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HelpRe: English names with unfortunate meanings
in reply to a message by erb816
I've never seen the problem with Claudius/Claude, Malory and Cecil. They have acquired other meanings over the centuries, and in the case of Claudius and Cecil, the Romans themselves weren't bothered, so why should we be? The important meanings are the current ones; I hesitate to refer to Victorian society as having pop culture, but that's what I mean. The name of a current criminal, an unpopular politician, the villain in a popular novel or play ... try some of the bad guys in Dickens, like Uriah.
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I'm just getting to the replies now - and thank you for this post, because it raised good points. The character in question would've been born in the early 1870s, and David Copperfield would've come out 20 years before, so Uriah would make sense in that respect However, I'm thinking the character's mother would actually have similarities to Uriah Heap and his mother, so not only might it be too on-the-nose but the mother (who hates her son's existence) might not choose it herself, since she made her choice out of bitterness.
Thinking about Victorian literature, outside of Dickens, got me thinking about Moby Dick and Captain Ahab. The whale took his leg off, so he is single-mindedly pursuing the white whale to its end, a fanatic at the end. And then that got me thinking about the Biblical Ahab, an emasculated king who let his "ungodly" queen lead Israel (at least, that's how conservative Christianity seems to regard the situation). So I'm wondering if it would be best to choose the name of an unfortunate Biblical character.
Thinking about Victorian literature, outside of Dickens, got me thinking about Moby Dick and Captain Ahab. The whale took his leg off, so he is single-mindedly pursuing the white whale to its end, a fanatic at the end. And then that got me thinking about the Biblical Ahab, an emasculated king who let his "ungodly" queen lead Israel (at least, that's how conservative Christianity seems to regard the situation). So I'm wondering if it would be best to choose the name of an unfortunate Biblical character.
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It could work in two ways. Familiar to Victorian people, certainly; and also some people really used to just open their family Bible at random and use the first name they found of the right gender. Which might have been on Melville's mind too ...
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Agree
Victorian education focused a lot on Shakespeare and the Classics, so Nero or Claudius would be a good choice.
I imagine it would be very frustrating to be named Jack at one point. Depends when in "the Victorian" times you're looking at, it was a long period.
Victorian education focused a lot on Shakespeare and the Classics, so Nero or Claudius would be a good choice.
I imagine it would be very frustrating to be named Jack at one point. Depends when in "the Victorian" times you're looking at, it was a long period.
This message was edited 7/31/2020, 7:08 AM
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True, except that you would have been nicknamed Jack rather than named it: the chances were overwhelming, anyway.
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