[Opinions] Oswald
in reply to a message by New_Chloe
Is quite loaded with associations.
For all the good associations, you have Lee Harvey Oswald, and, moreso here in the UK, Oswald Moseley. Moseley was a fascist, an unpleasant person in his personal life, and not a nice fellow.
I've come across/heard of a couple of younger Oswalds/people who considered naming their children Oswald (especially in a town near me which has got very much on board with the weird-recent-middle/upper-class-quiet-UKIP-following of the last few years, and does seem a haven for closet bigots). Without exception, they've all been fascist/UKIP/BNP/Daily-Malicious-reading/bigoted/prejudiced-type families, if relatively reticent about it. The mother of a young Oswald was recently in our weekly paper's name'em-and-shame'em court proceedings sum-up for GBH against a Muslim teacher at her son's school. My friend works at that school and I know the mother. She is not a nice lady. In our area that kind of thing is very rare and does make local news.
Ultimately, it's a name I've always associated with fascism, and which has been associated with British fascism since Moseley's day. I don't think it's an obscure association either. Most uses of the name seem to be for rather than despite of.
So yeah, I hate the association and I do think it's going to attract judgement. I'd judge it in real life. As a name, I really don't like the sound of it either. I think it's in the phlegmy-snotty dorky category, along with Dwayne and Rupert and Wayne and Wallace and so forth. Ew.
Ruby does not appeal to me. It's a little moll-ish. It's not awful, but I do think it wouldn't be out of place in some terrible Sin-City-like film.
For all the good associations, you have Lee Harvey Oswald, and, moreso here in the UK, Oswald Moseley. Moseley was a fascist, an unpleasant person in his personal life, and not a nice fellow.
I've come across/heard of a couple of younger Oswalds/people who considered naming their children Oswald (especially in a town near me which has got very much on board with the weird-recent-middle/upper-class-quiet-UKIP-following of the last few years, and does seem a haven for closet bigots). Without exception, they've all been fascist/UKIP/BNP/Daily-Malicious-reading/bigoted/prejudiced-type families, if relatively reticent about it. The mother of a young Oswald was recently in our weekly paper's name'em-and-shame'em court proceedings sum-up for GBH against a Muslim teacher at her son's school. My friend works at that school and I know the mother. She is not a nice lady. In our area that kind of thing is very rare and does make local news.
Ultimately, it's a name I've always associated with fascism, and which has been associated with British fascism since Moseley's day. I don't think it's an obscure association either. Most uses of the name seem to be for rather than despite of.
So yeah, I hate the association and I do think it's going to attract judgement. I'd judge it in real life. As a name, I really don't like the sound of it either. I think it's in the phlegmy-snotty dorky category, along with Dwayne and Rupert and Wayne and Wallace and so forth. Ew.
Ruby does not appeal to me. It's a little moll-ish. It's not awful, but I do think it wouldn't be out of place in some terrible Sin-City-like film.
This message was edited 3/15/2014, 1:09 PM