I’m a newly realized name nerd. I’ve been poking about NB for a few months and finally joined and have been indulging in the boards over the past few days. I get a general sense about peoples’ opinion of invented names but I wanted to know some opinions on a few names I have been pondering.
Nacirema - In the same vein as [name]Nevaeh[/name], this is American spelled backwards. Some of you may even recognize it if you’ve taken an anthropology class. As a name for a person I would consider it as a name to more subtly show your patriotism than [name]Liberty[/name] or [name]America[/name]. Are there any backwards names you may like?
Ameri - Perhaps what can be considered a nickname name for [name]America[/name]. Once again something more subtle for the patriotic namer. In my mind it’s pronounced A (like apple) mer (like myrrh) re (like re-run) not A-mary.
Tajika/Tojika - This one is personal. My husband is from Tajikistan and I just though it up one day. I figured it would fit in with place-names style along side names like [name]India[/name], [name]Dakota[/name], [name]Roman[/name], etc. Any other place names you like/dislike?
Junabelle - It’s [name]June[/name] and [name]Isabelle[/name] combined. Two family names I want to honor. Since aforementioned DH is Tajik and because we’re living in the US our kids will likely have names from his culture to help balance the multicultural upbringing. If I can still get [name]June[/name] or [name]Isabelle[/name] in as a middle name my worry is if we by chance only have one girl someone will be left out! So I could just smush the two names together and problem solved. What’s your favorite and least favorite smush names, if any?
Junabelle is cool! I have thought of doing that before too, Like [name]Elizabelle[/name], or Evelynora (evelyn and [name]Nora[/name])… but don’t really know…
The backwards spelling comes across as juvenile to me. Just my opinion though!
I pronounced Ameri as AH-merie the first time (closest to your preferred pronunciation) and then ah-MER-ee the second time (more like Ah-Marie, like an almost french pronunciation). “A-Mary” didn’t come to mind for me at all.
Tajika/Tojika sounds nice actually. And my thought was that it was just another culture’s name, not ‘made up’ and i like it. I am guessing the Tajika spelling is more feminine than Tojika?
I don’t mind the smooshed names at all. They are MUCH preferable to me than the yooneek spellings of common names. Smoosh names might get some interesting spelling guesses but Junabelle isn’t hard at all to phonetically figure out.
Junabelle is nice, a little too frilly for me, but a sweet name.
I’m actually fond of invented names, like smoosh names or out there ones like Palola or Ollister. Ones that could almost be really rare ones you’ve never heard.
[name]Just[/name] not the Kattyleynne type misspelled names.
The backwards names seem weird. I just don’t understand it.
I’m usually on the “invented names are bad” train. (Given not all invented names are bad but by-in-large most just make me question a persons reasoning skills. Theoretically I like Tajika and Junabelle).
Nacirema - This just confuses me. I don’t think it looks particularly appealing as far as names go and the pronunciation is a bit of a mess. Na-cire-ma? Nac-irem-a? Na-ci-rema? I think there are much better ways to show your patriotism in a subtle way. I think [name]Francis[/name] or [name]Francine[/name] would be a great option - after [name]Francis[/name] Hopkins who designed the American Flag and [name]Francis[/name] [name]Scott[/name] Key who wrote the lyrics to the [name]Star[/name] Spangled [name]Banner[/name]. Or [name]Virginia[/name] as the state that the first American Colony is now in. (you know to name two). And yes there are backwards names I love but they tend to be palindromes.
Ameri - At first I didn’t think this came from [name]America[/name] but considered a misspelled version of a amor- name. In which case it make the name loose it’s purpose of being a version of [name]America[/name] don’t you think?
Tajika - I really like this one. It sounds wonderful. I however don’t think I’d give it to a child with Tajikistani heritage. I’d assume that she would grow up knowing that heritage and I’d have found it weird if my mom had named me Germa because she was [name]German[/name]. (Though Tajika sounds much nicer than Germa so who knows). Place names aren’t really my thing.
Junabelle - makes me think of [name]June[/name]-bug. It’s very cute though. I’m not sure how well I think it ages but I think it’s a great name for a little girl.
