What I am desperately trying to find out is, WHY on Earth is it that in 70% of LNC stories where there is a baby involved his name is CJ? Doesn't matter what it stands for, but its always CJ. I can point out at least 2 storie- The Parent Trap and Full Circle: A New Day, and there are at least 50 mote I cant remember now. Even if those are Clark's initials, why?

I think it also includes the idea of Clark Jr.? not just Clark Jerome?

Actually Jerome has been used a lot of times too, I think.

This article was written in January 2000 and addresses the C.J. overload. Cute name, but overused, definitely.

http://members.aol.com/lovelc/ftng.html

Ems

Well, it's either CJ or Jon -- or in some cases, both!

Personally, I think authors go with family/friend names because it's easier than coming up with completely new names, and then once something gets popular, people will sort of internalize it as the standard -- fan canon.

PJ
who's only written two NG-type stories; one was a girl named Laura, the other a boy named Adam

My first dog was called C.J., so it's never really appealled to me as a childs name:)

C.J. the dog was named after a character in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, a TV programme in the UK, and in our family it stood for Canine Jones.

Back to fanfic... I've always wondered about the popularity of some names C.J., Jon, Laura, Lara, Martha... Wasn't there a vote to choose the name of Lois and Clark's child in S5? I can't remember the result though...

Helga J
(Who realises that this is another slightly pointless post... )

Like everyone else has said, I don't think there is one specific reason. The name is just a popular choice because it could stand for a number of different meaningful names. It's a nice fallback name. Something logical. And while I admit that occassionally I see it in a story and think, "Again?" I'd MUCH rather see them use one of the stand-bys (CJ, Lara, Jon, etc) than some ultra-trendy name with a creative spelling. Lois and Clark are upper-class professionals - The chances of them naming their children Rhylie or Tyffanie is slim to none. I'm super sensitive to this sort of thing after spending years studying the sociologic factors that go into what names parents choose for their children, but I know I'm not the only one who is jolted out of a story when Lois and Clark name their children something like that.

Annie

It surely is an international habit to name the kids after relatives. Here in Greece most kids are named after their grandparents (like me).

But the truth is that, although I like the idea, in L&C case I'd rather see different names more often.

Don't like them.

I have named L&C's children in three fics.
In 'Lois, Clark & Sharlynn' the kid is named (yeah, you guessed that)... Sharon Lynn aka Sharlynn, after the sister of the baby's real mother.
In 'What A fish Knows' every child has two names. The boys' middle names are not mentioned, but they're called Andrew (it was Alex) and Tommy. The girls are named Martha Nicole and Laura Ellen.
In 'Lessons Of Love', it was Andrea.

Interesting topic! For some reason, I like talking about names.

AnnaBtG. (who has actually succumbed and presented a 'Jon' in one of her upcoming fics...)

P.S.: Why 'Laura'? Is it a transformed Lara?

TUFS may have done this -- I honestly don't recall -- but we in S5 decided amongst ourselves to have their child be a daughter named Laura Lane Kent.

Though despite what Julie said, I don't believe it's been commonly used in fanfic other than in S5/6 -- maybe you have read several S6 episodes and that's why it seems familiar? If so, I don't think that really counts considering the stories were written as part of a season. We weren't exactly going to be changing their child's name from episode to episode. <g> Oh, and incidentally, the name is not based on Lara, Clark's biological mother -- we all pretty much agreed that Clark has no strong emotional ties to them (especially following the NK fiasco) and we didn't think he'd name a child after either biological parent, especially not before honoring the Kents.

As for the popularity of the name CJ for L&C's son, there is one other reason for its use -- going on the assumption that this child will become Superman, many people have expressed the opinion that "Superman" and "Clark Kent" go hand in hand, therefore, any future Superman *must* be named Clark Kent (Junior, in this case).

Personally, I've always prefered "Jonathan Clark Kent" (Jon, Jonny) because it's fairly common and traditional to name children after a beloved grandparent, and both Lois and Clark are very close to the Kents. But I agree that, like CJ, it has become pretty ubiquitous in fanfic.

But as Annie said, I would vastly prefer any of the family names common in fanfic to the trendy names/spellings that some authors have used. In my experience, these stories tended to be written by younger authors, so maybe they were living vicariously through their characters. But I agree with Annie that Lois and Clark themselves would choose traditional names/spellings, whether or not they were family names.

Kathy

Anna posted at the same time I did, so I just saw this.

As I said in my post above, no, not only didn't we change Lara into Laura, but we agreed that Clark would *not* name a child after either of his biological parents.

