Friday, July 25, 2008

Name That Person

Hands up how many of you do not like your name? How many of you spent your childhood dreaming of a more suitable or romantic name? Or of a less silly or hard to pronounce name?

I am not old enough to remember the days when foreign born pupils would arrive at school and have a "Canadian" or "English" name bestowed on them from a list in the teacher's drawer but I do remember teachers, and some kids themselves, simply anglicizing some: Pavel, you are now Paul; Ruqqiya, we'll just call you Ricki; Krysia, you'll be Christine. Thankfully that doesn't happen anymore. Though a friend of mine, who teaches in Mississauga where there is a very large East Indian population, says it takes her months to learn some of her pupils' names due to the complexity of syllables and sounds and not having any English reference point for the names.

But that is altogether different than what some parents will do to come up with a unique name for their child which is seldom appreciated as much by the so named. Take Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. Please, she begged, take it and just call me 'K'. The news report does not mention what her New Zealand parents names are. Quite possibly Ann & John.

Some names seem to garner far more ridicule than they deserve. I have no problem with Apple. It is a little odd (though Peaches [Geldof] is odder). Really, what is the difference between flower names and fruit names? Why is one more acceptable than the other? Soap operas were always good for geological names like River, Stone, Ridge, Brooke, Lake, Leigh, Sierra. And geographical names are now common: Montana, Dakota, Denver, Madison, Logan, Kingston. I rather like the sound of Alaska, though I doubt it would ever become a popular name.

I personally know a Sandy Beech and a Sandi Whyte-Beach (she is constantly having to give the correct order of the vowels). And I had a friend with the unfortunate moniker of Phyllis Diller. Her parents had never heard of the famous comedienne, and in fact she grew up without television so it was years before she fully comprehended just why so many people snickered when they heard her name.

The name I grew up with was very common in my day. There were four of us (boys and girls) on our block and seven others of us in my grade 7 home room in my first year of junior high. Later, I worked in an office where there were five of us out of a staff of 28 all with a variety of spellings.

I longed for an unusual name, but one of my own choosing. I loved baby name books and would collect names for myself, my imaginary friends, my unborn children, my pets. Some of them, I look back on now and wonder: what was I thinking? Did I really want to have a name beginning with 'Q'? And the obsession with Welsh and Gaelic names - especially since I later found out my pronunciation of some them was way off. A while ago I found an interesting site, a Baby Name Map, which I now share with you to find the popularity of names in your area of the world. Or someone elses area of the world. Choose wisely.

26 comments:

  1. I hated my name as a kid (I wanted to be called Maryanne). There were not too many girls with my first name but it has become more popular over the years. I like my name now but have grown to love my nickname Whim even more.

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  2. I was constantly called "Noah" instead of "Noha" and all I really wanted was to change one more letter and become "Nora". I LOVED that name, and it was Arab too, so it would have worked, but that just wasn't my destiny. I've come to terms now with the fact that some people are just going to call me "Noah" no matter what. Especially now that I live in Quebec and they don't pronounce the H. I'm not in love with my name, by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm no longer obsessed with another one.

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  3. Oh yes I use to hate my name too and when i got married way back when and took my then husbands name I hated the whole combo even more.. I have my old original name back now and have decided I can live with it .. But when I was a kid I always thought Rachel would have been a good choice!!

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  4. All five of my grandchildren have names that were unusual when they were given but are more common now, except for the youngest. A wonderful name, Jaida Willow. Yes, under the collar and tie, my son remains a hippie.

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  5. There certainly are a great Variety of names today that I do not remember from my childhood, but I, like you, have no trouble with all the names people are using these days to name their children...There are so very many names that once were quite fashionable that one never hears anymore...Sydell, Hattie, Rae....just to name three....There are many more...Like Herman, and Eli...though I actually do know an "Eli" who is about 15 years old...But, only one.
    I always thought my name was a little odd as a kid, and I've only known maybe 4 or 5 other people with the same first name in my whole life....And that's fine.
    There are some names I think are very pretty that I actually used in a play I wrote, and I never hear of ANYONE with this one name: "Clarissa"....Isn't that pretty?

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  6. Naomi was one name I always wanted to have. The first one I ever met was Japanese! Clarissa as in Clarissa Dickson Wright (of the Two Fat Ladies fame, the motorcycling driving writer and cook from England)

    Sandy: do you use Sandy or Sandip?

    Noha: you could try to just change it to Nora, maybe at work? I did that with mine.

    Whim: some nicknames do grow on you don't they?!

    Gwen: taking on a husband's name has created a few problems. 'Judy Rudy' is one friend of mine who decided against that particular combo and stuck with her own name!

