I love finding words which are really fun to say. Examples:
Artichoke. Cow. (Enunciate it extremely clearly, and sort of stretch the ‘ow’). Marshmallow. Potato. Spluge (Which isn’t a real word, but should be).
Oh yes, so it is. How silly of me.
That’s what comes when a random syllable pops into your head and you don’t take the time to look it up in a dictionary.
Or when you’re typing at well past midnight.
Having synthesis would be pretty cool as well, though. Being able to combine together all kinds of different things into even more awesome things.Maybe you could combine with them as well, and become some superhuman-awesome thing combination.
It has actually been scientifically proven that the “ock” “uck” and “ack” sounds are the most funny in the English language. This is what makes words like “smock, quack, duck” and “cluck” funny.
love Calvin and Hobbes, both of whose names I love.
I distinctly recall hearing the word “susurrus” refferred to in a book someplace and I can’t remember what it was argh. It might’ve been… The Wee Free Men? By Terry Pratchett?
Haberdashery. I love that word. Zeppelin. It sounds so…zippy, I dunno. I love spelling words slightly differently and using them for names. Whether these are good names or not remains to be seen. But Crimsyn is rather nice, don’t you think?
I love the sound of pickelhaube, pfeffernusse, floccinaucinaucinihilipilificate, higgledy-piggledy, and einkorn–and cnidnarian is nice, too, though I’d never thought of it while trying to find favorite words. I also love neologism for its double meanings.
I really love etymology! It’s really, really fascinating.
The word crotchet is very convenient when you get a brooch version (or 4) of an eccentric interest (like tardigrades!).
I also love the names Lucy and Lysander.
WWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*toomanyexclamationpoints*
Eh, ’tis my word. It means the essence of Muserlyness.
And P.S.: Riboflavin, when pronounced like rib-oh-flav-in instead of the normal (and thus worse) way, ribe-oh-flay-vin, is extremely awesome. Try it, and thou shalt be addicted.
All right! Names!
I like making up names off the top of my head, or thinking about them really hard and coming up with something that sounds nothing like the original.
I completely agree. Latin is so much more straightforward. I fear the problem with grammatical consistency in the English language may come from the number of languages from which words were adapted or taken in as they were.
The two of you may change your mind on Latin as you study it more. Exceptions to the rules arise which make no sense whatsoever. A writer can, say, use an accusative as an ablative if it sounds better. Or leave out any word and hope the reader figures it out. And did you know that there are more than just six cases of nouns?
I have completed only one Latin course, but I did already know that. I still find the exceptions of less annoyance. Perhaps that is personal preference, but they seem to be less frequent and more logical than those in English to me. And if a word is left out, one can generally understand the implication by looking at the rest of the sentence, or looking at the sentence before it. And English has similar words dropped out, especially in spoken dialogue.
*Defenestrates pie at random civilian *
SPOILER! SPOILER! OOTS SEMI SPOILER! SPOILER ALERT! OOTS SPOILER! ( THIS IS A SEMI SPOILER. IF YOU ACTUALLY READ OOTS AND HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO THIS POINT YOU MAY HAVE A FUNNY PART SPOILED, BUT IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF OOTS AND DON’T READ IT THAN YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANYTHING SPOILED FOR YOU)
Yes, and it’s even better when used in the line “Elan, I’m sorry for defenestrating your girlfriend, but…. I am your evil long lost dad.”
I’m glad the GAPAs caught that. “Wierd” means, according to Mago Berry’s Dictionary of Randomness, “something that has a quality of abnormality, yet invokes awe in passersby, aka, weird, yet amazingly original.
Syn.: Random, weird, awesome, Muserly.
Ant.: Stupid, uncreative, straightforward, normal.
Sphygmomanometer!
Whatchamacallits is chock-full of wonderful names for ordinary things. There are dozens more that I could say right now, but it would take too long. I just bought it, and it’s really good.
Found in a book on sea shanties, it refers to a 15th century French writer famous for his bawdy songs. As far as I can tell, it is unrelated to ‘rabble’.
SFTDP, and I just realized that I already said floccinaucinihilipilificate, and I misspelled pfeffernuss, but agog, voortreker (Did I spell that right, or are there 2 Ks?), qiviut, tenebrionid, pediddle, tittle, dibble, tesserae!
Katzenjammer, bibliotheca, bambino! Bibliophile! Xenomorphida, arctisconia!
What does your name mean (this is directed at everyone, not a specifc person)? My first name means pure in Greek, my middle name is Noble, and my last name means good in a language I don’t want to say in case any stalkers reading this speak it or decide to look it up. Unfortunately, this means my Quenya name is Man (Ara) Man…
Um, I think my first name, Kalie, means something like, “beloved” in Arabic. It is also a word for a…musical party(…? Something like that…) in Irish. An alternate spelling of my name is the Indian goddess of death, destruction, and creation, I believe.
My parents’ name choice comes form the Arabic meaning, though. (Who wouldn’t want to name their child after the Indian goddess of dead? )
Erm…my middle name apparently means ‘twin’ although it’s my middle name because it was a surname of my grandmother so I found this out using Google, and I’m not positive this is correct.
“Dear” in Italian. I don’t know what my name means, but Selene ( which is spelled differently ) was the goddess of the moon and a different identity of Artemis in Greek mythology.
My first name is my grandmother’s anglicized name. My middle name means “peace” because I was born a few months after the end of the Gulf War. My other middle name is my mother’s last name, and it means Town Hall, and my last name means Oldfield.
That doesn’t help, UP. That’ll just send Bibliophile searching in the damp, cold recesses of the interwebs, where there are lots of corrupt websites to be found.
Short answer: a certain type of physical pleasure derived from self-stimulation.
CAKE THAT WAS AWKWARD
TIME TO BRING IN THE SQUID MULTITUDE
Names- I’m named after the Greek goddess of wisdom (Sophia). I’ve no idea what my middle name, Ellen, means, and my last name doesn’t mean much of anything in any language.
Words I like:
Tintinabulation
Obsequious
Macaronic
Athena is commonly known as the Greek goddess of wisdom. According to Wikipedia, “Sophia” is not the Greek goddess of wisdom but actually means “wisdom” in Greek. Interesting.
For names, I like Massachusetts Pilgrims-era “virtue names”, such as Charity, Mercy, Patience, Chastity, etc.
I actually used to know someone named Athena. She was popular, and not very wise. I never actually heard anyone say anything about her name, but it seemed like going through life with it would be much easier than you’d expect–or maybe that’s only if it doesn’t suit you at all.
I would rather name my daughter Minerva, which is a better name and can be shortened to “Minnie.” Actually, Athena is a nice name too, but it would be weird to call someone that.
YOU ARE TALENTED
ADMIT IT OR FACE THE WRATH OF THE SQUID MULTITUDE
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Agreed. (My first thought upon reading your post was “Avada Kedavra?”)
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It continues to make my day to see Fireh’s silly talented-squid comments.
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Heh, Zinc…THE SQUIDS ARE *MINE*
LET NO ONE TELL YOU OTHERWISE
I STARTED THE SQUID-GIVING TRADITION
DO YOU WANT THE POWER OF THE SQUID AGAINST YOU, ZINC?
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D: Oh| wungnuggets, there are too many of you for me to remember. Sorry! Don’t hit me with your squid!!
(Although you could say Beavo originated the squids…)
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Actually squids have been hanging out at MuseBlog since ancient times (although admittedly some of those references were culinary). So I don’t think anyone can lay exclusive claim. Someone even posted a squid pyramid back in December of 2005.
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Lady B: How true. I was merely stating that the comments regarding Enc’s talent and my squid multitude were originated by me.
MY SQUID MULTITUDE IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
DO NOT CROSS ME
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Why are people complimenting me all of a sudden? I’m not used to this!
Is there some kind of conspiracy to raise my self-esteem? Because, you know, it’s working.
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Sbf- Yes, but Zinc was just saying I was a “silly talented-squid”. She was not giving a squid to me. Nor was she giving a squid to Enc. (By the way Zinc, what do you mean by that?)
Enc- Don’t let it get to your head, okay?
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Fireh- Oh, sorry! I thought that Zinc was saying that you were the one posting the talented squid comments (to which I overreacted by sending my squid multitude).
Enc- What are you talking about? There’s no *cough* conspiracy or anything… Who told him? Better expect some squiggly aquatic fun…and that was meant to be intimidating.
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WOAH NOW
SQUID?
AHEM.
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Jadestone- I do not doubt that you have all rights to a giant space squid. I was merely stating I give squids to people and the certain posts to which Zinc was referring were mine.
*coughcoughIamfrightenedcough*
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Don’t get your tentacles all tangled up; let’s not fight about squids.
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Some would say that there are good reasons to keep potential bagpipers unaware of their talents.
Re: Name meanings: My first name, Jennifer, is apparently Welsh in origin. I’ll just quote the website I found that had good information on names and such:
“Jennifer comes from the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, which is composed of the elements gwen meaning “fair, white” and hwyfar meaning “smooth”.”
