Opinions?

[trishy-h.livejournal.com]

First off, I'm not pregnant nor do I plan to be in the near future. But I really like the following names so I thought I'd find out what people thought about them. Second, I'm going for the two middle names thing. Both my sister and I have two middle names and I can't imagine life without them. So I'm sticking to that for my children (if they will ever be born). For the record, I'm not fussy about how the names are thrown together so if you think of another combination that would sound better go right ahead and tell me. Enough rambling:

Girls:
Evangeline Aurora Rose
Gabriella Ripley Reese
Niamh Arwen Beatrix
Miho Eowyn June
Alexis Eunice Karabo

Boys:
Jakob William Toben
Karl Rory Julian
Lenin Eli Benjamin
Alejandro Eomer Joaquin

EDIT:

Perhaps I should have provided some explanation. I identify as socialist so I make a rather large distinction between Lenin & Trotsky and Stalin. Kind of like the way someone would see a difference between George W Bush and Ralph Nader. Also, I prefer Karl to Carl because I think Carl is boring and...surburban I suppose. Same with Jakob/Jacob.

Eunice is my mother's name and Karabo is a Sotho name (here in South Africa). If you're pronouncing it Caribou you're not getting it right. It's pronounced 'Kar-ah-boh' (it's a bit difficult to explain). And yes, I love LOTR but I would never use those names as a first name. Thanks for all the opinions though, some really cracked me up.

Comments

[ewaeva.livejournal.com]

Socialist? Fine. Do you identify as a Communist though? Because that's what people think of when they hear Lenin, and as I'm sure you know, it's different. If you talk to anyone who has lived in such a system you will know.

Even if you do, it's extremely unfair to force your child to bear the very strong mark of your controversial political preferences.

[trishy-h.livejournal.com]

Except I wouldn't really call my politics controversial. I do understand that people would probably get their panties in a bunch over Lenin because of the whole communism=evil thing. So it probably won't make the final selection. Thanks for the input!

[trishy-h.livejournal.com]

Emphasis on 'claimed'. It's not like I plan on naming my kid Stalin and as I said in the edit, I see a gigantic difference between Lenin/Trotsky and Stalin.

Am I right to assume that you don't think communism is evil but what happened in the USSR was evil? Because to me, those are completely different things. What happened in the USSR was absolutely not communism or socialism.

[ewaeva.livejournal.com]

As you can see, it is controversial.

As I said, talking to some people who lived under such a system (or a system that called itself such) - not just read the theory - would show you just how controversial.

I think it's quite insensitive to say that people would "get their panties in a bunch" over this. I'm not talking from a position of American cold war paranoia. My family lived under a system that called itself Marxist-Leninist. A few members of my family - teachers, clergy, ordinary workers - were put in jail for expressing opposing political views. Many people suffered a worse fate. School textbooks fed children outright lies. People disappeared without a trace. This is not paranoia. These are the experiences of my parents.

Some authorities tried to recruit my dad to do "surveillance" at his office for reactionary behaviour (meaning, to spy on his friends). When he refused, his passport was taken away and he was prohibitied from travelling. He had to bribe someone to get it back, pulled many strings, and finally took his family (including me, age 7) out of the country with just a couple of bags. A couple of years later we ended up in Canada to start over.

Sorry for the sob story; if you call yourself a socialist you must know the dark sides of its history already. But honestly, I found your comment about "getting panties in a bunch" and the the "whole communism=evil thing" very flippant and dismissive of the experiences of people who suffered under systems that called themselves Leninist. You can argue all you want that it's a great theory. I agree with that, because I'm a leftie too. But that's not how it played out in real life, and the real life applications of Leninism, including the pain it caused and the lies it forced people to espouse, is what will and should be remembered.

[trishy-h.livejournal.com]

I apologise if my comments appeared flippant or insensitive. That wasn't my intention. My point was that most people don't know what communism actually is before jumping to conclusions, based on the Cold War and the general attitude that communism can only result in fascism. When I hear stories like yours I'm disgusted that the government ever called itself anything close to communist. In the same way that I am disgusted that someone like George W Bush would call himself a Christian. It's just not true. And I'm not at all denying what happened to your family, it disturbs me that something like that went on and still goes on in some parts of the world.

Again, sorry if I offended you.

[ewaeva.livejournal.com]

That's ok. My family is fine :)

Problem is, pretty much ALL the governments that have ever called themselves communist have been similar, to my knowledge. And that's why I think all the figures associated with the theory will be tainted forever in the eyes of most of the world.

[trishy-h.livejournal.com]

I just thought of something else I wanted to say. During the apartheid regime in South Africa the government also claimed that they were Christian. They even called the inferior education system for black people 'Christian National Education'. Lots of churches' official position was that segregation was the Christian thing to do. My point is that governments and other authorities often take on these kind of names to justify their disgusting policies. The same way that the Nazis were supposedly National Socialists. It's a way of manipulating the population into thinking that the government is doing good rather than evil.

[krazyhippie.livejournal.com]

but if they did disgusting things, is it ok to name a child after someone that caused so much pain? pick a nice commie to name it after, lol, so others aren't pained or horrified just hearing the poor child's name.

[trishy-h.livejournal.com]

I don't think Lenin did disgusting things but baby_names is probably not the best place to delve into that can of worms haha. My poor non-existant kid will probably have to deal with all this drama so I'll honour those I believe in differently.

[krazyhippie.livejournal.com]

i'll admit i have no idea lol...i'm in grad school but NOT for history and all i ever took was u.s. history and western civ. i know very little about lenin.