What's in a name?

[oxysback]

I've had a good laugh reading this thread!

Now, for the downside of growing up with an unusual name...

I have an aquaintance named Mireille. I, personally, love how the name sounds, but she has an equally unusual last name. She's now old enough to get her first job, but she's finding that potential employers don't want to call her back because not only are they unsure of how to pronounce her first name, but her last name is difficult, as well.

She's taken to spelling her name phonetically (she puts 'Maray') on her job applications, but then they call back asking for 'Murray'. The poor girl can't win!

[margo49]

It's a lovely name.
The woman who wrote French Women Don't Get Fat is Mireille.

[uk elephant]

I didn't think I grew up with an unusual name until I went away to college. In Norway my name, Eli, is a fairly common girls name. The same name in the US where I went to college is a fairly common jewish boys name. And I have had many surprised professors who expected me to be a boy when I showed up in class. But I like my name, and where it came from. It's my great-grandfather's middle name.

[silver]

Back in my previous life as a CPA, I had a client who had the pronunciation on his name on his business card. Looks like this could be a good idea.

Our last name is German. In German when there is a two vowel combination, the second vowel is pronounced. Our community has a strong German heritage and they say that years ago that German was as likely to be spoken on the streets as English. Many streets and companies have German names and people pronounce them correctly.

An example would be Weinbach would be pronounced like winebok, not weenbok

Sooo.......why can't they pronounce our last name correctly???

My first name is Elaine (not a German name, so pronounced E-lane, not E-line). Not extremely common, but somewhat. It's more common here in the Midwest than it was in in the South. There was the character on Seinfeld (german name pronounced signfeld, not seenfeld). But just recently, I realized that an acquaintance here, that I've known for 6 or 7 years was calling me, El-a-nay. What to do?

[Tuckervill]

Okay, another extremely unusual name....why all the double letters and FIVE names, I dunno.

Alleeasaya Saphoria Rose Michelle Girard.

The last name of the mother is Otteringer, different from the dad. I don't get why they couldn't fit Otteringer in there somewhere too. I mean, come on!
:P
Karen

[Mr. Bloom]

Okay, another extremely unusual name....why all the double letters and FIVE names, I dunno.

Alleeasaya Saphoria Rose Michelle Girard.

The last name of the mother is Otteringer, different from the dad. I don't get why they couldn't fit Otteringer in there somewhere too. I mean, come on!
:P
Karen

Could she be NW Arkansas royalty???

She's almost the same as the heir to the throne:

His Royal Highness The Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Great Master and First and Principal Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Member of the Order of Merit, Knight of the Order of Australia, Companion of the Queen's Service Order, Honorary Member of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, Chief Grand Commander of the Order of Logohu, Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty

Last I recalled, his daddy's last name is Mountbatten and his mommy's last name is Windsor. Hmmm...didn't see those names in there...

To me, he's simply Chuck...

I can see where the royals are starting to take a more populist bias in their lives...

[bmccasland]

Umm Mr. Silver...
HRH Chuck's name is the Prince Charles Philip Athur George, the rest are titles and honors. Makes me wonder what Queen Mum called him when she was mad at him?

The Brit royal names harken back to when people didn't have *last* names or family names. Ever looked into the names in Iceland or Greenland? Leif Erikson's child Sven would be Sven Leifson. At least you'd know who the kid's father was. And girls were *dottir*, so Leif's girl-child would be Helga Leifsdottir. I'm not sure what happens to names when a child matures and marries. Doe she take her husband's name?

[lph]

The Brit royal names harken back to when people didn't have *last* names or family names. Ever looked into the names in Iceland or Greenland? Leif Erikson's child Sven would be Sven Leifson. At least you'd know who the kid's father was. And girls were *dottir*, so Leif's girl-child would be Helga Leifsdottir. I'm not sure what happens to names when a child matures and marries. Doe she take her husband's name?

Nope. They stay "-dottir" and "-sson", so married couples do not share names. At least not according to the traditional way of naming, they might have started doing so now.

"-dottir" and "-sson" are allowed as alternative last names in Norway too, but not very common. I like them

Last names used to be much more flexible. My grandmother's father (I think) changed his last name when he moved to a new town and opened a store, from a very common last name to the name of the property he bought. That was quite usual at the time. My grandfather's fathers name was from the place he grew up. Only a few generations back place names, "son of"-names and artisan names were pretty much all you had of last names, and they weren't necessarily inherited.

Which does put a new perspective on the whole "keeping your name" debate about women (or men) changing their names at marriage, and family members having the same last name or not.

[Zen]

I have a new found appreciation for Smith and Jones.

[Mr. Bloom]

I have a new found appreciation for Smith and Jones.

Trust me, Silver wishes she had found a Smith or Jones..

But, I am very glad to know Norse Naming Protocol

[tulip]

My mother tells me of a long-gone relative named (first-middle) Minnesota Iowa, and her sister named Georgia Virginia.

My dad had an aunt named Olive Iola.

I have a name that always gets comments. It's a double name (I'm happy to be from the south and I love double names), but it's still unusual. It's Juliellen. Like Maryellen, but with a Julie. It always makes people stumble at first.

[Bad JuJu]

In my years as a teacher, I've learned that when it comes to names, all the rules of pronunciation go right out the window and you sometimes just have to rely on the person to tell you how his or her name is pronounced. In this country (and probably in others) we're dealing with names from languages all over the world, so no one set of pronunciation rules is going to apply. And even when you think it might, well, people have their own ideas of how to spell and pronounce their own names.

Example: "Megan"--pretty common name, right? But some pronounce it "May-gan" while others (such as a friend of mine) pronounce it "Mee-gan." There's no way of knowing that until you ask or are told.

The problem occurs, to my mind, when people refuse to pronounce your name as you've asked them to. That's just ignorant or rude.

[Aggie_Ama]

JuJu- My niece is Adrianna. But it is pronounced Adri-ah-na. If I just looked it I would call her Adri-Anna. I knew what they were naming her and thought it would be Adriana. I never know how anyone is going spell anything. I know three people who named their boys Aiden. One is Aiden, one is Aidan (pronounced Aid-in) and one is Ayden.

[bmccasland]

While l lived in Phoenix there were twin brothers that worked for the same TV station, Sean and Dean, with a another brother named Shawn. Sean and Dean rhymed. What were their parents thinking?

[oxysback]

While l lived in Phoenix there were twin brothers that worked for the same TV station, Sean and Dean, with a another brother named Shawn. Sean and Dean rhymed. What were their parents thinking?

So did the twin's names sound like Shaun and Don, or Sheen and Deen?

I'm guessing the latter because of the other brother named Shawn. How confusing!

I went to elementary school with a girl named Sion...pronounced Shawn.