The Name Game

[Rumple Foreskin]

The "Name Game" that broke out earlier on the "Intimidation" thread got me to wondering how many folks like their name. In my totally subjective, unscientific opinion, it'd be a pretty high precentage, especially among teenage, female-type, women-folk.

Since this is the Author's Hangout, I wouldn't want to start a post with absolutely no reference to scribbling, so here's a optional writer query: Have you ever created a character and given them a name they were supposed to hate?

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Jenny _S]

Everyone in my family hates their names. My grandmother was Minnie, called herself Maude and wouldn't answer to anything else. Her sister's name was Zelda and went by Lucille. My mother's name was Violet and you could call her just about anything else except Vi which people insisted on.

I'm Jennifer and I'm not a damn 16 year old twilly twat named that! Call me Jenny. My younger sister is Mary Ellen and goes by ME (as in the pronoun). Names generally suck. Mostly because you don't get to chose your own.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Jenny,

Back in the 60's, I knew a semi-normal gal named Ann (no, this isn't the start of a limerick). No one every called her anything else. When she left town for college, she told everyone her nickname was "Gidgit". The fact she considered that an improvement is proof she was, at best, only semi-normal.

I agree with you about names, Jenny. Of course, I'd never aruge with anyone who also has a Walt Kelly quote on their sig line.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Icingsugar]

Have you ever created a character and given them a name they were supposed to hate?

Oh yes.

* Peter Willian Herrman, a guy who was called Pee-wee Herman by the office bullys.

* A 12 year old girl with the full name of Anna Lovisa Helena Beata Britta Rut Rakel Eualia Striidh.


And about my own name... I dunno. I'm not the one who has to say it.

 

[Icingsugar]

I'm Jennifer and I'm not a damn 16 year old twilly twat named that! Call me Jenny.

Interresting how you associate names. It must be different frames of references. No offense, but I'd actually think of a Jenny as the '16 year old twilly twat' and a Jennifer as more adult and reliable.

Prolly because I know a Jenny and a Jennifer like that.

 

[Jenny _S]

Interresting how you associate names. It must be different frames of references. No offense, but I'd actually think of a Jenny as the '16 year old twilly twat' and a Jennifer as more adult and reliable.

Prolly because I know a Jenny and a Jennifer like that.

For some reason about 1984 or so every one who had a girl baby named them Jennifer or Heather. Hate both those names.

 

[MathGirl]

A while back I posted a thread listing several hundred of the wierdest names ever. Suppose I could resurrect that if anyone's interested.
MG
Ps. No matter what your name is and how much you hate it, reading the name "Athole McBean" will make you feel better.

 

[destinie21]

A while back I posted a thread listing several hundred of the wierdest names ever. Suppose I could resurrect that if anyone's interested.
MG
Ps. No matter what your name is and how much you hate it, reading the name "Athole McBean" will make you feel better.

truer words were never typed

my name was no fun as a kid but it's okay now. It was unfair of my parents to give me a 13 letter first name to go with my 7 letter last name. learning to write it was a bitch.
at least I dont have a middle name

 

[Guest]

My father gave me my mother's first name because he loved her so much. But for Mexicans from my father's state the first name was considered sacred, to be spoken only at a baby's baptism, and by God at the final judgment, so I am called by a nickname of my middle name.

My parents are dead so I am known by this name only to three men, my brothers. We don't use our names that often in conversation but when I am called from across a room by one of my brothers I always feel a thrill. Given my age I think about the horror of someday not having anyone to call me by this name.

I do love the name the world knows me as. It's a well known name with a particular image and persona I envy. I like having two real names, both special.

Perdita

p.s. I think because of my own experience a person's name is very special to me. Often I cannot call a lover by name for awhile as it is too intimate for me to say. When I finally can speak his name to him it is thrilling.

 

[SlickTony]

for Mexicans from my father's state the first name was considered sacred, to be spoken only at a baby's baptism, and by God at the final judgment, so I am called by a nickname of my middle name.

That's interesting--I wonder if they believe similarly in the Philippines. I used to work with a girl named Maria Ofelia G-------, who once told me that where she came from, you tended not to get called by your first name, but by your middle name, and in her own country, everyone called her Ofelia. She said it took a lot of getting used to, to answer to the name Maria in America.

