name regret

[Wilson Gray]

The video is no longer available.

Amongst the colored, there is no concept of "cool" or "uncool," when
it comes to names. Cf., e.g., names like Dingwall Fleary, Haile [pron.
"Haley"] Selassie Clay, Harry Balls, Giovanni Dennis, Davidica McLain,
Faye Everett, Leondas Rambo, all of them male, the names in no way a
problem for their bearers.

OTOH, some European surnames, like "Hoogstraet," are
side-splittingly-funny, in the 'hood.

WRT the surname, "Bobo," I have cousins bearing that name and have
worked alongside Chicanos so named.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain


On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 3:36 AM, Michael Newman
<michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Michael Newman <michael.newman at QC.CUNY.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: name regret
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That's true of course. The Vietnamese names Dung and Phouc being great =
> examples, although the first is pronounced /d=CA=92=CA=8A=C5=8B/, the =
> spelling being the problem in English. However, there are cultural =
> differences in terms of naming conventions that are not necessarily =
> linguistic confusions and can create difficulties for people bearing =
> names. I met one guy in the DR called Stalin, pronounced of course, =
> /etal=CB=9Ci/ but named after the dictator (I don't know if his brother =
> was Trotsky), and he is not alone there. This tendency to creativity in =
> naming practices as well as a kind of naive desire for names that are =
> icons of power gives rise, I suspect, to the urban legend (I hope) of =
> the baby named "Usnavy," after some passing destroyer or aircraft =
> carrier.=20
>
> On this point, check out this viral video from a few years ago, passed =
> on to me (i should note by some Black students):
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DpCdmiZyyGjQ=20
>
>
>
>
> Michael Newman
> Associate Professor of Linguistics
> Queens College/CUNY
> michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu
>
>
>
> On Oct 14, 2011, at 11:58 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: name regret
>> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
>>=20
>> There is a difference between being "oddly named" when transcending
>> linguistic and/or cultural boundaries (e.g., Bobo would sound OK in =
> some
>> African countries, but would be an absolute taboo in South =
> America--and
>> this is not a hypothetical example!) and the names deliberately picked
>> by parent to be odd. The former is "accidental" oddity (like to
>> apocryphal confusion over Chevy Nova). The latter is not. I once had a
>> student named Euclid Moon. Moon was not his surname--he had NO =
> surname.
>> Of course, this did not stop the registrar or others from using "Moon"
>> as the family name. Two years earlier, I had another student whose =
> given
>> name was Euclid, but he was from Nigeria. Somehow, that did not sound =
> as
>> odd...
>>=20
>> BTW, I don't see what's so odd about Ronald Reagan Jones, especially
>> since he has every opportunity to avoid using his middle name with
>> regularity (Ronald R. Jones may be uncool, but that's because it's so
>> plain). It's no more odd or uncool than name combinations than include
>> George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Payne as First+Middle.
>> "Uncool" is also relative--both individually and temporally. And it's =
> no
>> more dorky to name kids after politicians than naming kids after =
> Madonna
>> or any other entertainer du jour, hockey or basketball teams, dead or
>> living relatives or inanimate objects. Frank Zappa had the right =
> idea...
>> (My sons' middle names are Rembrandt and Jonas with no connection to =
> any
>> living or dead people or fictional characters--no, seriously, not =
> named
>> after THE Rembrandt, no matter what others might think! Their Hebrew
>> names, on the other hand... Let's just say, Trahdyshun!)
>>=20
>> Â  Â  VS-)
>>=20
>> On Oct 14, 2011, at 6:32 PM, Ronald Butters wrote:
>>> What percent regret the dorky name that they gave their children?
>>> (E.g., RONALD REAGAN JONES might cause his parents to have deep
>>> remorse for inflicting such an uncool name on one who grew up to be a
>>> trendy professor of literature at Yale.)
>>=20
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