Your favourite names (in any language)

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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Babbsagg » 2017-05-01, 1:19

Norman. I like it because of the viking implications. Also, one of the few names that aren't Biblical.

Not that I have anything against Biblical names, quite the contrary. I find it utterly fascinating how a small local culture around Jerusalem has gained such prominence that hundreds of millions--probably one or two billion--carry their names today.
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-05-01, 1:51

Prowler wrote:A Swedish guy told me once that "Sven", a very stereotypical Swedish name, is an "old man's name". Just like here "Manuel" and "António" are names I associate with men aged 50 and above. Well there's some "Antónios" still but guys named "Manuel"? Don't know any below 50. Just like "Maria" is more common with middle aged women as well. Nowadays the trendy first name for girls seems to be "Ana". You look at HS class with 15 girls and 13 boys and 5 of the girls have "Ana" as their first name :silly:

I think some young Malayalee guy (in his 30s) from Mumbai claimed that all the older Malayalee men in Mumbai were named "Manish," which is funny to us here in Austin because it sounds to us like a newfangled name. Malayalees have some really weird names these days! Biju, Shiju, Shaiju, Shijo, Lijo...Fydor [fajˈɖoːr]...Snehha (after a name change from Sneha)...

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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby linguoboy » 2017-05-01, 1:52

One Christian custom I miss is the tradition of naming people based on the saint's day they were born on. This kept some pretty unusual given names in circulation. It seems to survive best in Francophone Africa (perhaps reinforced by local naming customs, which often dictate that children receive particular names based on the day of the week) and more weakly in Latin countries.

I recently teased a Mexican-American friend of mine that if we'd been born girls, he'd be named "Concepción" and I'd be "Asunción". And I tease my younger brother about how he should've been called "Meinrad". I was also kind of hoping that my second-youngest nephew would be named either Joseph or Patrick, but he landed smack dab between their feast days and I guess "Cyril" never even entred into consideration.
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-05-01, 2:01

linguoboy wrote:One Christian custom I miss is the tradition of naming people based on the saint's day they were born on. This kept some pretty unusual given names in circulation.

Really? How? :hmm:
It seems to survive best in Francophone Africa (perhaps reinforced by local naming customs, which often dictate that children receive particular names based on the day of the week) and more weakly in Latin countries.

This is kind of surprising to me because I still have a French textbook where they talk all about how people in France have a fête (on the day of the saint they were named after). The Irish friend I mentioned recently also briefly taught ESL in Portugal and said one of her Portuguese friends told her about how whenever a baby is born in Portugal, their parents have to pick a name for them from a set list of names like saints' names and "Vasco" and so on.

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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby linguoboy » 2017-05-01, 2:13

vijayjohn wrote:
linguoboy wrote:One Christian custom I miss is the tradition of naming people based on the saint's day they were born on. This kept some pretty unusual given names in circulation.

Really? How?

Because as many different martyrs there are with common names like "Alexander" and "Julia", there still isn't one for every single day of the year.

vijayjohn wrote:
It seems to survive best in Francophone Africa (perhaps reinforced by local naming customs, which often dictate that children receive particular names based on the day of the week) and more weakly in Latin countries.

This is kind of surprising to me because I still have a French textbook where they talk all about how people in France have a fête (on the day of the saint they were named after). The Irish friend I mentioned recently also briefly taught ESL in Portugal and said one of her Portuguese friends told her about how whenever a baby is born in Portugal, their parents have to pick a name for them from a set list of names like saints' names and "Vasco" and so on.

France used to have a similar law. Iceland's is still in effect, IIRC. I seem to remember a court case recently when someone wanted to give their child an obviously Anglo name.
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Osias » 2017-05-01, 2:27

I remember reading when O Rei do Gado first aired that people from Portugal would like to include "Luana" in the list of allowed names.
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-05-01, 2:57

Malayalee Syrian Christians usually have either saints' names or Biblical names that are recycled by tradition, but a lot of us have broken with this tradition in the past hundred years or so because it gets so boring and lacks variety. (By contrast, the tradition among Malayalee Roman Catholics seems to be to have non-Biblical Western names. No idea why). The oldest children (or even all the children, depending on how many there are) in each generation have the same names as their grandparents, and the firstborn son's name is just their father's name in reverse, so the firstborn son in every generation of my family for example is apparently John Thomas -> Thomas John -> John Thomas -> Thomas John, etc.

