A lot of people in the US name their children after family members. This is called a namesake. I was named after my father's father, Wesley. My middle name was my mother's last name before she got married, known as a maiden name. (I personally find the term offensive. The word "maiden" brings to mind helpless young women who need a man to save them from some peril.) So my middle name is DuVall; my mother's father's family were Swedish and French immegrants to the US. I like that I keep my mother's ancestry in my name. I also really like my first name - that it comes from my grandfather. It's also a name that most people know but not a name that a lot of people have, which I think is cool.
It's more common for boys to be named after men in their family. For instance, Robert Downey Jr. (short for Junior), George W. Bush named after his father George H. W. Bush, John Quincy Adams named after his father John Adams.
I think people in the US avoid naming their children after really famous people or fictional characters from books or cartoons. It might be seen here as cheesy or lower class. Like if I named my child Beyonce or Madonna, my friends would think I was crazy.. :)
My boyfriend and I have talked about what we would name our children. He's from Italy, and his last name is very hard for Americans pronounce correctly. He would keep his name, but he wants our children to take my last name, Webb, because like my first name, people are familiar with it, but it's not that common. It's easy to pronounce (but often misspelled as Web. grrr...) Neither of us are religious, but we both really like English biblical names. Our first choice for a boy is Aaron. My boyfriend likes that there are two As, which is very uncommon, but it's a common, easily pronounced name. I also like that it rhymes with my mother's name, Sharon. :)
Personally, it's also very important to me that the first and last name sound good together. Because my last name, Webb, starts with a vowel sound, the first name will sound best if it ends with a voiced consonant: Aaron Webb. As opposed to something like Jeff Webb. Not horrible, but not a strong.
I like Rebekah, Daniel, Jonah. We've thought about Catherine; my grandmother's name was Catherine and his grandmother's name is Caterina. So that would be a nice namesake on both sides of the family. Maybe as a middle name..
Interesting to hear about naming conventions elsewhere in the world!
If you had a child, what woyld you name your child?
If you had a child, what would you name your child? I guess that most people take the name from a famous person, your favorite one or a character in novel or cartoon. You might have created a new name like others don't have.
Today I watched a TV program specialized in Japanese name. It's based on a ranking of popular name announced every year and it deeply researched the reason why the name was popular in that era.
For instance, Sakura is one of popular names for a girl lately but elder people think it's inappropriate for a child's name because cherry blossoms fall and fly away soon after blooming. It reminds them of a short life.
Tsubasa, Tatsuya and Kazuya come from main characters of popular sports cartoons.
Interestingly, there is a law to limit kanji for name. Some popular name disappeared on the ranking after the law was changed. On the other hand, there was a case that a new popular name was born after the change.
Royal family and Chinese astrology affect the ranking as well. I was born in the year of the dragon. That's why my name is Ryu which means a dragon in Japanese, by the way.
I'm interested in how foreign people name their child. Please tell me your opinion and name rule in your country.
If you had a child, what would you name your child?
If you had a child, what would you name him or her? I would guess that most people take the name from a famous person, or from one of their favorite one or a characters in a novel or cartoon. Some people might have created would create a new name that others don't have.
Today I watched a TV program about specialized in Japanese given names. [If you use <em>given name</em> and <em>family name </em>or <em>surname </em>and<em style="color: #0000ff;"> </em>instead of <em style="color: #0000ff;">first name</em> and <em>last name, </em>respectively, you avoid having to know whether family names come first or last in a given language.]<em style="color: #0000ff;"> </em> It's based on a ranking of popular names announced every year and it deeply researched the reason why certain names were popular in that era.
For instance, <em>Sakura</em> is one of the popular names for a girl lately, but older people think it's inappropriate for a child's name, because cherry blossoms fall and fly away soon after blooming. It reminds them of a short life.
<em>Tsubasa</em>, <em>Tatsuya</em> and <em>Kazuya</em> come from main characters of popular sports cartoons.
Interestingly, there is a law which limits the <em>kanji</em> in a child's name to an approved list of characters. Some popular names disappeared from the ranking after the law was approved. On the other hand, there was a case in which that a new popular name was born after the change.
The royal family and Chinese astrology affect the rankings as well. I was born in the year of the dragon. That's why my name is <em>Ryu</em> which means a <em>dragon</em> in Japanese, by the way.
I'm interested in how foreign people name their child. Please tell me your opinion and name rule in your country.
If you had a child, what woyld you name your child?
If you had a child, what would you name your child? I guess that most people take the name from a famous person, your favorite one or a character in novel or cartoon. You might have created a new name like others don't have.
Today I watched a TV program specialized in Japanese name. It's based on a yearly ranking of popular names and it explains the various reasons as to why the name was popular in that era.
For instance, Sakura is one of popular names for a girl lately but elder people think it's inappropriate for a child's name because cherry blossoms fall and fly away soon after blooming. It reminds them of a short life.
Tsubasa, Tatsuya and Kazuya come from main characters of popular sports cartoons.
Interestingly, there is a law to limit kanji for name. Some popular name disappeared on the ranking after the law was changed. On the other hand, there was a case that a new popular name was born after the change.
Royal family and Chinese astrology affect the ranking as well. I was born in the year of the dragon. That's why my name is Ryu which means a dragon in Japanese, by the way.
I'm interested in how foreign people name their child. Please tell me your opinion and name rule in your country.
