Baby names

Having sent two thirds of my offspring off to their first day of school this morning, thought I'd combine these stories:

Recently the UK Daily Telegraph reported that, "Mohammed, and its most common alternative spelling Muhammad, are now more popular babies' names in England and Wales than George." Apparently Mohammed is the number one baby boy's name in many European cities. Let's not get all John Gibson here about how white women need to be more like white-baby PEZ dispensers or European civilization will end.

Apparently white affluent women are way too busy freaking out about naming their firstborn to have any more. From News of the Weird:

Some parents feel "unprecedented levels of angst" to pick cool enough names for their kids, with some even hiring consultants, according to a June Wall Street Journal report. Baby-book authors charge clients $50 for a list of "special" names, and half-hour phone consultations go for $95. Another adviser charges $350 for three calls plus a comprehensive linguistic history of the selected name, and one California mother paid $475 to a numerologist to "test" the name Leah Marie for "positive associations." The Journal blames the problem on too much information about names (from the Internet), as well as parents' fear of dooming their child for life by insufficiently distinguishing their kid from others. [Wall Street Journal, 6-22-07]

Aw hell, they should just name her Mohammed.