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Help[Opinions] That sounds very similar to a book I have
in reply to a message by Momtobetoo
called The Secret Universe of Names: The Dynamic Interplay of Names and Destiny by Roy Feinson. Feinson says he is a member of the American Name Society (Dr. Evans doesn't know him and had not heard of the book, until I asked him).
The book "proposes the idea that words evolve into our language and culture because the very sounds in these words evoke a particular emotional resonance in humans. And that in addition, the very pronunciation of these sounds requires a specific distortion of the speaker's face, which reinforces the emotional response of the listener. Since these visceral reactions stem from deeply imbedded reptilian hardwiring of the human brain, this book further suggests that reactions to these sounds in our own names can affect our self-image and the expectations others have of us...I conducted a study using the initial letters of sixty-three million American first names and compared them to professional lists of successful people in a variety of fields. The results of this study...suggest that there is indeed a link between our names and society's expectations. I am not suggesting that people with the same names will share exactly the same personality characteristics, but this book does conclude with an informal analysis of personality traits for each name, taking into account its component letters and sounds."
[Quoted directly from the book, pages ix and x]
Feison never uses the word "acrophonology," and I had not heard it until your post. He refers to the dominant letter combinations in names (almost exclusively consonants, particularly the first letter of the name) as phonemes. Each phoneme gets one page, including a descriptive nn, three positive and three negative personality traits, and ratings from 1 to 10 in four categories of potential success: Charisma; Career Success; Love & Friendship; and Power. Then there is a multi-paragraph description about the people with names dominated by the particular phoneme, and a list of exemplary names with the phoneme, as well as a brief bio of a famous person with one of the names.
I know this is confusing. By way of illustration, since I don't know your name I'll use my own. The dominant phoneme in Lillian is LL, called "the Life Loving." Personality traits specified are "Relaxed; Strong; Self-assured; Condescending; Overly dramatic; Smug." LL names rate 9 of 10 for Charisma; 9/10 for Career Success; 9/10 for Love & Friendship; and 7/10 for Power. Feinson lists 30 different names with this phoneme, most of which don't have the two Ls together in a row like Lillian does; these include Lael, Leila, Leilani, Lorelei, Lemuel, Lulu and Lyle. Lyle Lovett is offered as an example of a famous person with a LL-phoneme name.
A lot of what the book says about LL people (meaning me) is fairly accurate for myself, and quite a few of my friends say they recognize themselves in the descriptions about their names.
Let me state clearly, btw, that I put no store in Kabbalah, or this guy Feinson, or any other means of divining about a person based on name alone, since our names 99% of the time were chosen by someone else (our parents) who didn't even know us at the time (just before birth) and had their own arbitrary agendas for choosing our names that didn't even involve us (Dad wants all the kids to have Q names, mom wants to honor Uncle Otto).
I recognize that names absolutely affect the way we are perceived by those around us, of that there can be no doubt (Quick, which one is the gang member: Shauntaevion or Henry? Which is the cheerleader: Tiffany or Bertha?). But do they predict who we become? I don't think so. This is just a fun game to play, is all.
~Lillian~
Proud daughter of Ann and John
Proud sister of Lauren and Leah
Proud wife of David
Proud mother of Alexander, Scarlett, Sophia, and Gideon
The book "proposes the idea that words evolve into our language and culture because the very sounds in these words evoke a particular emotional resonance in humans. And that in addition, the very pronunciation of these sounds requires a specific distortion of the speaker's face, which reinforces the emotional response of the listener. Since these visceral reactions stem from deeply imbedded reptilian hardwiring of the human brain, this book further suggests that reactions to these sounds in our own names can affect our self-image and the expectations others have of us...I conducted a study using the initial letters of sixty-three million American first names and compared them to professional lists of successful people in a variety of fields. The results of this study...suggest that there is indeed a link between our names and society's expectations. I am not suggesting that people with the same names will share exactly the same personality characteristics, but this book does conclude with an informal analysis of personality traits for each name, taking into account its component letters and sounds."
