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I can't speak for anyone else, but I wanted to make the point to Rox, that buffering other people's feelings is *not* what I'm doing if I say a name is decent but I hate it. The words "I think" are the acknowledgement that my opinion is just one opinion. "but it's a fine name" is only meant to distinguish my aesthetic response from my opinion of the name as a name.

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Rox's analogy to pears is no good, because an emotional reaction to pears won't imply judgment of whether pears are edible food. That'd be over the top. It's like if I say the Kia Soul is an eyesore, that doesn't imply I think it's not adequate as a car. Of course it's fine as a car, and of course canned pears are food.

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But if I say Braelyn is ugly, that does imply I think it's bad *as a name.* Because we talk about names here as if one of their functions is to make a subjective impression.

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I know I'm taking it too far apart - but I got an impression that Rox was wondering if it's some kind of weasel words to avoid offending people, and I wanted to say it isn't.

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- mirfak