Scarcely a month goes by here without a thread on wild and wacky baby names. Up until twenty years ago or so, the classic “saints’ names” like John, James, Andrew, Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, and so on made up the bulk of names in English-speaking countries. “Creative” first names have always been around, but now “creative” is the norm. It’s been a veritable explosion of creativity across all races and classes, much of it for the worse. A kid can be Aidan, DeShawn, Destiny, or Shaniqua now and nary an eye is batted, whereas when I was a kid someone with a name like that would automatically be considered a weirdo and probably given an embarrassing nickname. You even get the occasional Prince or Princess (eugh) as a given name.
My question is: has there been a similar trend in non-English-speaking countries? If so, what are some examples? Maybe there are places where all names are essentially made up and there has never been continuity or uniformity in naming; I don’t know.If I recall correctly, in Norway, there are actually legal restrictions on what you can name a kid, to the point of having an approved list you have to pick from. Are there places as freewheeling with names as the US?
There was a famous kidnapping case years ago in Korea, and the child’s name was Chorongchorogbitnari, which translates to “sparkle sparkle light”. :rolleyes:
There were two brothers in my high school named after planets (Uranus and Neptune - in Korean they translate to “planet of the king of heaven” and “planet of the king of the ocean”).
Most of the unfortunate names in Korea have to do with last name + first name. Like one girl, her name was Mi-yin and her last name was Ji (so it would be Ji Mi-yin). Mi-yin means “beautiful woman” in Korean (I’m not saying the name means that, I’m saying that it’s an actual noun that people use in speech), and Ji can be a rude way of saying “that person”. Unfortunately Mi-yin wasn’t beautiful by any standard and she was a bit of a princess to boot, so she got teased about her name unmercifully.
In the past, some parents would deliberately call their children something negative so as not to attract the attention of malignant spirits. Like they would call their kids Gaeddong, which means dogshit.
All that being said, I haven’t noticed a huge recent trend in wacky names. The thing about Korean names, though, is that it’s easier to create names that are different yet still not too weird, because most names are composed of two Chinese characters and there are almost an inifinite number of possibilities of syllables and combinations. (Also alternate spellings are pretty much impossible.)
First of all, what’s weird about the name Aidan? Overdone, certainly, but it’s a traditional Irish name.
Second of all, I think the 19th century was at least equal to modern times in the bizarre-ness of names. Just looking through my own family tree, I find Deliverance, Shadrach, Elias, and Araminta. Creative names abounded.
And now to the topic, there is a trend in Latin American and Spanish Caribbean countries of giving children euphonious nonsense names. So, similar to an American “Brayden” or “Antwonique,” in Cuba you might find a “Dimoncy.”
Well, the list is more a philosophical entity than a law. It is simply that names on the list are “pre-aproved”, as it were, and no one can argue if you choose a name from the list. The list is regularly expanded, to the point were it includes names that are outright bizarre in norwegian (I understand that the name Musa is quite common for some middle-eastern regions for boys. In norwegian, it is a slang term for female genitals. Newertheless, it is on the list.) If you want a name not on the list, you usually only have to prove that it is a actual name from a region you have etnic or emotional ties to, or that the child id named after a spesific person, and it will be okay.
The actual law states that "no child may be given a name, which may reasonably be claimed to become a burden to the child.
On the Faroe Islands, however, there is an actual, cast-iron list, and pretty much the only way to get around it is to name the child after a blood relative with a non-approved name. Even then, it can be difficult. I know of a family who ahd to argue pretty hard to be allowed to name a girl child Victoria (the approved spelling is Viktoria). They were naming her after her grandfather, but since his name was not Victoria, but Victor, it almost wasn’t allowed.
I don’t remember any of my students in Bulgaria ever being teased about their names. The only time I remember names coming up at ALL was when one of my 4th graders announced that the Roma have two names - a secret gypsy name and their own name. This bit of news was shot down by a Roma girl who said it wasn’t true. Hm.
OTOH, I thought some of my kids had pretty funny names. Bulgarians use patronyms, like Russians (I’m not sure if this is a law or what - my ethnically Turkish kids had their father’s name as a middle name, without the Slavic -ov or -ova suffix), and passing down family names can result in pretty uncreative names. One of my students was called Iveta Ivanova Ivanova. And several of my Roma students had the same name for their first and last name.
My all-time-favorite rejected name is “Chenekwahow Migiskau Nikapi-Hun-Nizeo Alessandro Majim Chayara Inti Ernesto Prithibi Kioma Pathar Henriko”.
Although the name that was approved in the end - “Chenekwahow Migiskau Kioma Ernesto Tecumseh” isn’t really that much better… . :eek:
I know a german who has an extra middle name, an animal [Falk] and his brother also has an animal as a second middle name [Baer if memory serves] I have never heard of that type of practice, a ‘totem’ animal instead of a saint [like my catholic friend is Richard Christopher [after his grandfather] Michael [saint] <last name>
Is that perhaps something famillial, or just because his grandfather liked to read about Shatterhand and ran with the american indian new agey stuff?<lol>
Starting around 1968 or so, educated, young, hip, urban Mexicans of the time started to sympathize with indigenous peoples of the country. Over the next ten or twenty years, they married and had kids. So, now you have a lot of very white, usually wealthy, completely non-indigenous twenty- and thirty-somethings with names like “Cuautemoc”, “Nezacoyotl”, and “Xochitl”, whereas the indigenous people themselves still tend to just be “Jose” or “Maria”.
