My middle name is Eugene (ugh), but since I was like, 10 or so, I've always told people that it's Edward. I've never done anything official about it (I mean, the initial is the same), but hell, most of the time I think it's Edward anyway since I've been saying it for so long.
I have a lot of friends that I've met online who I now know in real life who call me Murphy. I'm fine with that. Since my family and I aren't at all close, and I've always sort of hated my last name anyway, I've been tempted at times to officially change it to Murphy. That or just something else in my family tree that doesn't sound as silly as my current last name.
Strangely I do that with my birth state (by accident) and have recently started with my middle name as well.
My father had a nickname forever for me (I am not sure he realizes I have a real name AND named after him no less) that starts with the same letter as my middle name. I have been thinking strongly about incorporating the nickname as my middle name instead.
I guess I'm lucky, then, in that I may be the only living person with my first and last name. Every Google result is about me, anyway.
I've got one of those long Polish last names, though, so instead of the Chief Justice test I'm going to go with the alternate "Chief Scientist Dr. _________" instead.
"The way we name ourselves isn't consistent or practical, so in my perfect world everyone would have crazy eight-word names that identify who you are, where you are from, and what you do."
How is having a name that is eight words long at all practical?
Personally I enjoy the fact that my name (first + last) is somewhat common. I've never MET another person with the same name, but try and find me in a google search and you are SOL for the most part.
"The way we name ourselves isn't consistent or practical, so in my perfect world everyone would have crazy eight-word names that identify who you are, where you are from, and what you do."
How is having a name that is eight words long at all practical?
Personally I enjoy the fact that my name (first + last) is somewhat common. I've never MET another person with the same name, but try and find me in a google search and you are SOL for the most part.
Put the words "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" in front of it, and if it fits, its a good name.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Doctor Batman...the system works!
If this is a wierd thing about names, the fact we don't usually translate them always seems strange. Though it makes sense when we had three girls in our department all with various forms of the word 'famous' as their name in different languages. It seems really strange to think that most other cultures tend to pick actual words as names rather than picking from a pool of badly pronounced foreign words, but then when you put it like that you realise we're the wierd ones. Other than flowers/gems for girls, it's fairly unusual to have a name that actually means something in the language you use - do any bibles actually translate all the names alongside the rest of the language, think you'd have a very different feel. Not sure how I feel on just making a word up for a name, I've always quite liked Jennica though.
For the record, I'm a small student of the annointed, who's also the son of a twin, in 2.5 languages (80% of which I can't speak).
Put the words "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" in front of it, and if it fits, its a good name.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Doctor Batman...the system works!
If this is a wierd thing about names, the fact we don't usually translate them always seems strange. Though it makes sense when we had three girls in our department all with various forms of the word 'famous' as their name in different languages. It seems really strange to think that most other cultures tend to pick actual words as names rather than picking from a pool of badly pronounced foreign words, but then when you put it like that you realise we're the wierd ones. Other than flowers/gems for girls, it's fairly unusual to have a name that actually means something in the language you use - do any bibles actually translate all the names alongside the rest of the language, think you'd have a very different feel. Not sure how I feel on just making a word up for a name, I've always quite liked Jennica though.
For the record, I'm a small student of the annointed, who's also the son of a twin, in 2.5 languages (80% of which I can't speak).
Puritans loved that shit.
To follow up on the names of the 17th-century Clap children, here are a few Puritan-era male names from H.L. Mencken’s The American Language (1919):
Be-faithful
Dust
Fear-not
Faint-not
From-above
Free-gifts Fly-fornication
Hope-still Increase
Joy-again
More-trial
More-fruit
Praise-God
Stand-fast
Sin-deny
The-Lord-is-near
Nicholas If-Jesus-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barbon[1] (c. 1640 – c. 1698)
His unusual middle name, given to him by his strongly Puritan father, is an example of the religious "slogan names" given in Puritan families in 17th-century England.[1]
Praise-God Barebone (said to have been christened Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barebone[1] or Barbon; c. 1598 – 1679) was an English leather-seller, preacher and Fifth Monarchist. He is best known for giving his name to the Barebone's Parliament of the English Commonwealth of 1653.
There were your regular names after the various virtues.
My name as most people know me is a nickname, basically given at birth. Why would my parents name me something then never, ever call me that? Well I don't know, but thats pretty much my default name. Its unusual, and is actually the name of a product with a person's name. Its annoying because I usually have to tell someone my name more than once because they mis-hear me, but its a decently cool name.