 

[Guest]

Tony, it might be a Catholic thing, given the baptismal identity. There are many Filipinos at my workplace who are called by their middle name. However, they continue to use it at work and when mail comes around (labeled via a merge system) new people don't know who they are.

Perdita

 

[jfinn]

Jayne is my middle name, after my mother, and I've always liked it. My first name however was a problem when I was growing up because it was really unusual at the time(late 50's and 60's). I first realized this when Miss Nancy on Romper Room would look through that damned magic mirror and somehow never see me even though I watched every single day and lived perpetually in hope. I was traumatized and it only got worse.

People could never remember it and if they tried they'd either mangle it or give up and call me a name that started with the same first initial, but wasn't even close. Another fairly common response was when introduced, they'd look at me with disbelief and say, "You're kidding?" or "Come on, what's your real name?" Not exactly a confidence booster.

It wasn't until I was in my twenties that started to appreciate having an unusual name and then like Jenny, I suddenly found myself surrounded by a whole generation of toddlers who shared it with me. So now I find that people know it, but they're always surprised that such an old broad has it.



Of course it could be worse. I grew up with a Bobbette (after daddy) and there was Athena, whose mustache was thicker and blacker than any of our eighth grade male colleagues, but still I think that names do have an effect on how you think of yourself. To this day, I'm still surprised when someone I've only met once or twice actually remembers what I'm called.

optional writer query: Have you ever created a character and given them a name they were supposed to hate?

In Amy's Smile, her full name is Gertrude Amelia, and yes, she hates it. I gave her the old-fashioned first name because I wanted to show that she'd always felt different especially in a generation of Jessica's and Melissa's.

Jayne

 

[Guest]

Jayne: Miss Nancy and Romper Room, oh my what memories. She certainly never saw me either. Adjusting my time warp now,

Perdita

 

[jfinn]

Jayne: Miss Nancy and Romper Room, oh my what memories. She certainly never saw me either. Adjusting my time warp now,

Perdita

That and the fact that I was born just a little too late to be a Mousketeer (it was cancelled before I could convince my folks to move to Hollywood) were the big trauma's of my young life. I don't think I've ever fully recovered. *sniff*

Jayne

 

[Guest]

That and the fact that I was born just a little too late to be a Mousketeer... *sniff*

Man, I remember when the MM Club first came on TV, my brothers and I watched it everyday. My classmates said I looked like Annette F., and now I realize how much it meant to have an 'ethnic' looking role model, haha. My parents took us to Disneyland the year it opened, we thought we'd gone to heaven.

nice reminiscing, however painful for you

Perdita

 

[Sabledrake]

I hated my name when I was a kid. Well, at least I hated the nicknames for it that my grandparents stuck me with. Only when Stephen King's wonderfully evil Christine hit the bookstands did I suddenly like my name

Sabledrake

 

[The_Fool]

When I was younger, I wanted a name that was a little more unique, a lot cooler and one where there weren't three of us in a class of 30. I guess now the way I look at it, I give the name meaning rather than the name giving me meaning.


I have never written a story where a character hates their name. I usually don't even have a name in mind when I write a story, sometimes until the very end if at all. I guess I expect the actions to define the character with the name being a convenient method of labeling. Would make for a good story, a person rebels against what he or she is and does a 180 degree turn and assumes a new name because they hate the name they have and the life they have.

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

The "Name Game" that broke out earlier on the "Intimidation" thread got me to wondering how many folks like their name. In my totally subjective, unscientific opinion, it'd be a pretty high precentage, especially among teenage, female-type, women-folk.

Since this is the Author's Hangout, I wouldn't want to start a post with absolutely no reference to scribbling, so here's a optional writer query: Have you ever created a character and given them a name they were supposed to hate?

Rumple Foreskin

1) I think that there is a habit among teenagers, especially teenage females to decide on a new name, or a new form of their old name.
|
2) As far as characters go: I've written a series, not on Lit,
about Bob and Jeanette Brennan. Bob's mother is Katherine;
his sister was christened Kathleen Violet. She was nicknamed
"Kaytoo" for Kate two. And she hated it. She insisted on being "Vi."
Then, when she got to college and nobody knew about
Katherine, she went back to "Kathleen." --
One little subplot in a subthread of the series.

