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Original poster

To not understand why people call their baby...

570 replies

smellfunny · 15/01/2018 08:20

Not to be goady, but I don't understand why people give their babies names with negative connotations or meanings. Examples from the top of my head being:

Cain (murdered his brother in Old Testament)
Hector (hector also being a synonym for bullying someone)
Tristan (this one is a bit contentious because it can either mean 'tumult' or correspond to 'sadness')

Is it just that people don't think about the meanings behind the names? Feel free to add more names to the list...

Bonus name: 'Claudia' coming from the Latin word for 'lame'. I gave this one a pass because it's so established and the connotation is generally unknown...

OP posts:
Fink · 15/01/2018 13:53

You can choose your meanings
Sounds like something President Trump would say

I thought that too. As though etymology were a matter of opinion! Hmm

MonumentalAlabaster · 15/01/2018 13:58

Yes Fink haven't you heard of Alternative Etymological Facts? Grin

RhiannonOHara · 15/01/2018 13:58

Helen was also abducted and kept against her will, so you can view the name in more than one way.

It's the case with a lot of these names that people are taking exception to: Hector is a hero as well as the word connoting bullying; Persephone was abducted and a part-time prisoner, but also connotes spring, hope, new life and maternal devotion; Ophelia runs mad and is driven to suicide, but has been until then a loving, passionate, articulate and beloved young woman...

Fink · 15/01/2018 14:05

Actually, Alabaster, although I was about to reply facetiously, I then remembered My Big Fat Greek Wedding where the dad proves that kimono is a Greek word! Maybe it's really a thing. Grin

flirtygirl · 15/01/2018 14:07

Lilith is not the first wife of adam but from jewish mythology in first century and embellished in the 3rd and 5th centuries.

banannabreadforme · 15/01/2018 14:14

We considered calling our son Seth but it means "replacement" (Adam & Eve's 3rd son). We had a rethink

MrsKoala · 15/01/2018 15:04

Helen may have been beautiful, but wars were fought over her and she was blamed by the Trojan people. As pp said she was also abducted. I wouldn't say that was a very 'nice' thing to be named after either.

When i said Persephone was one of our names to my old boss she said 'oh no, it has such a bad story'. I thought I wont tell you some of my other names then! But also i was surprised. I think it's a beautiful story. Someone whose presence brings out spring and sunshine, that people love so much they have to share her.

A lot of the stories have bad things happen but they also show resilience and strength of character in the face of adversity.

bfgdreamtree · 15/01/2018 15:07

Lilith is not the first wife of adam but from jewish mythology in first century and embellished in the 3rd and 5th centuries

That sentence doesn't actually make sense but if you are saying there are very different versions of the stories you are right. And nothing at all to say any of them are any more than myths, so none more right than the next.

bfgdreamtree · 15/01/2018 15:09

We considered calling our son Seth but it means "replacement" (Adam & Eve's 3rd son). We had a rethink

No it doesn't. It means "appointed" in the Hebrew but also the egyptian god of storms and the desert.

bfgdreamtree · 15/01/2018 15:10

I thought that too. As though etymology were a matter of opinion! hmm

Er no, as in most names have multiple meanings and you can pick which one you want to believe is the right one, not that there is a right one.

Trump wouldn't understand that, like yourself.

RhiannonOHara · 15/01/2018 15:44

Someone whose presence brings out spring and sunshine, that people love so much they have to share her.

What a beautiful way to put it. Smile

Blatherskite · 15/01/2018 15:46

A friend called her son Dexter but as a fan of the TV show, it's not a name I would have chosen.

Dexter is a serial killer who kills serial killers to me.

sashh · 15/01/2018 15:47

The only Chastity I have heard of was in a TV soap opera

Cher's son started life as a girl called Chastity.

TeaAndToast85 · 15/01/2018 15:50

@FuckMyUterus because...you want to remember the holocaust every time you call your cat? Hmm

TroysMammy · 15/01/2018 15:53

My Dad's name is Kenneth which means handsome. I don't seem to know any baby Kenneths.

lizzieoak · 15/01/2018 15:54

bfg, pretty sure Lilith is not from Torah, but from Midrash (poster below says Jewish mythology, which sort of describes midrash - it’s the oral fleshing out of Torah, the backstories if you like).

The name Mary can mean “bitter”, which is not a lot of fun, but we use it anyway. Doesn’t Dolores mean sorrows?

For me it’s one thing if people are aware of what it means (Cain, Dexter), another if you have to go hunting for the meaning (Mary).

feral · 15/01/2018 16:07

I wouldn't care about a Hector or a Tristan and the name meaning. I'd care about a name with a widely known negative connotation.

However Adolf would be negative but a Fred (West) wouldn't be as it's a more common name.

Blatherskite · 15/01/2018 16:25

I also don't understand people calling their daughters Pippa. It means 'wank' or similar in so many other languages!

Valerion · 15/01/2018 16:33

I'm with you on that one OP.
I was quite shocked when yrs ago a baby was born on the 6th of June 2006 and his Parents named him Damien. [SHOCK]

Thesmallthings · 15/01/2018 16:47

Well ds1 means shark.. It's also a biblical name... nether was the reason I chose it ... I just loved the name

Ds2 name means fair warrior... his hair was white blonde and thought for his life at birth. ... so his name is apt but not the reason I chose it as it was pre picked

I don't think people think about what the name means unless they purposely chose a name because of it. People are more likely to veto a name because of past experiences if people called that.

Placeboooooooo · 15/01/2018 17:06

I quite like Vladimir

Huggybear16 · 15/01/2018 17:08

I also like Vladimir!

paddypants13 · 15/01/2018 17:35

Dd has mil's middle name as her middle name and it does have a negative meaning. No one knows what it means, it's a beautiful name and it honours mil and dgfil.

Strangely mil's first name and middle name have the same meaning. It is the feminine version of mil's father's name.

Fink · 15/01/2018 18:40

@bfgdreamtree
Er no, as in most names have multiple meanings and you can pick which one you want to believe is the right one, not that there is a right one.

Trump wouldn't understand that, like yourself.

You're right, I don't understand what you're trying to say.

Initially I assumed you meant etymological meaning (as opposed to, say, cultural meaning) because that was what was implied in the quoted post. But then it didn't make sense to claim that most names have multiple meanings, i.e. multiple possible etymologies between which one could choose (so name X could come from the Persian word meaning 'joy' or the Greek word meaning 'light'). This is certainly true of some names, but only a small minority. Most names (in use in English) have a single etymology. It is true that this may be translated by several English terms, in order to convey the richness of a term which doesn't have an exact English equivalent, or to show the ways in which the word has evolved over time, for example, but I struggle to see how this can be what you meant since it is in no way equivalent to choosing a meaning. So, yes, like (quite probably, I haven't actually asked him about this) Trump, I don't understand what your claim that you can pick which meaning of a name you want actually means.