My other nickname I got as a variation of an ICQ nickname. Its only 3 letters long, and at first I didn't like it at all. But the person that came up with it is quite the character, and decided to call me that name forever more. Probably as many friends know me as that nickname than my other nickname. Some even thought it was my real name when they first met me, despite nobody ever having this for a name.
So, there's two cool nicknames. But my real, legal name is really cool. An oldschool name, you don't hear it very much at all, when you do its often very old people. My middle name is also cool. My last name is generic sounding, though not common.
I definitely pass the supreme court justice, or just about any other official title. I sound like a Knight or something when I say all 3 of my names at once. I've been trying to bring my legal name into circulation, because I like it. But, I like my other names too. So only a few people are even aware that I have this name, and nobody I'm in regular contact with calls me by my legal name.
This might be a stupid post, here I am talking about my names when I will never, ever post my real life names on this forum. [Tycho?] is 10 years or so old now, comes from a video game and has nothing to do with the PA Tycho Brahe (or the astronomer for that matter).
Put the words "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" in front of it, and if it fits, its a good name.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Doctor Batman...the system works!
If this is a wierd thing about names, the fact we don't usually translate them always seems strange. Though it makes sense when we had three girls in our department all with various forms of the word 'famous' as their name in different languages. It seems really strange to think that most other cultures tend to pick actual words as names rather than picking from a pool of badly pronounced foreign words, but then when you put it like that you realise we're the wierd ones. Other than flowers/gems for girls, it's fairly unusual to have a name that actually means something in the language you use - do any bibles actually translate all the names alongside the rest of the language, think you'd have a very different feel. Not sure how I feel on just making a word up for a name, I've always quite liked Jennica though.
For the record, I'm a small student of the annointed, who's also the son of a twin, in 2.5 languages (80% of which I can't speak).
Well every name is originally just a word in some language, and various behind-the-name or baby name websites will tell you all about this. Speaking of "famous" even my first name apparently translates to "bright fame".
You're basically saying here: English likes to steal words (including names) from other languages. I don't think you're going to get any arguments there.
My current surname is a character from Seinfeld. The tall, obnoxious, lanky one. With the crazy hair.
now imagine having that last name and going through high school in the late 90's.
Got it?
Meh. My last name can easily be tweaked into something that implies I'm homosexual, and was constantly from the time I was, like, ten. I preferred to just ignore it.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
Put the words "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" in front of it, and if it fits, its a good name.
A while back, I was filling out the info online for a new frequent flier card. In the prefix drop-down box, where you usually just find Mr., Mrs. and the like, they had a whole bunch of other options. Like, "Reverend" and "Baron" and "His Reverence."
I was really tempted to go with "Duke" or "Count" because I figured you'd probably go to the front of the line for free upgrades to first class.
Modern Man on
Aetian Jupiter - 41 Gunslinger - The Old Republic
Rigorous Scholarship
I just discovered today that my much loathed middle name means "Well-born" whereas my preferred (tho unofficial) middle name means "Wealthy Lord." Both are not bad meanings. I still prefer the latter, though.
And I've never had a problem with my first name. If I ever had a son, he'd totally get it as his middle name.
So, why should our names even encode our heritage at all? Why even have more than one name? We need one identifier which is globally unique, which in modern times is best handled by an identification number, and one identifier which is locally unique or close to to differentiate us from people in our social groups. Thus, we should reduce our names to a name of our choosing followed by our global identification number.
When I was born, the three biggest parts of my family (all old Irish) fought over what my name was going to be, because I was the only male born in like, three generations or something. It was important to each branch that their last name got in the mix, because otherwise it would pretty much stop at that generation.
Eventually I got (Family Lastname 1)(Family Lastname 2)(Dad's Lastname) as my full name, so everyone would stop being prissy.
Long story short, I don't think we could revamp the naming system, because too many people would cling to old ideals. It's a neat concept, though.
So, why should our names even encode our heritage at all? Why even have more than one name? We need one identifier which is globally unique, which in modern times is best handled by an identification number, and one identifier which is locally unique or close to to differentiate us from people in our social groups. Thus, we should reduce our names to a name of our choosing followed by our global identification number.
Because we're human beings, not products.
On my father's side, I can trace his family's name to Prussia in the 16th century. There's even a river with the same name in the region where they're from. On my mom's side, I can trace the family's name to the battle of Kosovo in 1389. And my first name comes from a family member who died in a Nazi death camp.
None of this type of history is required when picking names, of course. But I don't see why anyone would want to give up something like that in favor of some nerdy desire to give us all "unique" names.
