Why are meaningful names so rare in modern English?

[John_Mace]

Charlie Sheen is Jewish?

[Irishman]

@Peter_Morris

Agreed that there are *some *names that are English words. But most of them are not very common. I’ve never actually met anyone named Ruby, Pearl, Summer or Autumn. My question states that they are rare, compared to some other cultures, including historical England, not that they don’t exist.

Well, I’ve known a Ruby, a Pearl, a couple of Summers, and a couple of Autumns. But as a percentage of the people I know, those are still fairly rare names.

@BigT

I, on the other hand, am named after my dad and a name he heard that he thought sounded cool.

Your dad is named “Big”?

[pulykamell]

@Irishman

Well, I’ve known a Ruby, a Pearl, a couple of Summers, and a couple of Autumns. But as a percentage of the people I know, those are still fairly rare names.

True. Interestingly enough, Ruby has become quite popular in certain parts of the English-speaking world. (Top 5 in a lot of Australia) and even “Sienna,” “Grace,” “Lily,” and “Summer” makes a Top 10 appearance in the Gold Coast region of that country. (“Lily” and “Ruby” being number 1 & 2 female names for all of Australia in 2010.)

[Raguleader]

Knew a couple of guys in middle school who were twin brothers. One was named Hunter, the other was Tanner.

I thought it was pretty neat. They didn’t realize there was any relation between their names :smack:

[Alessan]

@Alessan

Actually, that was a bit of a cheat - “goddess” in Hebrew is “Ella”, so the name can either be a Hebrewization of the English-language name, or it can be derived from the nickname for “Daniela” or “Michaela” or some such (because one generation’s nickname is the next generation’s proper name).

Still, the fact that it *has *a meaning is important, even if was arrived at in a backward fashion. Israelis don’t like to give their kids meaningless names. Besides, “goddess” can be meant figuratively - after all, “Steadfast”, “Valor” and “Lightning” are popular Hebrew male names, so why can’t you say a girl is goddess-like?

Now that I think of it, Ella is also a name of a tree - specifically, the pistacia palaestina. It’s very common in Israel, most famously in the Valley of Elah, where David fought Goliath.