And in other places I found it means “white wave”. Which is pretty cool.
My middle name is English in origin and means “laurel”.
My parents didn’t choose my name for meaning… xD My middle name was my also my great-grandmother’s name, I have no idea where my first name came from.
My name is also Welsh in origin! Well, the male version is. The female version is Irish in origin, which leads to a few problems seeing as many people in my neighborhood have Irish ancestry. So everyone expects me to be a girl.
My first name is a month that means spring. My middle name means God’s promise. My last name is an occupation, in German.
My parents chose my first name to honor my grandfather who died before I was born. His name was Fred and I am so glad they didn’t name me Frederika, and chose to go with his birth month instead. They say that my middle name was random, and they forgot that it was already my older sisters middle name. Three of my friends have the same middle name.
That would be… April/May Elizabeth?
I have a Christian first and middle name and a Jewish last name. My brother has three Jewish names. I haven’t the faintest idea what my names mean.
Yep, April Elizabeth. My older sister is Katherine Elizabeth, and our younger sister is Elizabeth Ann. And no one else in the family has an ‘Elizabeth’ at all. Quite random.
My name (Karin) is supposed to mean “pure” or something like that.
I don’t know what my middle name means. (Taylor).
My last name is a color in a language other than English.
“Karin” is one version of a Scandinavian name equivalent to the English name “Katherine,” which comes from a Greek root meaning “pure” or “purification.” (It’s related to catharsis.)
Ahh! That makes sense. I knew it came from Catherine.
I never make the connection between names and words. I just keep thinking that names have random meanings or come from words that are no longer used.
Last year in Latin I found out that Argentum is silver, which explained both the periodic table symbol and the country named Argentina.
Google translate thinks that “niska banja” means “ninja”. “Niska banja” is a Croatian song, and there is supposed to be a thingy on the “s” that makes it “sh”.
Google translate is pretty clear on the lyrics of Dobro Dosli.
Names used to be meaningful and rooted in history. In many parts of the world they still are. Random and made-up names have become popular in America only within the past 30 years or so, I think, as a result of what looks to me like massive historical and cultural amnesia. People think they’re absorbing more information than ever before, but at the same time, they’ve forgotten a lot.
Mhm. My Arabic friend knows the meanings of all of her family members’ names.
Her name is Noor, or Nour. When she was born her parents wrote it one way on her birth certificate and then forgot how they spelled it and wrote it the other way on her Social Security card. So now she has a ton of cake to deal with trying to change one so she can have a verifiable name.
Noor/Nour means “light” in Arabic.
My friend says that instead of calling this the information age we should call it the entertainment age, because people are less informed while taking in larger amounts of media.
I have a Pakistani friend, named Mahnoor, which means moonlight. I find it interesting that as her last name, she took her dad’s first name. And she doesn’t have a middle name, at all.
This brings to mind my friend’s mother, who “[is] not Irish! [she’s] American!”.
I don’t really understand the rejection of knowledge that some people have. I suppose it might amount to laziness, but I feel like that would be an overestimation of the power of laziness.
To me, the desire to learn is so strong that I don’t imagine normal circumstances being able to quell it.
I don’t know if this has been discussed, but I looked up “en” in the dictionary. It is a length of measure one half the length of the letter “m”.
Neil Gaiman just reposted a post on his blog about his daughter Holly’s name:
I dragged songs from her childhood over to the playlist — “Barcelona” and “Nothing Compares 2 U” and “I Don’t Like Mondays” and “These Foolish Things” and then came Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side”. “You named me from this song, didn’t you?” said Holly as the first bass notes sang. “Yup,” I said.
Lou started singing.
Holly listened to the first verse, and for the first time, actually heard the words.
“Shaved her legs and then he was a she…? He?”
“That’s right,” I said, and bit the bullet. We were having The Conversation. “You were named after a drag queen in a Lou Reed song.”
She grinned like a light going on. “Oh dad. I do love you,” she said. Then she picked up an envelope and wrote what I’d just said down on the back, in case she forgot it.
Ligature: The leather or metal part of the saxophone or clarinet that holds the reed onto the mouthpiece, still allowing for vibration.
(There’s an alto sax player at our school called Reid. Reid=reed=alto sax=get it? Is that too corny?)
I think Isabelle (my name) and all its variants mean something along the lines of ‘God is my oath’…something like that, anyway. My name is the French spelling, but I don’t think I was named after anyone. I guess my parents just liked the name. According to them, I could have been Victoria or Monique, and if I had been a boy, I think I would have been named Arthur.
Actually, I have no idea what my name means. (Robin) I’ve seen “brilliant,” “the bird,” etc. I can’t seem to remember what Lynn means, but I know my parents chose it as A) a fallback and B) they thought it sounded nice with “Robin and my lastname, which is currently classified information I’m not at the liberty to divulge. ( < – I don't know; just wanted to write more with my tablet. *brags*)
First name: Daniel
-Means something along the lines of “God’s judge” or “judged by God” or something to do with God and judgement
-Chosen because A. nice name, and B. religious name
Middle name: James
-Means
-Chosen because father’s first name
My first name means “the pearl”, I dunno what my second name means but it’s classically latin and the female version of the name of someone who bit the dust in march. My second middle name is a little more tricky, it’s supposed to mean hardworking according to the internet and is an old family name on my father’s side. The english version of the name was made famous by a famous (female) aviator; only one letter is different, probably changed because it sounds much nicer in english that way.
I’ve been having issues lately with the use of “an”. It really annoyed me when people say “an historic event”, until I discovered that people also say “an hippopotamus” and “an human”. Now I’m just concerned that the “h” might have been silent at one time.
I also wonder about “an” before vowels that don’t sound entirely vowel-like. For example, should I say “a one point shot” or “an one point shot”? I currently say and write “a one point shot”, because the “o” doesn’t start with a vowel sound, it starts with the “w” sound.
Some people do use “an” before “h” when the “h” starts an unstressed syllable: an historian, but a history book. But it’s not required, and — in 21st-century America, at least — you’re never wrong if you say “a.”
English is always changing. Some initial Hs that used to be silent aren’t any more and vice versa. Some are voiced or silent depending on which part of the English world you’re talking about. When I was a kid, I insisted on saying “an historic” and so forth, because that’s how those words appeared in the British books I read. But I think most speakers of U.S. English thought I was weird. To this day, “a historic” sounds painfully clumsy to my ears, and it potentially causes confusion with the word “ahistoric.”
In general, the “a – an” distinction follows the sound of the words. Indeed many of the “an” constructions were originally “a” followed by a word beginning with “n,” such as “napron” (related to “napkin”) which eventually became “apron.”
Here’s a brief article on the subject of indefinite articles used with initial Hs: www . worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-anh1.htm
A related topic is the pronunciation of “the”: Long “e” before vowels and schwa before consonants. This often comes up in singing lessons or chorus; I don’t know whether anyone in the outside world spends much time worrying over it.
(And yes, now that I’m thinking about it, I do say “thee historic,” “thee hotel,” and so forth.)
Ah! You both posted while I was writing.
I did notice that it was a British article. :]
My friend was dismayed a few days ago to find that his Latin dictionary spelled “connection” with an “x”. I suppose the British way is “connexion”? I like it spelled that way. It seems to be more true to the natural pronunciation.
Thanks, GAPAs!
When Watson came on Jeopardy, Alex Trebek called it “an historic” event. It was weird to hear such old fashioned language in juxtaposition to such a modern event.
There is a sound I don’t like. I can’t stand words like clog, plug, flog. They just sound so disgusting. Those words are like little 11 year old boys who think it’s fun to play in mud and laugh at fart jokes.
I didn’t know that.
Further evidence of my idea that Canada is a happy magic music factory where everyone is smart and talented. :] (I claim that everyone is allowed to have a generalization or delusion.)
59.3: I actually didn’t know this I heard it in choir. I was quite surprised. I adhere to it, but no-one else I know seems to.
Kinnikinick! Scofflaw! Vroom! Myrmecophile! Teleost! Bismuth! Zarf!
My name wasn’t chosen for it’s meaning; my first one was apparently random. If I were to have children (though I plan to adopt instead), I’d want to choose their names for their meanings.
Although I deinitely wouldn’t want to be named Vladimir(a), I like the sound of it. According to my favorite name website, the first part means to rule and the second part means peacefully or with greatness–though some people say that the ‘mir(a)’ part means world. For some reason, I seem to be the only one it occured to that it could mean ‘to peacefully and greatly rule the world’…
“mir” is a Russian word which means both “world” and “peace”.
This is my favorite word in any language based on meaning.
And somehow it never occurred to me that “Vladimir” contains “mir”.
It’s actually two different words — homonyms. They were spelled with different vowels before the Bolsheviks ordered spelling reform. “Vladimir” must mean “ruler of the world”; the other interpretation sounds un-Slavic.
