After watching Madame Duggar inch closer to the birth of her 18th child, I was lucky enough to catch a bit of TLC’s reality show “Toddlers in Tiaras” the other night.
Evidently there are two kinds of pageants: Natural and Full Glitz. The glitz is what pageants are famous for, where the claws come out, and when stage mommeighs go over the top to win. I cannot help but call the judgement of these parents into question. Spray tans, false eyelashes, hair pieces, and flippers. You know what flippers are? They’re false teeth that they use to “correct” a six-year-old’s smile. They drag everyone on stage, from a two-year-old mid tantrum, to a sleeping baby who couldn’t care less. We are introduced to each family by the town they live in and a shot of the outside of their home.
Where this concerns us, of course, is their parents’ judgement when it comes to names. Holly’s OK, and I rather like Story– though this may give me pause, sweet as the girl may be.
Aliyah
Brooklyn
Daylee (& Destiny)
Desiree
Destiny (& Daylee)
Haleigh
Holly
Jadyn (x2)
Kaleigha
Karmen
Kayleigh
MaKayla
Marleigh
Story
and a boy named Peyton.
We’ve got so many trends going on here I’m having trouble seeing straight. There is of course the Mc trend with MaKayla, which bumps right into the K trend that Karmen suffers. Carmen would have been lovely! Two Jadyns on the ladies– there are no words. There are two trends that actually almost caught me off guard: First, were the propensity of “eighs” in Marleigh, Kayleigh, Haleigh, and Kaleigha (I mean this is getting ridiculous). Second, the amount of word names: Destiny, Desiree, Story, and even Holly. File Brooklyn under place names, Aliyah under celebrity inspired, and Daylee under a general what is that? and our list is complete. Sigh. I feel badly for adding insult to injury, but it’s far from what these girls are put through every day.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
heehee the mommeighs sure are out in force with the names! I guess it’s reinforcing a stereotype that many suspected all along
Different spelling, but there’s a little boy named Payton at my son’s playgroup – he was the only one born in this state in 2007, according to the births/deaths/marriages register her. I’d never heard the name before I met him, but it’s grown on me!
Aww, poor Holly. In that crowd, she positively shines! Blah, a pox on all these mommieghs, let them be little girls while they can.
Bah! Another reason I don’t watch tv anymore!
I really like Brooklyn i don’t know if its because I’m Australian and its not a place here but i like it. If I was American I probably wouldnt like it because I dont like Australian cities for names like Adelaid, Sydney, Adelaid
But i think its quite cute for a boy
I have to say, Laura, that here Brooklyn is exclusively used for girls. Mr. and Mrs. Spice excluded. I love Adelaide, but Sydney should have stayed down under.
These are really, really bad. And I must bring up Jon Benet. I think it takes a special kind of parent to subject their children to pageants just as it takes a special kind of parent to name their child Daylee.
I can’t even bear to watch these shows. A few years back there was a special on HBO on this topic. The main character was a sad little girl named Swan.
I think the best part of the show is the mommeighs (love that!) dancing in the audience with their exaggerated faces. Hilarious!
I could do Marley maybe. Ok no, I can’t. Whew, got over that quickly! We have a town called Payton, but I can’t imagine the kids are named after a village in Saskatchewan!
Brookyln is a girls name?? i never knew this neither have I encountered a girl Brooklyn i guess its one of those names like Sarah keeps telling (Ashley in this case) which starts off a one sexs name and then is stolen and used for the opposite sex. I’m suprised
Laura, until the Beckhams absconded with it, I don’t think Brooklyn was ever used as a name en masse– please correct me if I’m wrong. It sounds like a conjunction of Brooke and Lynn, both girls’ names, and many people spell it that way. I think to say it’s a boys’ name, or a girls’ name for that matter, is a misnomer. It’s a place name, like London, and could easily be adapted for either sex. But in the States, 99% of people will see all girl in Brooklyn when on a person.
Pamela, one of my friends coined the word mommeigh. I can’t take credit for it and want to give credit where it’s due, but I can’t remember who started it!
LOL – I’m glad to know I’m not the only person out there watching tiara’d toddlers in a semi-hypnotized state.
My sister worked with a 30-something woman named Brooke Lynne, but I’ve never met anyone my age called Brooklyn.
But I just checked the US Social Security site, and Brooklyn has ranked in the Top 1000 for girls since 1990 – nearly a decade before Brooklyn Beckham’s 1999 birth. I can’t figure out how Brooklyn became a name at all!
i just did a little googling (he he he) and apparently the city Brooklyn named after the Dutch town Breukelen which means broken land. But i guess that doesnt really figure out how it became a name. I will say though that today anything is used as a name like i can understand cities (though im not a great fan of London or China as names) and colours and so forth but when simple objects become names it just weirds me out a bit. some people will choose ANYTHING to be different.
Though its a girls names thanks to the beckhams i will forever think of Brooklyn as a boys name
Brooklyn IS a girl’s name! I named my GIRL DOG Brooklyn way back in 2000. LOL. Our other girl dog is Annapolis, and we call her Annie. I think place names are great for pets, not people.
As for the rest of that group, I’m pretty sure everyone here knows what I think: YUCK.
Thanks for sharing!
And by the way, at some point in 2002, I told this girl Delia (who totally ruined that name for me) that I had a dog named Brooklyn, and she said, “Oh my god, I totally want to name my daughter that. Brooke Lynne. So cute!” And I said, “It’s my dog, seriously.” And she said, “It’s so cute for a little girl.” Lo and behold, a year later, she had a baby and named her Brooklynne (YUCK) Elizabeth. SHUDDER!!!
I watched an episode a while ago where one of the girls was named ‘Sparkal Queenz’ Yuck, they didn’t even bother to spell their surname correctly.
Emotional child abuse is far more harmful to a persons soul. In what warped mind is this acceptable.
To ingrain in a little girl that she should be a sexual object and someone she is not, is outrageous. It is brainwashing that is setting these little girls up for misery for the rest of their lives.
How is plastic, artificial, self absorbed, over indulged, conformity good for our children?
And what about all the little girls watching this? Parents clapping and cheering in approval! What is happening in their little minds?