Maybe they named their kid after the Topanga Canyon area near L.A. Either way, it's dumb, but I just wanted to put that out there.

I've never understood how it happens that a name gets misspelled on a birth certificate and goes unnoticed by the parent(s) until it's too late to fix it. That's apparently what happened with Oprah Winfrey, too. She was supposed to be "Orpah," I believe, and they spelled it wrong and her mom didn't notice until it was too late to correct it.

When my son was born, they made me look over the document they filled out and sign off that it was correct. And even though he has a very common, not often misspelled first and middle name, you better believe I checked that thing over thoroughly before I signed.

I guess "Chutney" wouldn't be much better, but...Chudney? Ugh.

Is it hard to legally change a name when you find out it's been misspelled on the birth certificate? I think it's pretty dumb to call a kid by a name you didn't even choose for him/her just because someone else misspelled it.

My parents couldn't decide on my name when I was born, so I was registered as "Female [Secondname]", and I believe my birth cert wasn't altered until I was at least six or seven.

I don't know, but that's kind of what happened with Oprah since her name was meant to be Orpah but her mother misspelled it.

It isn't remotely hard. My birth certificate originally had my last name spelled wrong because some idiot who filled it out (not my parents) didn't realize my last name was two words. So, now there is a stamp on it that says "this has been revised" and the correct name.

What I never got about Oprah is: how did they pronounce it when she was young? Did they stll call her Orpah, even thought it was spelled Oprah on her birth certificate? And if they did, when did she start going by Oprah?

You know... I recall that she went by her middle name Gail when she was growing. This is something I remember from an episode of Oprah a number of years back.

I definitely prefer Chudney to Chutney. Don't get me wrong, they're both terrible, but at least with Chudney it would take a little thinking to come up with the food reference.

And yeah, parents need to think about whether the kid is going to be scarred for life by a stupid name. I read an article some years ago that indicated girls with oddball names seem to suffer less psychologically from them than boys. Make of that what you will.

"Topanga" is a pretty word, and Neil Young used to live in Topanga Canyon, but even so, that's the sort of name I would put on my list of "cool names for a future cat" rather than lay it on a child. (I just found 28 Topangas on Facebook, though, so it may be going the way of "Dakota" as a name that's become unremarkable through usage. And pretty, too.)

Really, my bottom line is if you're going to give a child a weird name, it should at least be pretty and not directly connected to a physical object such as a member of the relish family that will make the mockery just tell itself. Teasers at school should have to do SOME of the work, rather than the parents doing all of it for them.

I seem to remember her saying her name was spelled correctly, but no one knew how to pronounce it correctly, so they ended up pronouncing her name "Oprah." I'll have to find that interview.

Julia Roberts has given birth to Henry Daniel Moder. I like the name Henry, little babies called Henry are cute. Not so sold on the Daniel Moder part (cause I think he's a bit a prat) but yay it's a normal name!

Henry and Hazel are both relatively normal and go well together, which just makes me feel worse for Phinnaeus.

I, too, rejoice whenever a celeb names their kid something reasonable instead of Chudney or, say, Fuchsia.

Finn (or Phinn?) isn't a bad nickname though.

Finn is one of those names that calls to mind a Troy McClure love interest.