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Help[Opinions] Origins and Meanings that parents insist upon
So I'm sure it's not uncommon to hear about how a parent came up with their kid's name only for it to be vastly different than what is found on BehindTheName. Or for a parent to insist upon a specific meaning for the name, yet that's not what is found on this or any other site. At all.
My younger sister for example; Our father, Richard, wanted to name her after himself. He figured the creative way to do it was to remove two letters and alter one letter by removing/bending its stem depending on what font you were looking at, thus winding up with Chara. I have doubts he even knew it was Greek in origin [according to this site, at least], as his family history is generally Anglo-Saxon.
Of course, I'm not sure about the popularity of the name until a certain video game brought it to light, but the media has that effect on the populous.
How about you? Have you heard clever or unusual ways that parents wound up naming their kids?
My younger sister for example; Our father, Richard, wanted to name her after himself. He figured the creative way to do it was to remove two letters and alter one letter by removing/bending its stem depending on what font you were looking at, thus winding up with Chara. I have doubts he even knew it was Greek in origin [according to this site, at least], as his family history is generally Anglo-Saxon.
Of course, I'm not sure about the popularity of the name until a certain video game brought it to light, but the media has that effect on the populous.
How about you? Have you heard clever or unusual ways that parents wound up naming their kids?
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Replies
I genuinely cannot remember what the exact names were except one (Charlotte)
You know those mugs and other things like hairbands and pens and stuff with names on? Always the most popular names of the era to appeal to the most people?
Well, I distinctly remember in the late 90s / early 2000s when I was a child some of these mugs and things with the names and their "meanings" on them. They likely existed much longer before, but as I was born in 1994 I couldn't tell you any further back
I had one (I'm a Charlotte) and although I cannot remember what the mug said, it was all completely bogus. You could say how could I remember it being bogus if I can't remember what was on the mug, well, my name is from Charles meaning "man" and "man" sure wasn't the description on that mug. It won't bloody sell if it were lmao
It had some elaborate description and a stupid cartoon depiction that I always hated and the word "Wicked" was used, so you truly know it was a 90s product
I remember many of them as a child, all for different names, all of them complete crap... and I remember many people believing them, too
I don't know if it was because most people I knew at the time were children like myself or because this was early days of the internet and people were not into whipping out ye olden baby name book on the fly
I get the feeling that a lot of people took these as face value before the internet was so widely available. I can see people in the 80s truly believing their name - which means "ankle" or something to mean "radical beauty"
Edit: Oh no wait people to this day do something similar. It was a few years ago (like 5 or 6) but I recall at least one website and various people on BtN insisting their.... interpretive description of a name was the "meaning" of the name, rather than it just being their personal opinion of the name. I remember a whole website like that and it was grating
You know those mugs and other things like hairbands and pens and stuff with names on? Always the most popular names of the era to appeal to the most people?
Well, I distinctly remember in the late 90s / early 2000s when I was a child some of these mugs and things with the names and their "meanings" on them. They likely existed much longer before, but as I was born in 1994 I couldn't tell you any further back
I had one (I'm a Charlotte) and although I cannot remember what the mug said, it was all completely bogus. You could say how could I remember it being bogus if I can't remember what was on the mug, well, my name is from Charles meaning "man" and "man" sure wasn't the description on that mug. It won't bloody sell if it were lmao
It had some elaborate description and a stupid cartoon depiction that I always hated and the word "Wicked" was used, so you truly know it was a 90s product
I remember many of them as a child, all for different names, all of them complete crap... and I remember many people believing them, too
I don't know if it was because most people I knew at the time were children like myself or because this was early days of the internet and people were not into whipping out ye olden baby name book on the fly
I get the feeling that a lot of people took these as face value before the internet was so widely available. I can see people in the 80s truly believing their name - which means "ankle" or something to mean "radical beauty"
Edit: Oh no wait people to this day do something similar. It was a few years ago (like 5 or 6) but I recall at least one website and various people on BtN insisting their.... interpretive description of a name was the "meaning" of the name, rather than it just being their personal opinion of the name. I remember a whole website like that and it was grating
This message was edited 9/6/2023, 12:29 AM
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I know parents who named their 4th child Tessa because they insist it means "four" in Greek, which is not true, the greek word for "four" just sounds similar (τέσσερα téssera or τέσσαρες téssares).
It's not quite about meaning, but I know a boy, who's given a pretty unusual spelling (I think, it doesn't even exist), because then the given name spelled backwards would be the last name (kind of like Yerome Emorey).
It's not quite about meaning, but I know a boy, who's given a pretty unusual spelling (I think, it doesn't even exist), because then the given name spelled backwards would be the last name (kind of like Yerome Emorey).
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I have a cousin who named his son Kenley. Kenley is older than most of the trendy named girls that have this name now and obviously his parents didn't see that coming. He was named by combining two important names from each parent. His grandfather Kenneth drowned trying to save his father as a kid when a boat pulled him under in a lake. Even though my uncle Kenneth couldn't swim, he tried to get to his son and drowned. The people on the boat realized what was happening and pulled Kevin (Kenneth's son/Kenley's father) out of the water, but it has always haunted Kevin so he wanted to name his son after his dad. His mom had no brothers and wanted to carry on her maiden name which was Oakley in some way. They combined Kenneth and Oakley and got Kenley. Sadly, Kenley's mom died when he was very young in a helicopter crash. She was a flight nurse. So the name is very important to us and it was really annoying when about 2 years later everyone started naming their daughters Kenley.
It does annoy me though when it's just a downright refusal of the actual etymological origins of the name to something they think is just cuter or was told by someone without doing any research.
It does annoy me though when it's just a downright refusal of the actual etymological origins of the name to something they think is just cuter or was told by someone without doing any research.
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Well, in your sister's case the etymology of Chara IS "invented form created to link with Richard". Just because it has the same spelling as a name with an ancient Greek origin doesn't give it an ancient Greek origin itself. There are many names which have multiple origins which have nothing to do with each other and only end up with the same spelling in the modern alphabet by accident.
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That's very fair! I love seeing how these accidents come about though. ^^
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