I agree with you that there is no need for the topic to turn serious. However I do stand by my statement that these topics need to be approached with a bit of discretion. I've seen both in real life, and on forums people reduced to tears over the "name game." I had an employee who was completely devastated because the name she loved was referred to as a dog's name by others.
I only used her first post as an example (even if this is an odd situation) because nowhere in it did she ask for an opinion on the first name. Regardless I made it very clear that I was only stating how I felt on giving my opinion in my post. I wasn't trying to tell others what the think, or being condescending. I know it's easy to say don't let strangers on the internet get to you...but I also know a teen girl who killed herself because of strangers on the internet. Perhaps that has made me hypersensitive to the feelings of others. I don't know who they are or what they are going through in RL, so I prefer to error on the side of caution.