What's in a name?

[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.