[Quoted directly from the book, pages ix and x]
Feison never uses the word "acrophonology," and I had not heard it until your post. He refers to the dominant letter combinations in names (almost exclusively consonants, particularly the first letter of the name) as phonemes. Each phoneme gets one page, including a descriptive nn, three positive and three negative personality traits, and ratings from 1 to 10 in four categories of potential success: Charisma; Career Success; Love & Friendship; and Power. Then there is a multi-paragraph description about the people with names dominated by the particular phoneme, and a list of exemplary names with the phoneme, as well as a brief bio of a famous person with one of the names.
I know this is confusing. By way of illustration, since I don't know your name I'll use my own. The dominant phoneme in Lillian is LL, called "the Life Loving." Personality traits specified are "Relaxed; Strong; Self-assured; Condescending; Overly dramatic; Smug." LL names rate 9 of 10 for Charisma; 9/10 for Career Success; 9/10 for Love & Friendship; and 7/10 for Power. Feinson lists 30 different names with this phoneme, most of which don't have the two Ls together in a row like Lillian does; these include Lael, Leila, Leilani, Lorelei, Lemuel, Lulu and Lyle. Lyle Lovett is offered as an example of a famous person with a LL-phoneme name.
A lot of what the book says about LL people (meaning me) is fairly accurate for myself, and quite a few of my friends say they recognize themselves in the descriptions about their names.
Let me state clearly, btw, that I put no store in Kabbalah, or this guy Feinson, or any other means of divining about a person based on name alone, since our names 99% of the time were chosen by someone else (our parents) who didn't even know us at the time (just before birth) and had their own arbitrary agendas for choosing our names that didn't even involve us (Dad wants all the kids to have Q names, mom wants to honor Uncle Otto).
I recognize that names absolutely affect the way we are perceived by those around us, of that there can be no doubt (Quick, which one is the gang member: Shauntaevion or Henry? Which is the cheerleader: Tiffany or Bertha?). But do they predict who we become? I don't think so. This is just a fun game to play, is all.
~Lillian~
Proud daughter of Ann and John
Proud sister of Lauren and Leah
Proud wife of David
Proud mother of Alexander, Scarlett, Sophia, and Gideon
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Replies
Thank you SO very much for your thoughtful post. I'm off to investigate!
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But a phoneme isn't just any two letters in a name. It's two letters that, when put together, make a specific sound. So the phoneme 'll' makes a 'ull' sound (think puzzle, apple, etc). In English, a S and a H together make the phoneme 'sh.' And so on. There is no 'll' phoneme in Lyle Lovett!
The fact that CK doesn't know this bloke, coupled with the phoneme nonsense he appears to spout, makes me disinclined to trust his book!
The fact that CK doesn't know this bloke, coupled with the phoneme nonsense he appears to spout, makes me disinclined to trust his book!
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My mistake. Lauren, let me restate that, and you may find this very interesting
I think I inadvertantly misrepresented how Feinson refers to these dominant letter groupings. I have to admit I have not read the book cover to cover, and I know I saw the word phoneme a number of times. But as I flip through the book now, specifically looking for that word, it only appears in reference to just the sort of consonant combinations you're refering to, such as S and H.
I just found it on page 61, for example, where Feinson refers to the CH phoneme, though that page is about the CHR consonant group, but he did not call CHR a phoneme. On most pages he doesn't even refer to the consonant combinations as such, but says things like "KL names are undergoing a surge in popularity" [page 218]; "...defines the essense of the TRN personality" [page 393]; and "NDs have the ability to..." [page 291].
Also, he has a great many consonant groups from names in which the consonants are not... how do I say this... not sequentially in contact with each other within the name, understand? For example, on page 367 the consonant group SMR is held up as the dominant force in Seymour and Summer, among others (he lists 7 names for this group). But no two of those three letters touch each other within the names. He does not refer to SMR as a phoneme. Instead he talks about each of the three letters one at a time, and what each contributes to the sound of the name - and the potential personality of the bearer of that name ("SMRs excel in jobs that require hand-eye coordination...").
