Christophpher

June 1996: A Danish mother, Pia Agergaard, won a 9-year court battle to be allowed to name her son Christophpher. The Danish courts had tried to prevent her using the unorthodox spelling, fearing it would have a detrimental effect on her son. They insisted she use Christopher or Christoffer instead.

Bismarck Tribune - June 13, 1996



In 2008, a Danish newspaper (avisen.dk) checked back in with Christophpher, who by then was 21. He reported that he had never experienced any disadvantage on account of his name:

When Christophpher was born in 1987, his parents wanted to give him the distinctive name to signal how special he was as their firstborn.
But for nine years it did not go. The Church Ministry refused to approve the special spelling. The name could be detrimental to the child, it said.
That argument shakes Christophpher at the head of today. Because he has never actually experienced his name as a disadvantage. He has never been teased because of it. And he has not had other problems with the name, for example, when he should have a passport, he says.


Christophpher

     Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 01, 2017
     Category: Odd Names | 1990s





Comments
If we had such a registry here in the States there would be a lot less Tayshauns, Derons, Rau'shees, Raynells, Deontays, Tarajes, Jozys, Kerrons, Hyleas, Chauntes, Bershawns, Lashawns, Sanyas, Trevells, Sheenas, Ogonnas and Dremiels.
Posted by KDP on 12/01/17 at 03:32 PM
A teacher friend told me the best she had come across was when she had to spell someone's "name" she had heard pronounced: "Le dash' uh". Easy. It's Le-a.
Posted by Virtual on 12/02/17 at 11:59 AM
My older sisters taught me it was okay for me to use the f-word because men of our heritage spelled it with a 'ph' instead of an f, so it wasn't one of the dreaded a four-letter words.

In Peanuts, one character's name is 5 (short for '555 95472'). Per peanuts.wikia: As "5" explains to Charlie Brown in the strip from October 1, 1963, his father, morose and hysterical over the preponderance of numbers in people's lives, changed all of his family's names to numbers. Asked by Lucy if it was Mr. 95472's way of protesting, "5" replies that this was actually his father's way of "giving in."
Posted by Phideaux on 12/02/17 at 12:47 PM
"If we had such a registry here in the States there would be a lot less Tayshauns, Derons, Rau'shees, Raynells, Deontays, Tarajes, Jozys, Kerrons, Hyleas, Chauntes, Bershawns, Lashawns, Sanyas, Trevells, Sheenas, Ogonnas and Dremiels."

Just gotta shake your head at the overt racism which has been enabled in the last year or so.
Posted by Anastasia Beaverhausen on 12/03/17 at 09:35 AM
Damon Wayans told us Shirley Q. Liquor's children include: Limbo, Crackerjack, Pluto, Salmonella, Orangejello, Velveta, Aloevera, Cocopuff, and Chlamydia. (P.S.: Damon is black.)
Posted by Virtual on 12/03/17 at 10:43 AM
Re Le-a: https://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp
Posted by ges on 12/03/17 at 06:56 PM
Actually, Anastasia, what I had in mind is the kind of moniker that gets a kid beaten on the playground at school. Human stupidity knows no race or color.
Posted by KDP on 12/04/17 at 08:37 AM
I'm sure KDP would have come up with nearly the same list two or three years ago.
Posted by RobK on 12/04/17 at 10:53 AM
Lemongello/Limongello/Lemoncello and Oranjelo are real names of Spanish or Italian origin.
Teraje and Teraji are the male and female versions of the Swahili word for "hope."
Josmer Volmy "Jozy" Altidore is the the American-born son of Haitian immigrants.
Sheena is an anglicisation of Sine, the Scottish Gaelic form of the name Jane.
Sanya is a fairly common name in Indian, Russian, and Arabic-speaking countries.
Ogonna is an Igbo name for girls meaning "God's gift."

KDP stole his list of names from this article, which he apparently failed to read. Said failure might be funny if it were not so pathetic. https://www.salon.com/2008/08/25/creative_black_names/

KDP 's bias, like most prejudice, is born of ignorance. The same sort of ignorance that inspires schoolyard beatings over a name, simply because one is too uninformed to recognize or appreciate it. Or as KDP puts it (with a staggering level of unintentional irony): "Human stupidity knows no race or color."
Posted by Frank P on 12/05/17 at 10:42 AM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.