Names involving peace do exist in other languages, though. When I was studying Arabic, one of my teachers named me ‘Abd-as-salaam, which means Servant of Peace. It suits me, I think.
My name means “father’s joy” and was apparently popularized by Puritans. Now it’ll be even stranger if I read The Crucible again! Try having your class do part of a play in which characters are saying your name every twenty seconds, sometimes in really awkward contexts. However, my default threat now involves bringing a pointy reckoning that will shudder people
Just Abby, actually. It’s not a nickname for Abigail in my case, though people tend to assume it is. I like the name Abigail better than Abby an my parents have offered to let me change it, but I’d feel weird doing that. I’m just Abby!
I don’t understand why parents give children nicknames as given names. Take my friend Betty. If her parents had named her Elizabeth, she could still be Betty, but she could also be Elizabeth, Beth, Bess, Eliza, Liza, Liz, Lizzie, Lisa, or even Ebeth. She could “wear” a different name every day of the week, and then some! But because her parents named her Betty, she’s just Betty. She doesn’t mind, but it seems unduly limiting to me.
The same goes for my cousin Jack, my sister-in-law Julie, and any number of other people I have met. (Come to think of it, I suppose Nancy Kangas is probably officially Nancy, too. “Nancy” started out as a nickname for Ann.)
My name’s way too easy to guess if you know just a little bit of the Christian mythos.
My name, when translated, means “Who is like god?” (Rhetorical question, don’t answer). I’m named after the archangel who slew Satan, and if I remember my dates correctly, then my birthday is on his feast day (March 19th).
I used to know which angel’s name meant that (though not the other things), but I forgot… Michael? Gabriel? *picks the most commonly given angel names*
True, I got “slay” and “defeat” confused I guess. He’s usually pictured with sword held high over his head, and one foot holding satan down (Usually in snake form, however I have seen one statue somewhere where Satan is depicted as some form of Hell hound)
I almost was in a spelling bee… the worst word in the English language is concomitant. Grr.
Egress: Exit.
“This way to the egress”
does not mean
some sort of bird.
I read that today in
A Hat Full of Sky
by Terry Pratchett
whose books
I have been reading
a lot lately.
I am typing this post in
free form poetry
and I do not know
why.
Re: Naming children “nicknames” as a given name:
I don’t get this either. I have a friend named Jamie Edward [lastname]. That is is name. Jamie Edward. Not James, Jamie. Why? I have no idea. Jamie fits him, and I’m sure it was adorable when he was a toddler, but he’s 19 now and it’s slightly strange that it’s his given name.
I didn’t know Nancy was a nickname for Anne, but it kind of makes sense. My aunt’s name is Nansie, and her two kids (my cousins) are named Kinsley and Coale, both old family names. Another cousin’s name is Katie, not Katherine, Kaitlyn or any other name that one can get Katie out of, but Katie. Her sister is Leslie, which is yet another old family name, if I recall correctly.
My dad is Kent, and is constantly called “Ken.” My grandmother goes by “Dee” because she hates her given name of Dolores. Personally I think she has a beautiful name, Dolores Yvonne, but she despises it. Crazy.
As for me, I’m named after a spore producing plant, my middle name means springtime in Hebrew (which has led a few few people to think I’m Jewish. I’m not.), and my last name is common and German. No idea what it’s supposed to mean. My other last name (my dad’s last name, which is not legally mine, because my mother kept her maiden name when they married and her name ended up on my birth certificate and it sounds better anyway so whatever) is also German, but less common, as far as I can tell. It appears as part of other more common surnames though, most notably in a popular children’s song.
Since my middle name starts with a vowel, my initials have the potential to spell out plenty of interesting things. I just need to never change my last name to something starting with a G or T, because then they’d spell “fag” or “fat.” Whoo-hoo.
something i don’t understand…why would a nickname be longer than the given name?! i had no idea nancy was a nickname either, and that seems pretty ridiculous to me to be honest, it’s like someone is going out of their way to make things difficult. OY VEY
My last name is a version of a relatively (?) common Irish surname, apparently the family dropped the “Mc” at the beginning to avoid discrimination when they came here. My mom’s maiden name has two writings in Japanese, one of which is apparently very nice and the other which means “rude, uncouth” etc…guess which one is ours? or at least that’s how the story goes
my mom wanted to name me darius if i had been a boy, which i think would have been excellent.
I was almost named Thea, which I think is an awesome name. Eh, well, now I get to be either a) thought of as a boy if the spelling is known, or b) called Sydney if the spelling is not known…
I had no idea that any of these were diminutives of other names, but I’d guess this was Margaret–Gretta–Gretchen. -Chen is a suffix that means something.
…That probably didn’t help much, did it? Oh, well.
“-chen” is just a German diminutive suffix meaning, basically, “little.” “-el” is another one. Hansel’s sister Gretel was really Margaret, and in a different part of Germany she’d have been called Gretchen.
On their passports (well, Margarethe, the German equivalent), though their friends might call them Hansi and Greta. Are you thinking about writing a sequel?
I was named after my great-grandmother. But everybody thinks I was named after a character in a book-turned-movie. Even if they don’t think that, they joke about it. It drives me crazy. I wouldn’t mind so much if they compared me to the Magic School Bus character with the same name. At least I’m slightly similar to her. Oh, and my History teacher has started writing “Good job, Dot!” when I do well on a test. I’ve had a nickname, but it WASN’T Dot. Dot was my great-grandmother. I find it irrationally annoying.
*empathizes* When I was growing up my name was uncommon so I heard lots of references to “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.” Adults were worse than my peers, actually. One friend of my grandmother’s would say it every time she saw me.
It’s experienced a major surge in popularity in the past couple of decades. I knew a couple of Beckys and a Bekah when I was in school, but I can’t remember meeting a Rebecca who actually went by Rebecca until I was well into adulthood. Now they’re everywhere. I find that rather disconcerting.
How is Margarethe pronounced?
For some reason, it bothers me when the plurals of words that end in f (except when it’s ff, like in tariff) end in -fs rather than -ves. I’m not sure why, but it really doesn’t look right to me.
I hate the words blub and gloss as well, and the syllable ‘gluh’ in general.
77– I was named after a great-great-great grandmother or so of mine. I like my name, actually, but people just tend to think that Sidney is the “boy” version.
I’m glad we have the word en. It’s really useful and convenient. I always hated the fact that there was no epicene pronoun, so I’m quite glad to have one now.
“En” is also a word in the world beyond MuseBlog. In typography (the design of typefaces or fonts), an en is the width of an uppercase N.
Digression: In addition to hyphens, most fonts contain longer dashes called “en dashes” and “em dashes” used for different purposes. (In America, the em dash is the standard dash “—” used in punctuation. Brits tend to prefer the shorter en dash “–” instead.)
I keep raving about how foolish people are for not adopting “En” into the standard English language. Especially now, in the age when people are communicating more and more with people they never see. We NEED to be able to use an epicene pronoun that everyone would understand!
75 (Randomosity101)~ My parents didn’t even think of the Fern in Charlotte’s Web when they named me–it was my cousin who made the connection first when they showed me to her as an infant. I occasionally have people ask me how Wilbur is doing.
There was also a Fern on the tv show Arthur.
I have the same first and last name as a softball player. Fortunately (as I hate softball), I’ve only ever met one person who’s actually heard of her, and she didn’t make the connection until I mentioned it.
Why was everyone’s name chosen? Mine (Katie, which is short for Katherine) was just because my parents couldn’t agree on anything else. That May/June 2010 Muse article on nominative determinism scared me a bit, because it’s quite strange imagining what things might have been like if I’d been named something like India, which my mom wanted, or Tiffany/Courtney/Brittany, like my dad wanted. Those just don’t suit me at all.
My parents named me in a moment of rebellion. I was the first born of my generation — and therefore supposed to be a boy (my mother’s stepmother wrote to my mom, “we’re so looking forward to the arrival of ‘little brother'”) — so there was loads of pressure to give me a family name. My parents chose “Rebecca” simply because they liked the name. When it came to my brothers, though, they capitulated entirely to family expectations. One is a junior and the other is named after both our grandfathers (he is thus saddled with Ralph and Augustus).
I’m named after a dead relative (both first and middle name, but different people). I think that’s a Jewish thing, but it’s a Christian name. Hurm.
Also, I have the same first name as J.K. Rowling, which is pretty darn cool. If only people would remember that it isn’t Joanna.
Don’t worry; she had some trouble with that, too. The first time anyone ever referred to her as ‘Joanie’ in her life was when a newspaper claimed that was what her friends called her.
It’s especially confusing now, since there’s a girl named JoAnna in one of my classes. We’re never quite sure who the teacher’s addressing, because I’m so used to being called Joanna. It was even worse fall term, when the teacher’s name was Joanne too. Gah.