Modern Man on
Aetian Jupiter - 41 Gunslinger - The Old Republic
Rigorous Scholarship
I've always been like "if you're the last generation with the name, maybe there's a reason it's about to die out"
alternately "there's more than likely another family out there with your same last name, goddamn"
I shit you not, one of my friends in school had her dad complain that the "Smith family name was going to end with her"
Thats pretty funny. About 2/3 of my family is like that (No one's going to have the name Jackson unless you give it to your son!) but the other 1/3 is actually a pretty rare name that goes back a long friggin way into Irish / French history. So that one I don't mind.
I guess I'm lucky, then, in that I may be the only living person with my first and last name. Every Google result is about me, anyway.
Same here, which can be good or bad. Also, my family name is unusual so everybody you get a hit on for my last name is either a) a blood relative b) an Israeli or c) both.
My kids are pretty mad at me now because I didn't take ElJeffe's suggestion and give them all the last name "Deathcrusher", btw.
mythago on
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Zilla36021st Century. |She/Her|Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered Userregular
edited December 2010
I definitely think there isn't enough variation when it comes to western names. I know at least 10 Matthews, and 7 Roberts for example. Gets very confusing.
I definitely think there isn't enough variation when it comes to western names. I know at least 10 Matthews, and 7 Roberts for example. Gets very confusing.
There are trends in names. Right now one of the upper-middle class trends is 'traditional' Biblical names like Matthew, Jacob, Sarah etc.
mythago on
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So, why should our names even encode our heritage at all? Why even have more than one name? We need one identifier which is globally unique, which in modern times is best handled by an identification number, and one identifier which is locally unique or close to to differentiate us from people in our social groups. Thus, we should reduce our names to a name of our choosing followed by our global identification number.
Because we're human beings, not products.
On my father's side, I can trace his family's name to Prussia in the 16th century. There's even a river with the same name in the region where they're from. On my mom's side, I can trace the family's name to the battle of Kosovo in 1389. And my first name comes from a family member who died in a Nazi death camp.
None of this type of history is required when picking names, of course. But I don't see why anyone would want to give up something like that in favor of some nerdy desire to give us all "unique" names.
No one is saying give that away. I think that encoding that in your name is a pretty fucking stupid way of doing it and kind of pointless.
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AtomikaLive fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered Userregular
I definitely think there isn't enough variation when it comes to western names. I know at least 10 Matthews, and 7 Roberts for example. Gets very confusing.
There are trends in names. Right now one of the upper-middle class trends is 'traditional' Biblical names like Matthew, Jacob, Sarah etc.
I hate trendy names, because it so often puts a "born on" stamp on you, and everyone knows what generation you're from and what your parents were probably like.
Moreso, I hate made up names, and everyone is doing it these days.
"Oh, what's your daughters' names?"
"Amariyah, Mayliah, Daykohta, and Leahndrha."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. For them."
If your kid is going to have bullshit made-up name, at least let them give it to themselves.
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
edited December 2010
one of the guys I graduated with just had a little boy.
His first born. He named the boy J'Aushua.
That took me like 2 or 3 times saying it outloud to get it.
Posts
She was really happy to trade Courser-Cook for Bates.
Chad of the Windy Forest
Strangely I do that with my birth state (by accident) and have recently started with my middle name as well.
My father had a nickname forever for me (I am not sure he realizes I have a real name AND named after him no less) that starts with the same letter as my middle name. I have been thinking strongly about incorporating the nickname as my middle name instead.
Put the words "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" in front of it, and if it fits, its a good name.
I've got one of those long Polish last names, though, so instead of the Chief Justice test I'm going to go with the alternate "Chief Scientist Dr. _________" instead.
Sounds good, man.
How is having a name that is eight words long at all practical?
Personally I enjoy the fact that my name (first + last) is somewhat common. I've never MET another person with the same name, but try and find me in a google search and you are SOL for the most part.
John Smith Gonzalez?
I AM NOT A NUMBER I AM A FREE MAN!
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Doctor Batman...the system works!
If this is a wierd thing about names, the fact we don't usually translate them always seems strange. Though it makes sense when we had three girls in our department all with various forms of the word 'famous' as their name in different languages. It seems really strange to think that most other cultures tend to pick actual words as names rather than picking from a pool of badly pronounced foreign words, but then when you put it like that you realise we're the wierd ones. Other than flowers/gems for girls, it's fairly unusual to have a name that actually means something in the language you use - do any bibles actually translate all the names alongside the rest of the language, think you'd have a very different feel. Not sure how I feel on just making a word up for a name, I've always quite liked Jennica though.
For the record, I'm a small student of the annointed, who's also the son of a twin, in 2.5 languages (80% of which I can't speak).
Being a number isn't bad. The important thing is to make sure that somebody who doesn't give a shit about literature or musicals gets 24601.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Barbon He takes the cake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise-God_Barebone
There were your regular names after the various virtues.
