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Post by Mari on Feb 6, 2018 9:34:26 GMT
Another thing to look out for here in the Netherlands is the first letters of the official names. You don't want to end up with S.H.I.T. Jones or something like that. My cousin once told me of her friend who named her daughter Victoria Iustitia Prudentia Lastname: V.I.P. Lastname. Since the initials show up everywhere on documents, it's a thing to remember.
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Post by Mari on Feb 6, 2018 9:38:44 GMT
My generation always chose names that were non controversial, which means there were often duplicates at school. I used to be the only Steve at my church but now another Steve has joined and it feels like he is pushing in! Pat is also very common at my church. At one time there were five Pat's. But Henry, my first name, has been fairly uncommon since the 1920s except among royalty. It is making a come back now, though. We had 5 Wim's at school. That was really confusing, expecially for new people. We also had 3 Willem's to make matters more interesting. I had a colleague who, after 5 years, still confused the Willem's with the Wim's. For some people we don't even use their names anymore, only their lettercode (all teachers have a lettercode of 4 letters in the timetables, mine is PAST). So we had (Wim) BINS, Wim W, Wim Mediatheek (library), Wim Pensioen and (Wim) WIBB.
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Post by Alvamiga on Feb 6, 2018 9:39:14 GMT
My middle name is Alvar, which is of Spanish origin. It is my dad's first name, but I don't know why my nan chose it originally. He always used his middle name, as being called Alvar always got odd reactions. I went through years of people finding out at school and all the weird, unanswerable questions that followed.
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Post by Miisa on Feb 6, 2018 10:20:57 GMT
Alvar celebrates his nameday on 24.9 in the Finnish calendar Mari 2.7 Steve and Stephen are not on the calendar, but Stefan is on the Swedish-language Finnish one, and corresponds to Finnish Tapani, which are, of course, on the 26.12
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Post by Elis on Feb 6, 2018 10:54:12 GMT
Steve and Stephen are not on the calendar, but Stefan is on the Swedish-language Finnish one, and corresponds to Finnish Tapani, which are, of course, on the 26.12 Funny, I think there is a Maori version of Stephen which is Tipene, if I don't remember that incorrectly.
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Post by tangent on Feb 6, 2018 10:57:07 GMT
Maori!?
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Post by Elis on Feb 6, 2018 11:13:57 GMT
From New Zealand. I once researched my sister in law's name and found a list of Maori names.
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Post by tangent on Feb 6, 2018 12:41:47 GMT
Oh, I see. Somehow, I can't see this person as a Stephen
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Post by Kye on Feb 6, 2018 12:57:19 GMT
I think I was the only Karla in my small city growing up. My elementary classes were a sea of Donna's, Cathy's, Diane's and Judy's. It was hard on me because I already stood out as the weird kid. Then to add insult to injury a famous serial killer, Karla Homolka, came out of my home area with a name almost identical to mine.
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Post by JoeP on Feb 6, 2018 17:04:48 GMT
Oh, I see. Somehow, I can't see this person as a Stephen Looks like this Stephen with added paint.
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Post by tangent on Feb 6, 2018 17:42:23 GMT
I wouldn't trust either of them
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Post by JoeP on Feb 6, 2018 20:50:03 GMT
Well, of course. No beards.
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Post by Mari on Feb 6, 2018 20:55:52 GMT
Maybe the name Steve just isn't trust worthy in the first place...
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Post by JoeP on Feb 6, 2018 21:00:26 GMT
I'm glad I wasn't the first to raise that point ...
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Post by tangent on Feb 6, 2018 21:11:06 GMT
Hmph.
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Post by Moose on Feb 6, 2018 21:11:55 GMT
Some time ago, the loathsome Katie Hopkins - she of the Nazi views - stated that she would not allow her children to associate with other children who had certain names because they were 'chavvy.' Much though I can't stand the woman and don't like the idea of pigeon holing children, there was something in what she said ... you can, with some names, tell the social class of a person based on the name they choose for their kids (my sister contemplated calling her daughter Demi-Lee, something which made my insides shrivel up and die, but happily she changed her mind eventually).
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Post by Moose on Feb 6, 2018 21:15:30 GMT
Sorry I missed the second page
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Post by tangent on Feb 6, 2018 21:16:26 GMT
(my sister contemplated calling her daughter Demi-Lee, something which made my insides shrivel up and die, but happily she changed her mind eventually). Demijohn would have been slightly more classy.
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Post by Moose on Feb 6, 2018 21:33:11 GMT
Well, it couldn't have been worse.
