# My Name is Luka...? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661 "2016-12-02T19:42:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661/21 "2016-12-10T20:58:07Z")
You have to understand my area was the last to get cable, for one. And, I always despised what MTV did to music, anyhow. That said, I was raised on radio. That song aired in 1987. Since its inception, I assumed the singer, singing in first person, is Luka, a woman singer; hence,the subject is a woman. The video did nothing to rethink my position. I thought the boy in the video was the one she’s singing to, such as: “If you hear something late at night, some kind of struggle, some kind of fight, just don’t ask me what it was…” I think the video should have been much stronger SHOWING child abuse being acted out. I think the video is too vague. Maybe the song should be titled “My Name is Steven…”? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661/22 "2016-12-10T22:14:49Z")
The CW was that it was child abuse. Nobody was peddling an alternative scenario back then be cause it just didn’t sound like that. As spousal abuse it seems rather infantilized and not as poignant at all. It doesn’t sound like a child’s story? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661/23 "2016-12-11T04:40:31Z")
I remember a DJ back then, Casey Kasem I think, mentioning on the radio that it was inspired by a boy Suzanne Vega knew named Luka. This was some years before Goran Visnjic was on ER, so I wasn’t particularly used to Luka as a name, let alone a boy’s name, but that was what Casey said, so that’s what I understood it to be. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661/24 "2016-12-13T08:00:53Z")
> [@Magicicada](#): > > I assumed child abuse from the beginning, because of the child-like voice (yeah, I know she always kind of sounds like that) and phrasing. The only thing was, I had never heard the name Luka before, and because of the -a ending it was a while before I knew the narrator was a little boy. You’d never seen the Godfather? That’s where I first heard the name and why it made more sense to me to be about a male kid rather than a female adult. I’d never seen the video but I don’t ever recall hearing this name for a female so to me it added up. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661/25 "2016-12-15T18:45:55Z")
> [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](#): > > You’d never seen the Godfather? That’s where I first heard the name and why it made more sense to me to be about a male kid rather than a female adult. I’d never seen the video but I don’t ever recall hearing this name for a female so to me it added up. Sorry… I’m Hollywood intolerant. I caught most of the Godfather on TV years ago. I don’t recall any names nor specifics. I’m in the minority, I guess, but I don’t get into most shows like people do. Maybe once or twice a decade (on average), a show will hook me. Star Trek, Starsky and Hutch, MASH, All in the Family, Taxi and St. Elsewhere, oh…and The Paper Chase, but not much else. Oh sure, I’ve seen most of the 1960’s and 1970’s sit-coms. Not a big fan of 1980s forward, although I grew up into the 70s into the 80s. I was raised on radio. Live and breathe for the rock era. Even on the silver screen, I’m very picky. Not a fan of Hollywood, in general. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661/26 "2016-12-15T18:51:48Z")
_blink_ It never occurred to me that it could be about spousal abuse. ---
**Author:** ![rossiewang84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f08c70/32.png) [@rossiewang84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rossiewang84)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661/27 "2017-02-08T14:34:28Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > I remember a DJ back then, Casey Kasem I think, mentioning on the radio that it was inspired by a boy Suzanne Vega knew named Luka. > > This was some years before Goran Visnjic was on ER, so I wasn’t particularly used to Luka as a name, let alone a boy’s name, but that was what Casey said, so that’s what I understood it to be. Oh boy, Luka Kovac… this sure brings back memories. [Goran Visnjic](http://tvline.com/2016/03/08/goran-visnjic-nbc-time-travel-pilot-villain/) is back on NBC, on the small screens in form of Garcia Flynn, but not as a doctor. Wrap your head around Garcia 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-luka/773661.md?page=1)