Where Laura came from in the story is from a favorite aunt -- one of the few people to support the family after Clark's adoption, when other members of the Kent and Clark family were each sneering over the "fact" that Martha and Jonathan had adopted an illigitimate child from the other side of the family.

Where "Laura" came from via the writers on the project, however, mainly had to do with the initials "LL", which we felt needed to be in her name. As I recall, we decided first that the middle name would be "Lane", and then went through "L" first names to see what would sound the best. And from that, we came up with the backstory about the favorite aunt of Martha's.

Ah, the things authors go through.

Kathy

you guys did have a poll for s5-
http://www.geocities.com/~chiefpam/Season5/poll.htm
but then you decided to name the baby Laura yourselves.

I didn't say anything about the name Laura, but since you mentioned it I haven't read S5 and S6 yet. The reason is because I read TUFS and after that I wasn't going to read another s5 - not soon, anyway - and since then I havent gotten around to it, but maybe I will.

Sorry, Julie, you're right ... it was Helga that mentioned that name Laura being common, not you. Sorry for mixing the names up.

Thanks for linking to the poll ... yes, it was on gender mainly, though we did ask for name suggestions. But as Pam mentions in the beginning, "This is not a democracy; it's a benevolent dictatorship" (LOL) and we ultimately decided to choose the name ourselves.

Kathy (who thinks everyone should read S5 and S6 due to the stellar quality, but I'm admittedly biased. )

I think there are several things influencing the name trend. One is canon. In Virtually Destroyed, Lois revealed that she wanted to name a child Clark (granted this was when she wasn't planning on marrying Clark, but it shows a strong tendency to naming a child after someone). And I'm now blanking on the name of the episode, but one of them began with Lois frantically trying to take care of a bunch of superbabies named after Lois, Clark, and everybody they had ever met (and on a side note, that scene was comedy gold!). Lois seems at least somewhat inclined toward using the names of family in thinking of children's names and it's easy to run with that.

I think the second factor is a bit of deference. Giving names is a deeply personal thing, and frankly not all that rational. You can speculate a lot about a person's tastes in music knowing a few of the things they like and dislike. The same goes for movies, food, etc.

Names are kind of arbitrary. I'm not much of a conformist, but most of my favorite names are rather traditional. Why? I have no idea. Most of my favorite names are also the ones that work at every stage of life. I figure, it's kind of tough to be a little kid named Fred. Fred is kind of a grown up name. Similarly, it's probably really tough to be a grown up named Buffy (amazing how that bit of metahumor stayed funny on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I figure Katherine is a great name because when you're a little kid, you can be Katie, and when you're a sophisticated, yet rebellious teenager, you can be Kate and when you have a fancy nameplate and an office, and a secretary to answer your phone, you can be Katherine. Nevertheless, there are plenty of names that I love that other people I know and whom I consider to have good taste hate. I can also think of names that I hate and they love. Names are kind of funny that way. (And it was also very funny when my best friend and his wife gave their son a very old fashioned name that they figured everyone would be skeptical of, but that is my absolute favorite boy's name). The one thing I do know for certain about names is that I would never impose on Lois and Clark one of my other favorite boy's names, Alexander, because while it works at every stage in life and even has a great meaning, it's got the name Lex built right into it!

We aren't Lois or Clark and while we have no problem picking their favorite songs, ice cream flavors, or books for them, we hesitate to choose what they'd name their kids for fear of subtley or not so subtley imposing our own preferences on them. In terms of literature, music, art, and food, the show gave us plenty of fodder as to what the characters enjoyed and knew. With names, we never got more than Lois's tendency toward choosing 'family' names. While the writers of a show often have no problem pulling things out of the air when determining the tastes of the characters (they sometimes seem to go as far as to forget there is such a thing as canon), fanfic writers seem hesitant to break entirely with the familiar.

Rac

Yes, I remember reading a study some years ago now where the 'experts' claimed that to give your daughter optimum happiness through life the ideal name to give her was Katherine. For the reasons you give here, Rac. It has so many variations, shortened forms etc, that as the child grows and develops a personality it can find a form of this name to suit itself with ease.

I can't for the life of me recall what they recommended was the male equivalent. I know they had one though. I have the horrible feeling it may have been Alexander.

Interesting thread.

LabRat (thinking of a whole world of little Lexs running around and shuddering...)

I'm not exactly sure why people started using CJ, but everyone else has covered that. I think now, pretty much everyone has gotten used to that name. I've been "conditioned" so much, that if the names CJ and/or Jon isn't used for the eldest son(s) names, it just seems wrong. I know Jon has been used by comic canon (Son of Superman), but I'm not sure about any other names.