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Re: Older submitted names
in reply to a message by LMS
It stood out to me immediately because I spent a big chunk of my childhood at the Oriental Institute in Chicago with my mom while she worked on her Art History (ancient middle eastern specifically) degree. She instilled her love of ancient Egypt in me especially and I grew up reading all I could on it. It's one of my favorite time periods.But here's a list explaining just all the reasons why:1. It says the usage is "Ancient Egyptian, Egyptian Mythology, Arabic" but there is no Ahnkara that is in usage in ancient Egypt or Egyptian mythology2. It gives the name 'meaning' using the Sumerian meaning of An (heaven/sky), and the Italian meaning of Kara (beloved), that alone should give away the fact it's inaccurate. 3. There is a city called Ankara, but it's a city in Turkey originally founded by the Hattians-- again, nothing to do with Egypt or Arabic. 4. The word itself, Ankara, is a modified version of Áγκυρα or Ànkyra, which means 'anchor' in Greek.5. If the name were an Egyptian name, the 'Ahnk' part would be 'ankh', which is very well known ancient Egyptian hieroglyph that means 'life'. If Ahnkara were derived from an actual ancient Egyptian name, the meaning would have something to do with life. If the whole name was actually ancient Egyptian, it'd probably mean something like ankh - life, aw - long or ahw - pain, ra - day/sunBut, again, there's no results showing this in any form as an ancient Egyptian name. 6. googling 'ancient Egypt' and various spellings of the Ahnkara return, literally, no relevant results, again another dead giveaway.7. googling Ahnkara itself doesn't show usage as a name, outside of a name for avatars in rpgs & mmos, and it's show as a vocabulary term in Indian Vedic traditions (http://www.harekrsna.de/artikel/Brahma-Samhita-Complete.pdf):
QuoteMaterial bodies and minds are subjected to a huge variety of objective and subjective discomfitures, unpleasantries, and abject sufferings within the material world. Viewed philosophically, embodied person hood, false-self (ahnkara), is, to a greater or lesser degree, innately a condition of suffering.

I'm sure there's a possibility it's been used as a name somewhere, in some form (it is a well known ancient city after all), but it's usage and meaning are completely incorrect and there's no outright proof to be found of it used as a name. I've seen a lot of names with submission dates from years ago from before we had the form we have now, and a lot of them have similarly questionable usage and meanings. There's a lot of them though, which is why I was thinking a 'report' or 'dispute' button would be useful to the editors and the site. (this is also why when I submit a name, I submit as much proof of it as a name as I can).
My PNL = http://www.behindthename.com/pnl/37275Top: Henry & Lara (main) / Caspian & Briar (GP) / James & Georgiana (top25)
Bottom: Randall & Memphis (main) / Dinadan & Melpomene (GP) / Corvo & Ourania (top25)

This message was edited 4/23/2014, 12:01 PM

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Yah, thats a significant amount of information to dispute it. I can delete it. Mike C would have to get to you about the "dispute" option, however.
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OK, cool :) Do you think I should message him with the idea? I thought he might see the post, but maybe not?
eta: just realized my initial response to you sounds kinda bitchy and I honestly didn't mean it to. I was just trying to explain myself as clearly as I could and it came off patronizing. Apologies!
eta 2: some other examples for which a report button would be useful would be some of the Tolkien submitted names (such as http://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/beren). Obviously submitted before editors, because it contains a wall of text essay lol Actually, here are further examples, from the Literature tag. Some are likely not names, some are missing info, some have incorrect info, etc And these are just the ones that popped out at me on a quick skim through the tag, there might be more. Most of these were submitted years and years ago.http://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/cassady - made up meaning, Cassady is a variant of Cassidy which does not mean 'clever'http://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/daegana - made up meaning, other forms a stretch (google returned a few results for people named Degona or with the surname Degona, but there's nothing to suggest its a form a Daegana)http://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/eru - has absolutely no informationhttp://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/jen - this one has its info in the wrong spothttp://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/jeod - no infohttp://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/jesehka - no info, google returns the only literature result as some random Camp Rock fanfic

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This message was edited 4/24/2014, 6:36 PM

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Oh, no worries. I didn't take it that way at all.If you want Mike C to see it, maybe just change your heading to "Attn: Mike C" or something. I don't know that he goes through every post except maybe those on the Administrators board. I think a flag button could be a good idea as long as there is a way to search for the flagged names and the person leaves an indication as to why its flagged. ETA: I am starting to fix some you posted. Also, just because a name doesn't have info doesn't mean it isn't real it just means no one has added it yet. If you have info on it you can resubmit. I did find information for some you posted.

This message was edited 4/25/2014, 1:50 AM

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Yeah, I mostly just found it weird that there would be no info for names on the Literature tag-- like why wouldn't they have said what book or game or movie or whatever it's from, you know? Like, a name under, say, Basque or French or Jamaican Patois, without info would be fine I think, but a name from Literature or Theater or Pop Culture, etc should have info on where it's from (especially since those would be the tags in which someone would submit a name they made up for a character in some random fanfic and which isn't seen anywhere else).I'll change the heading to Attn: Mike C per your suggestion, thanks :)
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The Vedic word is actually ahaMkAra: quadrisyllabic with original stress on the second syllable. All the a's however are short schwa's, the A is an open long (like in English car). The M is a nasal, which in this context is pronounced like in the English ng. Ahnkara is a pretty unusual spelling for it.The word derives from the pronoun ahaM, cognate with and meaning I and the root kR, cognate with Lain creo, to do or make. It means knowledge of the individuality of the self, egotism, coceit, pride or haughtiness. It is the common word for some of these senses in many North Indian languages today, but it is too strong a word (either positively or negatively depending on the language) to be common as a name. In fact, I have never heard it as a name, real or fictional, except as a personification.
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