-85.3 It is a Jewish thing, but it depends where your family’s from. Depending on where they’re from, it’s traditional to name after either a dead relative or a live one, and the converse to te particular tradition is taboo.
That’s actually how I got my name. I was named after a great-grandmother who died before I was born. As for my middle name, my mother wanted to name me after her grandmother, but she was still alive, so my mother gave me a similar name because she couldn’t really name me after her grandmother. (Said maternal great-grandmother is still alive, by the way. I visit her sometimes when I’m in California. Everyone thinks she looks at least fifteen years younger than she actually is. )
My mom told me that my middle name and my sister’s middle name were names that she wanted for our first names. My mom and dad agreed on our first names, and my mom’s original ideas became our middle names.
I’m glad that my sister and I both have K names, and that they are spelled the German way with our German last name. (We are Karin and Kristin)
When I go to college I might tell people to pronounce my name the German way. (Car-een, not Care-in) When I’m in Europe this summer maybe I’ll try it out and see if I can get used to it.
False seemed like a odd word a minute ago, then I typed it and thought “Oh, that makes sense,” then I looked at it for another ten seconds and now it seems to be spelled oddly…. Is this just me?
That happened to me once with frog. I just looked at it for a second or two wondering what it meant then asked myself why it was spelled wrong (it wasn’t).
For some reason, I always read ‘Chess Eterna-ment Rankings’ as ‘Chess Eterna-ment Ramblings.’ Also, whenever I says ‘blogname,’ I get the urge to say ‘Musername.’ It’s strange.
I love the name Elenora.
This is two years old, but to answer the rhetorical question, possibly because it’s a pejorative term and also because thinking of groups of people as “cute” is kind of belittling.
I really like “argosy” lately. I read a piece by George Bass referring to shipwrecks as “these lost argosies”, and he could have just said “wrecks” and meant the same thing, but doesn’t “lost argosies” sound so much cooler and more mysterious?
Fun fact: in certain liturgies, the deacon chants for everyone to genuflect, and the Latin phrase for that is “Flectamus genua”. It means “let us genuflect”, but it literally translates to “let us bend [the] knees”.
I love finding words which are really fun to say. Examples:
Artichoke. Cow. (Enunciate it extremely clearly, and sort of stretch the ‘ow’). Marshmallow. Potato. Spluge (Which isn’t a real word, but should be).
“Splurge” is a word, however — and a top-notch one, I think. (So is “top-notch.”).
Oh yes, so it is. How silly of me.
That’s what comes when a random syllable pops into your head and you don’t take the time to look it up in a dictionary.
Or when you’re typing at well past midnight.
And I clearly need to read things more clearly. Or remember what I wrote originally. Or something. *head desk*
cellar door
/obligatory
IDGI.
Tolkien purportedly said that it was the most beautiful phrase in the English language. Also, Donnie Darko.
I see.
Beige. Which to me is actually a very red word.
Foofle. I was off one letter from Google, and that’s what happened. What should it mean?
@Choklit Orange: Are you a synthe…synth…person who has synthesis?
Synthesis?
I think you mean synesthesia?
Pff. Yes. *headwall*
Anyways, are you? Because that would be awesome if you were.
Having synthesis would be pretty cool as well, though. Being able to combine together all kinds of different things into even more awesome things.Maybe you could combine with them as well, and become some superhuman-awesome thing combination.
Syzygy. It’s so much fun to say, especially when you say it quickly.
Yes.
Have you seen 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee?
No, I haven’t. What’s the connection?
It’s the opening line and the start of Mrs. Peretti’s flashback.
Cheese is fun to say. So is zit. And starring. And onomatopoeia. And Australopithecus. And Cnidarian.
Quark. Quark quark quark!
Reference, anyone?
Part of various usernames of mine?
I love Hobbes!
Castle- Nay, Calvin and Hobbes.
Also, the Tremendous Space Kablooie!
On that note “I just like to say smock. Smock smock smock smock SMOCK!”
Don’t Knock My Smock or I’ll Clean Your Clock!
It has actually been scientifically proven that the “ock” “uck” and “ack” sounds are the most funny in the English language. This is what makes words like “smock, quack, duck” and “cluck” funny.
love Calvin and Hobbes, both of whose names I love.
How did they prove it?
Scientific progress goes “boink”?
Sombrero. What fun is it being cool if you can’t wear a sombrero?
Susurrus. Cavort. Soliloquy.
I distinctly recall hearing the word “susurrus” refferred to in a book someplace and I can’t remember what it was argh. It might’ve been… The Wee Free Men? By Terry Pratchett?
Tiffany Aching was rather enamored with it.
Splendor.
Haberdashery. I love that word. Zeppelin. It sounds so…zippy, I dunno. I love spelling words slightly differently and using them for names. Whether these are good names or not remains to be seen. But Crimsyn is rather nice, don’t you think?
I love the sound of pickelhaube, pfeffernusse, floccinaucinaucinihilipilificate, higgledy-piggledy, and einkorn–and cnidnarian is nice, too, though I’d never thought of it while trying to find favorite words. I also love neologism for its double meanings.
I really love etymology! It’s really, really fascinating.
The word crotchet is very convenient when you get a brooch version (or 4) of an eccentric interest (like tardigrades!).
I also love the names Lucy and Lysander.
PFEFFERNUSSE!
Hem. Sorry.
Tardigrade is also an excellent word.
I prefer the term ‘moss piglet.’ I’m not sure why I never use it, actually…
Lorean and Lysander Lovegood…
Wouldn’t they be Lorcan and Lysander Scamander?
Tingo: one who acquires all the objects in a friends house that they desire by borrowing and never returning.
“Terraqueous”. Especially if you stretch out the syllables like Carl Sagan.
Ooh, one of these threads! I used to post on these things like crazy!
Anyways…
Sesquipedalian
Schadenfreude
Bewusstseinslage
WWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*toomanyexclamationpoints*
Eh, ’tis my word. It means the essence of Muserlyness.
And P.S.: Riboflavin, when pronounced like rib-oh-flav-in instead of the normal (and thus worse) way, ribe-oh-flay-vin, is extremely awesome. Try it, and thou shalt be addicted.
All right! Names!
I like making up names off the top of my head, or thinking about them really hard and coming up with something that sounds nothing like the original.
You misspelled it. “weird”, not “wierd”. English is a stupid language.
Schmooze. Say it.
Mago Berry says that she has respelled it. See
https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=5118#comment-393991
Oh, okay.
English is still a dumb language. There’s rules, but too many exceptions. There might as well not be any rules at all! Latin, now that’s much better.
I completely agree. Latin is so much more straightforward. I fear the problem with grammatical consistency in the English language may come from the number of languages from which words were adapted or taken in as they were.
The two of you may change your mind on Latin as you study it more. Exceptions to the rules arise which make no sense whatsoever. A writer can, say, use an accusative as an ablative if it sounds better. Or leave out any word and hope the reader figures it out. And did you know that there are more than just six cases of nouns?
Okay, but I still think it’s better than English. What’s an ablative anyways? I haven’t gotten that far yet, we’ve only just learned imperfect tense.
You’ve learned the imperfect tense before you even know your noun endings?!
so did we…and so did others i know who took latin at different schools. i feel it’s not that uncommon
I didn’t, so apparently, not everyone does.
I have completed only one Latin course, but I did already know that. I still find the exceptions of less annoyance. Perhaps that is personal preference, but they seem to be less frequent and more logical than those in English to me. And if a word is left out, one can generally understand the implication by looking at the rest of the sentence, or looking at the sentence before it. And English has similar words dropped out, especially in spoken dialogue.
I before E except after C is a common mnemonic, but it doesn’t work for weird. Weired, huh?
And ancient. And species. And lots of others.
*coughcoughthoseareafterC,LBKcoughcough*
The rule is: I before E except after C. Those are I before E and after C.
Thanks. *glomp*
Sorry LBK, my brain’s is not being good today.
That rhymed…
Science!
Ukelele. Scribe. Decapitate.
We are examining blephorisma(-ae? Not sure) in bio. Blephorisma is an excellent word.
Defenestration is a lovely word, and it just showed up in my favorite comic
Ha ha, yes! Defenestrate sounds so much fun.
According to my dictionary, “defenestrate” means to throw something or someone out of a window. So yes, it does sound fun!
*defenestrates Kai*
*Defenestrates tau*
Fun word, yes
*Defenestrates pie at random civilian
*
SPOILER! SPOILER! OOTS SEMI SPOILER! SPOILER ALERT! OOTS SPOILER! ( THIS IS A SEMI SPOILER. IF YOU ACTUALLY READ OOTS AND HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO THIS POINT YOU MAY HAVE A FUNNY PART SPOILED, BUT IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF OOTS AND DON’T READ IT THAN YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANYTHING SPOILED FOR YOU)
Yes, and it’s even better when used in the line “Elan, I’m sorry for defenestrating your girlfriend, but…. I am your evil long lost dad.”
