{"id":14522,"date":"2020-01-29T09:27:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T13:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=14522"},"modified":"2020-01-30T15:01:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T19:01:31","slug":"baby-naming-issue-are-the-initials-dab-an-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2020\/01\/29\/baby-naming-issue-are-the-initials-dab-an-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: Are the Initials “DAB” an Issue?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

I try to pay attention to initials, and we are considering a name that would spell DAB. I don’t mind the fact that the word is a fairly innocuous verb, but I am more concerned that a Google search of the word brings up a page filled with references to marijuana, and the dance\/picture pose fad. I am not highly into pop culture, so I am seeking input to see if this is something that will be commonly picked up on. Will the dance\/picture fad be old enough by the time the baby is old enough for conversation that it won’t be something that comes to mind amongst their peers? Perhaps your readers could share opinions on this?<\/p>\n

Thank you<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

My vote is that this is a non-issue. My own preference is to avoid initials spelling things when possible, and I’m familiar with the annoying dab pose (I had to look up the marijuana term), and this still feels like a big shrug to me if you love the name.<\/p>\n

When I’m trying to figure out if a naming issue is a problem (like when initials spell something, or when the first name blends into the surname), what I do is think about what bad thing could happen as a result of the initials\/blending; I can’t picture anything very bad happening here. What if in elementary school your child’s peers find out their initials, AND people are still dabbing, AND those little kids know more than I do about marijuana vocabulary? WHAT THEN?? Nothing important, is what. And that’s IF they find out the initials! And if there WAS a “What’s your middle name?”\/”What are your initials?” trend (there was at my school, but to be fair I was the one who started it and I have always been more than normally interested in names), there would definitely be other kids with slightly odd\/funny initials to take some of the heat.<\/p>\n

I should have asked my kids before they went to school, but I’m imagining what they’d do if they found out a friend had the initials DAB. Elizabeth’s group of friends (9th graders) does some mild affectionate recurring name-related teasing, and here are some of the things she’s mentioned:<\/p>\n

1) Occasionally calling someone a funny mispronunciation of their name, especially if it happened in a group experience (e.g., the substitute teacher mispronounced someone’s name, or someone once mistyped the name in a group chat)<\/p>\n

2) Occasionally pretending a nickname is short for a different name\/word (e.g., pretending to think Addy is short for Advertisement)<\/p>\n

3) Occasionally using a nickname the person doesn’t use (e.g., calling an Elizabeth “Betsy” or “Liz” when she only goes by Elizabeth)<\/p>\n

4) Occasionally calling someone by their full name, especially if the middle name is considered by the group to be embarrassing (generally the vintage-revival or honor names we love here, so that I am constantly saying “But that’s a LOVELY name!” while Elizabeth rolls her eyes).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My guess is that there would be the occasional “Calling the person ‘DAB’ and then doing that dumb pose,” and that that’s all there would be to it—and that even THAT is somewhat unlikely to happen. (Elizabeth is more than typically interested in names, and the running name-related jokes are not happening in any of my other kids’ friend groups.)<\/p>\n

Twitter poll: Are the initials DAB enough of an issue that they shouldn’t use the name?<\/a> [poll closed; see results below]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, I try to pay attention to initials, and we are considering a name that would spell DAB. I don’t mind the fact that the word is a fairly innocuous verb, but I am more concerned that a Google search of the word brings up a page filled with references to marijuana, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3Me","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14522"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14533,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14522\/revisions\/14533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}