Proper names are poetry in the raw.
Aug. 19th, 2012 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bending_sickleNot dead and not homeless. Thaaaat's about all you're going to get from me for the time being. Operation Escape the Nest is losing steam and I'm sinking into the Great Pit of Despair. Also we're in the midst of a heat wave called - honest to gods - Caligula.
In other news, I wrote stuff! Teen Wolf stuff! Which I should totally put up on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sickle_stories but I can only do so much okay?!?
Live With Wolves, and You Learn to Howl - Stiles asks Derek for the bite.
Link by Link - Sequel to Live With Wolves... ; Peter gives Derek his two cents.
Where's the Fire? - Sheriff Stilinski waits up for his son.
Les Pions, il sont l’âme des Echecs (Pawns are the Soul of Chess) - Gerard punches Stiles, Peter saves Stiles, and Stiles has no idea what's going on.
In other, other news, stealing a meme fromphantmgreeneyes because I never have anything to say which is part a) nothing happens and part b) everything sucks and a little bit of part c) tumblr. Basically it's Thirty Questions About Myself, to be completed in thirty days posts.
1. Your name - Adriana. It means "from Adria", which is a city in northern Italy (which probably gave its name to the Adriatic Sea). "Adria", according to one book I flipped through years ago, means "dark; coal black".
I was given this name because my mom liked the sound of it and my dad lost a vote. He wanted to name me Alexandra, and my mom and bro won two to three. (Curiously, I later met a girl who was called Alexandra and had almost been called Adriana.)
It's not an overly common name (although I did have a classmate once who was called Adrian, the male version). I pronounce it different depending on whether I'm speaking in Spanish (short first vowel, ah) or English (long first vowel, aye). Often people think my name is Adrienne, to which I go, "A. Adriana," but otherwise it doesn't seem to cause much dificulty in most lanuages I've had to say it in.
My last names are a different story entirely. I have two, on account of being of the Hispanic naming culture. They both start with C and both have seven letters, which means my full name is three sets of seven letters, which I always loved for some reason. (Also my brother and I share the same initials, which is useful.)
People unfamiliar with Spanish have a hard time pronouncing my last names, putting the accent on the wrong syllable, mispronouncing consonants (the j and ll are particular stumpers), and sometimes not even managing to wrap their mouths around the letters at all.
Sometimes they don't even realize that yes, they are two last names, so I'll end up being called Adriana C. C---, as if I had a middle name, or use only my second last name. Sometimes Ill let this ignorance slide, and sometimes it'll piss me off because seriously Hispanic names are not uncommon.
Basically, this is how it works. The father is, let's say, John Smith Williams. The mother is Jane Doe Peterson. John goes about his usual life as "John Smith" and Jane is known as "Jane Doe". This is simply them not using their full legal name, just as when other people don't go by their first and middle name.
So John and Jane have a child, Junior. The child's last name is then [father's first last name] + [mother's first last name], making it Junior Smith Doe. Call the kid Junior Smith, everybody does.
Junior then meets June Philips Goldsmith and they have a child, July. Their child would then be July Smith Philips. In every day encounters, July would go simply as "July Smith". Note how the first last name is thus a paternal line. (The second last names too, in a way. Basically, women's last names were dropped with each generation, and the men's stayed.) In Spain, they've changed it so you can switch the order of maternal and paternal last names (meaning Junior and June can choose to register July as "July Philips Smith").
There. Now you know. (Or not, I may have explained this terribly.)
2. All the places you’ve lived
3. Your first best friend
4. Your childhood fears
5. What you were like in high school
6. Your favourite and least favourite subjects at school
7. Your first boyfriend or girlfriend
8. Your oldest hobby
9. Your sexuality
10. What you look for in a partner
11. Your kids, or your feelings about having kids
12. Your pets, past and present
13. Foods you love and foods you hate
14. What your life was like ten years ago
15. How much alcohol you drink
16. Your worst illness
17. What you do at work
18. A question or comment people should never make to you
19. The style of clothing you feel most comfortable in
20. Whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert
21. Who you have a crush on
22. A friendship you lost
23. Three achievements you’re proud of
24. Your political views
25. Your religious beliefs
26. Your perfect night out
27. Whether you like to plan ahead or be spontaneous
28. What you look for in a friend
29. Whether you’re a night owl or a morning lark
30. How you would like people to remember you
Links of the Day:
The Avengers:
capn_mactastic's Fic Lilo & Stitch & also Loki
Random:
ursulav's House with Bird Fee (unfinished story) ; Bluebeard's Wife
theweaselking's Novels where the villains win ; Ludmilla Tourichiva, 1975 Word Cup - Awesome gif ; Prequel, Or, Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure sets a new high bar for webcomics awesomeness today
Discover Magazine's Richard Dawkins and Male Privilege
Racialicious' Obligatory Richard Dawkins Post
* W.H. Auden
In other news, I wrote stuff! Teen Wolf stuff! Which I should totally put up on
sickle_stories but I can only do so much okay?!?Live With Wolves, and You Learn to Howl - Stiles asks Derek for the bite.
