What's In A Name

People are strange. This we know. I'll give you an example. I was walking home from town today and as I was walking, this little girl, who could not have been more than five or six, was scooting along the pavement on her scooter, as kids are apt to do. She was being pursued by her mother (at least, I assume it was her mother - could have been her aunt or even her grandma, I suppose) who was struggling slowly under the weight of a shopping bag (she was quite thin and wearing heels, so one shopping bag was about her limit), trying hard to catch up to the girl or make her stop before she reached the end of the path. The mother was yelling the girl's name at the top of her lungs, "DEIRDRE!!! DEIRDRE, COME BACK HERE!!! STOP!!" and of course, as kids are also apt to do, little Deirdre was completely ignoring Mum's/Auntie's/Granny's cries and scooting away merrily with a little smirk on her face.

As I passed the flustered parent/grandparent/relative I turned my head to see her catch up to the girl.
"How many times have I told you blah blah why do you always do that blah blah when will you ever blah blah that's dangerous blah..." her voice tailed off and I thought to myself, "I'll tell you why your kid doesn't listen to you, missus. It's because you named her Deirdre. And now she is punishing you for your idiocy."

Why do people do such thoughtless things when naming their kids? It is 2011, not 1965. Deirdre never was a very cool name and now it's even less cool. One hears the word uttered (and for those of you on the other side of the Atlantic, I don't mean the American pronunciation Dee-drah, which is now almost exclusively an African-American name - I mean the English pronunciation Deer - dree) and the only thing I can think of is that miserable woman with the huge ugly glasses from Coronation Street. Deirdre frickin' Barlow.

I don't have an answer to this one, folks, but why have folks recently taken to naming their kids very uncool names? Answers, suggestions etc. in the box below.