Re: And this is a perfect example of incorrect etymology. nt
in reply to a message by Tampa Sue Fobert
Words have meanings, names often don't. When somebody hears Tampa Sue Fobert, they usually do not think of it as a comprehensible phrase, but they could think of it as a name.
But what names do have is history: examples being previous people who are well known enough to be recalled by the name, happenstances of a name being popular with a particular people at a particular time, and the reasons why the name was chosen by a lot of people, or the particular people who named a particular child. When the reason for chosing the name is primarily other than being a name that was heard, i.e. when a name is being, partly at least, being created, those reasons then constitute the etymology of the name.
The post to which you were responding merely claimed that whatever was meant by `the meaning of the name' in the post that started the thread, whether it was true or false, is not the etymology of the name: those were not the meanings from which the name Tampa Sue Fobert was created. nt meant that the poster said everything in the subject and no text needed to follow.
But what names do have is history: examples being previous people who are well known enough to be recalled by the name, happenstances of a name being popular with a particular people at a particular time, and the reasons why the name was chosen by a lot of people, or the particular people who named a particular child. When the reason for chosing the name is primarily other than being a name that was heard, i.e. when a name is being, partly at least, being created, those reasons then constitute the etymology of the name.
The post to which you were responding merely claimed that whatever was meant by `the meaning of the name' in the post that started the thread, whether it was true or false, is not the etymology of the name: those were not the meanings from which the name Tampa Sue Fobert was created. nt meant that the poster said everything in the subject and no text needed to follow.