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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Rose of Sharon is not common or popular-- at least not in the northest-- but it is also not so rare as to have struck me when i read the book, as an odd name. (where as the name Jode's was odd. i knew Jodie's-- abut had never heard of a boy's/mans name of Jode (Jude, yes, but not Jode)
But I want to thank everyone for sharing-- and to think about the other half of the question... natural words as names..
And Thank, Jo-- we have "runs" of names here too-- Some one i know has a young daughter named Ester-- not a common name anymore, and she get on mailing list for old age stuff, since most Ester are older. I am, by lists, thought to be older, since Helen had a 1 year run in the top 25 names in the US-- 4 years before I was born.
My daughter Emily used to complain as a child that commercial "personalize" products (Micky Mouse toothbrushes, etc) never had her name. They do now, about 10 years after she was born "emily" made it up to the top 10 list of US girls name. (i remind her when she is old, every one will think her ten years younger..)
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
There is a popular flowering bush also called Rose of Sharon. It is of the hybiscus family, grows large (5-6 feet) and bears large blooms from mid-summer to the beginning of fall. I have several in my yard which I regard with great affection.
The name no doubt was adopted from the biblical Rose of Sharon, which is believed to have been a tulip, narcissus or meadow saffron.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
One can imagine how I felt being e-so close, yet never really ... Have made up for it since... My niece worked in a gift shop at Disney World and had a coffee cup customized, it's all I need now. Being different and specifically not Irish (not that there was anything wrong with that) was the only explanation for the divergence from Kevin that I enjoy.
Check my bio for my AWAD handle story.
It seems that occupations and objects seem to be considerably more pevelant in last name than in first name use in English, possibly following the adjective-noun form... is this different in Languages that don't follow that order?
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
For my AWAD name : turn wow up side down and secondarily it means Wise Old Woman.My friends ranging in age from teens to mid-80s bestowed it. My "real" name is Ann ... no "e" so not Annie, please! It's a name that turns up in every generation which proved there are intelligent parents in every generation.  It's also a name that ages well. I'm sure Sparteye agrees! Ann means gracefull or queenly according to name books. Also, it is handy to be named for Saint Ann ... prayer requests directed through her are rarely refused by her Grandson. wow
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Anyone with a non-standard-ly spelled name (like Keven) can relate to having people screw up their name spelling. My name is spelled Cristina (NO H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) because my father is Italian and that's the way it's spelled there - no superfluous letters to confuse things. My maiden name (what an old-fashioned sounding word - I never felt like I was a "maiden") is Spanu, yes, it ends in a U, nothing follows the U, and no, it's not a mistake, and yes, I do know how to spell my own name, thank you very much. My husband's name is Dag (not short for anything, not even Dagwood, all you funny people), named for Dag Hammarskjold (sp?), and between the two of us we can rant at length about name misspellings and other "improvements" imposed by other people. He was Doug for a period in high school, poor guy. It's funny because I just discussed this with my Turkish friend this week, as we were discovering that there are inter-generationally common mens' names in English (William, Michael, James, John, David, Daniel) but not as many extremely common womens' names (I did come up with Ann and Sarah and Elizabeth, but even those aren't worn by every third person - like the mens' names). I'd been asking her about common Turkish names - which of course come from the Q'uran, not the Bible!  As for natural words - flowers are the best I can think of - as already mentioned. I once had a friend named Laurel with a mother named Iris. Not kidding! And my husband's name is even unusual in Norwegian, because it means "day". The AWAD name I'll leave for another post. It is derived from my real name...aside from the people I've told, can anyone make the connection? It's not simple or obvious, and there are two intermediate steps. 
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
names with meanings
While wer're on names and meanings, which doesn't usually extend to surnames as much as Christian or given names, I have to get in my father's favorite joke, which is a Pennsylvania Dutch joke.
A Berks County (Pennsylvania] Dutchman went in to Reading to look for a job in the silk mill. The foreman asked him, "Are you a weaver?" He replied, "Ach, no, my name is Biemesduerfer. Vy, did you t'ink you knowed me?"
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
A couple of branches back on my family tree is an uncle with the unfortunate name of "Forrest Stump."
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 85
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 85 |
He was Doug for a period in high school, poor guy.Ouch. I can sympathize. When I was in high school, they generally managed to get my first name right, at least for the paperwork. I'd long been resigned to the mutilations possible for "Alida". But oddly, sometimes they couldn't seem to manage to get my last name right, even when reading it from a correct paper. Saxon. "Saxon, as in Anglo-Saxon. You know, history of Britain, Saxons?" (I usually manage to say that in a way that isn't so snippy.) They spelled it Saxton, which baffled me, when they managed to make it through Alida. I got a little scholarship prize with plaque made out to Alida Saxton. I felt so loved. I might have kept it like that for the laughs, if it had been a prize for History. If memory serves me, it was for my grades in English... Ali
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
My last name (Kinraid) has caused me unofficial and official grief all my life - except once when it was a positive benefit. You have Kincaid, Scottish and quite common. You have Kinnaird, also Scottish. Both are also quite common in Ireland for historical reasons which anyone who wishes can find out by LIU. So I've been Kincaid, Kinnaird, Kinaid, Kinkaid, Kirland, Kirkland, and half a dozen more than I've long since forgotten. Family legend has it that the name is Manx in origin, presumably partially left behind by various invading forces with murderous intent, like Tottenham fans after a match. I've never been able to find any corroborating evidence. I'd say it was destroyed long ago by the Spurs fans surrogates. Mostly it's caused me inconvenience, like my first passport having my name incorrectly spelled, like hesitation at school when names were being read out. My nickname was "Kinky", not because of what I did (I wish!) but because of That Name. My name has been crossed out, dropped off, passed over, laughed at or ignored by various official and non-government bodies. The one time it worked in my favour was the 18-year-old ballot for national service. The army (bless its ignorant, murderous heart) dropped my name out of the ballot because they didn't believe it was real. Even then, they screwed up because two days before my eighteenth birthday they dropped national service altogether! They could have at least waited until after that semi-auspicious event! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
I'm used to the name Shoshannah now and really love it!... Shoshannah is the most
beautiful flower in the all the earth, I've long liked both the Hebrew and the English rendering of your name! Shakespeare, In Romeo and Juliet, mentioned it in Romeo's line, "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But another name would not sound as sweet! And Saint-Exupery, in The Little Prince, made one special rose the most important in the universe. As for my own name, Geoffrey (from French Godefois, from German Godfrey; God's peace) Sanders (akin to Alexander), I can say that Americans have made mincemeat out of it! They are convinced that my name is not pronounced the same as "Jeffrey," and call me many things, some of which I dare not repeat! The funniest was "Geeky." That was twenty years ago; today, geeks are in vogue, so maybe that malaprop was just ahead of its time. Even Sanders gets a "u" stuck in it half the time. As G.B. Shaw said, our two countries are separated by a common language!
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