Message: "Clowie" - Behind the Name

Clowie

by m4yb3_daijirou

8/26/2015, 2:10 PM

This came up in a death announcement in my local newspaper back in June (she was in her 90s when she died).

WDYT?

My PNL: http://www.behindthename.com/pnl/149249
My blog: https://maybeitisdaijirou.wordpress.com

#Clowie

Replies

- number1212

8/27/2015, 10:29 AM

My guess is that her parents heard the name Chloe and didn't know how it was spelt.

- insane romantic

8/27/2015, 7:27 AM

I guess it's Chloe, but I don't pronounce Chloe with a "W" sound. I want to say this clow-ee with the first syllable like clown or cloud. Dislike

- Anneza, nsi (guest)

8/27/2015, 1:03 AM

Makes me wonder who couldn't spell - the parents, or the person who wrote out the birth certificate.

- Elec Fan (guest)

8/26/2015, 3:51 PM

First I misread it as Clownie, then I spent awhile trying to pronounce it. "CLOW-ee? Like Howie? What kind of name--?" Took me awhile to realize that it's likely a bastardized version of Chloe. Can't say I'm a fan, as it makes me think of monster clown brownies with claws.

- Llewella (penguiny7) +4

8/26/2015, 3:46 PM

My first assumption is her parents wanted to name her Chloe but had no idea how to spell it. But even having heard of the name Chloe 90+ years ago seems slim. Perhaps it's pronounced to rhyme with cow, and is some sort of random made up nickname from her family. You get things like that back in the day, I've particularly come across them from people born in the mid-late 1800s.

No matter which it is or what it is, I'm not a big fan. It does remind me a lot of "clown" to look at it.

- Rose-Berry

8/30/2015, 12:52 PM

I might be wrong but I think there is a Chloe mentioned in the Bible (New Testament) so I can imagine maybe the parents heard it in church but perhaps they weren't very literate and didn't know how to spell it. Or perhaps they thought their way made more sense!

It does look like it should rhyme with cow though.

- Ottilie +2

8/26/2015, 6:51 PM

I thought the same thing, but Chloe was in the charts from 1880 until 1943. I think misspellings like this are quite endearing.

This message was edited 8/26/2015, 6:51 PM

- Llewella (penguiny7) +1

8/27/2015, 4:33 AM

That surprises me to know! I didn't check its popularity first.

- Moirrey

8/27/2015, 8:01 AM

I went and looked it up after reading your post too and was very surprised. Who knew Chloe was such a classic?

- RoxStar

8/26/2015, 2:35 PM

To be honest, though Chloe is quite popular now, this mangling seems less a tryndee kre8yv spelling than a product of the lower literacy rate a century ago.

- spacealien

8/26/2015, 2:28 PM

It reminds me of that old show Card Captors... "The secret of the Clow, an ancient mystery!"

I prefer Chloe.

This message was edited 8/26/2015, 2:29 PM

- Puck (BBH)

8/26/2015, 2:27 PM

It looks like someone doesn't know how to spell Chloe. What else can be said about Clowie?

- Argentina

8/26/2015, 2:20 PM

Is it supposed to be pronounced like Chloe?
If I didn't know it was a 90 year-old, I would have thought someone had tried really hard to put a spin on Chloe recently.
I don't like it at all, it looks like Clown. The sound is not too bad, though.

This message was edited 8/26/2015, 2:21 PM

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