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ArchivesRe: Homophonic Neonyms...
in reply to a message by Sabertooth
Your example is purely hypothetical. I am sure that such names exist. However, it's a bit of a complicated question as to what the complete etymology is when parents choose a name which they know is already commonly used as a given name even when the choice is influenced by other associations they have with the word.
Take Porsche. There have been many girls given this name in the United States the last 25 years. The spelling is obviously taken from the trade name of the automobile. This in turn is from a German surname which is originally derived from the given name Boris.
However, it's doubtful if most parents who've named daughters Porsche would have done that if they had not already known that Portia, pronounced the same way but with a completely different Latin origin, was already used as a girl's name in English. Parents who have no interest in linguistics identify words as being the same solely by their sound, and so may have actually conceived of Porsche and Portia as just being two different spellings for the same name. So when Porsche is used as a girl's name, the total story of its etymology may not be the car, even if parents tell you they were consciously thinking of the brand name as an inspiration for their choice. The prior existence of Portia was also influencing them, and so it's still part of the complete history of the name.
Of course the existence of Porsche and Mercedes itself is what partly inspired other parents to turn Lexus and Camry into names for girls -- they themselves being seen as both short forms of Alexis and Camryn in addition to being automobile brand names.
The full history of a name is often very complex that way. One sentence etymologies often really can't explain the full history of a name -- you need a whole essay sometimes to fully understand this. :)
Take Porsche. There have been many girls given this name in the United States the last 25 years. The spelling is obviously taken from the trade name of the automobile. This in turn is from a German surname which is originally derived from the given name Boris.
However, it's doubtful if most parents who've named daughters Porsche would have done that if they had not already known that Portia, pronounced the same way but with a completely different Latin origin, was already used as a girl's name in English. Parents who have no interest in linguistics identify words as being the same solely by their sound, and so may have actually conceived of Porsche and Portia as just being two different spellings for the same name. So when Porsche is used as a girl's name, the total story of its etymology may not be the car, even if parents tell you they were consciously thinking of the brand name as an inspiration for their choice. The prior existence of Portia was also influencing them, and so it's still part of the complete history of the name.
Of course the existence of Porsche and Mercedes itself is what partly inspired other parents to turn Lexus and Camry into names for girls -- they themselves being seen as both short forms of Alexis and Camryn in addition to being automobile brand names.
The full history of a name is often very complex that way. One sentence etymologies often really can't explain the full history of a name -- you need a whole essay sometimes to fully understand this. :)
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