Salem

[Rickandmortified100]

I met a little Salem yesterday and was surprised by how much it suited her and what a lovely name it seemed. If someone had posted on MN about the name I’d probably have been a bit pessimistic about the name due to the witch trials, but weirdly I really liked it. A quick Google shows me that it’s both a Hebrew and Arabic name meaning ‘peaceful, safe, complete, perfect’, and also a biblical name referring to Jerusalem. What do you think?

The only good thing about this thread which I’m seriously regretting posting is that I’ve now heard of Salems Lot, which seems like something i would love 😁

I suppose it's an object lesson in why some placenames are either comparatively neutral or have so many cultural associations that they are broadly accepted as names (Paris, Florence, Georgia, Brooklyn etc) and those that have such specific negative associations that they're considered unusable. Salem falls under the latter for me -- it would be like giving your child the name of a famous battle location, like Gallpoli or Ypres, which are obviously just placenames, too, but with strong associations with wartime slaughter. And while these are, to an extent, culturally-mandated, there are no guarantees your child will remain within his or her original culture/language.

@Rickandmortified100 you need the David Soul version. I've not seen the remake!

Just to question the assertion that the Salem witch trials had nothing to do with Britain -

• America was a British colony at the time, so very much British, and the perpetrators and victims were of British ancestry, informed by an understanding of religion that was born in Britain.

• Witches were burned at the stake in Britain too, and in tbe rest of Europe.

All I think of is Salems Lot. I’d also assume male.
Its a no from me.

Yeh it's Sabrina's cat

I'm interested in names but have never come across this one as a given first name. Stats show nine children given it.

There’s a tv series currently available called Salem about an alternative future in the US where witches run the army. Quite violent.

The name of my gorgeous black cat who I loved so very dearly. I would never criticise the name!

It is a very beautiful sounding word! Be it for human or cat 😁