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Post by spaceflower on Apr 15, 2018 12:54:34 GMT
On a German forum I got involved in a discussion on names. One woman is pregnant and since her and her husband's last name is Finnish, she chose the name Iny for her baby which she said was Finnish. Another woman criticized her very harshly, saying if thhey lived in Germany, a Finnish name wasn't appropriate. Admittedly, I have a strong opinion on the subject since we did not choose German names for our baby, either. We discussed and decided on the names yesterday (like my sisters and I, the baby will have three names) and since the last name isn't German, we thought a German first name would sound a bit odd anyway. This lady implies the child would either be bullied or not be taken seriously if she had a name that ends with y and she claimed that the name should be common in the country where one is living even if the family is not (entirely) from that country. (She also condemned any names which used to be short versions of longer names like Jette instead of Henriette, Lotta instead of Charlotte). What I got from her rather short and pretty cold remarks is that, if you live in Germany, you should give your child a German name, no matter where you (or members of your family) are originally from. To me, that sounds extreme and like people are asked to adapt way too much. Am just interested to know about views in other countries. I have run into lots of kids from very different countries with names that sounded very strange to our ears: from India, Bangladesh, Georgia, Vietnam, Egypt, China... sometimes the names seemed very unfamiliar, but it was always easy to get used to them. And I don't get why people should leave the names they know behind when they move to a different country. I doubt that woman would give her children Chinese names if she ever moved to China. Not that I would consider changing our baby's name, btw. Am just curious because these views seemed awfully narrow-minded to me. Iny, what kind of "Finnish" name is that? Looks like a pet form of Iina. Now here are some Finnish girl's names I prefer: Aii, Kyllikki, Inkeri, Pirjo, Vanamo. Old-fashioned but I like such names. If one parent is Finnish and the other German and the child has a German surname, it would only be fair that she got a Finnish first name. And of course if both are Finnish. To demand that every parent living in Germany must choose German first names, that is too "Gross-Deutsch". Also, one day they might move to Finland or somewhere else. There are many "mixed marriages" nowadays so that the first name has to be of the same origin as the last name is an outdated idea. Many former short forms of names are now used as offiial names. Johan and Hans (short for Johannas), Elsa, Lisa (for Elisabet), Karin, Karina, Katrina (for Katarina). If the name is hard to pronounce or spell, it will be tiring. If it sounds like an unpleasant word, there might be bullying. But generally, children don't tease about names nowadays. If the do, they would have teased about something anyway.
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Post by Miisa on Apr 15, 2018 19:23:48 GMT
In my experience, short names have pet versions that are longer, so Iina would likely become Iinuli or something, I still cannot fathom where Iny might come from.
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Post by spaceflower on Apr 16, 2018 16:24:20 GMT
In my experience, short names have pet versions that are longer, so Iina would likely become Iinuli or something, I still cannot fathom where Iny might come from. Pet names can be longer (Johnny for John), shorter (Alex for Alexander) or neither (Jack for John). But generally in Sweden we prefer two-syllable names so the nick name is mostly two-syllabic, easier to shout. Emma can be called Emmy just b/c the Y at the end sounds more "nicknamish". Maybe the parents used a Finnish name but changed it to something more Anglo-sounding. Maybe they wanted a "unique" name.
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Post by spaceflower on Apr 16, 2018 16:29:26 GMT
My middle name is Alvar, which is of Spanish origin. It is my dad's first name, but I don't know why my nan chose it originally. He always used his middle name, as being called Alvar always got odd reactions. I went through years of people finding out at school and all the weird, unanswerable questions that followed. Alvar is also a Swedish name, rather uncommon. Alv means "elf" and ar comes from a word meaning "warrior". The Spanish form would be Alvaro.
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Post by Alvamiga on Apr 16, 2018 19:22:03 GMT
My middle name is Alvar, which is of Spanish origin. It is my dad's first name, but I don't know why my nan chose it originally. He always used his middle name, as being called Alvar always got odd reactions. I went through years of people finding out at school and all the weird, unanswerable questions that followed. Alvar is also a Swedish name, rather uncommon. Alv means "elf" and ar comes from a word meaning "warrior". The Spanish form would be Alvaro.
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Post by Elis on Apr 24, 2018 7:16:54 GMT
One of my middle names is Marita which seems to be quite uncommon as well. I like it and there was a time when I came close to choosing it as my first name, when I moved away from home.
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Post by Mari on Apr 24, 2018 15:05:41 GMT
Hehe, similar to my name then.
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Post by Shake on May 4, 2018 15:44:53 GMT
I can't see that it's anyone else's business what someone names their own child! I would hope parents chose what is best for their child rather than indulging their own fantasies. Yes and yes. My eldest son is Trayton, named after his great-great-grandfather. Interstingly, my son was born in 2000, his namesake in 1900. We use Tray for short, though it sometimes gets misspelled with an 'e' in the middle, and this is how Mrs. Shake actually sold me on the name. I don't remember where we got Colton from, but I know we knew ahead of time he was a boy, and we were looking for something a little different. The girls are Lauren and Natalie, and the latter would have been Tray's name if he'd been a girl. I'd always liked that or variations of it. I saw someone (Miisa?) mention 'name days' which was something I'd not heard of until we made some Greek friends. One family is full of people named George and Irini, including a set of twins who are in Tray's class (though we joke that he and Irini are the twins as they're alike in many ways). My own full first name, Fredric, was for a great uncle who I never met (that I remember, anyway) and was a nod to my German heritage (a la Friedrich). Though of course, I was never very fond of it and just tell people that the "fred" is silent.
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