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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Prowler » 2017-05-01, 4:50

Osias wrote:I remember reading when O Rei do Gado first aired that people from Portugal would like to include "Luana" in the list of allowed names.

Considering I dunno anyone named "Luana" it either didn't get legalised or not many people actually liked it enough.

Brazil has to win as far as absurd "what the hell!" names go, though.

Names I'd give a future child of mine? No idea. Depends. I could imagine what I'd name my kid if he/she was German, Japanese or from an English speaking country but Portuguese? No idea. This sounds strange, I guess.

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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Dormouse559 » 2017-05-01, 5:01

I'm always struck by the number of non-Portuguese surnames used as given names in Brazil (Edison, Emerson, Nelson …). Wikipedia says they were originally meant as homages to famous holders of those names. I get that, but I think in the U.S. at least, the first name is the go-to, with the last name being secondary (e.g. Martin Luther King <- Martin Luther, George Washington Carver <- George Washington).
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Luís » 2017-05-01, 5:12

vijayjohn wrote:The Irish friend I mentioned recently also briefly taught ESL in Portugal and said one of her Portuguese friends told her about how whenever a baby is born in Portugal, their parents have to pick a name for them from a set list of names like saints' names and "Vasco" and so on.


This "set list" has thousands of names and it's constantly being updated.

Just for fun, here are some of the names that were not accepted back in 2015: Estaline (Stalin), Gandhi, Jesus Cristo (Jesus Christ), Nivea, Panini, Sandokan, Viking, Benfica (like the football club). I guess we avoided some traumatised children... :lol:
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Prowler » 2017-05-01, 5:18

Dormouse559 wrote:I'm always struck by the number of non-Portuguese surnames used as given names in Brazil (Edison, Emerson, Nelson …). Wikipedia says they were originally meant as homages to famous holders of those names. I get that, but I think in the U.S. at least, the first name is the go-to, with the last name being secondary (e.g. Martin Luther King <- Martin Luther, George Washington Carver <- George Washington).

And every brazilian guy named Anderson seems to be black or of mixed race... at least as far as football players go.

And why is Wanderlei such a common name?

And Nelson isnt the best example. You can find Nelsons in many non english speaking nations including my own. That being said I dunno a single one.

So anyway I was thinking of names and my experiences with people with certain names... most Fraciscos Ive met were assholes. And I must say Im yet to meet a bad looking girl named Marta.

Edit: lol luis not even I would name my son Benfica.

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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Dormouse559 » 2017-05-01, 5:31

Prowler wrote:And Nelson isnt the best example. You can find Nelsons in many non english speaking nations including my own. That being said I dunno a single one.
Granted. As a matter of fact, I know a Nelson who is very American. I was seeing if I could think of three names off the top of my head. :P
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Prowler » 2017-05-01, 5:36

Dormouse559 wrote:
Prowler wrote:And Nelson isnt the best example. You can find Nelsons in many non english speaking nations including my own. That being said I dunno a single one.
Granted. As a matter of fact, I know a Nelson who is very American. I was seeing if I could think of three off the top of my head. :P

Tbh the only "famous" Nelson i can think os is that simpsons character. Real life examples... there used to be a Portuguse goal keeper named Nelson.

Btw names i dont like: Vanessa, Cátia, Fábio, Leandro, Eunice, Márcio, Marco. Not a big fan of Diogo and Mariana either tbh.

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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Osias » 2017-05-01, 13:18

Dormouse559 wrote:I think in the U.S. at least, the first name is the go-to, with the last name being secondary

Pretty sure is the opposite, there's no "George Monument", just "Washington Monument", besides the city Washington DC, etc.
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Osias » 2017-05-01, 13:22

Prowler wrote:And why is Wanderlei such a common name?
Is it so? Come to think about it, there are lots, indeed. No idea why.

