Other examples of this trend include putting in Ys and AEs and other letter combinations that make little phonetic sense: Londynn instead of London, or Aevrie instead of Avery, like my cousin’s daughter. I also have a cousin named Bretagne (yes, it’s French); her parents call her Brita-NAY. The rest of us just say Brittany (as in Spears). We aren’t that pretentious.

I have a litmus test for naming my future child. If it’s a dumb name, my brother said he’d just call it “Bob,” boy or girl. So I just ask him if he would “Bob” a name, and if the answer is yes, I steer clear. If any of you would like to try names out on my brother, let me know.

Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name?” A person’s name evokes all types of notions and emotions, good and bad. Maybe I have offended some of you, as maybe you’ve named your children some versions of the above. I would like to say that it’s nothing personal. But when you’re talking about a person’s name, it truly is.

Dr. Bundy is an attending physician at ERMed, LLC, in Montgomery, Ala., and a former photojournalist, who not only sings in the car, but talks to herself, is addicted to diet drinks and shoes, and thinks emergency medicine is the greatest specialty.