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  7. miwise: it is interesting to read the obits and see the changes in the style of names given for the children and grandchildren then the great-grandchildren. And sometimes, stuck in with the great-grand kids will be a Grace or Iris!

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  8. Oh I read about that Talula story yesterday. Her parents should have been slapped repeatedly for that.

    As for name changing, I think of my grandparents, when they came through Ellis Island, and had their first name's changed, and all the other people who underwent the same thing. If you ever saw "The Godfather, Part II," this is shown when young Vito Corleone goes through Ellis Island and has his name changed from "Andolini" to Corleone. Corleone was the town he came from, a typical thing the the officials at Ellis Island would do.

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  9. Oh I read about that Talula story yesterday. Her parents should have been slapped repeatedly for that.

    As for name changing, I think of my grandparents, when they came through Ellis Island, and had their first name's changed, and all the other people who underwent the same thing. If you ever saw "The Godfather, Part II," this is shown when young Vito Corleone goes through Ellis Island and has his name changed from "Andolini" to Corleone. Corleone was the town he came from, a typical thing the officials at Ellis Island would do.

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  10. Whoops! Sorry about the repeated post.

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  11. I guess I was one of the lucky ones. Although my name has become pretty common now, it was not common in the 60's and 70's and I was always told, "What a pretty name!" I haven't heard that in years, but I loved it as a child.

    I love your kitty graphic! I was playing with it and my cat was up here going crazy at the speakers - especially for the purring. What fun!

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  12. Mr Nighttime: I never really understood some of those name changes to your home town when your own name was perfectly fine. We used to have a Heritage Minute commercial on tv and radio about Irish orphans who came over in the 1850's and were adopted by Quebecois families. The priest wants to change their names but one girl speaks up (magically speaking French half way through her plea) about keeping their own names to honour their families.

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  13. Geewits: I get it a lot about my name - both my original and the one I adopted for myself. Strange.

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  14. Geewits: Glad you are enjoying the kitty!! I think it is great, and play with him alot actually. I love that he purrs.

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  15. Huh - who would have guessed that violetsky ws such a popular name? ;)

    I gave both my sons short, solid names - ones that couldn't be made fun of and ones which would fit with any profession they might choose.

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  16. Citizen: I'll have you know Violet is gaining in popularity, slowly.
    Though Violet Affleck sounds more like a disease or a duck than a celeb kid.

    My choice for a boys name would be Ian - you can't shorten it or lengthen it by adding 'y' and it sounds professional but not too grown up for a 2 year old. Good thinking on your part, I say, to not choose something like Scooter, or Chip.

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  17. choosing names was incredibly hard.. I still hang onto a couple I wanted but my husband didn't like

    I quite like the sound of Alaska too!

    I only ever liked my shortened name - my parents would only ever call me my full name when they were cross with me!!

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  18. I used to hate my name! thought it sounded babyish. Always wanted to be called Imogen. Just glad I wasn't born a boy because I would have been Edwin.

    Florence is another name I love that you don't hear much of these days.

    MA

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  19. MA: if we'd been named after the people my mother would have liked, my brother and I would be Archie and Agnes. Thank goodness sense prevailed.

    I have always found that the English have very different ideas of names than what we find over here. I remember hearing JK Rowling expressing surprise that Hermione was a difficult/different name for us in NA. Trust me, it was. I read of a Flora in a Joanna Trollope book once and by the end, I was really liking that name.

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  20. Rainbow: that is one way to really get your attention - use all of your full names!

    I like Rain ;)
    Your name was my absolute favourite when I was young.

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  21. See, Nora means "light" in Arabic, well, not actually, but "Nor" means light and "Nora" just kind of came to be from Nor, while Noha means "essence of the being." both are deep, but mine is in the Quran and it's the name my parents gave me. I've never seriously considered changing it out of respect for them. I feel like it's my identity. What's funny is when people tell me "your name is beautiful" because I really think it's rather plain.

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  22. Noha: Your name sounds pretty to my ears mostly because it is so "different". I think my name sounds so very plain! When I was about 10 I decided I wanted to be called by my nickname only. Unfortunately, as I got older the nickname sounded more and more childish and I could not get people to stop using it. That's when I came up with another nickname and lo and behold that worked!!
    Having respect for your parents' choice is a very lovely and noble attitude that I seem to have lost!! Maybe because (partly) they could not come up with any reason for giving me that name in the first place. Not even after a favourite actress.

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  23. Noha: And yes, I think that changing even one letter of your name or the spelling say from Cathy to Kathy creates a whole new persona and image.

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  24. I know I am late to the party, but I have always loved my name, I like being different!

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  25. Coral: latecomers are always welcome. being different has it's advantages - you get remembered more easily.

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