Jocasta

[sugaree024.livejournal.com]

I have loved this name since I read Oedipus last year, but she is the one who happen to marry her own son :( Insest aside, I think it sounds really new, despite its age. I think I like the way it flows-- Cora Jocasta (even though I didn't want it to end with an A!!)

WDYT?

Comments

[arbus.livejournal.com]

how is it pronounced?

[sugaree024.livejournal.com]

juh-CAHST-uh

[arbus.livejournal.com]

i think they sound really nice together, and i dont think the association is too strong. its not like youre using oedipus.

it bothers me when people want to use ophelia on a girl, its a beautiful name, but her story is so tragic, and so well known.

[th3-unicorn.livejournal.com]

it's actually Joe-CAH-stah if you go by the original version.

[th3-unicorn.livejournal.com]

although it makes me want to read it Joe-CAST-ah.

[tryyingtoevolve.livejournal.com]

I think, as a middle name, it would be fine. And truthfully, Oedipus would be too much, but I don't think people would make the same connection with Jocasta.

[perfectcherry.livejournal.com]

I have always liked the name Jocasta. Besides, she didn't know he was her son when they married and did kill herself over it when she discovered the truth.

[th3-unicorn.livejournal.com]

I love Cora, but Jocasta is just too much and doesn't flow, imo.
Too many full o's and ah's.

[doodlbug.livejournal.com]

Agreed about the o's and ah's together.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I read Oedipus in school too, and there Jocasta was spelled as Iocaste (Yo-cahs-teh). I like that better, but I can see the appeal of Jocasta as well.

[euphrosyna]

Yeah, that was how I pronounced it even with the J.

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

Same.

[maniacalapricot.livejournal.com]

Agreed. :)

[waitingonsunday.livejournal.com]

To me, Jocasta the name is inseparable from the Jocasta of mythology. But shoving that thought aside, it's always sounded rather, ah, ethnic to me.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Erm... I think it would be kind of unfortunate to be saddled with a name that has connotations like that. :-\

[duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com]

Second that.

[solagirl.livejournal.com]

Thirded.

This is like giving your child the name Pontius Pilot or Jezebel. There are "unfortunate" character with names that are more common like Cassandra or Juliet, where the negative connotations are not as strong. Jocasta does not fall into this category.

[solagirl.livejournal.com]

Jezebel was a prostitute and the name is used as a synonym for hooker. I think that makes it a pretty bad name for a little girl or a grown woman.

Oedipus Rex is one of my favorite plays as well, but it doesn't automatically make me think the names are acceptable for general use. My familiarity with the plot and characters makes me less inclined to use them.

The other Jezebel, a prostitute mentioned in Revelation 2:20, is the one you're talking about.

[daydream11.livejournal.com]

Actually, the Jezebel people know of wasn't a prostitute at all. She was a Phoenician queen, married to an Isrealite king named Ahab, and basically converted him to her own pagan faith. Jezebel used her husband's power to subject the Isrealites to tyranny, and killed hundreds of prophets whenever they spoke out against her.

Otherwise, I agree with the OP. Regardless of her aversion to incest, it's incest people are going to associate when they hear the name Jocasta. It's pretty enough, but I couldn't use it.

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

Jezebel is much, much worse than Jocasta. Most people haven't read Oedipus, and if they did they probably had to read it at school and I bet a lot of them wouldn't recognize the name.

[solagirl.livejournal.com]

I disagree. I think they have equally negative connotations.

[singhappy02.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

It immediately makes me think of some deranged queen married to her son who gouges her own eyes out with her dress pins (broaches? something pinned to her clothes) and then hangs herself.

I mean...what?

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

Haha, I've always loved the name Laertes! But I first saw it in Hamlet.

[chocklit-frog.livejournal.com]

This is actually at the TOP of my girl's list, has been forever, and it WILL get used someday. I can't even explain exactly why I love it so much... I sincerely hope it doesn't ever get popular (probably won't, hehe) but, actually I've never heard anyone mention this name aside from you!

[krosp.livejournal.com]

I normally don't bother to comment if I don't like a name but in this case I will....

Cora is SUCH a beautiful name!!! I just don't like Jocasta. It doesn't sound like a name, so I feel like it really spoils the beautiful Cora. I had no connotations of it, and I'd never heard it before. I suppose if I heard it a lot it might grow on me, but it just doesn't sound right at all- it sounds more like a last name to me.

[herpickleness.livejournal.com]

I love jocasta innes as a name.

cora jocasta is very pretty. Background aside, I love the sound of it. it rolls off my tongue and is very elegant.