What's In a Name, Really?

jerryb76 · 20-12-06 16:39:21

jwhite wrote:

The only Time I've ever heard my full name was when my mom was really, really, REALLY angry.

I had to laugh with this post, my mom was the same with my name. If she yelled for me using my given name, not my nickname, there was going to be trouble. If she used both my first and middle names, really big trouble, and finally if she used the spainish versionof my name, and the name of one of ther great american indian leaders of the 1800s Geronimo, there was really really big trouble and it was best for me to head in the opposite direction.

shamFritters · 20-12-06 17:09:09

We used to play a game called Soul Reaver and the main character was a little blue vampire who took himself VERY seriously - there was a lot of pontificating and posturing as he examined his withered navel.

Anyway, he could be a little hard to control, and when he went somewhere he wasn't supposed to we would scold him: "Razael EDWARD!"

jerry - your mom really called you geronimo?

The_West_Wind · 30-12-06 08:23:27

There were times when I thought my name was odd because you dont hear it very often. But on the same note, it is one of the most common names in the world. In every culture it's pronunciation is different, yet the meanings are almost always the same (even after reading Elfman's post, it seems that my name has also entered the world of the Sindarin language too).

"I am the first.
I am a man of the red earth.
I am." - AK

Last edited by The_West_Wind (30-12-06 08:24:16)

Jareth · 30-12-06 11:18:27

This is a great topic for a thread :-)

My first given name means "Powerful Ruler/Brave One"
My second given name means "God is merciful".
And my family name means "Little Bird".

The first two combined with the last one has always caused me to laugh as its a nice strong ego stroke with a smack at the end for humility.

For the other part of the question, I'm very fond of my name. I think it suits me well and I can't imagine preferring any other name. I'm so attached to it in fact that when I ponder naming a son, I can't do it. I can't think of any name better then my own and I also think it would be wrong to make my child a Jr. (not a tradition in my family). I suspect that I'd just let my wife pick the name and only exercise veto if I think it would cause him to get beat up in school. (Daughters on the other hand... I'd have so much fun naming a daughter...)

annoula · 01-01-07 21:24:08

I have 3 names and a weird sounding surname...

First name, my parents just liked and represent to me where i was born and means gift of god, as expected...
The second is my christain grandmother's name and the 3rd my jewish grandmother's.

My surname is from the old testament and i am of royal blood i am told... Feel very common though

I like all my names, have used the first all my life, except my boyfriend calls me by the second one since we met and the friends he has introduced me to.
Now i am a bit schizo...

I would like to be called Semeli as well...seems so sweet and feminine, traits i have worked really hard to appear to have

Last edited by jessicaxmas (01-01-07 21:25:32)

Siobhan · 01-01-07 22:09:57

jessicaxmas wrote:

My surname is from the old testament and i am of royal blood i am told... Feel very common though
I would like to be called Semeli as well...seems so sweet and feminine, traits i have worked really hard to appear to have

Wow, jessica, it seems like we might not only have the same surname -- are you my cousin?! -- as well as the same "issues."

annoula · 01-01-07 22:24:35

Well Siobhan,

if you are a capricorn that acts like a complete goat, we might actually be twins...

The_West_Wind · 02-01-07 03:05:54

Does anyone have a site where we can look up the meanings of our last names?

Blind_Ryan · 02-01-07 10:07:29

* Do you know if your name has any meaning?
Mine does: Little King. Funny that only now I see the reference in a sexual theme. HAW!

* If so, does that meaning have any significance to you?
It didn't before. Honestly, I'd wanted Brian since it sounds less.... "weasely" to my ears, but I like my name now.

* Also, on a more general note, what is your own attitude towards your own name?
I'd still prefer a name with a little more backbone.

www.behindthename.com for first names. I wish there was one for last names.

Last edited by Blind_Ryan (02-01-07 10:08:21)

The_Elfman · 02-01-07 14:20:39

I did a quick Google TWW and there seem to be a lot of sites. Here are three I found.

http://surnames.behindthename.com/

http://www.surnameguide.com/surnames.html

http://genealogy.about.com/library/surn … eaning.htm

The_West_Wind · 03-01-07 04:15:07

Well, according to these sites (and a little research from a relative that has all the family records), my actual last name dosent appear online, but the meaning is an off-shoot from the Welsh "Warrior Champion".

Desertgirl44 · 03-01-07 09:40:07

My first name is Hebrew and is also biblical. However religion wasn't the reason my mother chose it for me, she just liked how it sounded. I do wonder if perhaps my name has played a role in my ongoing interest in middle-eastern history as I am especially attracted to the lands of the ancient bible. I hate it when people try to shorten my name, a habit begun by my ex-husband and I still haven't forgiven him for doing this.

