# Discussion thread for the "Polls only" thread (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2024, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636 "2024-02-16T02:56:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 465
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9283 "2025-11-19T17:09:44Z")
My first name is a homophone of a demonym. Not sure where that falls in the poll categories. For what it’s worth, I don’t think “semantically transparent” is the right term for one’s name also being a word. I’ll admit I wasn’t familiar with the term, but I looked it up and found no usage of it in that regard. It seems instead to refer to how apparent a word’s meaning is without outside context. So what _do_ we call a name that’s also a word? “Eponym” doesn’t quite fit; it’s more the reverse meaning. I found “dictionary name” or simply “word name,” but it seems there should be something more definitive. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9284 "2025-11-19T17:12:23Z")
My son’s name is both a standard unit of measurement (which delights him) and it also means “soldier.” ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9285 "2025-11-19T17:53:22Z")
It’s become something of a Thanksgiving tradition for me to watch _Planes, Trains, and Automobiles_. That was my “something else” in the Thanksgiving poll. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9286 "2025-11-19T18:36:11Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > My son’s name is both a standard unit of measurement (which delights him) and it also means “soldier.” I sometimes call my nephew Kilometers. mmm ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9287 "2025-11-19T18:40:09Z")
My first name means “little one” in Latin. My last name (the Celtic, not the Germanic version) means a bog or a fen. I like to say my name is Little Swamp Creature. I’m having Thanksgiving dinner with my sister that I live with. The rest of my family moved away…too far to go just for Thanksgiving. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9288 "2025-11-19T18:50:50Z")
My last name is semantically transparent in English, and my maiden name was semantically transparent in another language. But my given name has no meaning. (Both being occupations. One occupation a religious one, so I’m not sure where I’d classify it in the poll, if the poll asked about last names.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9289 "2025-11-19T19:10:11Z")
My last name is semantically transparent in German, but you won’t find it in a dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9290 "2025-11-19T19:12:58Z")
My first name has an unknown etymology. My last name isn’t semantically transparent, but each half is a form of a not uncommon word, and could be made transparent by adding two letters and a hyphen. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9291 "2025-11-19T19:16:26Z")
My first name has several dictionary definitions, one of which is rude (fortunately only in the US !). ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9292 "2025-11-19T19:36:47Z")
I’m really proud of how I remade Thanksgiving. It used to be the hardest day of the year for me, due to my past. I turned it into my favorite ever thing - taking the three of us to visit my Aunt, Uncle and grandmother. They all live about six hours away. These are my closest people. We do it really low-key and always have a wonderful time. My son adores his Grunkle so they nerd out together on his computer. I catch up with my Aunt, my husband starts working on that year’s photo album, and after the boy goes to bed we binge TV shows. Four days of just hanging out with my favorite people. I look forward to it every year. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9293 "2025-11-19T20:14:24Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > My first name has several dictionary definitions, I remember going to the bookstore, pulling a bunch of baby name books & sitting there. One book would have a certain name with a description like, “Strong, manly, defender” while the next book would have the meaning of the exact same name as “wimpy little shit” WTF, how could two books, really _any_ two we looked at, be so far apart for their definition on the same name??? When we tried to eliminate any one book as being more made up, it matched the other books on some names but each book seemed to have the same number of way-off-base differences from every other book. Maddening I tells ya! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9294 "2025-11-19T21:43:11Z")
Baby-name books are notoriously unreliable. There are a few reliable ones out there, but the vast majority contain a ridiculous amount of wrong information—and that was in pre-AI days. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9295 "2025-11-19T21:50:48Z")
I dont consider “karen” to be an insult, using it as one is sexist and bigoted, OMHO. Gomer is pretty rare IRL. it is the 20,512th most common surname in the US. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Baby-name books are notoriously unreliable. There are a few reliable ones out there, but the vast majority contain a ridiculous amount of wrong information—and that was in pre-AI days. True. My first name is very rare, and my last name is occupation based. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9296 "2025-11-19T22:01:07Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > and that was in pre-AI days kid was born in the dial-up internet days. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9297 "2025-11-20T02:43:22Z")
I have a very traditional Jewish first and middle names. They have meaning of course, but not in the categories that exactly match any of the listed categories. Thanksgiving - my other is, similar to @WildaBeast, that we often try to leave the extended Thanksgiving with my inlaws and go catch a movie in a theater. That _probably_ won’t happen this year, because I expect it to be rather overrun with people wanting to see Zootopia 2. It’s also the day of the year my friend opens up all his Xmas Day Rifftrax films on the Plex Server, so watching one of them is a likely choice. Though I refuse to watch the (again, Riffed) Star Wars Lifeday special, since I’ll HAVE to watch it AGAIN as part of New Years Eve tradition, along with Wizzo’s mental breakdo… I mean the Riffed Wizzo’s Xmas special. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9298 "2025-11-20T03:19:08Z")
I’ll be spending most of Thursday cleaning house and doing some preparatory cooking. My family will be coming in Thursday night, but we have Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. We’ve been doing it that way for years; my quite successful solution to the problem of there otherwise always being one branch that didn’t make it here on Thursday until way after when the rest of us wanted to eat. But, although I will be doing some housecleaning, this year the dinner won’t be here and I won’t be hosting. My niece has rented a significantly larger and less allergen-filled house close by for the long weekend and everybody’s staying there (except me, I’m sleeping in my own bed with the cats), and we’ll be eating there also. Yay! Younger generation, it’s your turn! Voted other, and only other. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9299 "2025-11-20T15:17:09Z")
My middle name is a flower. The nick name for my first name is a fabric! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9300 "2025-11-20T15:23:52Z")
Twill Corpse Flower? ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9301 "2025-11-20T15:46:15Z")
You got it! ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/9302 "2025-11-21T16:39:27Z")
Thanksgiving day is a normal work day for me, as I am in Switzerland. But I have vacation next week, so I won’t be working. And I’ll still be in Europe, so Thanksgiving isn’t relevant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636.md?page=464) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636.md?page=466)