Link by Link - Sequel to Live With Wolves... ; Peter gives Derek his two cents.
Where's the Fire? - Sheriff Stilinski waits up for his son.
Les Pions, il sont l’âme des Echecs (Pawns are the Soul of Chess) - Gerard punches Stiles, Peter saves Stiles, and Stiles has no idea what's going on.
In other, other news, stealing a meme from
phantmgreeneyes because I never have anything to say which is part a) nothing happens and part b) everything sucks and a little bit of part c) tumblr. Basically it's Thirty Questions About Myself, to be completed in thirty 1. Your name - Adriana. It means "from Adria", which is a city in northern Italy (which probably gave its name to the Adriatic Sea). "Adria", according to one book I flipped through years ago, means "dark; coal black".
I was given this name because my mom liked the sound of it and my dad lost a vote. He wanted to name me Alexandra, and my mom and bro won two to three. (Curiously, I later met a girl who was called Alexandra and had almost been called Adriana.)
It's not an overly common name (although I did have a classmate once who was called Adrian, the male version). I pronounce it different depending on whether I'm speaking in Spanish (short first vowel, ah) or English (long first vowel, aye). Often people think my name is Adrienne, to which I go, "A. Adriana," but otherwise it doesn't seem to cause much dificulty in most lanuages I've had to say it in.
My last names are a different story entirely. I have two, on account of being of the Hispanic naming culture. They both start with C and both have seven letters, which means my full name is three sets of seven letters, which I always loved for some reason. (Also my brother and I share the same initials, which is useful.)
People unfamiliar with Spanish have a hard time pronouncing my last names, putting the accent on the wrong syllable, mispronouncing consonants (the j and ll are particular stumpers), and sometimes not even managing to wrap their mouths around the letters at all.
Sometimes they don't even realize that yes, they are two last names, so I'll end up being called Adriana C. C---, as if I had a middle name, or use only my second last name. Sometimes Ill let this ignorance slide, and sometimes it'll piss me off because seriously Hispanic names are not uncommon.
Basically, this is how it works. The father is, let's say, John Smith Williams. The mother is Jane Doe Peterson. John goes about his usual life as "John Smith" and Jane is known as "Jane Doe". This is simply them not using their full legal name, just as when other people don't go by their first and middle name.
So John and Jane have a child, Junior. The child's last name is then [father's first last name] + [mother's first last name], making it Junior Smith Doe. Call the kid Junior Smith, everybody does.
Junior then meets June Philips Goldsmith and they have a child, July. Their child would then be July Smith Philips. In every day encounters, July would go simply as "July Smith". Note how the first last name is thus a paternal line. (The second last names too, in a way. Basically, women's last names were dropped with each generation, and the men's stayed.) In Spain, they've changed it so you can switch the order of maternal and paternal last names (meaning Junior and June can choose to register July as "July Philips Smith").
There. Now you know. (Or not, I may have explained this terribly.)
2. All the places you’ve lived
3. Your first best friend
4. Your childhood fears
5. What you were like in high school
6. Your favourite and least favourite subjects at school
7. Your first boyfriend or girlfriend
8. Your oldest hobby
9. Your sexuality
10. What you look for in a partner
11. Your kids, or your feelings about having kids
12. Your pets, past and present
13. Foods you love and foods you hate
14. What your life was like ten years ago
15. How much alcohol you drink
16. Your worst illness
17. What you do at work
18. A question or comment people should never make to you
19. The style of clothing you feel most comfortable in
20. