Unusual (first) names (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

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Anyone interested in unusual names should see the list of American
Indian names I posted last year:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0712A&L=ADS-L&P=R11898
&I=-3&m=72854

I haven't figured out if these terms weren't taboo in Indian culture, if
they were but were given by Indians to people with intent of mocking
them, or if they were transcribed by white people with the intent of
mocking them.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Joel S. Berson
> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:22 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Unusual (first) names
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Unusual (first) names
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> Re the Salon article:
>
> 1)  One could go further back, to the "unusual" names given
> to their children by New England Puritans -- clearly a naming
> freedom assumed not by African-Americans but by WASPs.  Just
> as one example, Wait Still (some render it as Waitstill)
> Winthrop, of *the* Winthrop family.
>
> 2)  I would bet that there was ridicule in the 18th century
> of the "unusual" names given to black slaves  -- not, of
> course, by their mothers but by their mothers' owners.  (I
> mean explicit, expressed ridicule, beyond that implied simply
> by the choice of the name, such as the "Caesar" example of
> the Salon article.) But I don't remember seeing such myself,
> and perhaps the literature of the period is too scanty.
>
> Joel
>
> At 8/27/2008 12:31 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> >On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 4:39 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
> ><bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 4:34 PM, Charles Doyle
> <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Accounts of the unfortunate naming of young Shithead abound in
> > (and from) countless
> > > > locales (all of them also "absolutely true")--along with the
> > naming of the twin girls
> > > > Lemonjello [l@ 'man j@ lo] and Orangejello, and the lad Nosmo
> > King (from a sign glimpsed
> > > > in the hospital maternity ward). The jokes often have a racist
> > component--perhaps an
> > > > unintended tribute the greater freedom in African American
> > naming practices.
> > >
> > > http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp
> >
> >Further discussion here:
> >
> >http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/08/25/creative_black_na
> mes/print.
> >html
> >
> >
> >--Ben Zimmer
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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