2026 Gymnastics Social Media bits

[Indy]

My kid has multiple classmates named Emmett. Every Emmett’s parents have expressed their surprise that their kid was not the only one with that name in their grade.

 

[RedBirdie]

There's 3 Theodores on one little league team, never mind all the other Theodores on the 10 other teams at my kid's level. Several team have 2, and I'd be shocked if there's any teams without one.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Oh, yes. In addition to the preponderance of Sophias, my daughter's peer group also includes a lot of "A" names: Abby, Addy (short for Addison), Ada, Alyssa, and Ava. I have to be very careful when I'm texting the parents, who are usually listed in my phone contacts as so-and-so's mom/dad.

That's one thing about being a parent: you sometimes lose your own name. My daughter's friends simply call me S's mom. That's fine because that's who I am. I'm not Mrs. Anybody, even though I've been married for 25 years. (I didn't take my husband's name because I despise my father-in-law.) I'm Dr. Somebody by virtue of having a Ph.D., but it's not a title I use socially. So S's mom it is!

Sometimes other parents even call me by my daughter's name. I don't bat an eyelash. Sometimes I don't even notice until they apologize for the slip.

I'm a fucker for doing that, especially once the kids get bigger (I think we both have an 11 year old?) and half of them are the same size as their mums. At least when they're 4, the size is a helpful visual cue!

Personally I've answered since childhood to my own name, both sisters, my mum's and female cousins of around my age, so it's no big deal to add the daughters. It's just easier that way!

 

[IratePanda]

I'm a fucker for doing that, especially once the kids get bigger (I think we both have an 11 year old?) and half of them are the same size as their mums. At least when they're 4, the size is a helpful visual cue!

Personally I've answered since childhood to my own name, both sisters, my mum's and female cousins of around my age, so it's no big deal to add the daughters. It's just easier that way!

Yes, my daughter is 11, and she's taller than I am!

 

[daniTS]

Some classic names there. "Eleanor" and "Althea" strike me as names for older people, but then I remember that every Eleanor or Althea was a baby at one time. And I love "Jane"--just very solid.

My BFF in middle school's mom was an 'Anthea' and even when we were 10 I used to think about that haha

 

[MaryClare]

In Russia there isn’t much variety in boys names. The same names go in and out of fashion every decade or so with a core group of 5/6 names being pretty timeless.

To give you an example, figure skaters Alexandra Trusova and Alyona Kostornaya have both given birth to sons in the last year or so and have gone for very traditional names, Mikhail and Dmitry.

Girl names are much more influenced by trends. The main one seems to be for names that historically have been almost non existent in Russia, but work well in the Russian language. Names like Ariana, Lucia, Olivia, Emilia.

Since it was Mykayla Skinner who brought us onto this topic, here is a fun fact. So despite Mikhail being one of the most popular names of all time, we don’t have a female equivalent. Mikhaila isn’t used at all. When we translate someone who is called Michaela/Mckayla etc we use Микелла as the most common translation and actually there is a well known Russian celebrity who called his daughter this! McKayla Maroney becomes Mikella Maroni and ends up looking and sounding Italian rather than Irish!

 

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

Fully 20% of the girls in my daughter’S class at school are called Poppy. Meanwhile her dance class features a Wednesday.

 

[Hatsumomo]

I worked with a woman named Tuesday.

 

[QuietColours]

We had swimming lessons with a d'Artagnan. Varying degrees of unusual-historical seem to be popular in our area.

When I was coaching preschool classes in the late '00s a solid half the girls were Isabella or a variant thereof. Anything that could be nicknamed Izzy, Ellie, Addy, or Bella.

 

[Angelika]

One of my favourite things to laugh at is when lists of Junior gymnasts are on here and I see some of the ridiculous names - American names are the worst but GB isn't far behind. A small part of me dies when I see names with apostrophes in them, or a capital letter in the middle of a name. Or, when the most normal name is spelled in a stupid way because the parents think they are being original.

Just like 'fetch' - Soozahn (Suzanne) is never gonna happen!

Yes I'm sad and evil!

 

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

One of my favourite things to laugh at is when lists of Junior gymnasts are on here and I see some of the ridiculous names - American names are the worst but GB isn't far behind. A small part of me dies when I see names with apostrophes in them, or a capital letter in the middle of a name. Or, when the most normal name is spelled in a stupid way because the parents think they are being original.

Just like 'fetch' - Soozahn (Suzanne) is never gonna happen!

Yes I'm sad and evil!

Looking at you, Crystelle Lake

 

[MaryClare]

Looking at you, Crystelle Lake

I feel like someone really needs to organise a meet up between Crystelle Lake and Love Birt

 

[RedBirdie]

One of my favourite things to laugh at is when lists of Junior gymnasts are on here and I see some of the ridiculous names - American names are the worst but GB isn't far behind. A small part of me dies when I see names with apostrophes in them, or a capital letter in the middle of a name. Or, when the most normal name is spelled in a stupid way because the parents think they are being original.

Just like 'fetch' - Soozahn (Suzanne) is never gonna happen!

Yes I'm sad and evil!

I can't tell you how long it took me to figure out how to pronounce "eMjae." Someone should have stopped her parents from such ridiculousness.

 

[JoseM]

I can't tell you how long it took me to figure out how to pronounce "eMjae." Someone should have stopped her parents from such ridiculousness.

True. Agreed. Some parents murder their children with the names they give them, unfortunately. Some parents are disconsiderate, insensitive, and stupid when naming their children. What weed were they smoking when they gave their baby that name ?! What drug were they using when they gave their baby that name ?! We must be mindful and considerate when naming our children. A name choice is a SERIOUS matter.

José M.

 

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

It’s something girls especially suffer with. Parents giving them “cute” names that are fine for babies but weird for adults.

Before my first was born, someone told me that you to have to think how their name will sound not when they’re a baby but when they’re made head of MI6 and I think that’s a good rule to live by. See also: dance like nobody’s watching, tweet like it’ll be read out at a select committee hearing.

 

[JDB]

I think parents should set high expectations with their children's names. Dominque Moceanu had the right idea with "Victoria Olympia".

 

[Indy]

I can't tell you how long it took me to figure out how to pronounce "eMjae." Someone should have stopped her parents from such ridiculousness.

My kid goes by his initials and when we signed him up for gymnastics the woman asked me how to spell his name. She said she just wanted to double check that it wasn’t spelled creatively like Jaycee or eMjae. Maybe if we’d have been more unique he would have been better at gymnastics

 

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

I think parents should set high expectations with their children's names. Dominque Moceanu had the right idea with "Victoria Olympia".

Usain Bolt is father of Olympia Lightning Bolt.