"Do you know anyone called Balthasar?" Topic

Just wondering as baby #3 is on it's way and we like the name.

I'm not sure I would name a child of mine after a Persian fakir.

Hey Balti!

Sounds a bit like a fast food restaurant.

Sorry.

Mike B

The playground Sorrel, the playground!

The playground be damned!

I have already named my others in a rather "different" fashion.

Are the other two called Melchior and Caspar? :)

LOL

No but I know an old Spanish lady who named her still-born triplets thus!

Balthazr Getty, an actor…I have named my kids Spiney Norman and Daisy Doo

Aha didn't think of him. Just SS tank gunner Balthasar "Bobby" Woll.

Yes, I do know someone named Balthasar. There are three local priests who escaped from the communists in Hungary as seminarians. They took the names Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar when they came to the U.S.

We were thinking of the folowing:

Balthasar Beauregard Arminius Heinrich

Fairly unique I think.

Elder siblings are named:

Pandora Jezebal Lilith Magdalene

&

Friedrich Otto Arcadius Ignatius Maximiian.

See what I mean, I don't worry about the school – yard!

LOL

Jezebel! Too much typing tonight

you do realize that your children will be picking out your retirement home don't you?

LOL

Never thought of that.

Young Pandora calls herself "Girl" and always refuses to use her name. However she is just 2 years old…

@Little Sorrel – Your kids are going to move to other continents as soon as they are able and will be picking out that retirement home from 4000 miles away. I don't think they'll be that picky either.

Regards, the Gorb

Moon Unit, Zowie, Apple, and your lot. Give the kids an even break.

YOU like the name. How will the kid like it? How will his "friends" take to it on the playground? Too many parents ignore this, and go with the cute or trendy.

You are not naming a dog, or a racehorse. Have some consideration for the rational thinking human being who will have to carry that name through life.

Always makes me chuckle when parents name their kids with goofy names and completely ignore the crap that the poor kids will cop when they start school and later start employment.

I hope such parents are putting some money in a long-term bank account to pay for the therapy sessions the kids will need when they are a bit older.

Now if I had called my children something wacky I could understand the outcry but I have used established albeit unusual names.

Some imagination is needed in a world where people name children for their fave tv star or because celebrity "X" used the name on her bundle of joy.

Is introducing yourself as "Pandora" or "Fritz" really so embarassing?

It also gives my progeny the opportunity to pick and chose from the selection given to them.

All right. Think of the etymology of the names.

Pandora brought misery to Man, in Greek mythology.

Alexandra means, literally, "She who repels men".

And, so on.

I consider that also.

Jezebel corrupted a King
Lilith was a Babylonian Demon who ate her own children or the children of the Jews.
Magdalene was a reformed and it is the requisite Saints name.

All strong female types.

Friedrich named for my Grandfather and FdG King of Prussia
Otto for another King
Arcadius an entertaining Emperor
Ignatius for the Founder of the Jesuit order
Maximilian because we like it.

Kids will always find something to pick on about others. It'll make 'em stronger!

Just like _A Boy Named Sue_!

Don't do it! The poor boy will hate you until HE dies.

CC

Well, when they come of age, they can always have their names legally changed to what they want to be called.

ElaineP,

Even if they can change their name once they reach adulthood (something many have done, for whatever reasons), they will still hate the parents for LIFE for selecting a name that will provoke the bullies.

CC

there is an actor named balthasar getty.

We were very careful when naming our daughter. I was given the choice of "Ariel" or "Aurora" by my wife. I chose the former, because I knew everyone would be going, "oh like the little mermaid?" (the name appeared in Shakespeare waaaay before that) which I thought was preferable to "oh, like the Buick?"

So, given an "unusual" first name, we made bloody sure that she had a fall back should she decide that she hated it – Katherine. She got really tired of the "little mermaid" line around age 6-7.

A friend of mine was going to name his daughter Natasha whenever he starts a family. However, his Turkish wife pointed out that "Natasha" is a slang term for the Russian hookers that work in Turkey.

Your eldest kids will be ok – they'll be Jessie and Fred to their friends. They will get extremely embarrassed the first day of school each year when the teacher reads out their names – and you will probably have many notes from school resulting from playground "interpersonal conflicts". If you are lucky and very "hands on" with their upbringing, this will build character. If not, this is going to generate a fair amount of very real angst and they will become withdrawn social outcasts – the kind who shoot up schools.

