Names

[beldar]

Was going to post this yesterday, before the LJ Idol vote ended (I wasn't involved, but some friends were), but LJ was down. Things seem better now, and I had invested some time and effort writing this, so, here goes:

When I saw several days ago that the week's topic was "sobriquet," I had to look it up. Turns out I grew up with one.

My "baby" sister

Comments

[similiesslip]

My father's name is John and my husband's brother's name is John. Also, my sister's husband is named John. We have to differentiate which Uncle John we mean around here:)

My son, however, is named James which I think used to be popular but isn't all that common now (it seems.)

[beldar]

I remember in my youth a lot of Jimmys, but I think you're right. I wanted my son to have a different name, and only realized later I only consigned him to the fate of being one of the many Christophers born that year. He seems okay with it, though his chosen nickname/online handle is completely different.

[veronica_rich]

I worked quite hard to get rid of my sobriquet. Oddly, it was Dad who came up with it, and it was him and his mother who'd use it all the time (now you know why I wanted to be rid of it as a teenager). He hasn't called me Bree in many years (actually, it was probably "Brie" but I hate that cheese, so no). Apparently it came from how I'd pronounce part of my full name as a little kid, before I got to where I disliked my middle name.

Geez, I hadn't thought of that name in a long time.

[fallconsmate]

heh. you know, when we were going to name our son (whose sobriquet is either Beastlyboy or Demonspawn, depending on his actions at any given time) we decided to do the "name him after dad" thing. problem is, his dad hates his first name, and is fine with the middle one. ok, that leads to second problem...that his middle name is his dad's first name. crap.

which leads us to *my* dad's name, which is... john. several issues there. first, cant stand my dad, but he comes as a matched set with mama, who is a peach and well worth putting up with occasional contact with him. second, the initials didnt work. (trust me, i already screwed up with Miss Satan's, whose initials are BAA. i definitely still feel sheepish.) and last, on my dad's side of the family alone, there is a john, three johnny's, and a john wayne. (large family. yay.)

we compromised. his first name is Ian. it works with the last name, too. :)

[beldar]

I like Ian. Pronounciation-wise it's closer to the Hebrew root than "John."

My mom's father hated his first name and went by his middle name, which later became my middle name ("John" is after my dad's father).

Personal name trivia: My father's first or middle name was given to all three of his grandsons.

[fallconsmate]

my ex's last name is a common Irish one, so Ian works well with it. then we got all irritible at the boychild's graduation because they skipped his middle name in the graduation program, while nearly everyone else's was listed (including one young lady with 4 middle names!).

that's my babies in my icon pic... taken at said graduation last month.

personal name trivia: mama had WAY too much time on her hands while she was pregant with me, and noticed that she and my dad both have 4 letters in their first names, seven in the middle name, and 5 in the last. (my dad's initials are JHC, which makes me giggle childishly)

so my brother and i both have/had
4 letters in the first name
7 letters in the middle name
5 letters in the last name (till i got married)
and the same freaking initials while before i got married.

[luscious_words]

John is one of my favorite names. :) My grandfather was Aaron John and he went by A.J. Best of all, one of my favorite captains on Deadliest Catch has the unusual spelling of his name - Johnathan.

[comedychick]

Aha! Now I know why my dad's known as Butch to his family XD I had no idea it was just because he had the same name as his dad.

I have an Uncle John, but he'd be older than you. I know some Jonathans, around my age, I think, but... you know, it hadn't even occurred to me that John might not be used any more. That's really interesting.

[beldar]

I first learned about "Butch" being a junior substitute as a kid being explained that my cousin Butch wasn't his real name.

John is related to Ian, Juan, Johann and Jack (and I think the Dutch "Jan"), but Jonathan is a different name, from a different Hebrew word (not that there's anything wrong with that).

[comedychick]

Oh! I didn't know that either, obviously. I assumed it was related because I know Jonathan gets shortened to Jon. I've not done much research into name origins, except when I'm looking up names for characters, which I've done a lot for my pirate fiction pieces.

[beldar]

It's an easy assumption to make, so I try not to get cross when someone calls me Jonathan -- usually it will be someone trying to impress me by calling me by my "full" name, and that usually *really* pisses me off.

[veronica_rich]

Let me guess; your mother's name was Nancy?

[beldar]

Nope.