# Hey! Brave Slayer Of Economic Hardship! Dinner's ready! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 2, 2003, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-brave-slayer-of-economic-hardship-dinners-ready/165929 "2003-04-02T10:15:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kjetil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc8723/32.png) [@Kjetil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kjetil)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-brave-slayer-of-economic-hardship-dinners-ready/165929/1 "2003-04-02T10:15:01Z")
When the media talks about some Arab organization and say what it means, it’s usually something like “Allah Will Smite The Ungodly Until It Hurts” or “Be Nice And Pray When You’re Supposed To And Eat Your Vegetables And Don’t Be An Asshole In Social Circumstances”. This could be the equivelant of “Greenpeace” (or at least “green peace”), “East India Trading Company” or “Save The Children”, of course, but you hear _names_ translated like that as well. So, is it something like this - Fred meaning “peaceful ruler” though few people would have any idea that’s what it meant - or are people actually named “Courageous Person Who Is Also Kind To Animals”? First thought of “Christian” for this example, but it’s the same word, so… Would the English equivalent be a guy saying ‘Hi, I’m Fred,’ or ‘Hi, I’m Peaceful Ruler’? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-brave-slayer-of-economic-hardship-dinners-ready/165929/2 "2003-04-02T12:34:12Z")
Not sure about the translation angle, but outlandish names crop up in most cultures. > [@](#): > > Here is an instance of outlandish names some Pardhis have: "Pistolya, Rifleya, Bandukya (from banduk-gun), Policeya, Torchya. (‘-ya’, as anyone who has grown up around Marathi-speaking kids knows, is a common Marathi suffix to form diminutives or nicknames.) Around Satara district, you can hear tales of a reformed Pardhi criminal named European, now farming a small plot of land. Britishya was another once-known criminal. From [this page](http://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20010915/windows/above.htm) (more examples there.) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-brave-slayer-of-economic-hardship-dinners-ready/165929/3 "2003-04-02T14:05:11Z")
Well, in most major Western cultures, personal (so-called “Christian”) names are derivative forms evolved from words in ancient languages, whose meanings in those languages are alien to to the modern languages, and are used just as designators – the word you are known by. (The tradition of Patron Saints likely helped that – Josephs, Josés and Giuseppes would most often not be so because of wanting to convey “God has increased me” but in honor of either of two specific characters in the Bible called Yosif, never mind why THEY were called Yosif.) With Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, and many other languages, you get the situation where the language from where names came… is the same as the language of the society, only “classical” vs. “modern”. So this phenomenon is much clearer to a translator, even though to the native man-in-the-street in the culture in question it may be obvious that a particular form of a phrase, though understandable, is nowadays only used in proper names and in period movies/novels, and to him it’s obvious when you mean to say “My name’s Cristóbal Colón” vs. “I am the dove that bears Christ”. Consider that there are names in English such as Hope, Faith, Rose, Honey, Wolf; or in Spanish there are Luz, Alba, León, Segundo; which are standard names AND actual words-with-meaning in the modern language. (and of course, never mind _family_ names – Smith, Herrero, etc.) Context lets you know when you are using them in which function. Of course, to a foreign observer, it’s “interesting” and “curious” to consider a society where respectable people name their kids “Firstborn”, “Light”, “Night”, “Father of Faith”, “Graceful Woman”, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-brave-slayer-of-economic-hardship-dinners-ready/165929/4 "2003-04-02T14:06:38Z")
> [@](#): > > outlandish names crop up in most cultures Sure do. Ku Klux Klan. Elks. Moose. Lions. Kiwanis. Rotary (do they go around in circles during their meetings?) 😃