January 20, 2005
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Exactly what methodology is employed when companies decide which names to put on personalized items?
It’s not like “Dmitry” is some weird, wacky, throw the alphabet into the blender and see what’s spit out name, you know. Nearly everyone has HEARD of it.
Try and find anything with that name on it, including some small
personalized jingle bell ornaments Foley’s carried. I swear, they
had available nearly every name one could think of. Except
“Dmitry.”Destiny. They had Destiny. Just how many Destiny’s do you know, huh?
You want Haley? It’s there. Plus its alternative spelling, Hailey. Chad. Quincy. Hilda.
Hilda! When was the last time you ran into a Hilda?
But a nice, normal name like Dmitry? Nope.
Comments (11)
I know several Haleys with various spellings, a couple of Chads, and one Quincy, although I was a bit shocked to find out that was his name.
My community is really small, but it’s got lots of people with unique names, so I guess bigger communities have more unique names. I think whoever picks the names for the various paraphenalia you find must either spend weeks worrying about what names to pick, or just randomly chooses them. 
I have trouble finding my kiddos names. Jeric, Kieran, and Lochlan. It kinda sucks but at the same time I named them not wanting them to be named the same as all the other kiddos in their classes (and now i’m considering homeschooling. LOL crazy).
Try Colin (my oldest son), Bennett (my youngest son…okay, his first name is Christopher, but he is called Bennett)….or me Cheri, or my true first name Cherice. Dmitry is in good company. I had an Aunt named Hilda, if she were still alive she’d be about 105 years old, I am reasonably sure I’ll run into a lot more Dimitrys than Hildas!!!
I’ll bet you can’t find mine, either. I never could when I was growing up.
[suspiciously] Han_the_Roo, you’re making that up. You have to be. I live in a city yet have never met a Haley, Quincy, or Hilda in my life.
Justagirl, do you ever find your kids’ names? Surely any company that has a “Lochlan,” for instance, will also have a “Dmitry.”
They had Colin, Cheri. I’m really pretty sure I noticed that.
Couldn’t find “Moosebugs”? Well, duh. ;^D
What’s odd is *I* often had a hard time finding stuff…the “Ann” usually had the “e” omitted.
You’ve never heard of “Haley?” My goodness, I can’t set foot in Walmart without someone squawking “Ha—leeee!” at some miscreant toddler.
However, it does strike me as more of a northern sort of name, not a southern-sounding one.
Seriously, though, there’s a Haley under every rock around here. There’s even one whose mom and grandma bring her to our little church semi-regularly.
I dunno, Anne — Dmitry’s certainly a name everyone’s heard of, but mostly in connection with Olympic sports or something, not one they’re usually giving their own children and therefore buying keychains and whatnot for.
I’m surprised you have trouble finding “Anne” — I usually have no trouble finding things for my Anna, which I would think would be an even more unusual variant.
Of course I’ve heard of “Haley.”
Haley Mills? Original “The Parent Trap”?
Wouldn’t have thought it common enough to make The List, though.
What I want to know is…Was there a Heidi? It’s a strangely absent name, when you start looking through the pencils, the keychains, the little notebooks. Heidi’s a rareun, for a name that’s been out there, and basically hovering at the halfway mark in popularity (every generation has a couple of Heidi’s, though it’s never been THE name)…yup, it’s tough to find anything with Heidi on it. Heather. Haley. Hilary, even.
Yeah right – I was looking for “Moosebugs”. Not.
Good luck finding something with Bryson on it.
Touché, Moosie. ;->
I think the late 60′s must have been the high water mark for Heidis. There were actually two in my junior high section (the group of kids who had all their classes together — about 25 kids total) and I think there was probably at least one in every graduating class in my school throughout the 80′s. Since then, I imagine it’s become a lot rarer.