LogFAQs > #904579834

ParanoidObsessive posted...

It's sort of similar to how personal names work. We're so used to hearing specific names AS names, we've completely divorced them from the original meanings (especially if those meanings are derived from languages other than English). We can think it's funny when people in Asia or Native Americans have names like "Fall Breeze" or "Sitting Bull", but we don't think about the fact that those are translated versions of their names (and, for instance, in his own language Sitting Bull's name was actually Tatanka Iyotake).

And personal naming conventions is another subject I've often thought about. Especially because fantasy novels go out of their way to be more complex with things whereas the actual historic people would both go pretty basic (other than variant spellings -- when the names were written at all -- due to a non-standardized language) and fairly common.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

People name their kids after stuff in the Bible or characters from other stories or shows they saw on TV or just because they know someone else with the name, but without realizing that Nathaniel means "God has given" or that Ethan means "steadfast" or Alexander means "Defender of Men".

Even the sort of assholes who want to name their kid "Sephiroth" don't realize that's a reference to Hebrew occultism, and means "emanations".

Which makes you appreciate the people who *do* understand the meanings all the more, such as Irving's choice to name his cowardly schoolmaster Ichabod.
---

(\/)(\/)|-|
There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.