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In bygone days one's family name often described one's occupation, and those names are still with us, though their meaning is lost on most. In some cultures one's given name describes a positive characteristic. Why is it that we've forgotten the meaning and seem to go for the sound alone? And why are names now cyclically "trendy?"

The only descriptive name I can think of in current use is that of Angelina Jolie Voight, who, thanks to not liking her father, has dropped her family name and calls herself Angelina Pretty. (Jolie is "pretty" in French.) As for being a "little angel," - well - who knows!


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
 
Posts: 6187 | Location: Muncie, IndianaReply With QuoteReport This Post
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Names can be and still are descriptive. There is a woman on my street named Ima Hore. She dislikes the name but everyone else thinks it most apt.
 
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Then there is the well-known urologist Dr Cockburn. Disappointingly. he pronounces his name Co-burn.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
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When I was in the Army, we had an inept officer named Cherkhov. He insisted it was SHIRT-cuff but we pronounced it JERKoff.
 
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I had a dentist named Les Plack, his real name and he is sadly retired.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
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This was in the "Untranslatable Foreign Words" forum, where it doesn't fit, so I've moved the thread to a better home.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
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Well, shucks, arnie, I figured that since most folks don't know what their names mean, that makes them foreign.


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
 
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Then there was Ima Hogg of Texas fame (1882-1975), who (a) never had a sister named Ura, (2)was never fat and (3)did not hog her wealth but gave it away by the truckload.

Wiki says she was named after a character in an epic poem written by her uncle (self-published no doubt).
 
Posts: 2605 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Maybe she was the source of the saying, "hog heaven?"


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
 
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Here is a Word a Day on the subject of surnames.
 
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