Kevin Smith is an enormous fan of Batman, let's just put that out there straight away. So if you're looking for any further in depth explanation as to why he named his daughter Harley Quinn, that's the crux of it right there. As a little extra info though, Smith happens to be good friends with Paul Dini, the writer who created the Harley Quinn character in the Batman universe when working on the animated series. So at least there you have the reasoning for the name, and when you consider it from that aspect, it's not entirely too cringeworthy. However, the name itself, without any background given, is pretty cheesy. When someone uses the word "harlequin" in any modern context, it often makes me think of a moment towards the end of a My Chemical Romance video, where "My Harlequin Romance" flashes on screen. To explain why this angers me so much, you simply have to consider that the word has more or less no meaning in modern society; it is simply a word that describes the Italian equivalent of a jester. The term has been adopted by a series of alternative culture types who have applied it to whatever they deem to be all emotional and deep and stuff that you just wouldn't understand, man. So unfortunately for the young Miss Smith, the very uttering of her name will cause the likes of my cankerous self to fly into a fit of rage.
