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Kid Named After Everquest Character

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the my-precious-brain dept.

eToychest writes "Sony Online Entertainment just sent notice that some poor baby has been named after a character in EverQuest. Apparently players really, really love this game. Case in point: player Tabitha Ayers gave birth to a baby girl January 6, 2005, and promptly named her Firiona Vie Ayers, in honor of EverQuest's famous spokes-elf. The path to geekdom for this child has aready been paved in 12-sided dice and character sheets." At this point I think it's safe to say that SOE is going to be the cause of the downfall of Civilization.

35 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. oh... by joper90 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    im surpised it took this long...

    1. Re:oh... by iced_773 · · Score: 2, Informative
      In a way, it hasn't taken this long.

      Parents have been naming their kids after occupations throughout the '90s. Where I live, kids are named Hunter or Taylor or Baker. I even know a couple who named their kids Cooke and Plumber.

      Cue the "my name's Carpenter, you insensitive clod!" comments.
    2. Re:oh... by Formosus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Really? I wouldn't be. As a general rule, it's far harder to find a mate and get together to breed when you spend the majority of your waking hours in front of a computer screen than when you go outside every so often.

    3. Re:oh... by damiam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      People have been named after their occupations for centuries. Where do you think names like Smith or Miller come from?

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  2. I knew a Gilmi once... by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 3, Funny

    I used to know guy named Gimli-- honest! His parents were real big Tolkien fans in the 60s.

    Among several careers, he worked as an EMT & a security guard in a big city-- he enjoyed the rough scene. Big guy...

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  3. More importantly . . . by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As bad as naming your kid after a nearly unpronouncible elf-name from a stupid MMORPG is - the real tragedy here is, what kind of neglect is this poor child going to suffer since her parents are clearly so addicted to a stupid virtual reality world?

    This kid better learn to change her own diaper and prepare her own baby bottles quickly.

    1. Re:More importantly . . . by jasonmicron · · Score: 3, Informative

      What a completely one-sided and closed-minded argument. When my daughter was only months old EverQuest's Kunark had just come out. I put in a good deal of time in the game and my child received proper care. I actually take offense to that comment.

      Some people play games, some work on computers and others work on cars.

    2. Re:More importantly . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not so addicted that they didn't have time to concieve.

      I must admit, I'm amazed at the restraint showed by Slashdot on this topic. Nobody has said anything like

      "This must be a record: two Everquest players got laid on the same night."
      or
      "I guess he broke his +5 Latex Sheild of Damascus"
      or anything about a rod of might.

      Nobody's made any tasteless comments about needing to call a GM because they got stuck in a crack. Or joking about how much of a hammering the server can handle. Or mentioning that the character is now capable of generating food, but only for very low-level players.

      No one has questioned whether Firiona really is a girl, or is just pretending to be one.

    3. Re:More importantly . . . by Pinkoir · · Score: 2, Funny

      This kid better learn to change her own diaper and prepare her own baby bottles quickly.

      Nah, the parents will just need to type "/diaper" at the prompt and the closest diaper service will be automatically sent out to deal with little stinky. SOE already has the billing information so the process is easy enough for even the most addicted and feeble MMORPGer.

      -Pinkoir

    4. Re:More importantly . . . by TyfStar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My husband did about the same thing. He was working 6pm - 2 am, and watching our daughter from 8am until I got hom. He was exhausted, so I gave him many allowances. One of them being EQ. He would take our daughter in his arms, and just hold her while he played for hours & hours. Anything she needed, he would tell everyone AFK and get her food, changed, or whatever. He loved it, and felt like he was spending time with her, and she was getting what she needed.

      The problem is that 5 years later he does not remember our daughter as a baby. He remembers EQ and he had a lvl 60 character. But he definitely missed out on watching her first steps. She probably would have learned a lot more in that first year if he had actually interacted with her, instead of her getting a constant view of his chin.

      The game is not that important. You may not think your child isn't either, but that child is goign to be with you for the rest of your life. I suggest appreciating the baby time, cuz that game is going to get boring, but that baby is going to be gone forever.

      You are not just fulfilling your part of a "bargain" by keeping something alive. YOU'RE RAISING A CHILD.

      And, on a completely seperate note, Firiona Vie is actually a beautiful name. People have been named after much, much worse things (my mom was named after a TV show, my brother because hsi birthday is on christmas, and husband simply named after his horrid father) ....
      Names are difficult enough to come up with. Firiona is lovely.

      As long as she didn't name the child Qeynos. Because that would be just wrong. (Everyone does know that Qeynos = SonyEQ, right?)

      --

      "There is a reason Linux is free"

      ~me~

  4. At least I have a Jr. at the end of MY name... by dauthur · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't this the same as the guy who named his child "2.0" instead of "Junior"? I can't really expect much more creativity... next people are going to name their kids "Apple" and "Moonunit".

    1. Re:At least I have a Jr. at the end of MY name... by Celestial+Avenger · · Score: 2, Funny

      RTFA. Very different names. I named two cats SCSI and GUI. Made for interesting and unique online password remembering Q&A.