Prowler wrote:the only "famous" Nelson i can think os is that simpsons character

I think the singer Willie Nelson was more famous before The Simpsons. But I don't know any fans or ever heard a song of his on the radio here.
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Dormouse559 » 2017-05-01, 14:29

Osias wrote:Pretty sure is the opposite, there's no "George Monument", just "Washington Monument", besides the city Washington DC, etc.
Just to be clear, we're talking about naming people after other people.
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Osias » 2017-05-01, 14:39

Ah, ok, I need to pay more attention, to post on Unilang only after my cup of coffee.

Anyway, the point is Brazilians that name their kids after foreign surnames don't fully know they are surnames. Also, here we address people formally by first name: I'm "senhor Osias", not "senhor Maia".
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby linguoboy » 2017-05-01, 14:51

Prowler wrote:Brazil has to win as far as absurd "what the hell!" names go, though.

I love Brazilian names. There's something particularly satisfying about classical names like "Tácito" or "Euclides" pronounced in a Brazilian accent. Do people still give names like that any more?
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Osias » 2017-05-01, 23:07

No.

I think Prowler was talking about names like "Josecleison" and "Whindersson" (sic).

Or maybe cases like the two brothers from a church I used to go, "Aluard" and "Alucard". The father tried to name the first after Dracula, only backwards, and there was a typo somewhere. But he didn't give up and succeeded with the second son.
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Re: Your favourite names (in any language)

Postby Aurinĭa » 2017-05-11, 22:19

Very late to reply to this, but (again :P ) better late than never.
Varislintu, thanks for the elaborate answer, it was interesting to read, and I can definitely understand your reasons for preferring to pass on the mother's name.

Varislintu wrote:
Aurinĭa wrote:Do you know why that law was created in 1900?

No. It's on my list of things to investigate, but I haven't gotten to it yet. :yep:

If you ever find out, I'd be interested in hearing it.

Varislintu wrote:I haven't mentioned this before here, but our baby fits pretty well into what is described as the high needs temperament. It has required me to invest physically even more than an average, easier baby requires. I haven't, for example, slept a longer stretch than two hours more than a handful of times in the last 8 months. This will affect my health long term. I'm wearing the baby in a manduca right now because he can't sleep without my physical presense. (This is actually a huge improvement -- until 6 months of age he didn't like the manduca and was not able to sleep in a sling either. :P )

I wonder how you'd cope if you only had three months maternity leave, like here.

Varislintu wrote:
Aurinĭa wrote:I agree that everybody needs to make their own decisions, but I think it makes sense to give a child the father's name. After all, the mother carried the child, which is a connection the father (or non-carrying other mother) can't have, so giving his (her) name to the child name would be an extra connection between father and child.

I think that's admirable. :yep: This was the main reason that I considered giving up my wish for the baby to have my last name. I think it's a good and valid reason. It's like a gift. One thing that I realised when mulling these things over, was that nobody else will see it as a gift. They won't even notice, or think about it. The baby getting the father's name is just the father's unquestioned privilege in this society, he will just be getting his due, because of course babies are named after the father. This wasn't the reason we ended up choosing my name, but it did make me feel a bit sad. You can't give a privileged person a gift related to that privilege in society's eyes. On a personal level of course, the receiver may realise what the other one gave up in giving it. It's a bit like male authors of PhDs or novels, thanking in the acknowlegements theirs wives for running the household and kids and typing up their manuscripts and proofreading them so they themselves could focus on other things. Like, I'm sure on the personal level the wife feels warm inside being thanked, because she may know the husband actually knows what she sacrificed, but on a societal level it's more of the same structural sexism. :hmm:

That's a very good point, and it is indeed sad that that gift wouldn't be recognised by society as a gift. Did CoBB get any comments about how "generous" it was of him to "let you" pass on your name? Do you think some people might think you "selfish" for "insisting" that the child gets your name?

Yeah, these would have weighed heavily in our case, but as it happens, we both have simple, easy, internationally similarly easy-to-pronounce names. :lol: I almost wish I was called Äyskäröinen or something, just so it had been easier to decide. :P

Better two easy, decent names to choose between than two difficult or less-than-nice names, no? :P


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