Pituitary. And skuttlebut. Skuttlebut is delightfully pirate.
I’m glad the GAPAs caught that.
“Wierd” means, according to Mago Berry’s Dictionary of Randomness, “something that has a quality of abnormality, yet invokes awe in passersby, aka, weird, yet amazingly original.
Syn.: Random, weird, awesome, Muserly.
Ant.: Stupid, uncreative, straightforward, normal.
Zing. Who doesn’t love the word “zing”? And mycorrhiza. And nudibranch. And astringent. And… Yeah, I think I’ll stop there.
Nudibranch! Also, “macro” is another fun scuba-related word.
Very much so!
Hahah oh maan “nudibranch”
I- I can’t get over it. …… nudibranch
~so beautiful *tear*
Octopodes. Especially because it’s pronounced ok-top-o-deez.
l’anniversie (I’m not even going to attempt to spell that correctly…gah! French spelling!) and astrolabe. They’re both so fun to say.
Sphygmomanometer!
Whatchamacallits is chock-full of wonderful names for ordinary things. There are dozens more that I could say right now, but it would take too long. I just bought it, and it’s really good.
Actually, I just realized that I mean The Whatchamacallit, not Whatchamacallits. I must have been thinking of the Muse article.
Whatsit.
The device doctors use to measure your blood pressure
Heffalump.
singing
Viscacha
Resonance.
Favourite names:
Marcelas
Gretchen
Guillaume
Lukas
Twonk. It’s probably the best British slang insult ever.
what does it mean?
A clueless person.
Rabelaisian.
Found in a book on sea shanties, it refers to a 15th century French writer famous for his bawdy songs. As far as I can tell, it is unrelated to ‘rabble’.
Is anyone else mildly disturbed by how similar Bunnified and Bona Fide sound?
Yes.
“Bona fide” probably doesn’t sound similar when Piggy says it.
In good faith, it does not.
I see what you did there…
awesomeface.jpg
Hahahahahaha… what?
[PICTURE OF LARGE GREEN PEAR WITH MOUTH]
Erkling, floccinaucinihilipilification, chyme!
SFTDP, and I just realized that I already said floccinaucinihilipilificate, and I misspelled pfeffernuss, but agog, voortreker (Did I spell that right, or are there 2 Ks?), qiviut, tenebrionid, pediddle, tittle, dibble, tesserae!
There are two K’s.
Bamboozle! Liquescent!
Doohickey, Thingamabob!
Katzenjammer, bibliotheca, bambino! Bibliophile! Xenomorphida, arctisconia!
What does your name mean (this is directed at everyone, not a specifc person)? My first name means pure in Greek, my middle name is Noble, and my last name means good in a language I don’t want to say in case any stalkers reading this speak it or decide to look it up. Unfortunately, this means my Quenya name is Man (Ara) Man…
Um, I think my first name, Kalie, means something like, “beloved” in Arabic. It is also a word for a…musical party(…? Something like that…) in Irish. An alternate spelling of my name is the Indian goddess of death, destruction, and creation, I believe.
)
My parents’ name choice comes form the Arabic meaning, though. (Who wouldn’t want to name their child after the Indian goddess of dead?
Erm…my middle name apparently means ‘twin’ although it’s my middle name because it was a surname of my grandmother so I found this out using Google, and I’m not positive this is correct.
My first name is Cara, “friend” in Gaelic.
“Dear” in Italian. I don’t know what my name means, but Selene ( which is spelled differently ) was the goddess of the moon and a different identity of Artemis in Greek mythology.
Also, my middle name is Rose and I would be Liam if I was a boy.
My first name is my grandmother’s anglicized name. My middle name means “peace” because I was born a few months after the end of the Gulf War. My other middle name is my mother’s last name, and it means Town Hall, and my last name means Oldfield.
Futhark.
Frequency.
Viscosity.
My name means “Father in rejoicing” or “Father’s joy” in Hebrew. Hannah, my middle name, is also from Hebrew, and it means grace and favor.
First name: Hannah. Means grace.
Middle name: Grace. Means, uh, grace.
Applause for redundancy, parentals.
Samisen
Quincux
Obloquy
Ophicleide
Names? My first name means “listener of God” and my second name means “famous warrior”.
Odd combination, if you ask me.
It sounds a lot like Joan of Arc to me.
Mellifluous, lugubrious, mnemonic.
Yeah, it sounds that way to me too.
I like masticating, even though it can easily be misinterpreted (as I found out when I used it at school).
My PE teacher in middle school always told us to “stop masticating” whenever he caught a kid chewing gum in class. Hilarity generally ensued.
What can masticate be confused with? I ccan’t figure it out…
*pats on head*
You’ll find out when you’re older.
(then you’ll wish you didn’t find out)
That doesn’t help, UP. That’ll just send Bibliophile searching in the damp, cold recesses of the interwebs, where there are lots of corrupt websites to be found.
Short answer: a certain type of physical pleasure derived from self-stimulation.
CAKE THAT WAS AWKWARD
TIME TO BRING IN THE SQUID MULTITUDE
Unwise. As any schoolboy knows, the only cure for the Awkward Zone is funny hats. *dons caubeen*
Okay, that was officially my best laugh of the evening.
Presumably because you’ve seen a caubeen before.
That, too.
DID SOMEONE SAY SQUID?
ROOOOOOAAAAAAR I AM THE GIANT SPACE SQUID
GIANT SPACE SQUIDS YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
I have a Mini Space Squid guarding my room. And my backpack. And my bookshelf.
Why on earth would you wish you didn’t find out?
Sexual activity of any sort is a frightening concept to many.
PUT ON THE HATS. NOW.
Ok, ok! *plants hat on head*
I’m correct in assuming this is a joke, yes? Because the blog is going to continue their awkward otherwise. *shudders at blog’s awkward explanations*
NO IT’S OKAY YOU’RE GOOD PLEASE DON’T LOOK IT UP ON WIKIPEDIA
YOU! FUNNY HAT! NOW!
My first name means somber, father, priest, or father of exaltation. My middle name means famous warrior like Kokonilly’s.
Names- I’m named after the Greek goddess of wisdom (Sophia). I’ve no idea what my middle name, Ellen, means, and my last name doesn’t mean much of anything in any language.
Words I like:
Tintinabulation
Obsequious
Macaronic
Athena is commonly known as the Greek goddess of wisdom. According to Wikipedia, “Sophia” is not the Greek goddess of wisdom but actually means “wisdom” in Greek. Interesting.
For names, I like Massachusetts Pilgrims-era “virtue names”, such as Charity, Mercy, Patience, Chastity, etc.
Sorry, I confused it with the temple thingy. Well, it’s probably better to go through life with the name Sophia than the name Athena.
I actually used to know someone named Athena. She was popular, and not very wise. I never actually heard anyone say anything about her name, but it seemed like going through life with it would be much easier than you’d expect–or maybe that’s only if it doesn’t suit you at all.
I would rather name my daughter Minerva, which is a better name and can be shortened to “Minnie.” Actually, Athena is a nice name too, but it would be weird to call someone that.
Lipstick Like A Blanket
Just try saying it, it’s insanely satisfying.
Oh, the insight of Enc. (Darn talented bagpipe-playing philosophers…)
I play bagpipes? I was not informed of this.
You are highly proficient at the bagpipes. Aren’t you preparing for our Icelandic journey?
…
I love how you didn’t protest the “talented” and “philosophical” aspects of your character.
Well… Ah…
I’m certainly philosophical.
YOU *ARE* TALENTED
*slap* *healing squid*
*bursts out laughing*
Oh great. I just literally spit hot apple cider all over myself.
THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT *shakes fist*
Better yourself that your computer! We wouldn’t want our overlords angry at us!
Good thing my iPod touch was out of reach, then!
That would be Unforgivable, certainly.
We should probably stop even thinking about harming iPod touches, our overlords might hear our thoughts.
YOU ARE TALENTED
ADMIT IT OR FACE THE WRATH OF THE SQUID MULTITUDE
Agreed. (My first thought upon reading your post was “Avada Kedavra?”)
It continues to make my day to see Fireh’s silly talented-squid comments.
Heh, Zinc…THE SQUIDS ARE *MINE*
LET NO ONE TELL YOU OTHERWISE
I STARTED THE SQUID-GIVING TRADITION
DO YOU WANT THE POWER OF THE SQUID AGAINST YOU, ZINC?
D: Oh| wungnuggets, there are too many of you for me to remember. Sorry! Don’t hit me with your squid!!
(Although you could say Beavo originated the squids…)
Actually squids have been hanging out at MuseBlog since ancient times (although admittedly some of those references were culinary). So I don’t think anyone can lay exclusive claim. Someone even posted a squid pyramid back in December of 2005.
Lady B: How true. I was merely stating that the comments regarding Enc’s talent and my squid multitude were originated by me.