 

[Jenny _S]

Maybe the problem with your name is that it is one of the few things in your entire life you are stuck with from birth to death and have no control over. You parents hang a name on you in a moment of high emotion. You are forever stamped with that moniker, even your tombstone.

Everything else in your life you are responsible for. Your education, your weight, your looks, your profession, your home, etc. If one of these things in your life is unacceptable to you, you have the option of changing it.

But your name is with you forever.

 

[Chicklet]

I'm going to out my boyfriend's name, so no one tell him, okay?

(those're his lips going after my cat in the av)

Jess (my boyfriend) is "Jess." His mom put "Jess" on his birth certificate. Somehow whenever anyone meets him, they tag an "ie" to the end of his name, and he becomes "Jessie." WTF? Every single person calls him Jessie, and it drives him up the wall. Anyone that doesn't call him Jessie usually hears "Jeff." My boyfriend has stopped giving out his real name to restaraunts or anywhere that might call it out. He just says "Jeff" now, to get it over with.

My exboyfriend's name was Kemen. Sounds just like "Kevin" but with an "m" - his mom actually never even thought that if she named her son Kemen he'd be called "Kevin" for the rest of his life. Kemen gave up and just introduced himself as Kevin half the time.

My brother's name is Vaughn. A nice name, not very common. He went away to kindergarten when he was six and came back home and asked my mom a question. "Mom, if people make fun of my name, they're really making fun of you, aren't they?"

-Chicklet

 

[oggbashan]

My parents argued about my RL name. They already had a son and a daughter and for some esoteric reason thought I'd be another daughter.

They had agreed on a girl's name but were split on a boy's name. My mother wanted Geoffrey, my father wanted Charles. While my mother was having contractions she agreed to the compromise name I now have followed by two family names before the surname.

My father registered my birth as soon as the Registrar's Office opened the next morning before my mother could change her mind and start the argument again.

However I shared two initials with my elder brother which causes confusion even now.

I was nicknamed "Ogg" at boarding school. That nickname hasn't been used since 1957 when I acquired a new one which I still have. Since my father's death even the family uses my 1957 nickname so that if someone calls out my real first name I do not recognise it as mine.

It exists on official documents such as my passport and driving licence.

Og

 

[cookiejar]

My mother got my name from a bubblegum pop song she heard when she was 16. She always swore if she had a daughter it would be her name.

I like it...it has a pretty ring to it and when I was little I thought someone had named a song after me...

The weirdest I knew was a lady who had twins on Dec. 24 and named them Merry and Christmas...

 

[MathGirl]

What's in a ..........?

My father was in the Navy with a man named R.B.Trask. Using the Navy system, his name was officially R(only) B(only) Trask. Of course things got screwed up, and his entire service record is that of Trask, Ronly Bonly.
Nomenclaturely,
MG
Ps. My aunt has red hair. She objects when old friends from her childhood still call her "Booger Red." I think that's quite narrow minded of her.
Pps. She's the big one in the AV
<--------------- over there

 

[oggbashan]

One of my relations was an assistant registrar.

She and the registrar spent a lot of effort explaining to proud parents the implications of what their choice of name might do to the child.

Sometimes they were able to get the parents to reconsider but failures were:

A girl given a "normal" girl's first name then the surnames of the 1966 winning England football squad.

A child whose surname was "Shehe" that was given the first name "Pinkie". It was male.

A boy whose surname began with "Pull" given the first names (W)inston (C)hurchill.

A girl given the first names Ann Patricia Ellen. Initially poor.

Og

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I suppose the classic "bad name" story is the woman who claimed to have had a vision while being taken to the delivery room that told her what to name her baby. So the kid winds up with the name, "Nosmo King," since what the mother-to-be had seen was a "No Smoking" sign.

RF

ps: There has been research that showed the grades teachers give on essay question could be effected by the students name. Those with odd monikers, such as Hubert and Adlai tended to get lower scores for the exact same answer than students with common names such as Mike and Tom. RF