A Baby Named Google

Status: Seems True
Earlier this year there was a story about a couple who named their baby Yahoo, in honor of having met over the internet. That story turned out to be a hoax invented by a Romanian reporter, Ion Garnod. But now there's a case, apparently true, in which a couple decided to name their baby Google. In response to whether he thinks his son will be teased in school on account of his name, the father stated: "not if he is using Google Search engine and he is building new idea with his friends around The Psychometric and Informational Structural Mind." I have no idea what that means. However, according to the Google Blog, the baby's full name is Oliver Google Kai, which means that Google is his middle name, which isn't quite as odd as if it were his first name.

Birth/Babies

Posted on Sun Oct 23, 2005



Comments

I think it means he wants his son to think like a search engine.
Posted by Citizen Premier  on  Sun Oct 23, 2005  at  11:23 PM
A reporter named Iron Gonads?? Yikes!
Posted by outeast (paul in prague)  on  Mon Oct 24, 2005  at  02:38 AM
I think he is saying that he plans on turning his son into a dork....so he is saying "ofcourse he will be teased"...
Posted by X  on  Mon Oct 24, 2005  at  07:18 AM
Maybe he thinks the kid will grow up tougher because he will have to learn to fight when he gets teased. Remember the old Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue".

Seriously though, I wonder what goes through some people's heads when they come up with things like this. Growing up is tough enough without the additional handicap of a stupid name. Why make your kid's life even tougher?

If this guy thinks it's such a good idea, why doesn't he change his own name to Google?
Posted by Captain Al  on  Mon Oct 24, 2005  at  09:23 AM
Lest we forget--
Google is actually a number (100 raised to the 100th power).

So being named Google is like being named "Forty-seven" or "Eighty-six."

Science fiction come to life (if this story is true).
Posted by Big Gary in Dallas  on  Mon Oct 24, 2005  at  02:23 PM
Not entirely science fiction. Naming children after numbers was a common enough practice when large families were the norm: Septimus (seven), Otto (eight), Nona (nine)...etc for just a few examples from Europe.
Posted by ToxicPurity  on  Mon Oct 24, 2005  at  09:02 PM
10^100 is a googol, not a google. It was first used by a mathematician who had asked his child, "What can I call a number that is 10 to 100th power?"

The reply was, "A googol."

The article also talked about the name increasing the chances of aquiring many friends. Choosing Googol is extreme overkill since 10^100 is greater than the number of atoms in the entire universe.
Posted by Captain Al  on  Tue Oct 25, 2005  at  12:05 AM
Uh, ToxicPurity, Otto is Old German for "one with riches" I think you were thinking of "Octavian" which was, of course, the original name of Augustus Julias Ceasar.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Wed Oct 26, 2005  at  08:29 PM
Christopher Cole:

The Otto I know isn't German, he's Italian. It could be short for Ottavio or an Italianised version of Odo or some other Old German name, but he says it's the same word as for "eight". He's not an eighth child, though.
Posted by ToxicPurity  on  Sat Oct 29, 2005  at  03:34 AM
ToxicPurity you may have a point (comb your hair differently and no one will notice - old joke)with Otto in this case being a nickname for the Italian for "eight" but I was going by baby name books which in this case say that Otto is derived from the Old German Odo or Otho which meant something along the lines of "one with riches" as one book put it or "prosperous" as another book put it. I don't speak Italian, I'm struggling to learn Spanish and Ottavio could be the modern form of Octavius. The Spanish word for eight is ocho if I remember right and Spanish is derived from Latin as is Italian. However people do name their children weird names - it keeps psychiatrists and psychologists busy helping those people deal with the traumas of what kids do to other kids with oddball names.

And I wish to point out that I screwed up with the name of Octavius Julias Ceasar Augustus, the gand-nephew and heir of the more famous Gaius Julias Ceasar. Octavius being the personal name, Julias being the family name and Ceasar being the clan name and Augustus being the nichname.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Sat Oct 29, 2005  at  01:45 PM
Then again there are some of us that use our middle names because they are more normal than the first name.
Posted by Lounge Lizard  on  Tue Jul 11, 2006  at  05:40 PM
The father (might) want the kid's friends to hear the name and want to use the search engine. But It sounds like he is trying to create a bizarre learning tool and ad of his son.
Posted by Exmortisfangirl  on  Sun Jan 27, 2008  at  04:31 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.