My name as most people know me is a nickname, basically given at birth. Why would my parents name me something then never, ever call me that? Well I don't know, but thats pretty much my default name. Its unusual, and is actually the name of a product with a person's name. Its annoying because I usually have to tell someone my name more than once because they mis-hear me, but its a decently cool name.
My other nickname I got as a variation of an ICQ nickname. Its only 3 letters long, and at first I didn't like it at all. But the person that came up with it is quite the character, and decided to call me that name forever more. Probably as many friends know me as that nickname than my other nickname. Some even thought it was my real name when they first met me, despite nobody ever having this for a name.
So, there's two cool nicknames. But my real, legal name is really cool. An oldschool name, you don't hear it very much at all, when you do its often very old people. My middle name is also cool. My last name is generic sounding, though not common.
I definitely pass the supreme court justice, or just about any other official title. I sound like a Knight or something when I say all 3 of my names at once. I've been trying to bring my legal name into circulation, because I like it. But, I like my other names too. So only a few people are even aware that I have this name, and nobody I'm in regular contact with calls me by my legal name.
This might be a stupid post, here I am talking about my names when I will never, ever post my real life names on this forum. [Tycho?] is 10 years or so old now, comes from a video game and has nothing to do with the PA Tycho Brahe (or the astronomer for that matter).
Well every name is originally just a word in some language, and various behind-the-name or baby name websites will tell you all about this. Speaking of "famous" even my first name apparently translates to "bright fame".
You're basically saying here: English likes to steal words (including names) from other languages. I don't think you're going to get any arguments there.
Meh. My last name can easily be tweaked into something that implies I'm homosexual, and was constantly from the time I was, like, ten. I preferred to just ignore it.
I was really tempted to go with "Duke" or "Count" because I figured you'd probably go to the front of the line for free upgrades to first class.
Rigorous Scholarship
And I've never had a problem with my first name. If I ever had a son, he'd totally get it as his middle name.
My name My fathers First name My mothers Family name My fathers Family name
No hyphenated bullshit just four names that describe my and my lineage.
So she traded a hyphen for a famous movie villain?
Eventually I got (Family Lastname 1)(Family Lastname 2)(Dad's Lastname) as my full name, so everyone would stop being prissy.
Long story short, I don't think we could revamp the naming system, because too many people would cling to old ideals. It's a neat concept, though.
I was not disappointed.
On my father's side, I can trace his family's name to Prussia in the 16th century. There's even a river with the same name in the region where they're from. On my mom's side, I can trace the family's name to the battle of Kosovo in 1389. And my first name comes from a family member who died in a Nazi death camp.
None of this type of history is required when picking names, of course. But I don't see why anyone would want to give up something like that in favor of some nerdy desire to give us all "unique" names.
Rigorous Scholarship
alternately "there's more than likely another family out there with your same last name, goddamn"
I shit you not, one of my friends in school had her dad complain that the "Smith family name was going to end with her"
Thats pretty funny. About 2/3 of my family is like that (No one's going to have the name Jackson unless you give it to your son!) but the other 1/3 is actually a pretty rare name that goes back a long friggin way into Irish / French history. So that one I don't mind.
Same here, which can be good or bad. Also, my family name is unusual so everybody you get a hit on for my last name is either a) a blood relative b) an Israeli or c) both.
My kids are pretty mad at me now because I didn't take ElJeffe's suggestion and give them all the last name "Deathcrusher", btw.
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There were 6 Michaels.
And 5 Jamie/Jaimies
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
There are trends in names. Right now one of the upper-middle class trends is 'traditional' Biblical names like Matthew, Jacob, Sarah etc.
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No one is saying give that away. I think that encoding that in your name is a pretty fucking stupid way of doing it and kind of pointless.
I hate trendy names, because it so often puts a "born on" stamp on you, and everyone knows what generation you're from and what your parents were probably like.
Moreso, I hate made up names, and everyone is doing it these days.
"Oh, what's your daughters' names?"
"Amariyah, Mayliah, Daykohta, and Leahndrha."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. For them."
If your kid is going to have bullshit made-up name, at least let them give it to themselves.
His first born. He named the boy J'Aushua.
That took me like 2 or 3 times saying it outloud to get it.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Seriously, I wonder what drugs they all did..
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Yeah, I guy I knew wanted his firstborn to have his name, but it was a girl, so it was named "Keh'vynne."
And still pronounced, "Kevin."
It'll be like a parenting test.
"Bob we've got a parent naming their kid Sunshinestar."
"I'll get the van started"