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Help[Opinions] Re: Purity
in reply to a message by Billina
I don't like the sound of it.
Pyoo.
The meaning is nice abstractly... as a namey idea. Innocent, clean - spiritually.
But my primary and strongest association, on seeing the word Purity used as a name, is with the notion of supposed sexual "purity" that belongs to people with guilty sexual consciences, who frequently have an aggressive dread of the sexuality of others (usually females). So for that reason I get a creepy vibe. I'd have to know the people to really pass judgment, but that's my immediate reaction to seeing it used as a name for a baby. Of either sex but esp. a girl.
Neveah is eh, alright. I like it fine as a real person's name, it works fine, sounds namey, isn't worse than any other invented name.
Abstractly I don't like the idea of "heaven" as a baby-name. I don't get how that is namey. It isn't as creepy as Purity though.
- mirfak
Pyoo.
The meaning is nice abstractly... as a namey idea. Innocent, clean - spiritually.
But my primary and strongest association, on seeing the word Purity used as a name, is with the notion of supposed sexual "purity" that belongs to people with guilty sexual consciences, who frequently have an aggressive dread of the sexuality of others (usually females). So for that reason I get a creepy vibe. I'd have to know the people to really pass judgment, but that's my immediate reaction to seeing it used as a name for a baby. Of either sex but esp. a girl.
Neveah is eh, alright. I like it fine as a real person's name, it works fine, sounds namey, isn't worse than any other invented name.
Abstractly I don't like the idea of "heaven" as a baby-name. I don't get how that is namey. It isn't as creepy as Purity though.
- mirfak
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Replies
Would it make any difference if you knew the parents were Laotian?
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Not massively since I’m guessing they’re in the US? Those aren’t traditional Laotian names that I’m aware of.
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Still not enough info to judge.
I guess I would think maybe it's less likely they'd be aware of, or care about, stereotypes like mine? than if they were white Americans.
But I already am not assuming I know anything about why they chose the names. It's just my own association.
I guess I would think maybe it's less likely they'd be aware of, or care about, stereotypes like mine? than if they were white Americans.
But I already am not assuming I know anything about why they chose the names. It's just my own association.
This message was edited 6/7/2020, 9:33 PM
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Can't speak for Mirfak, but ...
... if they know enough English to knowingly select Nevaeh and Purity for their children, I think I'd be inclined to assume that they knew what they were doing. This does not mean that I like either of the names they chose, but why should I? No doubt they wouldn't like my kids' names either.
I taught two Chinese brothers once who had recently arrived in South Africa from, I think, Hong Kong or maybe Sinagapore, where they'd learnt some English at school. One took the English name of Joe, which he said sounded like his Chinese name - probably Chou I suppose. The other, a remarkably good-looking boy, called himself Fen, which had the kind of glamorous teenage angsty vibe I associate with Heathcliff; when I asked him, he said he'd just flipped through his dictionary looking for a one-syllable name that started with F, and liked the look of Fen. I did consider the consequences if he'd kept looking until he encountered another F word, and was glad that he hadn't, because as his English teacher it would have been my task to explain why that was a bad idea.
... if they know enough English to knowingly select Nevaeh and Purity for their children, I think I'd be inclined to assume that they knew what they were doing. This does not mean that I like either of the names they chose, but why should I? No doubt they wouldn't like my kids' names either.
I taught two Chinese brothers once who had recently arrived in South Africa from, I think, Hong Kong or maybe Sinagapore, where they'd learnt some English at school. One took the English name of Joe, which he said sounded like his Chinese name - probably Chou I suppose. The other, a remarkably good-looking boy, called himself Fen, which had the kind of glamorous teenage angsty vibe I associate with Heathcliff; when I asked him, he said he'd just flipped through his dictionary looking for a one-syllable name that started with F, and liked the look of Fen. I did consider the consequences if he'd kept looking until he encountered another F word, and was glad that he hadn't, because as his English teacher it would have been my task to explain why that was a bad idea.
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My case was different because I taught Chinese students in China, but some of the names they picked were pretty random to say the least. I’ve had Pineapple, Unicorn and a male Susan. A girl my colleague taught called herself Boring because her Chinese name was Bao Ling (so my colleague just called her that). The one student I forced to change names was Fish. I might have been stricter if I were outside of China, or preparing students to go abroad, but since it wasn’t the case I decided this wasn’t a hill I was going to die on.
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haha thanks for the laugh, Anne!
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