I’ve been thinking about this for a few days, and was hesitant to make the thread because I don’t want it to sound like criticism, but I’m going ahead with it anyway because I think it would make an interesting discussion.
[name_f]Do[/name_f] you think that, within a namenerd community (Nameberry, other forums, wherever) the familiarity of the name has to do with how well it is received?
This seems like an obvious question. Maybe it is, but let me explain. I’ll use my own signature as an example, although I can think of others.
By familiarity, for the most part I mean nationalities/origins of a name that are familiar vs those that aren’t. Dragonfly might be a highly unusual name, but I don’t think there are many members of this site who wouldn’t know what it means and where it’s from. Erhi, on the other hand, is unfamiliar in a different way.
I’ve noticed that lots of people, even if they would never use Dragonfly or [name_f]Starlight[/name_f] as a name, seem to have better reactions to outlandish, beautiful names of that sort than those that are mostly unknown in western culture. When I had a signature full of names most westerners would never have heard of, and [name_f]Arianell[/name_f] [name_f]Poem[/name_f] was really the only combo I was trying out that anyone would be familiar with both names, guess which combo got compliments? Of course this probably had to do with flow, ease of pronunciation, etc of that group of combos, but you get my point.
This isn’t at all meant to criticize anyone for having preferences for a certain group of names! I’m just curious to know if, in YOUR opinion, there are specific cultures that don’t seem to “fit in” typical English-speaking namenerd culture. I’m guessing the answer from many people is yes, but no matter what your answer I’d love to see explanations and examples!
I think it really depends on the name.
Names don’t exist in a vacuum, and neither do our opinions of them. My reactions to a name are not just based on sound or meaning, but also on the cultural connotations of that name. [name_m]Earl[/name_m], [name_f]Mercy[/name_f], [name_u]Raven[/name_u], [name_f]Faith[/name_f], [name_f]Viola[/name_f], and [name_f]Destiny[/name_f] are all English names that are also English nouns, but they fit into American society in different ways.
I know nothing about Chinese or Arabic or whatever names and how they fit into anything–I can just judge how they sound and if the meaning is nice. I feel I’m not qualified to say anything about them. I wouldn’t compliment [name_f]Arianell[/name_f] [name_f]Poem[/name_f], because I think poem is not a good noun to use as a name, and to me it’s a name that would be received weirdly here. But maybe the word for poem in some other language is a perfectly fine, legitimate name, just like in English melody is fine.
And it’s not just noun names, it’s everything. [name_m]William[/name_m], [name_m]Chad[/name_m], and [name_m]Hubert[/name_m] are all of Germanic origin, but I react differently to them, and I’m sure so does everyone else. [name_f]Carol[/name_f] and [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] are only three letters apart, but one is ‘dated’ and one isn’t.
I think it could have something to do with imagery. People know what a dragonfly is or what starlight is, and possibly have a nice association with the name. On the other side, something like Erhi is unknown and doesn’t have an imagery as easily accessed.
I’m not sure if any specific cultures or origins that English speakers tend to not like as much. I will say that I’d rather see a combo with Erhi than one with Dragonfly because I find those sort of word names—over the top nature names—to be hard to wear and some are teetering the line of ridiculous.
Yep, familiarity definitely plays a role. If a name is unfamiliar for whatever reason, it can be difficult to tell whether it’s (gasp) invented or not, which genders it’s typically used on, and whether it’s dated in its home country/countries. Pronunciation is also an issue—I suspect that’s part of why I never get comments on [name_f]Fionnuala[/name_f] or Célimène. I think all these things combine to make people a little wary.
For me, it’s a reluctance to comment on something I know nothing about. For example, because I grew up in an English-speaking country, names ending in -A or -E read more feminine to me. That means my perceptions are accordingly warped and I’m not really in a position to know which of two Chinese names reads as more feminine.
The thing that’s my “issue” when having to talk about foreign names I’ve never heard of, is that there’s no image associated with them. For example, to me names like [name_f]Felicia[/name_f], [name_f]Viveca[/name_f] and [name_f]Flora[/name_f] have a spring-time feel to them. Names like [name_f]Edith[/name_f], [name_f]Estelle[/name_f], [name_f]Etta[/name_f], [name_f]Nancy[/name_f] etc feel vintage to me. When I’m unfamiliar with the name it lacks an image, which makes me like it less and have less to comment on.