name regret

Sat Oct 15 11:11:08 UTC 2011

I checked the vid. It's there.
Michael Newman
Associate Professor of Linguistics
Queens College/CUNY
michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu

On Oct 15, 2011, at 10:28 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: name regret
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
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>> 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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