a multiple syllable name is wasted. Also, confusion exists throughout the person's life. When should you use your unabbreviated name versus your nick name?
- Straightforward spelling - This is a relitively new rule for my list that another co-worker mentioned to me. She experienced the importance of this rule with her son. When you tell someone your name, you want his first assumption about its spelling to be right.
What would be examples of good names? Let's take the Seinfeld characters as a case study.
First, take the name Jerry. I'm not sure if this totally meets my first rule. However, it's no "John". On my second rule, it passes. It also would pass my third rule unless of course his real name (character or actual real name) is "Gerald" or something like that. Finally, it passes my fourth rule with a pretty generally accepted spelling. So this name makes a good name.
The name "Elaine" also does a pretty good job at the four rules. Same with "Kramer". However, I guess "Kramer" is actually the character's last name. His first name was "Cozmo". Is "Cozmo" a good name? If a name is too unusual, the person may feel compelled to be called by something else. So "Cozmo" is probably a little too unusual. The same goes with George's favorite name of "Seven". This would probably be too unusal for a name. So even though "Seven" passes my four rules, it probably wouldn't make for a good name due to its oddity for a name. I probably need to add this as my fifth rule...
The only definitely bad name on Seinfeld is "George". This fails the first two of my rule. On the other hand, his real name of "Jason" holds up pretty well against my rules.
