Names and culture of New Orleans; NO's Occult Content

[yesthatnagia]

Okay, I'm writing an alternate-earth piece set in pre-Katrina New Orleans (there are exactly two settings: the New Orleans of October 2003 and and the New Orleans of January 2004). Problem is, I've never been. I've been looking at French names for NPCs and other characters. But looking at all these lists, I have ZERO context. I can't guess which

Comments

[kimbari]

You can't go wrong with ANYTHING French. :)

[vampirehunter85]

Well, I grew up in New Orleans and still have family there, so let's see what I can do

[sabinelagrande]

Now, why you gonna go and say what I was going to say?

Another point- even among people of French descent, first name is a really bad indicator. Some close friends of my family are from New Iberia, LA and of French descent, but they're named Penny, Ray, and Heather.

[yesthatnagia]

Good to know.

[ap_aelfwine]

Another point- even among people of French descent, first name is a really bad indicator.

Ayup.

And if you do have a character who's drifted into NO from Cajun country, not only are most of their French surnames--Comeaux, Robichaud, Doucet, etc--not so common in France, and mostly not the ones that are common there, but a fair number of Cajuns have got Irish, Scots-Irish, and English surnames. One of the most Cajun guys I've ever met--native Cajun French speaker, very strong accent in English--is named Butler.

[phoenixy]

How exactly does one enounter Qabbalah? It's not something you're likely to see any signs of unless you went and looked for classes on it, which you'll find at your local JCC, maybe synagogue or campus Hillel. There are very few people walking around in any city who would describe themselves as demonologists or angelolgists, but if you need them to exist for your story, I'm sure you can come up with something.

[yesthatnagia]

*headdesk* Thank you. This is what happens when we bphrase questions in a rush.

And I doubt there are many people who wander around describing themselves as demonologists or angelologists... The question was a stupid one. I was basically asking, in a city with as much occult goings-on as NO is reputed to be and as many occult tourist attractions, would you be particularly surprised to find somebody who is an amateur (or professional....) demonologist/angelologist?

Now that I'm doing even MORE research, I'm thinking that Qabbala would NOT be what I'm looking for here. The Sephiroth is interesting, but ultimately NOT something you could use to raise the entirety of Hell. No matter how awesome it would be.

So what I'm really looking for is a bizarre mixture of bokor-hoodoo and demonology.

Gawd. I just had to backspace like five thousand pages of musings on demonology, eyebrow-raising, and the fact that this is a fictional NO with magic being VERY common, so blah blah blah.

[phoenixy]

Okay, that makes more sense...

As far as I know, angels and demons are not really a major part of the New Orleans occult. That said, it's a big city, with a university, and I'm sure there are people there who study angels and demons. People have all kinds of weird hobbies.

It seems as though there is some Santeria presence in New Orleans, although it is not really the primary strain of Voodoo there. You do see Voodoo/Catholic syncreticism, but I am fairly sure that it's a parallel tradition to Santeria.

[jadecat]

Just seconding the notion that Voudoun and Santeria- are similar but definitely not the same thing. Both are 'mixes' of African relgions with Catholicism, and kind of co-developed along the same time frame. There are similar elements, but one isn't an off shoot of the other. Santeria is more common in Puerto Rico, and some of the islands- and now moving into Florida and New York (with immigrants).

(I did a little research on Santeria as one of the characters I role-play is being 'raised in the faith' as it were.)

[trackstar99]

New Orleans Stories : Great Writers on the City is pretty good as a collection of fiction by known authors that happens to be set in the city.

Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau is a good, compelling, book about the great voodoo "queen" and her daughter.

Herbert Ashbury's The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld was written years ago and gives a good take on the criminal side of the French Quarter . . . the occult comes into it, but it's mainly about crime, prostitution, and such

[yesthatnagia]

Really?

...May I eat have bear your internet babies?

[trackstar99]

Yes, I will be happy to answer specific questions . . . should you have some.

As you probably know and agree, New Orleans is the most quirky of all Americna cities (except maybe San Francisco) so asking for general info on weirdness in New Orleans is very vague. There are a lot of the kewl little things you can dig up and perhaps work into your story, if you like, such as the story of Saint Expedite -which is retold on the following website better than I can explain it myself:

http://www.luckymojo.com/saintexpedite.html

[trackstar99]

Oh, and the following (found on the same website) may also interest you . . . but do take all these things, especially the journalistic accounts written in the later 1800s and early 1900s with a grain of salt . . . just as now, then people liked to tell rather absurd tales of the occult because that is what the public wanted, it seems.

on New Orleans superstitutions:

http://www.southern-spirits.com/hearn-new-orleans-beliefs.html

[cheerilyxmorbid]

If I were to go into everything weird about this city, I'd be typing for a week...seriously.
Ok, on names. Most people have first names that you'd find anywhere else. Last names get interesting--there's a lot of French last names. However, New Orleans is incredibly diverse. Besides French, there are large populations of Irish, Spanish, Vietnamese, Caribbean, South American, and African descent. You could really pick any name and it would work.
For New Orleans history, I have to recommend Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children...and Other Streets of New Orleans! by John Chase. It explains the history of the city and where all of our weird street names came from. Like Tchoupitoulas. I can't tell you how many people mangle that word. It's a funny book; I'm reading it right now. I like it a lot. I really can't recommend anything else at the moment.

[yesthatnagia]

Thank you SO SO MUCH.

...You meet a demonologist on a random street in NO. Do you raise an eyebrow, think that's not SO weird and walk on, or run away?

[trackstar99]

Tchoupitoulas:

Chop-a-tou-eees!

Wow, that brings back the memories . . .

[cheerilyxmorbid]

^_^ First time I came here, I took one look at the sign and said "Chop-a-tou-las". Even AFTER I said that, my dad was still going "Cha-loup-a-doup-a..." Now I have to ask...is it really that hard to say? It must be, because I constantly hear people call it "Cha-loup-i-toup-as". The street has nothing to do with chalupas!!!