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HelpRe: 13 reasons why American naming trends suck
in reply to a message by bananarama
You asked for opinions – so I’ve provided them below – but I’ve also got a question at the end regarding uni-sex names – which you state are the ‘biggest offender’.
Firstly, as noted by others, the names that you’ve listed aren’t ‘virtue’ names; the names that you’ve said a ‘made up’ are actually variants from other cultures or historical epochs (including Allison, which is a variant of Alison, so should by your logic be a misspelling…); nicknames have been used for centuries (with Alex I think having far longer standing than Jenny – which was originally a variant of Jane – so again should be considered ‘made up’ by you….); and word names (be they Princess or Trinity or whatever) are partly how name meanings are created. If you prefer Princess - (which I confess I don’t) - to Sarah – it still means the same thing… (as an aside, I think Trinity is one of the more sophisticated word names to come up in recent times, and is a lot better than other word/virtue names used throughout history (eg. some of the Puritan names from the 16th and 17th centuries, including Humiliation, Lamentation, and Forsaken)
If you only like early 20th century, Anglo-Saxon names, that’s fine, but there should be a logic to why, that doesn’t rely solely on belittling all others… (and yeah, I think if you’re going to be an elitist, judgemental critic of cultural trends – that it would be best to try and pretend to be vaguely more educated than those you’re criticising for their ignorance… )
I do have a question though – re: boy’s names changing to girls names. This has been happening for centuries, and could be seen as a consistent cultural practice, particularly across English and French history. What is the timeframe or characteristics required for people to think these are ‘legitimate’ (hate this word) names – versus an appalling and offensive naming solecism? Just curious.
(edited for typo)
Firstly, as noted by others, the names that you’ve listed aren’t ‘virtue’ names; the names that you’ve said a ‘made up’ are actually variants from other cultures or historical epochs (including Allison, which is a variant of Alison, so should by your logic be a misspelling…); nicknames have been used for centuries (with Alex I think having far longer standing than Jenny – which was originally a variant of Jane – so again should be considered ‘made up’ by you….); and word names (be they Princess or Trinity or whatever) are partly how name meanings are created. If you prefer Princess - (which I confess I don’t) - to Sarah – it still means the same thing… (as an aside, I think Trinity is one of the more sophisticated word names to come up in recent times, and is a lot better than other word/virtue names used throughout history (eg. some of the Puritan names from the 16th and 17th centuries, including Humiliation, Lamentation, and Forsaken)
If you only like early 20th century, Anglo-Saxon names, that’s fine, but there should be a logic to why, that doesn’t rely solely on belittling all others… (and yeah, I think if you’re going to be an elitist, judgemental critic of cultural trends – that it would be best to try and pretend to be vaguely more educated than those you’re criticising for their ignorance… )
I do have a question though – re: boy’s names changing to girls names. This has been happening for centuries, and could be seen as a consistent cultural practice, particularly across English and French history. What is the timeframe or characteristics required for people to think these are ‘legitimate’ (hate this word) names – versus an appalling and offensive naming solecism? Just curious.
(edited for typo)
This message was edited 8/15/2008, 5:06 PM
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