My second name is Irish and reflects my mother's Gaelic ancestry. It's very pretty and means "Ciar's people".

And my surname cannot be found online in any of the databases, but I do know the family originated from the far northern highlands of Scotland.

Really, I'm very mixed up.

Michael1866 · 07-01-07 02:23:30

My first christian name comes from the Hebrew language and means: 'In the image of god'.
My second christan name comes from the German/Norman languages and means: 'Bright Pledge'. It was my dads name.
My surname means: 'From the north'. It comes from Old French.

As for being in the image of god, a look in the mirror makes me question that. A bright pledge is a pleasant thought.
Coming from the north, well, I expect that is probably true of my ancestors.

I quite like the meanings of my names when reversed. 'From the north, a bright pledge in the image of god'. I wish. Something impossible to live up to.

People who know me call by one of the three variations of my first name. I don't mind which.

Nowaysis · 03-02-07 21:25:20

Doing a little grave digging here, but a private message I received at another place just sparked a thought in my mind. I previously mentioned that it has taken me a lot of time and effort to get used to hearing my own name uttered by myself, but that works the other way as well, so to speak. What I mean is that hearing my own name uttered (or in this case seeing it written) by a new person, someone who has never called me by name before, feels strange in much the same way. It takes some getting used to that this new person has the power to call upon me by my (real) name.

The_Elfman · 04-02-07 00:37:35

Nowaysis wrote:

Doing a little grave digging here, but a private message I received at another place just sparked a thought in my mind. I previously mentioned that it has taken me a lot of time and effort to get used to hearing my own name uttered by myself, but that works the other way as well, so to speak. What I mean is that hearing my own name uttered (or in this case seeing it written) by a new person, someone who has never called me by name before, feels strange in much the same way. It takes some getting used to that this new person has the power to call upon me by my (real) name.

As the person at the other end of that message I hope it didn't bother you Nowaysis. In a private communication I will always sign off with my real name and if someone does the same I will usualy reply to them by using that name. It seems a common curtesy to use it if it has been offered. (A sort of textual handshake if you will). Perhaps this is an English thing or maybe something to do with the fact that I am from a generation which did not grow up with the anonymity of the internet.

I do have one internet friend who prefers it if I don't use their real name in private communications. They feel that our internet pseudonyms makes the relationship we have special and unique. This is fine by me as I knew that person by their pseudonym (and was communicating privatley with them using it) for a long time before I ever knew their real name and always think of them with that name anyway.

As a matter of interest I did contribute to one forum where you have to publish your real name even if you use a pseudonym. I always felt a little uncomfortable with that.

Elfman

Desertgirl44 · 04-02-07 00:57:28

The_Elfman wrote:

In a private communication I will always sign off with my real name and if someone does the same I will usualy reply to them by using that name. It seems a common curtesy to use it if it has been offered. (A sort of textual handshake if you will). Perhaps this is an English thing or maybe something to do with the fact that I am from a generation which did not grow up with the anonymity of the internet.
Elfman

The etiquette behind using a person's pseudonym or their real name when responding to a private communication always worries me a little. Overall I agree with Elfman, signing off using my own name as a sign of courtesy.

But I always worry about the person at the other end. Did they mean to use their real name when they're so well known by their pseudonym? What if they forgot they have an automatic signature on their email that inserts their real name?

In the end I often compromise and do a "Dear Pseudonym/Real-Name,". But it doesn't really look right.

I further complicate matters by using an email address that displays my name as something else again! I use the particular email address in question to protect my identity and I only ever access via the web, not through my email server (Thunderbird or Outlook). Once I'm satisfied that the forum or web site I'm dealing with isn't going to spam my address, I'll often change my email to my main address. Partly trust/courtesy and partly convenience (easier to have all my emails downloaded to my email server rather than via the web).

Then there's the image of the person you have based on their pseudonym, it seems to form part of their character. To suddenly change over to using their real name alters the image I have of them in my mind. For example, I could only ever think of the Elfman as "Elfman". His pseudonym is such an integral part of his online personality.

Nowaysis · 04-02-07 11:15:44

The_Elfman wrote:

As the person at the other end of that message I hope it didn't bother you Nowaysis. In a private communication I will always sign off with my real name and if someone does the same I will usualy reply to them by using that name. It seems a common curtesy to use it if it has been offered. (A sort of textual handshake if you will).