MY SQUID MULTITUDE IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
DO NOT CROSS ME
Why are people complimenting me all of a sudden? I’m not used to this!
Is there some kind of conspiracy to raise my self-esteem? Because, you know, it’s working.
Sbf- Yes, but Zinc was just saying I was a “silly talented-squid”. She was not giving a squid to me. Nor was she giving a squid to Enc. (By the way Zinc, what do you mean by that?)
Enc- Don’t let it get to your head, okay?
Fireh- Oh, sorry! I thought that Zinc was saying that you were the one posting the talented squid comments (to which I overreacted by sending my squid multitude).
Enc- What are you talking about? There’s no *cough* conspiracy or anything… Who told him? Better expect some squiggly aquatic fun…and that was meant to be intimidating.
WOAH NOW
SQUID?
AHEM.
Jadestone- I do not doubt that you have all rights to a giant space squid. I was merely stating I give squids to people and the certain posts to which Zinc was referring were mine.
*coughcoughIamfrightenedcough*
Don’t get your tentacles all tangled up; let’s not fight about squids.
Some would say that there are good reasons to keep potential bagpipers unaware of their talents.
It is.
My friends think I’m insane because I go around that muttering that over and over again when I’m stressed. XD
You are insane. But not because of that. And you’re insane in a good way.
Re: Name meanings: My first name, Jennifer, is apparently Welsh in origin. I’ll just quote the website I found that had good information on names and such:
“Jennifer comes from the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, which is composed of the elements gwen meaning “fair, white” and hwyfar meaning “smooth”.”
And in other places I found it means “white wave”. Which is pretty cool.
My middle name is English in origin and means “laurel”.
My parents didn’t choose my name for meaning… xD My middle name was my also my great-grandmother’s name, I have no idea where my first name came from.
My name is also Welsh in origin! Well, the male version is. The female version is Irish in origin, which leads to a few problems seeing as many people in my neighborhood have Irish ancestry. So everyone expects me to be a girl.
My first name is a month that means spring. My middle name means God’s promise. My last name is an occupation, in German.
My parents chose my first name to honor my grandfather who died before I was born. His name was Fred and I am so glad they didn’t name me Frederika, and chose to go with his birth month instead. They say that my middle name was random, and they forgot that it was already my older sisters middle name. Three of my friends have the same middle name.
That would be… April/May Elizabeth?
I have a Christian first and middle name and a Jewish last name. My brother has three Jewish names. I haven’t the faintest idea what my names mean.
Yep, April Elizabeth. My older sister is Katherine Elizabeth, and our younger sister is Elizabeth Ann. And no one else in the family has an ‘Elizabeth’ at all. Quite random.
That’s really weird, because my older sister’s name is Elizabth Anne (albeit with an ‘e’)
Wainscoting
Sophie means wisdom I think. Argh.
My name (Karin) is supposed to mean “pure” or something like that.
I don’t know what my middle name means. (Taylor).
My last name is a color in a language other than English.
“Karin” is one version of a Scandinavian name equivalent to the English name “Katherine,” which comes from a Greek root meaning “pure” or “purification.” (It’s related to catharsis.)
Ahh! That makes sense. I knew it came from Catherine.
I never make the connection between names and words. I just keep thinking that names have random meanings or come from words that are no longer used.
Last year in Latin I found out that Argentum is silver, which explained both the periodic table symbol and the country named Argentina.
Google translate thinks that “niska banja” means “ninja”. “Niska banja” is a Croatian song, and there is supposed to be a thingy on the “s” that makes it “sh”.
Google translate is pretty clear on the lyrics of Dobro Dosli.
Names used to be meaningful and rooted in history. In many parts of the world they still are. Random and made-up names have become popular in America only within the past 30 years or so, I think, as a result of what looks to me like massive historical and cultural amnesia. People think they’re absorbing more information than ever before, but at the same time, they’ve forgotten a lot.
Mhm. My Arabic friend knows the meanings of all of her family members’ names.
Her name is Noor, or Nour. When she was born her parents wrote it one way on her birth certificate and then forgot how they spelled it and wrote it the other way on her Social Security card. So now she has a ton of cake to deal with trying to change one so she can have a verifiable name.
Noor/Nour means “light” in Arabic.
My friend says that instead of calling this the information age we should call it the entertainment age, because people are less informed while taking in larger amounts of media.
I have a Pakistani friend, named Mahnoor, which means moonlight. I find it interesting that as her last name, she took her dad’s first name. And she doesn’t have a middle name, at all.
That’s terrible, though very funny from this side.
I know an Arabic girl whose name is Nour.
In a number of circles, I’d say the case is not amnesia but repudiation.
This brings to mind my friend’s mother, who “[is] not Irish! [she’s] American!”.
I don’t really understand the rejection of knowledge that some people have. I suppose it might amount to laziness, but I feel like that would be an overestimation of the power of laziness.
To me, the desire to learn is so strong that I don’t imagine normal circumstances being able to quell it.
I don’t know if this has been discussed, but I looked up “en” in the dictionary. It is a length of measure one half the length of the letter “m”.
It’s also a common abbreviation for “English.”
This is why any children I have when I grow up will have names from my family tree.
My name is from a welsh farmer that lived centuries ago! (That is why my parents chose it, they assure me.)
Neil Gaiman just reposted a post on his blog about his daughter Holly’s name:
I dragged songs from her childhood over to the playlist — “Barcelona” and “Nothing Compares 2 U” and “I Don’t Like Mondays” and “These Foolish Things” and then came Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side”. “You named me from this song, didn’t you?” said Holly as the first bass notes sang. “Yup,” I said.
Lou started singing.
Holly listened to the first verse, and for the first time, actually heard the words.
“Shaved her legs and then he was a she…? He?”
“That’s right,” I said, and bit the bullet. We were having The Conversation. “You were named after a drag queen in a Lou Reed song.”
She grinned like a light going on. “Oh dad. I do love you,” she said. Then she picked up an envelope and wrote what I’d just said down on the back, in case she forgot it.
Ligature: The leather or metal part of the saxophone or clarinet that holds the reed onto the mouthpiece, still allowing for vibration.
(There’s an alto sax player at our school called Reid. Reid=reed=alto sax=get it? Is that too corny?)
AHH we have an alto player named Reid too! Creepy!
Waistcoat
Coxswain
Puddles
Coxcomb.
I think Isabelle (my name) and all its variants mean something along the lines of ‘God is my oath’…something like that, anyway. My name is the French spelling, but I don’t think I was named after anyone. I guess my parents just liked the name. According to them, I could have been Victoria or Monique, and if I had been a boy, I think I would have been named Arthur.
SFTDP Forgot to add, my middle name is Amber. No idea where that came from either.
Isabelle Amber! That’s pretty!
Actually, I have no idea what my name means. (Robin) I’ve seen “brilliant,” “the bird,” etc. I can’t seem to remember what Lynn means, but I know my parents chose it as A) a fallback and B) they thought it sounded nice with “Robin and my lastname, which is currently classified information I’m not at the liberty to divulge. ( < – I don't know; just wanted to write more with my tablet. *brags*)
First name: Daniel
-Means something along the lines of “God’s judge” or “judged by God” or something to do with God and judgement
-Chosen because A. nice name, and B. religious name
Middle name: James
-Means
-Chosen because father’s first name
My first name means “the pearl”, I dunno what my second name means but it’s classically latin and the female version of the name of someone who bit the dust in march. My second middle name is a little more tricky, it’s supposed to mean hardworking according to the internet and is an old family name on my father’s side. The english version of the name was made famous by a famous (female) aviator; only one letter is different, probably changed because it sounds much nicer in english that way.
Bo’sun.
I’ve been having issues lately with the use of “an”. It really annoyed me when people say “an historic event”, until I discovered that people also say “an hippopotamus” and “an human”. Now I’m just concerned that the “h” might have been silent at one time.
I also wonder about “an” before vowels that don’t sound entirely vowel-like. For example, should I say “a one point shot” or “an one point shot”? I currently say and write “a one point shot”, because the “o” doesn’t start with a vowel sound, it starts with the “w” sound.
Some people do use “an” before “h” when the “h” starts an unstressed syllable: an historian, but a history book. But it’s not required, and — in 21st-century America, at least — you’re never wrong if you say “a.”
English is always changing. Some initial Hs that used to be silent aren’t any more and vice versa. Some are voiced or silent depending on which part of the English world you’re talking about. When I was a kid, I insisted on saying “an historic” and so forth, because that’s how those words appeared in the British books I read. But I think most speakers of U.S. English thought I was weird. To this day, “a historic” sounds painfully clumsy to my ears, and it potentially causes confusion with the word “ahistoric.”
In general, the “a – an” distinction follows the sound of the words. Indeed many of the “an” constructions were originally “a” followed by a word beginning with “n,” such as “napron” (related to “napkin”) which eventually became “apron.”
