It's the name poll!

[conuly]

Abdul has a relative, an uncle or something, named Cupid. Every time I hear this, I remember the guy I knew at PS 188 named Eros.

So...

Which is worse? Cupid-rhymes-with-stupid or Eros-rhymes-with-gross? Or the classic Jeremy-sounds-like-germy?

Comments

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I just don't get that argument - I've known almost exclusively 'normal' named people at school my entire life (well, amongst the WASPs anyway) and none of them have ever expressed a desire to have a less common name just to get round having multiples in one class. Of course, over here 'weird' names are rare, so a kid would get absolutely ripped to pieces.

Maybe it's a US-UK difference.

I had a friend who was due to be born on 14th of February, a Tuesday, so was going to be called Tuesday Valentine. Thankfully she held on for two days and got a sensible name.

And I can't even conceive of significant enough numbers of people being unable to spell/pronounce Hughes for it to be a problem. Maybe not enough Welsh people moved to the US.

I don't like those weird names anyway - the sons I'll never have will be Julian Scott and Stephen Edmund. My brother jokes about wanting to call his first son Dogtanion. At least, I hope he's joking...

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I don't know any differently named person that wishes for a different name.

And yeah, in the UK I can see there being a problem. When I lived there, there didn't seem to be much tolerance for diversity. Bullying was in the papers a lot as well, including suicides of bullied children. Language used for people of different races was openly offensive (at least to American ears). Pakis, Chinks, and so on. People would say, in public, those words. At least here if anyone uses terms like that, it's in whispers. My cook (I owned a pizza place in London) was afraid to go home alone at night because he was Algerian. Noticably different.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Might I ask when you were living in London? Because I am honestly trying hard not to be very offended by what you just said, and I'd like to be able to put it down to you having lived there a couple of decades ago. And that seemingly you lived in London, which is a world apart from the rest of the UK.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I lived in Anerley, and worked in Brockley first, and then Sydenham.

And my friend in Bolton says 'chink' all the time too. Usually English people I speak with admit to this sort of speech, openly. Even recent discussions in the past month with people have touched on this very subject.

A couple of DECADES ago? No, I was an adult when I lived there -- I'd hardly run a pizza place as a child. Granted it was years ago but still.

Even on TV, on some show (something to do with the princes trust, perhaps) I was suprised to see them do fake stereotypical Chinese accents. It was something I saw flipping through but I was really suprised it was on TV.

Feel offended all you want -- these were my experiences. I'm not making them up. If I gave an OPINION then be offended by what I said, but I wrote about actual things that happened to me. Be offended by the people who do those sort of things.

And still, I'd give anything to live in London again, if the salaries were as good there as they are here. :/ Maybe we'll just go on vacation.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I'm not denying you had those experiences, but I was offended that you characterised the whole UK by them. Where I have grown up, and where I now study, language like that (if present) would be taken as very offensive.

I was also offended by "there didn't seem to be much tolerance for diversity" Of course, I went to a school where Christianity was the third religion, behind Islam and Hinduism. Obivously you having been in London will have given you a different perspective - as one of the most multicultural cities in the world, there are going to be tensions between the different nationalities (and of course there are many more young first generation immigrants there than elsewhere.) Yes, there are racist people over here - we call them the British National Party. There are also xenophobic and Eurosceptic people. But I would never characterise the entire United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland based on them.

Plus I just don't see what any of it has to do with the fact that a kid with a name like Apple or Buddy or Rainbow or Cupid would probably get a bit of a tough time at school. If I had been saying Indian/Pakistani parents get problems for calling their kids Priya or Nitant or Dharmesh or Dimple or Sukvir then I could understand where you're coming from. But right now tensions between ethnicities seem kind of tangenital.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Oh, you asked WHEN! I lived there 96-98.

Sorry about that.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

'sok. I've never lived in/near London so *where* you lived is pretty much meaningless, so I only asked when.

[conuly]

Edmund is a weird name.