  5. What's the big deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How is this any different to naming a child after a film star or a musician, except it's in a different medium?

    1. Re:What's the big deal? by TeleoMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      Film stars and musicians are real people. Elves, gremlins, video game character and Eskimos are not.

      --
      $6.21 is the number of the beast before sales tax. Meh.
    2. Re:What's the big deal? by Master_T · · Score: 2, Funny

      I am an Eskimo you insensitive clod!

  6. Zonk? You ok? by jasonmicron · · Score: 4, Funny

    You DO realize that this is a "News for Nerds" site, right? I wonder how many people on this site have kids named Han and Kirk!

  7. Re:Zonk? You ok? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ha! My little Jean-Luc can beat up your Kirk any time!

  8. adolescent rebellion by rocketfairy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mmkay, so at 13 this kid'll just rebel and turn cool.

    Clever parents learn to fake out their kids, which is why I'm going to pretend to be a Republican from when my kids are btwn 10 and 18.

  9. ...at least it ain't 'Turok' by latent_biologist · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone else remember Akklaim's marketing scheme a few years back?

    1. Re:...at least it ain't 'Turok' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I was signed up and very ready to name my second-born "Turok Parker" for 10 g's. We were very close to winning.

      Would love to know if anyone actually won. Guess we may never find out.

  10. It was only a matter of time by Clomer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Given how significant EQ has become (do you know anyone that doesn't know what EQ is?), I figured it was only a matter of time before someone did this. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the first example of it, it's just the first one that has gotten publicity.

    It won't be too long before someone gets named after a character in WarCraft lore, if it hasn't happened already. Thrall, Kael, Illidan, Tyrande, Jaina, and Grom are, to name a few, all good candidates (though I don't think anyone in their right mind would name a kid Arthas).

    --
    Intelligent responses welcome, flames will be met with marshmallows.
    1. Re:It was only a matter of time by Lazyhound · · Score: 3, Funny
      (do you know anyone that doesn't know what EQ is?)

      Er, yes? As in "the vast majority" yes?

  11. Trogdor was a man... by Meagermanx · · Score: 5, Funny

    "But mommy, why did you name me Trogdor?"

  12. Civilization with a capital C? by LGagnon · · Score: 4, Funny

    At this point I think it's safe to say that SOE is going to be the cause of the downfall of Civilization.

    Sid Meier is going to be pissed.

  13. Mario, Luigi, Princess....Toad?? by Databass · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just think of all the guys out there named Mario- Nintendo has doomed them to Nerdom!!

  14. Re:It's worth noting... by KinkifyTheNation · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, the only reason why it works is because if you type in any word into the address bar in Firefox and it's not a http:// link, it will do a "Feeling Lucky" search on Google. This has been implemented for a while.

  15. Firiona isn't bad by Chemisor · · Score: 2, Funny

    Firiona is not a bad name. I rather like the sound of it. In fact, it is a substantially better choice than, say, "Apple".

  16. Re:That should be 10 sided by damiangerous · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Everquest tabletop RPG is a d20 System game (the core of 3rd edition D&D), although it's officially OGL only and doesn't use the d20 System Trademark License because it includes some off limits things like character creation.

  17. My son by NeuralClone · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm planning on naming my son Guybrush Threepwood.

    --
    find . -name "noobs" -print | xargs rm -rf && echo "pwnd."
  18. Sadly.... by BRock97 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...she can't go to college until she's a level 25 high school student.

    --

    Bryan R.
    The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
  19. copyright by asjk · · Score: 4, Funny

    SOE has claimed copyright infringement. Sony lead attorney, R. U. Stiltskin, said that in compensation the mother must give up... her first born child!!!!

  20. Lawsuit? by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 2, Funny
    I'm shocked that Sony hasn't filed a copyright infringement suit against this family yet.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  21. I'm sure she'll do fine. by genessy · · Score: 5, Funny

    She can grow up and marry my sysadmin's son, Anakin.

  22. Trademark law, not copyright (was Re:copyright) by WillAdams · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Correct.

    Names don't have sufficient expressibility to fall under copyright law.

    Trademark also won't allow one to usurp an extant name save in a very specific / limited role (an example of the extreme to which this can be taken is McDonald's in the US). Then, it falls under law for ``trade dress'' &c.

    A friend of mine's patronymic was used in a certain recent fantasy series --- sent a nastygram by an overzealous (and ignorant) person in a law office alleging violation of their trademark he responded w/ copies of his incorporation certificate for his company (long before the novels were written), and his birth certificate (he's older than the author, and his family name is an old one in Wales). He then received two different responses, one apologising, the other threatening further action. He responded to the first, but included a copy of the latter.

    He received personal phone calls from a principal in the law firm and the movie studio which had gotten the rights for the book, apologising, and thanking him for his forbearance, and asking what they could do to put a physical expression on the apology. They also stated that the person who'd sent the second letter was now sending out resume's instead.

    He wound up w/ round trip tickets to England to the premier, and a chance to meet the author who was delighted by his name.

    William

    --
    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
  23. It could be worse by Minwee · · Score: 2, Funny

    She could have been named Fiorina instead.