Now, if the YC companies are really creative, George will be the 1st result returned even if someone types in "Eliezer Yudkowsky" ;-)
To be fair, I'll be first in line to congratulate PGJL on having not named their kid Jeeebo Graham just because the domain name was available.
But I do advise prospective parents to think hard about what the child might think of the name when grown up. Sure, in one sense it would have been awesome, but I'm glad my mother didn't let my father actually name me Luke Skywalker Yudkowsky, Hari Seldon Yudkowsky, or Roderick Frederick Ronald Arnold William MacArthur McBan Yudkowsky.
Or similarly: I was once at a science fiction convention, and I saw a young kid - maybe 8 or so - wearing a nametag that said "Vanyel". I walked up to him and said, "Excuse me, is Vanyel your real name?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you named after Vanyel Ashkevron?" He said, "Yes." And I said, "Awesome."
Which, in a sense, it was - it definitely had a high coolness factor. But what I wanted to ask was, "Did your parents think at all about what sort of problems they might be volunteering their child for, by naming him after one of the most famous gay characters in all of fantasy fiction?" But I didn't ask, because I didn't know if they had explained that part to him yet.
Names matter.
* Pat: one of the least intention-revealing names possible. The name is androgynous; can we assume the child is as well? Should we assume the child does not wish to buck the status quo (wishes to "stand pat")?
* George: doing better. It reveals the sex, at least. There is still the problem that it doesn't say much about what the child does.
* Paul Jr.: This is much clearer. The child's sex is clear, as well as its purpose: a lighter, faster implementation of the original Paul Graham (the original, of course, is kept around for reasons of backwards-compatibility).
To test a baby name: Imagine a second, very different baby. Will the name work for both babies?
Other examples of good baby names include mCarryOnTheFamilyName, fBiologicalImperativeToReproduce, and Buck.
More seriously your should use a middle name to provide uniqueness. People are basically unable to recognise words they haven't heard before. Complexity in the part of the name used normally is a hassle.
Oh, well. I'm sure George Graham will want to change his name anyway at age 21 in order to outrun all the hideously embarrassing Internet posts he made at age 12, should the present world last so long.
Maybe you want to give your kid a highly anonymous first+last name, and a unique second+last name, so they can switch to using second+last once they grow up.
PS: I know a poor guy who happens to be named David Duke. (I suggested he go by Dave Duke.)
Again, think of it as a single global namespace. When this particular fellow was named, the other David Duke hadn't hit the news yet - but when the name "David Duke" did become famous and recognizable, there was a namespace collision. That can happen to anyone, especially if your last name is common.
Google makes names easier to "recognize", and the Internet's vastness increases the total amount of "fame". So in the age of the Internet, you want to pick a name for your child that is likely to be and stay unique.
If you have a common last name, a first name that is very rare but not unique, doesn't look strange, and is easy to spell and pronounce, would be ideal.
My problem with your argument is that words are "easy to spell and pronounce" because they are common and people have experienced them before.
When I said people are unable to recognise names they haven't heard before I mean that literally. They try to coerce it into one they've heard before and either succeed and call you something random or require you to repeat it 3 times before they are convinced they're not just miss-hearing it.
The only way to get something easy to spell and pronounce that is rare would be to compound common forms. Frankly this is exactly what the middle name does.
That said JoHadRon is globally unique (at least according to google) and has useful short forms. I may change my name.
I really like having a unique name, and I don't think I'd be happier being a "John Smith". Ultimately, your name is what you make of it. If you're comfortable with it, then other people will be too. It can even be an advantage for getting remembered by people.
Just look at Barack Hussein Obama, who seems to be getting along just fine with his "funny name".
Actually for much of his early life he went by Barry. Also Barack and Hussein are very common Arabic names.