Name It

Any name y'all think might be better?

Twas bw this and René Des-cartwheeling

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9969406

I saw a couple of fun ones somewhere else, and it got me interested. My mom calls her's: Mr de Vries

other's i found:

• William the Sucker
• Kirby & Yoshi
• Ragnar
• Sir Suckalot
• Wool-E

name (n.) "word by which a person or thing is denoted," Old English nama, noma "name, reputation," from Proto-Germanic *naman- (source also of Old Saxon namo, Old Frisian nama, Old High German namo, German Name, Middle Dutch name, Dutch naam, Old Norse nafn, Gothic namo "name"), from PIE root *no-men- "name."

Meaning "a famous person" is from 1610s (man of name "man of distinction" is from c. 1400). Meaning "one's reputation, that which is commonly said of a person" is from c. 1300. As a modifier meaning "well-known," it is attested by 1938.

In the name of "in behalf of, by authority of," used in invocations, etc., is by late 14c. Name-day "the day sacred to the saint whose name a person bears" is by 1721. Name brand "product made by a well-known company" is from 1944. Name-dropper "person who seeks to impress others by mentioning well-known persons in a familiar way" is by 1947. Name-child, one named out of regard for another, is attested by 1830. The name of the game "the essential thing or quality" is from 1966; to have one's name in lights "be a famous performer" is by 1908.

"I don't realize yet how fortunate I am. It seems that I have been dreaming. When I see my name in lights in front of the theatre, I think, 'No. It isn't I.' " [Billie Burke interview in "The Theatre Magazine," Nov. 1908]

name (v.)

Old English namian "to bestow a particular name upon, call, mention by name; nominate, appoint," from Proto-Germanic *nōmōjanan (source also of Old Saxon namon, Old Frisian nomia "to name, call," Middle Dutch noemen, namen), from the source of name (n.).

The importance of a name

By Valerie Strauss September 19, 2014

Here is a post by a Colorado teacher about what seems to be a simple observation about some students — that they don’t correct adults who mispronounce their names — but is really a nuanced look into the psyche of some students of color who live in poverty. This public school teacher blogs anonymously under the name Shakespeare’s Sister at Daily Kos, where this appeared. She teaches 11th grade AP Language and Composition in the Denver area.

By Shakespeare’s Sister

At the beginning of every school year, I try to learn all of my 11th graders’ names by the end of our first week together. A thing happens every year, though, when I am verifying pronunciations of student names.

This year, it happened with two male students whose names have two possible pronunciations. When I asked them for the correct pronunciation, they both responded, “Whatever is fine.”

When it happens, as it does every year, I look up from my roster, make eye contact, and say, “No, it’s not. It’s your name. Tell me how to say it.”

Every year but this year, I have glossed over this moment and just chalked it up to the nervousness of students new to my classroom. I am direct; sometimes, this intimidates my students until they get used to it. This year, though, in the wake of—most recently—Michael Brown and the fact that I am using the widespread coverage and discussion of his death to introduce the concept of rhetoric to my students, I paused.

My students have always been mostly brown and black. I can count the number of white students I’ve had using fingers and toes (and I still have some digits left over). My students live in poverty, and are underserved, underrepresented, disenfranchised…

But they do have their names.

As I pondered this on the way to work one morning, I remembered John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” Specifically, I remembered the absolute anguish of Daniel Day Lewis’s John Proctor from the movie version. Much is made, in literature classes, about Proctor’s refusal to allow Danforth and Parris to visibly show his name to the village as proof that he confessed.

Why do we crazy English teachers make such a big deal of it? Because it is an act of defiance, and perhaps pride, but at the same time a last grasp at moral fortitude, which ultimately costs John Proctor his life. The specific line that played on repeat in my head was:

PROCTOR: Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life. Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul, leave me my name! The connection may be a stretch for some to understand, but having spent my entire teaching career working to educate and empower students who refer to themselves as “ghetto,” “beaners,” “hoodrats,” or “wetbacks,” it resonates.

My students take a lot of pride in their families, their churches, and also their names. Many of them are named for other members of family. What I hate is that they can be so timid about correcting adults who mispronounce their names. Never, before this year, had I thought about the learned behavior that causes this.

Maybe it’s a cultural thing and they don’t want to correct a teacher? Maybe it’s embarrassment that I pronounced it so poorly? Maybe they’re just that scared of me already? Maybe I’m overthinking it and they’ve just had their name mispronounced so much they don’t care anymore?

However, as I explored more and more sources about Mike Brown and Ferguson to use in my classroom, I began to develop a better understanding.

Maybe, it’s because of years of being treated like “the other,” from seeing, hearing, and learning from the experiences of people they know. From the experiences of people like them, they have learned to bow all too quickly to authority figures—even when it comes to how to properly pronounce a name…how to distinguish them from the other students around them.

Head down, don’t look. Hands up, don’t shoot.

But I want my students to look up. I want them to realize that there are many people who see them and value them for who they are, just like many people saw and valued Mike Brown. I want them to know that people respect them, their culture, and their individuality. To know that their teachers are not colorblind, but that we SEE them—for their cultures, for their abilities, for their strengths and weaknesses, for their contributions to humanity. Most importantly, I want my students to know that I respect them for the whole person they are, including their beautiful names that are sometimes difficult to pronounce.

Will take better renaming options

Names hold significant power. They are more than just identifiers; they carry cultural, social, and personal meanings. The act of naming people, places, or things carries ethical implications such as cultural appropriation, respect, and the consequences of labeling.