Here’s a brief article on the subject of indefinite articles used with initial Hs: www . worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-anh1.htm
Note that that article refers to British English. I don’t think you’d find many American newspaper articles talking about “an hotel.”
Oh, yes, I forgot to make that clear. (As it happens, I do say “an hotel.” I’m just that weird.)
A related topic is the pronunciation of “the”: Long “e” before vowels and schwa before consonants. This often comes up in singing lessons or chorus; I don’t know whether anyone in the outside world spends much time worrying over it.
(And yes, now that I’m thinking about it, I do say “thee historic,” “thee hotel,” and so forth.)
Ah! You both posted while I was writing.
I did notice that it was a British article. :]
My friend was dismayed a few days ago to find that his Latin dictionary spelled “connection” with an “x”. I suppose the British way is “connexion”? I like it spelled that way. It seems to be more true to the natural pronunciation.
Hmm… I’m not sure if I ever say “thee.” I don’t think I do. I never say “an h—-” either.
Thanks, GAPAs!
When Watson came on Jeopardy, Alex Trebek called it “an historic” event. It was weird to hear such old fashioned language in juxtaposition to such a modern event.
There is a sound I don’t like. I can’t stand words like clog, plug, flog. They just sound so disgusting. Those words are like little 11 year old boys who think it’s fun to play in mud and laugh at fart jokes.
Of course, Alex Trebek is Canadian.
I didn’t know that.
Further evidence of my idea that Canada is a happy magic music factory where everyone is smart and talented. :] (I claim that everyone is allowed to have a generalization or delusion.)
That’s because they have a g in them (see rant of former Rants and Plaints thread).
59.3: I actually didn’t know this I heard it in choir. I was quite surprised. I adhere to it, but no-one else I know seems to.
Kinnikinick! Scofflaw! Vroom! Myrmecophile! Teleost! Bismuth! Zarf!
My name wasn’t chosen for it’s meaning; my first one was apparently random. If I were to have children (though I plan to adopt instead), I’d want to choose their names for their meanings.
Although I deinitely wouldn’t want to be named Vladimir(a), I like the sound of it. According to my favorite name website, the first part means to rule and the second part means peacefully or with greatness–though some people say that the ‘mir(a)’ part means world. For some reason, I seem to be the only one it occured to that it could mean ‘to peacefully and greatly rule the world’…
“mir” is a Russian word which means both “world” and “peace”.
This is my favorite word in any language based on meaning.
And somehow it never occurred to me that “Vladimir” contains “mir”.
And the feminine form of ‘mir’ is ‘mira’, I believe. GUESS WHAT MY NAME IS :I
It’s actually two different words — homonyms. They were spelled with different vowels before the Bolsheviks ordered spelling reform. “Vladimir” must mean “ruler of the world”; the other interpretation sounds un-Slavic.
Names involving peace do exist in other languages, though. When I was studying Arabic, one of my teachers named me ‘Abd-as-salaam, which means Servant of Peace. It suits me, I think.
Which was the official translation of the name of the space station? Most things I’ve seen translate it as “Peace”.
That’s right: the space station was the peaceful sort of mir.
My name means “father’s joy” and was apparently popularized by Puritans. Now it’ll be even stranger if I read The Crucible again! Try having your class do part of a play in which characters are saying your name every twenty seconds, sometimes in really awkward contexts. However, my default threat now involves bringing a pointy reckoning that will shudder people
What’s your name?
Abigail, I’d hazard.
That’s also my sister’s name.
Just Abby, actually. It’s not a nickname for Abigail in my case, though people tend to assume it is. I like the name Abigail better than Abby an my parents have offered to let me change it, but I’d feel weird doing that. I’m just Abby!
I’m the other half of “names derived from Abigail”, so I know exactly what you mean.
Oh, that reminds me of my brother. His name on his birth certificate is “Jake,” not “Jacob.”
My name is Riley. It means either “valiant” or “a small stream.”
I don’t understand why parents give children nicknames as given names. Take my friend Betty. If her parents had named her Elizabeth, she could still be Betty, but she could also be Elizabeth, Beth, Bess, Eliza, Liza, Liz, Lizzie, Lisa, or even Ebeth. She could “wear” a different name every day of the week, and then some! But because her parents named her Betty, she’s just Betty. She doesn’t mind, but it seems unduly limiting to me.
The same goes for my cousin Jack, my sister-in-law Julie, and any number of other people I have met. (Come to think of it, I suppose Nancy Kangas is probably officially Nancy, too. “Nancy” started out as a nickname for Ann.)
Your name is Abby and you did The Crucible in school? Ouch, that must have been awkward.
My name’s way too easy to guess if you know just a little bit of the Christian mythos.
My name, when translated, means “Who is like god?” (Rhetorical question, don’t answer). I’m named after the archangel who slew Satan, and if I remember my dates correctly, then my birthday is on his feast day (March 19th).
No archangel slew Satan. Not yet, anyway.
I used to know which angel’s name meant that (though not the other things), but I forgot… Michael? Gabriel? *picks the most commonly given angel names*
It’s Michael. If you google it you see bunch of pictures of him standing over Satan.
@Piggy
True, I got “slay” and “defeat” confused I guess. He’s usually pictured with sword held high over his head, and one foot holding satan down (Usually in snake form, however I have seen one statue somewhere where Satan is depicted as some form of Hell hound)
Wait, he had Satan pinned to the ground with a sword? Why didn’t he just kill the guy?
It’s not time yet.
Well then, he ought to get around to it.
Automaton!!!! So fun to say!! Yay for vocabulary books!
A word I hate spelling: accept. I always try to write “except.”
I just don’t like spelling anything…
I almost was in a spelling bee… the worst word in the English language is concomitant. Grr.
Egress: Exit.
“This way to the egress”
does not mean
some sort of bird.
I read that today in
A Hat Full of Sky
by Terry Pratchett
whose books
I have been reading
a lot lately.
I am typing this post in
free form poetry
and I do not know
why.
No, the worst word in the English language is ophthalmology.
(SFTDP: It wasn’t even GOOD poetry. Drat.)
Oh, I don’t know. I thought it was clever how you rhymed “sky” and “why.”
Re: Naming children “nicknames” as a given name:
I don’t get this either. I have a friend named Jamie Edward [lastname]. That is is name. Jamie Edward. Not James, Jamie. Why? I have no idea. Jamie fits him, and I’m sure it was adorable when he was a toddler, but he’s 19 now and it’s slightly strange that it’s his given name.
I didn’t know Nancy was a nickname for Anne, but it kind of makes sense. My aunt’s name is Nansie, and her two kids (my cousins) are named Kinsley and Coale, both old family names. Another cousin’s name is Katie, not Katherine, Kaitlyn or any other name that one can get Katie out of, but Katie. Her sister is Leslie, which is yet another old family name, if I recall correctly.
My dad is Kent, and is constantly called “Ken.” My grandmother goes by “Dee” because she hates her given name of Dolores. Personally I think she has a beautiful name, Dolores Yvonne, but she despises it. Crazy.
As for me, I’m named after a spore producing plant, my middle name means springtime in Hebrew (which has led a few few people to think I’m Jewish. I’m not.), and my last name is common and German. No idea what it’s supposed to mean. My other last name (my dad’s last name, which is not legally mine, because my mother kept her maiden name when they married and her name ended up on my birth certificate and it sounds better anyway so whatever) is also German, but less common, as far as I can tell. It appears as part of other more common surnames though, most notably in a popular children’s song.
Since my middle name starts with a vowel, my initials have the potential to spell out plenty of interesting things. I just need to never change my last name to something starting with a G or T, because then they’d spell “fag” or “fat.” Whoo-hoo.
something i don’t understand…why would a nickname be longer than the given name?! i had no idea nancy was a nickname either, and that seems pretty ridiculous to me to be honest, it’s like someone is going out of their way to make things difficult. OY VEY
My last name is a version of a relatively (?) common Irish surname, apparently the family dropped the “Mc” at the beginning to avoid discrimination when they came here. My mom’s maiden name has two writings in Japanese, one of which is apparently very nice and the other which means “rude, uncouth” etc…guess which one is ours?
or at least that’s how the story goes
my mom wanted to name me darius if i had been a boy, which i think would have been excellent.
My first, middle, and last names are all common words in the english language. Makes googling myself a bit of a pain..
I was almost named Thea, which I think is an awesome name. Eh, well, now I get to be either a) thought of as a boy if the spelling is known, or b) called Sydney if the spelling is not known…
Kind of related- how does Peggy derive from Margaret?
I think the evolution went something like “Margaret – Meg – Peg – Peggy.”
And I guess Richard -> Dick was “Richard – Rick- Dick”?
My favorite was the day I realized that Gretchen was a diminutive of Margaret
How does that one work?
I had no idea that any of these were diminutives of other names, but I’d guess this was Margaret–Gretta–Gretchen. -Chen is a suffix that means something.
…That probably didn’t help much, did it? Oh, well.
