It's not so much the name itself that I find ridiculous, it's the context and the source.

I'd rather have the most generic name imaginable than have my parents try to use my very identity as a means to winning a prize. It's insulting, greedy and incredibly nerdish.

Why is everyone so upset? Dovahkiin is an awesome name. I'd prefer that to my name.

Just WTF.

What kind of parents give their son a weird name so they can get free videogames? That says a lot about their parenting skills and how much they care about their son's future. If my parents did that to me I'd be fucking ashamed and I'd hate them.

And if your parents said they named you Dallinor so you would have a trust fund to send you to college, what would you do?

Bethesda didn't just give away a key for their games. It was a lot more than that, from my understanding.

i'm pretty sure they named him that name because they want their child to be special, not because of free games, i mean seriously its not like they can't afford a single game every 4 years or so.

That is majorly silly every which way you look at it imo. Naming your kids after movie or game characters or sport idols is kind of insulting the way I see it.

LOL it's not because they got free games, dummy. It's because they won a contest, want to get attention and want to be original.

Those reasons aren't any better (unless thats what you were implying through sarcasm)

I would ask them why the choice of my name was based on a set monetary sum and not out of true consideration for my identity? I would also imagine, that coming to know my name was based on a video game character, or was taken from a video game because it was my parents hobby, would mess with my sense of self.

I think a lot of thought should go into naming a child, if you want to name a child something unusual or really out there, you can, but I think parents should be aware they're inviting ridicule into a childs life at an early age. It's not a kitten or a puppy they're naming afterall.

Also ask people with truly unusual names do they like them? Many people with unsual names claim they actually dislike their name, due to the unusual reactions they got growing up and general stuff like the everyday spelling of the name on post, over the phone conversations etc.

I think it would be best to leave the gaming references/names as monikers only.

Did I mention the nerdiness?

A child won't be any more 'special' with the name Gandalf as opposed to Bob. How they are percieved by other people will be massively different though. (Unless that's the special factor you were talking about?)

The reality is there's nothing wrong with it. It doesn't conform however, and things that don't conform or are different to what many consider 'normal' are treated differently in many cases. So the child in question will probably be treated differently. With parents that name their kids after computer game characters, he might have it rough enough as it is, without the ridiculous name.

I know I wouldn't have wanted that name growing up, or indeed now.