If you're really hung up on the name Balthasar, give the kid a break and DON'T tack "Beaureguard" on there as well. That is just cruel and begging to be made fun of. The kid will be in fights at school from the 3rd grade on because of it. Give him something a little more mainstream to fall back on – Alexander (as in the Macedonian) for example. Thus, when he tires of explaining "Balthasar" he can call himself, B. Alexander Sorrelson.

In reality, your alternatives are going to be private or home school, or a public school system with a VERY diverse mix of ethnicities. Only then will your kids have relatively "normal" names among the Shaniqua's, Rajeesh's, Xochitl's & Nomi's.

Wyatt

The only Balthasar I know is the evil demon played by Julian MacMahon in the TV series Charmed.

There was a Professor Balthasar on the TV once upon a time . . . Very smart guy.

There are worse names….My first name is often greeted with gales of laughter in these parts, and I have yet to learn why. Maybe there's something funny to Aucklanders about song-writing, adulterous Jewish kings.

No problem with the names but have you thought of the trouble they will go through filling out Passport application forms? There are only so many little boxes on those things for your full name…..:-)

Think of the children. The number of kids I see being bullied because their parents gave them a stupid name is depressing. Don't do it.

On the one hand, kids will make fun of other kids no matter what. "John" gets picked on as soon as one of the playground idiots finds out that his name is also a nickname for a toilet, or a hooker's customer, for example.

On the other hand, you don't want to make it any easier for the little rotten b…..s!

I could see Balthasar, etc. getting shortened immediately to "B.B.", as in B.B. King. Pretty cool.

You could pick out something where the first initials of each name create an alternate first name…

Julius Otto Hannibal Napoleon, for example.

Later,
Markus

"Now if I had called my children something wacky I could understand the outcry but I have used established albeit unusual names."

We gave ours unusual first names and reasonably sensible second names so that if they really have problems in later life they can just use the second one. But they like that fact that their first names are fairly unique, and don't suffer any problems at school. My daughter went to see 'Eight Below' the other week because one of the huskies has the same name as her :-)

@ Crusader.

Actually they have both USA and UK Passports and you are right the names dont fit.

They are carried on on another page with notes.

On most US forms I am allowed only one middle initial so I guess they have been lucky.

Wow, you must REALLY hate your kids to saddle them with such "beat-worthy" names… whew! 8)=

A guy I know named his daughter Boudica. She shopped his head off when she turned 18….. nuff said.

I sense a trip to the deed poll office in a decade or so!

The names sound like they were fun to come up with. Lets hope they proudly grow into their names!

"Jezebel corrupted a King
Lilith was a Babylonian Demon who ate her own children or the children of the Jews.
Magdalene was a reformed and it is the requisite Saints name.

All strong female types."

'pin'eck! And I thought naming my daughter 'Lydia' after the C1st Church leader was a 'strong female name'…

Mind you I did give her the second name 'Niamh' after the kick-ass Celtic Amazon in 2000 AD's SLAINE (She was dead impressed when I showed her the comic strip where Niamh is kicking seven bells out of a pack of wolves recently) of course, I keep up the polite myth of 'Oh yes, its from Gaelic mythology you know…' to more sensitive souls…

Balthasar is a perfectly reasonable name, not sure about the others. But if he's picked on I'm sure his older siblings will stick up for him! Common cause and all that!

Wait until high school, when "Pandora's Box" may take on an entirely new meaning…

I like interesting names, but I think you've taken it to the extreme.

Seem to remember there was a Balthasar in TINTIN & THE BROKEN EAR

Oh we get the "Box" gags already. One revolting old man asked her if her "box" was nice and soft. He got an ear bashing from the lady wife.

@ TSHoCS

Glad to hear I have a fellow enthusiast for the unusual.

Yes- shame my wife isn't. I have a whole batch of unusual Biblical girl's names that will never see the light of day… e.g:

Galilee
Tirzah
Talitha

Of course, it doesn't help we are expecting a boy, either…

At the risk of complete irrelevance, in replying to a 4-month old discussion, I'm all for giving kids "normal" names. (My kids are named George and Katherine.) But Balthasar sounds perfectly normal to me. I'll have to ask George what he thinks

Can't knock it. Katherine is lovely name just heavily overused. (My cousin called his kiddie Katie)

I showed my 7 year old the SLAINE strip with Niamh kicking seven bells out of a pack of wolves and she said 'Oooo, she's very strong…' She hasn't complained about her names yet. My (mostly absent) father was deeply chuffed when I did the decent thing and called my son Joshua James Bede. People at church were amused by the JJB thing which I was asportive enough to be oblivious to…