Quick Question

[flufflenecharka.livejournal.com]

The great debate between my sister in law and my brother: is Erdene (pronounced Erdeen) too much of a country redneck name to be used nowadays? Ironically enough it comes from several generations back on my sister in law's Mongolian half of the family. It's the word for 'jewel' in Mongolian. My sister in law's great grandmother was named Erdene, so she really wants to name her daughter that. My brother thinks that it sounds redneck.

Your thoughts?

Comments

[iftherainstops.livejournal.com]

It sounds very country to me. Reminds me of Jolene :)

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

It's the Er part that rubs me the wrong way.
Could it be spelled Irdene?

[flufflenecharka.livejournal.com]

Theoretically, yes. Erdene's just the more traditional way of spelling it.

I'm curious - why does the 'er' versus 'ir' make a difference?

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

I don't know. No rational reason.
'Ir' seems more exotic to me. 'Er' reminds me of names like Ernie.

[sal_amanda]

I think I have to agree.

[autopsycorpses.livejournal.com]

HYUCK!

Yup. Growing up in the back woods myself, Lurlene, Darlene, Erleen, Olean, Geroldine... basically anything that ends with a lene or deen sound is going to come off hick-ish, even if she is the most fashionable sophisticated lady on the block.

[a-tergo-lupi.livejournal.com]

I think as long as you squish the pronunciation a bit to make sure it isn't pronounced urr-deeen, you'll be good.

[la-jolie-vie.livejournal.com]

It does seem very redneck.

[arrien.livejournal.com]

it sounds totally redneck to me. I don't like it at all.

[arrien.livejournal.com]

what about a variation of it (so it doesn't sound so harsh) like Eridina so it's more three syllables instead of two?

[arrien.livejournal.com]

Um I meant four. not three. ha

[pleasure-past.livejournal.com]

It sounds very country to me, too, but I'm not closed off to the possibility that that's because reading this post made me make that connection.

[also-warriors.livejournal.com]

Yup. By the end of the post, I was reading it with a thick Southern accent and could see where the poster was coming from, while when I saw just the name I read it with my normal Northern accent and thought it was just fine. A spelling change might help if you want a specific pronunciation (Irdene).

There's a lot of classism and regionalist bullshit here. If she likes the name, she should use it.

[hyperbolepanda.livejournal.com]

I think that to most people who don't know anything about Mongolian names it's going to sound a little hill billy. Just my opinion, though.

(For reference, I am from Oklahoma. A good portion of my family is from Arkansas. We have a lot of hill billy names floating around.)

[frost.livejournal.com]

It sounds country, yes...

[sweetest-asylum.livejournal.com]

is does sound a bit country. just avoid jo, bobby, sue etc. for the middle name. use something 2 syllable and "sophisticated"