Examples:

1. Imagine a non-Chinese individual choosing a Chinese-sounding name
2. A teacher taking the time to learn and correctly pronounce each student's name.
3. Media outlets using specific labels to describe a protest can influence public opinion. If a peaceful demonstration is labeled as a "riot" rather than a "protest," it can shape how the public perceives the event.

How do you see these ethical issues and can you think of any other? (Other than naming your kid adolf hitler)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/3809882

Ofc Mohammed is the most common name but thats a name common within the muslim community. I have noticed the name Sarah in every country, regardless of race or religion. Or it might be an abrahamic religion thing but thats most of the world atleast.

I suspect other Abrahamic names might make the cut.

What's in a Name?

Did you know that you could get DENIED for what you’d like to name your kid?

Posted November 15, 2011

The government of the relatively progressive country of New Zealand recently took a surprising step: controlling what officials considered deviant baby names by banning the use of appellations they have decided are problematic. Kiwis are no longer allowed to call their offspring by names that too closely resemble titles, such as Bishop, Baron, General, Judge, King, Mr., and Knight. Certain letters were also rejected, such as C, D, I, and T. Punctuation marks such as asterisks, commas, periods, and more were forbidden. They turned down three different sets of parents who wanted to name their child Lucifer. Perhaps New Zealanders became sensitive after catching international attention for allowing a couple to name their twins Benson and Hedges in 2008, or for permitting a couple of boys to be called Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter.

It often is the case that governments react to specific actions that have drawn notoriety by outlawing them. Such reactive labeling has created a host of "odd laws" all around the world, including bans on getting a fish drunk in Ohio or catching them with your bare hands in Kansas, parachuting by unmarried women on Sunday in Florida, driving a vehicle blindfolded in Alabama, eating a lamb after having sex with it in Islamic countries, spitting into the wind in Nebraska, or threatening (let alone killing) a butterfly in California. And France has prohibited naming a pig Napoleon, which gets us back to the idea of deviance in names.

New Zealand is joined in its anti-naming laws by Sweden, oddly enough, another progressive society, which put the kibosh on Superman, Metallica, Elvis, and Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced Albin) [what would the artist sometimes known as Prince say about that?], while approving Lego and Google. The Dominican Republic, has begun turning down names that are either confusing or gave no indication of gender, such as Qeurida Pina (Dear Pineapple) and Tonton Ruiz (Dummy Ruiz). Is this, perhaps, a new way that governments are asserting their power to curtail child abuse? Or, have they gone too far in limiting how people name their children, overstepping their boundaries into personal areas?

What is this trend all about? In America, people have a lot of names that might be considered deviant in these other countries. Unusual names are rampant throughout sport, with Stylez G. White, Macho

Harris, Peanut Joseph, Knowshon Moreno, and Selvish Capers having graced the field of football. Baseball has seen Razor Shines, Rusty Kuntz, and Creepy Crespi, along with Sterling Hitchcock, Champ Summers, and Van Lingle Mungo. A few of these odd names even seem like they belong together in pairs, such as Travis LaBoy and Coco LaBoy, Steven Friday and Jeff Saturday, and Antwaun Molden and Anquan Boldin.

Some names, illustrating the principle of "nominative determinism," carry parents' hopes and dreams for their children and may inspire them to follow specific pathways in life, such as Rutgers anthropologist Lionel Tiger, veterinarian and animal behaviorist Michael Fox, Manila archbishop Cardinal Sin, San Francisco dentist Les Plack, and New York attorney, Sue Yoo. Others seem to carry colloquial orientation, such as Symazme Fosho, whose parents, when asked about their child's name, simply pointed to its emphatic nature, as in, "That's her name, Fosho!" Popular among Symazme's cohort is the name Nevaeh, which is Heaven, spelled backwards.

Beckham's child Brooklyn, Ashlee Simpson's Bronx Mowgli, Gwynneth Paltrow's Apple, Jermaine Jackson's Jermajesty, Nicholas Cage's Moxie CrimeFighter, and Frank Zappa's offspring, Dweezil, Moon Unit, Ahmet, and Diva. Are these nominatively determinists? What happened to Sonny and Cher's daughter, Chastity, who turned into a son named Chaz?

Gender-ambiguous or unisex names, also known as" epicene names," have become much more common

(such as Pat, Ryan, Alex, Chris, Sam, with the most currently popular being Rory), despite being outlawed in Germany and other places. Denmark takes an even greater "Big Brother" stance, with a list of 7,000 approved names from which parents have to pick, and anything outside that list requires approval by both the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs and the Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs.

But what about gender-opposite names, where rather than being unclear, it suggests that the person is of the other gender? We had lunch with a friend, who brought along a buddy of his, a guy named Stacy. During the meal they got into an argument when our friend suggested that Stacy's mother must have hated him to give him that name. Stacy angrily defended his name, claiming it was masculine. In chatting with the waitress as she brought our bill, however, it came out that his middle name was the same as hers: Kimberly. That was too much; he ended up picking up the check after hearing our other friend howl again about how his mother must have hated him.

Name arguments are common. One young man we know named Whitney used to fight with his sister about who their parents liked better, with each claiming the other. In the end, he always won by bringing up his name. He reflected:

Throughout my entire life I have dealt with people's awkward reactions when they know they are meeting someone named Whitney and then realize only when I introduce myself that I am a man. This situation presents itself at work all the time - at an introductory meeting where someone is expecting to meet Whitney, only to see me walking up to them and offering my hand. Their faces are often confused. It also presents itself on the phone, for example when I call and a secretary for the person I am trying to reach needs to take a message. When I tell them who is calling, there is always the need for me to confirm that they heard me say my name right.