(no subject)

[mmmrorschach.livejournal.com]

I just saw Pulp Fiction for the first time a few days ago. (I know, where have I been all my life?) This scene seemed somewhat relevant to this community's interests.

BUTCH: …Esmarelda Villalobos -- is that Mexican?
ESMARELDA: The name is Spanish, but I'm Columbian.
BUTCH: It's a very pretty name.
ESMARELDA: It means "Esmarelda of the wolves."
BUTCH: That's one hell of a name you got there, sister.
ESMARELDA: Thank you. And what is your name?
BUTCH: Butch.
ESMARELDA: Butch. What does it mean?
BUTCH: I'm an American, our names don't mean shit.

Is that right? I know most names probably used to mean something in some language nobody cares about anymore, but nowadays Bruce just means Bruce, John just means John, and Zennifer just means I get to laugh at you.

So, in other languages do a higher proportion of names mean something, you know, like, literally? In other countries, if you can't think of a name can you rifle through the dictionary real quick and come up with something decent? I think the only guideline is that you have to pick an abstract concept. You can't name your kid Box Cutter or anything like that.

Generally, I don't like names like Faith, Destiny, or Perseverance. I think they might be a little too straightforward or presumptuous, but some of them can work well, maybe, maybe not, I don't know.

Comments

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Excuse me, I'm planning to name my son Box Cutter, but I'm spelling it 'Boxxe Kuttyr'.

[politicking.livejournal.com]

well, mine is going to be Boyxe Kuteyr.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Butch is way wrong. Apart from anything else, it means 'butch' - exaggeratedly masculine, stereotypically male.

Most names mean something, apart from the Zennifers of the world, it's just that the majority of people don't bother finding out what they are before using them. If they did we'd have fewer people named Cameron (crooked nose), Madison (son of Maud), Chandler (candle-maker), and so on.

[eleanorgrace.livejournal.com]

And probably more Eleanors (light, a derivation of Helen)! I always liked the meaning of my name. Too bad for all the Camerons who can't say the same.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I always thought Eleanor was actually just the name of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and made up to distinguish her from her mother, something about Alia-aenor, 'the other Aenor'.

[spikes-sexkitty.livejournal.com]

i'd like to think so. Prime example of what i mean:

when i found out Gweneth Paltrow and hubby had named their daughter 'apple' - i felt so bad for the baby! i mean, the idea behind it was cute; "apple of my eye" adn all that. but C'MON! couldn't they have chosen another language to name her in?

spanish - manzana
french - pomme
italian - mela
german - Apfel
norwegian - eple

seriously... i prefer the italian and norwegian.

[qalanjo.livejournal.com]

LOL if they had chosen Manzana... :D

Other cute-ish-sounding Apple words:

Omena (Finnish)
Milon (Greek)
Elma (Turkish)
Alma (Azeri, Hungarian, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Tatar, Turkmen, Uighur)
Malum (Latin)
Alim (Mongolian)
Belasana (Navajo)
Maça (Portuguese)

[qalanjo.livejournal.com]

I can think of several languages that use names that are everyday words converted into names via attaching cute-sounding compound words or other suffixes reserved for making names.

For example, in Georgian, the word for "sun" is mze. Some feminine names made out of that word are Mzeona (kind of like "Little Sunny"), Mzistvala (Sun's + Eye = Eye of the sun), Mzetamze (The Sun's Sun), Pirimzisa (Mouth + Sun's = Sun's mouth).

The word "saqvareli" means cute/precious and has been converted into a name: Saqvarela. "Tetri" means "white", and has been made into a name - Tetrua. "Khat'va" means "to paint" - Khat'ia is a name that means "painting."

One that strikes me funny is the name Nugesha. "Nu geshinia" means "don't be scared" in Georgian, so they kind of slurred the phrase together to make a nice name that gives a connotation of "hope."

Turkish, Persian, Armenian names do the same. Probably lots of other languages that I can't think of off the top of my head too.

English is too messy and has too many old foreign borrowings for the average person to be able to determine what their English names mean. Probably back in the day when the names were coined, they were all everyday words (+ name prefixes or suffixes) such as the above.