By weird I don’t necessarily mean inappropriate, just unusual. There are plenty of Irish names that would have been extremely rare a short time ago, but are now seen frequently.
And that raises the question of statistically what exactly I’m talking about. What I mean is that when I was a kid in the 70s, if you took a random sample of 100 kids of US-born parents, there might be 50 unique names, but now a sample of 100 kids of US-born parents would turn up 80 or 90 unique names. And even the commoner names would be different. In the old days you’d have four Brians and five Michaels, whereas now you might have three Zacharys (including the Zackarys and Zackerys).
Mentioned in Y tu mamá también, is the name Tenoch.
In Puerto Rico they use Taíno (Arawak) names… I’ve known: Yaureibo, Urayoán, Agüeybaná, Guarionex, Coquí, Yarí, Coaí, Yara, Yaraní, Antillana (ok, not necessarily exactly Indian), and probably others I don’t recognize… The guy names’ are usually names from caciques (chiefs) that the Spaniards wrote down. And actually, many names of localities are Taíno.
Then there are the uncommon/common names that I didn’t realize where Arabic until I left the island, like Yamil and Omar. I’ve known at least two different guys with each of those names, none of them Arabs, Palestinians, or Moslems.
Then there are other “foreign” names, usually English but can also be French. Like Étienne, Steve, Stephen, Willy (as a name, not a nickname), etc. Melissas, Crystals, Tamaras, Maries, and Vivians are the female names that come to mind…
Finally, and my own name included, we get the categories of invented. As I said in other thread, my name is shared by about 3 young women from different countries (and a German company that manufactures wheelchairs, I kid you not). I had plenty of classmates, usually females, who had “invented” names.
I do not want to say those names, as I’ll be afraid of making their names show up on the net, which I don’t want. They may end with “-ette” or “-ine” or “-a”, and may be a combo of names (like mine is), or just “it sounded nice” or “make believe French-Russian-Asian” name…
Uncommon/common Spanish names in Puerto Rico, that is… Names that you hear once in a while but are never that big, other than those mentioned before… Margarita for females, Pablo or Tomás for guys…
Surprisingly, there are not THAT many Josés and Marías as a first name… as a combined name, or as a second (middle) name, yes, but not as the “main” name. I’ve known only two Marías (as first, main name), and those were in elementary school. I’ve known plenty of “X” José, where the X is any other name, and the José is to identify the person from the other X person (not another José).
Here in Japan I have come across some really bad ones. The worst are the parents who want their children to have Western names, but they have no idea what a Western name really is.
In my son’s class there is a boy called Tomorrow. I thought my son was mispronouncing Tomo-rou, which is a standard boy’s name but no, the kid has the kanji “Ashita” or tomorrow.
One of my students is called Raimu, or Lime. The characters read “come/dream” but I always think about Lyme disease when I hear it.
Another pair of brothers are called Okuto and Eifuu. I asked the mother where their unusual names came from and she was miffed that I didn’t know. She said that clearly I should see that Eifuu was named for “Eipuriru” or April, and that Okuto for October. Yeah, riiiight. And they are names in the west, specially for boys!
The best has to be the boy who is named Earth. In English. Except that with the Japanese pronunciation it comes out as Arse.
In Nigeria (and elsewhere in Africa), it’s not uncommon for parents to impose distinctly un-African names on their children. Usually they choose English words that mean something positive to the parents but which are never used as names by English speakers in the US, Canada, England, etc.
A quick search turned up references to Difference, Jubilee, Market, Lawyer, Monday (and other weekdays), Wood, Justice, Alleluyah, Perpetual, Promise, Goodluck, Miracle, Worldwide, Countryman, and others. Several these came from a discussion where the OP was “Nigerian Names: How funny is yours?” so I assume that Nigerians also find some of these a bit odd.
They’re pretty handy with the creative names in Quebec, too; last year, one of the most popular girls’ names was Océane.
We have name rules too, but they’re not generally as restrictive as some other countries (IIRC in Iceland, the name must be written using Icelandic orthography and be able to be declined in the Icelandic case system). The registrar of civil status is allowed to ask parents to reconsider an especially bizarre name, and if they refuse, the registrar can ask for a judge to refuse the name.
Changing your name is also a much more complicated process than in the common-law provinces; in fact, until recently, trans people had an awful time if they hadn’t gotten a legal change of gender, until a trans lawyer successfully challenged the regulation, leading to the spectacle of a judge actually having to inform the government that it was not the arbiter of which are male and which are female names.
Hijack – I have heard from my relatives in Quebec that it is very difficult for women to change their last names after getting married, whereas in the rest of English-speaking North America it’s a very simple process.
When I lived in Indonesia back in the 70s, many of the Chinese we knew would have a “Westernized” or “non-Chinese” name. Thus, to other Chinese, they would go by the Chinese name, but to others, they would use the other name.
My favorite one was a couple who adopted the names of a well-known couple from America: Fred and Wilma*.
Fred and Wilma Flintstone were popular cartoon figures in the United States during the 60s.
