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Re: THAT'S why it's a GP?
1. Addison's is not a degenerative disease. It is an endocrine disruption that can be corrected with hormonal therapy. People with Addison's live long and healthy lives. There is nothing remotely degenerative about it, so I don't think this argument really hold much water.2. The factor that adrenal insufficiency happens to have the eponym of "Addison" does not mean it's not a suitable name. The disease was named for a person whose surname happened to be Addison, so the name is a surname, not just the name of a medical condition. Use of a name as a medical eponym does not exclude it from use. Would you not name your child William because there's a Williams syndrome? Edward? Leigh? Marie? Take a look at the list of eponymous disease: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_diseases. Are all these names excluded from the pool of usable names because the refer to medical conditions? I understand what you're trying to get at by comparing using Addison to using Alzheimer, but I really don't think the two compare. Here are a few reasons:
a. Most people have never heard the name Alzheimer except in reference to the disease. Addison, while not a super-common surname (at least in the US), is familiar to most people. Furthermore, German surnames are not generally used as first names. While, of course, you could use a German surname as a FN, if you look at the surname names that are popular, most are coming from the English, Scottish, or Irish pool.
b. Everyone has heard of Alzheimer's disease. Addison's is much less common, and likely fewer people have heard of it, or if they have heard of it, they don't necessarily immediately think of it when they hear the name Addison. Alzheimer is so very common that the name is very tightly tied to the disease. I don't immediately think of Edwards syndrome when I hear the name Edward, because that name is not so tightly tied to the disease. If you asked the average person what they think of when they hear the word "Addison," few would answer "adrenal insufficiency," but if you asked the average person what they think of when they hear "Alzheimer," everyone would say "degenerative [and yes, this is actually a degenerative disease] brain disease of the elderly" (or something thereabouts).
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You make some very good points.Personally, I was familiar with Addison's long before I heard of people naming their daughters Addison [I live in Australia, it's not as popular here] and thus find it hard to accept it as a name, especially with the '-son' ending, which I particularly dislike.
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