My first spawn-of-the-devil will be Numfar. Boy, girl or misc.

stavrogin | July 05, 01:45 CET

I don't know, Jonathan always had a nice ring to it.

jack knight | July 05, 01:49 CET

Ever since Firefly I've thought that "River" was a great girl's name.

ringworm | July 05, 03:24 CET

The Doctor in Firefly, I've forgotten his name but I remember at the time thinking it was a very cool name.

Simon | July 05, 07:20 CET

Had a classmate named Buffy in a Shakespeare class, but she was a redhead....

Chris in Virginia | July 05, 07:28 CET

I dunno, "Joss" has a nice ring to it. :)

Oddjob | July 05, 08:09 CET

I wonder what kind of schoolyard trauma could result from a name like 'Spike'. Probably not the best kind of experiment to carry out...

babykarret | July 05, 09:57 CET

Here's one:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13132595_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-ORDEAL-OF-RESCUED-INDIAN-OCEAN-ROWERS-name_page.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/2958280.stm

Two blokes were trying to row the Indian Ocean (but had to be rescued). One of them has a wife called Buffy.

Yorky | July 05, 15:39 CET

Never knew a Buffy, but I would name my kid (were I to choose to procreate) Willow, Giles (NOT Rupert), Alexander, Anya, Riley, or Frederica...

Will & Jada's daughter is Willow - wonder if there's a connection?

Cris | July 06, 00:46 CET

That little skank on the Real World Las Vegas, has a sister name Buffy. And one of Hugh Hefners current girlfriends name is Buffy.

nychick | July 06, 01:25 CET

I know a Buffy! But she's about 50 years old, and the name is short for Badonna. Don't ask me how she got to Buffy. Apparently she's gone by it her whole life though.

PwincessCupcake | July 06, 04:00 CET

i've known 3 people named buffy so far; all of them elizabeths but called buffy as a pet name. i think back in the day it was pretty common for girls named elizabeth to get that nickname.

t r a c y | July 06, 06:26 CET

Guess this doesn't strictly count, but my aunt had a Golden Retreiver called Buffy.

xanfan | July 06, 15:24 CET

I knew a girl in high school whose real name was Martha. Her nickname was Muffy (this being the early 80s) but changed to Spike when preppy started to wane and punk to wax.

melsta | July 06, 20:37 CET

Funny, Melsta!...even funnier if true!

We have neighbors who have a dog named Xander.

Chris in Virginia | July 06, 22:55 CET

Caleb seems to be rising in popularity among the toddler set--I know of at least three little Calebs, and one about age 30. Let's just hope none of them reveal tendencies toward Evil.

Maeve | July 06, 23:08 CET

I know a set of angora bunnies named Spike, Anya and Xander. There was a Buffy and an Angel, but they were a bonded pair and when one died the other followed. (True story.) One of these days I'll ask if I can link to their picture.

lynsa | July 07, 04:33 CET

I like 'Joss', doesn't it mean 'fate' in Chinese? Or is it 'luck'---and isn't 'Buffy' a diminutive of 'Elizabeth'? Can you imagine calling Queen Elizabeth 'Buffy'??? Maybe they do? ;)

The Lady Pele | July 07, 19:32 CET

Correct on Buffy, Lady Pele, but not quite on target for Joss.

From behindthename.com:

JOSS f English
Pronounced: JAWS
Short form of JOCELYN

Oddly, they list "Joss" as a female name, but then list its derivative "Jocelyn" as both female and male. The only other Joss I've ever heard of is the English actor Joss Ackland, who's been in a lot of movies and has had a nice stage career in Britain. I saw him as Stanley Kowalski in a London production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (with Claire Bloom as Blanche.) In the 80s, he was in a BBC production of "Shadowlands," in which he played C.S. Lewis. Could there be two roles more dissimilar!

I love Harris Yulin as Quentin Travers, but Joss Ackland would have been great, too.

I think "joss" is Chinese for a god or idol or some such thing.

Here's the listing for "Buffy":

BUFFY f English
Pronounced: BUF-ee
Pet form of ELIZABETH

Chris in Virginia | July 07, 23:13 CET

I've heard of one other Joss before- Kate Winslet's brother.

lalaa | July 07, 23:20 CET

I was very proud of myself when I figured out that his real given name must be Joseph, and was surprised when I read in that biography that he chose "Joss" because it was Chinese for "luck". I had just figured it was his own version of his given name - à la Xander and Toph (for Christopher).

I like my version better. That he came up with it on his own and was later pleased to discover it was also a Chinese word (BTW - what Chinese? Mandarin or Cantonese or other? And which is the one he studied?)

melsta | July 08, 00:18 CET

I knew a Joss when I was a kid, and he was Dutch - I always figured it was the Dutch form of "Joshua".

Weekly | July 08, 12:34 CET

The word "joss" is actually not Chinese at all. It is from a Pidgin English word for a Chinese idol. The word comes from the archaic Portuguese "deos", meaning "god". The meaning has been adapted to represent "luck" when speaking in English about Chinese traditional ceremonies (like New Year's Festival etc.), where joss sticks (made of incense) are burned for good luck.

According to this page, his real name is Joseph (his parents call him Joe).

Hrzenkl | September 19, 11:17 CET

In Dutch, the spelling is 'Jos' (short for Jozef)

Caroline | September 19, 15:42 CET

My son's name is Alexander Riley -- Xander for short

missingbuffy | September 20, 07:36 CET

[ edited by white_wolf209 on 2006-02-15 23:55 ]

whitegggggggggggggggg | October 08, 07:11 CET

[ edited by white_wolf209 on 2006-02-15 23:55 ]

whitegggggggggggggggg | October 08, 07:13 CET