“-chen” is just a German diminutive suffix meaning, basically, “little.” “-el” is another one. Hansel’s sister Gretel was really Margaret, and in a different part of Germany she’d have been called Gretchen.
So when they grow up they’re just Hans and Margaret?
On their passports (well, Margarethe, the German equivalent), though their friends might call them Hansi and Greta. Are you thinking about writing a sequel?
I was named after my great-grandmother. But everybody thinks I was named after a character in a book-turned-movie. Even if they don’t think that, they joke about it. It drives me crazy. I wouldn’t mind so much if they compared me to the Magic School Bus character with the same name. At least I’m slightly similar to her. Oh, and my History teacher has started writing “Good job, Dot!” when I do well on a test. I’ve had a nickname, but it WASN’T Dot. Dot was my great-grandmother. I find it irrationally annoying.
Dorothy?
Nobody cares who I’m named after. They’re just busy remembering to spell it wrong.
75.1- Yes. I have no problem with the name itself, but the way people keep insisting on making Wizard of Oz comments drives me caking crazy.
76- Oh, that’s too bad. Who were you named after?
*empathizes* When I was growing up my name was uncommon so I heard lots of references to “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.” Adults were worse than my peers, actually. One friend of my grandmother’s would say it every time she saw me.
Really? I always thought Rebecca was a not unusual, classy name. There’s even a famous novel called Rebecca.
It’s experienced a major surge in popularity in the past couple of decades. I knew a couple of Beckys and a Bekah when I was in school, but I can’t remember meeting a Rebecca who actually went by Rebecca until I was well into adulthood. Now they’re everywhere. I find that rather disconcerting.
How is Margarethe pronounced?
For some reason, it bothers me when the plurals of words that end in f (except when it’s ff, like in tariff) end in -fs rather than -ves. I’m not sure why, but it really doesn’t look right to me.
I hate the words blub and gloss as well, and the syllable ‘gluh’ in general.
“Margaretta” with a German accent.
77– I was named after a great-great-great grandmother or so of mine. I like my name, actually, but people just tend to think that Sidney is the “boy” version.
I’m glad we have the word en. It’s really useful and convenient. I always hated the fact that there was no epicene pronoun, so I’m quite glad to have one now.
I use en as often as I can–unfortunately, when I tried to use it in a game of Scrabble, it was denied. Why can’t people be more open-minded??
“En” is also a word in the world beyond MuseBlog. In typography (the design of typefaces or fonts), an en is the width of an uppercase N.
Digression: In addition to hyphens, most fonts contain longer dashes called “en dashes” and “em dashes” used for different purposes. (In America, the em dash is the standard dash “—” used in punctuation. Brits tend to prefer the shorter en dash “–” instead.)
I keep raving about how foolish people are for not adopting “En” into the standard English language. Especially now, in the age when people are communicating more and more with people they never see. We NEED to be able to use an epicene pronoun that everyone would understand!
Yes, that would be logical.
And, I don’t see why not to adopt it.
75 (Randomosity101)~ My parents didn’t even think of the Fern in Charlotte’s Web when they named me–it was my cousin who made the connection first when they showed me to her as an infant. I occasionally have people ask me how Wilbur is doing.
There was also a Fern on the tv show Arthur.
Cool, your name has connections!
My name is just the name of some good NFL players!
I have the same first and last name as a softball player. Fortunately (as I hate softball), I’ve only ever met one person who’s actually heard of her, and she didn’t make the connection until I mentioned it.
My name is the name of the Dark-type Elite 4 member in Hoenn. Except he’s, well, a he. And has a red mohawk-ish hairdo. And has an electric guitar.
Why was everyone’s name chosen? Mine (Katie, which is short for Katherine) was just because my parents couldn’t agree on anything else. That May/June 2010 Muse article on nominative determinism scared me a bit, because it’s quite strange imagining what things might have been like if I’d been named something like India, which my mom wanted, or Tiffany/Courtney/Brittany, like my dad wanted. Those just don’t suit me at all.
My parents named me in a moment of rebellion. I was the first born of my generation — and therefore supposed to be a boy (my mother’s stepmother wrote to my mom, “we’re so looking forward to the arrival of ‘little brother'”) — so there was loads of pressure to give me a family name. My parents chose “Rebecca” simply because they liked the name. When it came to my brothers, though, they capitulated entirely to family expectations. One is a junior and the other is named after both our grandfathers (he is thus saddled with Ralph and Augustus).
I’m named after my great-grandmother, whose name was something like Lipsi but was anglicized to Lizzie at Ellis Island.
I’m named after a dead relative (both first and middle name, but different people). I think that’s a Jewish thing, but it’s a Christian name. Hurm.
Also, I have the same first name as J.K. Rowling, which is pretty darn cool. If only people would remember that it isn’t Joanna.
Don’t worry; she had some trouble with that, too. The first time anyone ever referred to her as ‘Joanie’ in her life was when a newspaper claimed that was what her friends called her.
It’s especially confusing now, since there’s a girl named JoAnna in one of my classes. We’re never quite sure who the teacher’s addressing, because I’m so used to being called Joanna. It was even worse fall term, when the teacher’s name was Joanne too. Gah.
-85.3 It is a Jewish thing, but it depends where your family’s from. Depending on where they’re from, it’s traditional to name after either a dead relative or a live one, and the converse to te particular tradition is taboo.
That’s actually how I got my name. I was named after a great-grandmother who died before I was born. As for my middle name, my mother wanted to name me after her grandmother, but she was still alive, so my mother gave me a similar name because she couldn’t really name me after her grandmother. (Said maternal great-grandmother is still alive, by the way. I visit her sometimes when I’m in California. Everyone thinks she looks at least fifteen years younger than she actually is.
)
I was named after my father, who was named after his two grandfathers. My family believed in recycling names.
My mom told me that my middle name and my sister’s middle name were names that she wanted for our first names. My mom and dad agreed on our first names, and my mom’s original ideas became our middle names.
I’m glad that my sister and I both have K names, and that they are spelled the German way with our German last name. (We are Karin and Kristin)
When I go to college I might tell people to pronounce my name the German way. (Car-een, not Care-in) When I’m in Europe this summer maybe I’ll try it out and see if I can get used to it.
Susurration.
False seemed like a odd word a minute ago, then I typed it and thought “Oh, that makes sense,” then I looked at it for another ten seconds and now it seems to be spelled oddly…. Is this just me?
How would you prefer to spell it?
Aschelminth.
That happened to me once with frog. I just looked at it for a second or two wondering what it meant then asked myself why it was spelled wrong (it wasn’t).
In my opinion:
Gaily: In a lighthearted, happy manner.
Gayly: In a homosexual manner.
And the two should not be used interchangeably.
If there’s one thing I’m angry about concerning the gay rights movement, it’s the theft of the word “gay”. We happy people had it first!
CONCUR.
*grins* Well, you can still act gaily without acting gayly, I suppose.
Furcae! Peribuccal lamellae!
Weird and awkward are the two best spellings in the English language, because their meaning and spelling are alike.
Imperfect tense in Spanish has some really funny words:
Trabajaba (en used to work)
Hablaban (they used to talk)
Also, as I mentioned in a different thread, secchi is really fun to say.
For some reason, I always read ‘Chess Eterna-ment Rankings’ as ‘Chess Eterna-ment Ramblings.’ Also, whenever I says ‘blogname,’ I get the urge to say ‘Musername.’ It’s strange.
I love the name Elenora.
כושי (kushi): Such a cute word. It sounds like cereal and freckles and handsome brown people. Why can’t we all just talk in Hebrew while discussing racial issues?
This is two years old, but to answer the rhetorical question, possibly because it’s a pejorative term and also because thinking of groups of people as “cute” is kind of belittling.
I really like “argosy” lately. I read a piece by George Bass referring to shipwrecks as “these lost argosies”, and he could have just said “wrecks” and meant the same thing, but doesn’t “lost argosies” sound so much cooler and more mysterious?
Does anyone else find “telephony” an Inherently Funny Word?
“Telephony” ends in “funny.”
My funny word of the day is “ombudsman.”
I can never believe “comptroller” is a real word. It just looks too silly.
If we’re talking about our favorite unusual words, ‘genuflect’ is my latest one.
Not so unusual when you’re Catholic….
Fun fact: in certain liturgies, the deacon chants for everyone to genuflect, and the Latin phrase for that is “Flectamus genua”. It means “let us genuflect”, but it literally translates to “let us bend [the] knees”.
Oh. I had just heard of the word last night, so it’s unusual for me.
It’s okay, I only learned it from a comment on a Famous External Photography Site when I was 15 or so.
I love the use of “genuflect to the dollar” in Cloud Atlas. So perfectly dystopian.
First you get down on your knees
fiddle with your rosaries
bow your head with great respect and –
genuflect genuflect genuflect
Pipple!
‘To make the murmuring sound of a gentle wind or rippling water’
susurrus
bewildered
torpor
undulate