What's in a name?

[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.