I'm not a linguist by training, so it was likely my own misinterpretation of that word at fault. I used it in reference to LL where he did not. Sorry. Don't want to mislead anyone about what the man has written.
And Dr. Evans told me that anyone can join ANS without sponsorship; it must have a large membership (I'm curious about joining myself). The fact that Dr. Evans doesn't know Feinson does not bother Dr. Evans (not that he mentioned to me, anyway), nor me, and does not, on its face, automatically disqualify the guy from being legit.
I think I inadvertantly misrepresented how Feinson refers to these dominant letter groupings. I have to admit I have not read the book cover to cover, and I know I saw the word phoneme a number of times. But as I flip through the book now, specifically looking for that word, it only appears in reference to just the sort of consonant combinations you're refering to, such as S and H.
I just found it on page 61, for example, where Feinson refers to the CH phoneme, though that page is about the CHR consonant group, but he did not call CHR a phoneme. On most pages he doesn't even refer to the consonant combinations as such, but says things like "KL names are undergoing a surge in popularity" [page 218]; "...defines the essense of the TRN personality" [page 393]; and "NDs have the ability to..." [page 291].
Also, he has a great many consonant groups from names in which the consonants are not... how do I say this... not sequentially in contact with each other within the name, understand? For example, on page 367 the consonant group SMR is held up as the dominant force in Seymour and Summer, among others (he lists 7 names for this group). But no two of those three letters touch each other within the names. He does not refer to SMR as a phoneme. Instead he talks about each of the three letters one at a time, and what each contributes to the sound of the name - and the potential personality of the bearer of that name ("SMRs excel in jobs that require hand-eye coordination...").
I'm not a linguist by training, so it was likely my own misinterpretation of that word at fault. I used it in reference to LL where he did not. Sorry. Don't want to mislead anyone about what the man has written.
And Dr. Evans told me that anyone can join ANS without sponsorship; it must have a large membership (I'm curious about joining myself). The fact that Dr. Evans doesn't know Feinson does not bother Dr. Evans (not that he mentioned to me, anyway), nor me, and does not, on its face, automatically disqualify the guy from being legit.
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I see. I'm not sure whether a group of three letters can be a phoneme, or if there's a different name for groups of three, I just know that they have to be next to each other to be considered one.
I'm not sure about passive (I can be fairly confrontational!), but the rest of that description for LRN names does sound fairly accurate!
I should also probably apologize for any confusion caused by saying that the 'll' phoneme is in the words apple and puzzle. I've just re-read my original post and realised that that doesn't actually make sense, which may have made my post a bit difficult to understand!
I'm not sure about passive (I can be fairly confrontational!), but the rest of that description for LRN names does sound fairly accurate!
I should also probably apologize for any confusion caused by saying that the 'll' phoneme is in the words apple and puzzle. I've just re-read my original post and realised that that doesn't actually make sense, which may have made my post a bit difficult to understand!
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passive vs. confrontational
Feinson did say that LRNs have titanium backbones! *LOL*
~Lillian~
Proud daughter of Ann and John
Proud sister of Lauren and Leah
Proud wife of David
Proud mother of Alexander, Scarlett, Sophia, and Gideon
Feinson did say that LRNs have titanium backbones! *LOL*
~Lillian~
Proud daughter of Ann and John
Proud sister of Lauren and Leah
Proud wife of David
Proud mother of Alexander, Scarlett, Sophia, and Gideon
1
How do you say Lyle? When I say it, it's very clearly LYE-ull (I'm also a person who pronunces Jewel as JEW-ull--it's a regional thing). So in the right accent, it definitely does have the sound of an ll phoneme. :D
Array
Always remember the Fitz family motto: Believe in yourself, believe in others, and work like hell.
A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having.
Array
Always remember the Fitz family motto: Believe in yourself, believe in others, and work like hell.
A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having.
1