Mara Wilson: Sometimes I meet a white guy whose name is like Jornakynn and it takes everything I have to keep from asking him “so what’s it like to be the youngest in a Mormon family”

Sometimes I meet a white guy whose name is like Jornakynn and it takes everything I have to keep from asking him “so what’s it like to be the youngest in a Mormon family”

Not Mormon, but feel this for similar reasons. Met a dude named Obediah once. After I introduced myself with my full name, he laughed the biggest laugh, hugged me, and nearly yelled “What were our mothers thinking?!”

Here is Southern Missouri, my grandma used to tell about a relative of ours whose name was Jedidiah Hezikiah Bearafiah Weaver. I am thrilled those names weren’t passed on.

One of those names is my little brother’s. I’m dead serious.

Sending my well wishes to brother Bearafiah

Ha! Love it

My wife wouldn't let me name our son Zebulon. That would have been such a cool name. Historical but sounds like science fiction.

One of my math teachers in high school named his first son that. One of my classmates straight up asked him if they were going to call the kid by his middle name.

my husband is still mad that 22 years ago, i didn’t let him name our son Hezekiah, after Tony Curtis’ mechanic in The Great Race.

Hahalol. This is my 2nd favourite nickname for my daughter Zoe. Had no idea it was an actual name!

I think that’s Mormon for “Jeremy Bearimy”

His name is my name, too.

I have a great^5 grandfather named Epaphroditus but strangely my wife was not enthusiastic about using that one

What a spoilsport!

My kids missed out on a lifetime of spelling that one over the phone

LMAO, this is funny but at least these are real names that make phonetic sense. I feel so bad for the next generation of kids (www.reddit.com/r/tragedeigh/ might be fun for you)

In high school I studied with a boy named Osiris. He had a sister named Isis. I'm still not over whatever their parents were thinking. My grandfather had a sister whose name was his (grandpa's, her older brother) written backwards, but Osiris and Isis still takes the prize for me.

Worked with numerous "Mo's". A majority of them were short for Mohammed but one wasn't, he was from Utah. His name was Mordecai. His full name was even more exciting.

I have always loved Mordecai as a name!

The only boy who could ever reach me

My father planned to name my sister Andromeda. My mum went to registrar without him to make sure it didn’t happen.

I knew a kid who got his name because his father asked his mother if they had a kid if he could name him a specific unconventional thing if it was a boy when they were dating in high school and she said yes. He did not forget. Super sweet kid. Kick-ass name too. His father had a hard name too.

Prophet sharing?

"hmmm...see if theres any bits of names left at the bottom of the bag, we'll stick em together"

My grandmother's name was Janette and my grandfather's name was William so my mother's middle name is Willette. She's Kathrine but goes by Kay. I have a niece called Kayla and she named her first daughter Kaci. So I know it happens like that.

"I Jornakynn't complain"

You have a gift 😂

It's actually a bog witch's curse but thank you.

Growing up in Northern Arizona, in a town that was majority Mormon, I thought Caleb Cody and Jared were as common as John and Steve.

Ammon Oliver [last name] III, you say? Not a convert then...

this guy?

or this one? whatwedointheshadows.fandom.com/wiki/Go%C3%A...

Goëjlrmwhatwedointheshadows.fandom.com Goëjlrm, commonly known as The Sire, is the oldest living vampire and the apparent progenitor of the entire species. He appears in What We Do in the Shadows (TV series). Goëjlrm's origins are presentl...

Not totally unrelated but I wanted to name my two girls Hippolyta and Boudicca. The wife vetoed hard. But secretly they're still my little warrior queens. Sometimes a name defines you, sometimes you define your name.

Damnit, a long time ago there used to be a webpage on Utah baby names compiled from various sources that was fun to go through, but it's gone. 😞 I also saw some real humdingers in the past when I have gone through the FLDS genealogical records that were entered into evidence during trials. 🙃

Start looking through Idaho and Utah 4-H club announcements, you'll find them. My area edges up on Idaho and a local 4H group had three spellings of Mickayla alone.

What got me where the different spellings of Moroni in the FLDS documents. I know he's a sacred figure to them so I was surprised there would be so much playing around with the spelling!

Jornakynn: "Golly, how'd you know?"

As the youngest in a Mormon family who did end up with the weirdest spelled name Not great

I knew a guy in college named Tubalcain. He had a brother named Andrew and a sister named Sarah, he was the youngest kid so we assumed his parents just decided to have fun with the last one.

WAIT A MINUTE does this mean Stephenie Meyer made "Renesmee" not because she's weird but because she's Mormon???

that’s correct

my mind is blown this is amazing and feels similar to when a bunch of people learned that prefects and boarding school house divisions weren't "Harry Potter things" they were just British

I’m trying to remember if it was @stoneyboboney.bsky.social who broke down all the Weird Stuff In Twilight That Was Really Just Mormon back when it was new (this was way back on LJ)

That was me! LDS Sparkledammerung. Livejournal borked a lot of the links, but it’s on the Wayback machine! web.archive.org/web/20081220...

stoney321: LDS Sparkledammerung IS HERE!web.archive.org

I'd be curious to read that (though I'm sure it's lost to the sands of time by now)! Back when I read it I assumed the Mormon influence was the "I absolutely can't have sex before marriage and even when the baby is literally killing me I can't abort" but it's interesting that there's more

that’s actually why I tagged Stoney, who probably has archive links

My father was a director. An actor he liked was Maroni Olsen. So, my mom is driving past the Mormon Tabernacle on Santa Monica Blvd and I said 'Look, Mom, it's Gabriel!" She said, "No, that's the Angle Maroni!" Being a Hollywood brat I asked, 'They named an angel after Mr. Olsen?"

Reading the phone book in SLC in the 90s actually used to be pretty interesting.

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