No, no, certainly not. It simply struck me as fascinating to see my name used by a new person.

And i like the idea of a "textual handshake".

kirejos · 04-02-07 19:05:49

Nowaysis wrote:

I originally meant to post this on the eleventh of December, for the simple reason that in the Swedish calendar, that's my day. But as that probably differs from country to country, it doesn't really matter that I missed the date by a week.

Nowaysis, what a great idea for a thread. My day in the Swedish calendar is May 18, but since this thread probably won't last that long I'll post my reply now. I remember getting a surprise of tea, and cookies in bed that morning every year when I was a child and feeling so warm and fuzzy about it. I could pretend for a little while that I wasn't growing up in North America and so far away. My surname means "Son of Olaf", which is not my fathers name. I used to push his buttons (or so I thought) when I was a kid by calling him Olaf when I was trying to be obnoxious. He just laughed. Now I call him Olaf when we're joking around.

I've always loved my mother's name, Hope. If anyone has a daughter, name her Hope. Your grandchildren will appreciate it, although she says that she always hated being called "Hopie" when she was little.

I guess I've always liked my name, but it is interesting how I identify with it differently over time, and in different situations (formerly etc.). I have three given names in addition to my surname which I sometimes feel is a liitle excessive when I have to put them on paperwork. But when I think about them, it makes me feel unique. In North America people usually only have one middle name.

Its interesting to read how others feel about anonymity, and identity. A discussion like this, online, is open to a world of interpretation. I'm a member of a fellowship where anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, and even though my name hasn't changed, my abbreviated "Erik O." has special meaning to me, not really an alter-ego but more of an enlightened, self-aware identity. Books have been written about this stuff, I've never really discussed issues about anonymity, and identity online before. Thanks for the opportunity!

-kirejos
friend of Bill W.

Last edited by kirejos (04-02-07 23:25:39)

Nowaysis · 06-02-07 22:40:41

I don't know if this really belongs in this thread, but it seems silly to start an entire new thread for something I just noticed in passing, and that ties in so well with this topic.

It's slightly akin to the Elfman using my real name in a recent personal message, but more focused on how we treat other people's names, rather than how we react to our own names.

Personally, it takes me a rather long time to start using someone's name (unless I'm forced through circumstances, such as having to call work place colleagues by name). It's probably because I see a name as something rather intimate. For the sake of argument and clarity, one might say, that a person is their name, and vice versa. So taking their name in my mouth is bringing them very close to my person, and also, as we've already seen, inviting them to use my name as well.

Now to get to the point, people are obviously very different in this regard. It takes me forever to start using someone's name, particularly if it's a woman (living in a dorm for three years, where tenants are constantly changing, has taught me this, if nothing else), and if I do it earlier than what's considered normal for me, I feel slightly daring, and somewhat proud of myself. I also get the not entirely pleasant feeling that I'm trying to trick myself and others into believing I know this person (this again particularly goes for women) better than they do, and better than I really do.

Not so for the American girl who moved in at the beginning of this semester (so about a month ago). We were sitting in the kitchen last week, and she was telling me that she was having some problems ordering train tickets online. She wasn't sure her American debit card would be accepted, so she asked if maybe I could lend her my Swedish card if hers didn't work, and she could pay me in cash. Being a sucker for a cute smile (and general all round good guy), I said yes.

So she left the kitchen, went to her room, which is at the far end of the corridor, some 20 metres from the kitchen. About a minute later she simply flung my name down the hall, most likely from within her room, not a care in the world.

It's not that I disapproved, but it was so very different from what I would have done. Granted, I'm not the type to yell things down strange hallways at all, but least of all the name of someone I've known for only a month.

Well, that was wordy and drawn out. Please discuss, or simply analyse my obsession with this new girl in the dorm.

#26 20-12-06 16:39:21

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

#27 20-12-06 17:09:09

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

#28 30-12-06 08:23:27

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

#29 30-12-06 11:18:27

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

#30 01-01-07 21:24:08

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

#31 01-01-07 22:09:57

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#32 01-01-07 22:24:35

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#33 02-01-07 03:05:54

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#34 02-01-07 10:07:29

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#35 02-01-07 14:20:39

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#36 03-01-07 04:15:07

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

#37 03-01-07 09:40:07

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#38 07-01-07 02:23:30

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

#39 03-02-07 21:25:20

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#40 04-02-07 00:37:35

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#41 04-02-07 00:57:28

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#42 04-02-07 11:15:44

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#43 04-02-07 19:05:49

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

#44 06-02-07 22:40:41

Re: What's In a Name, Really?

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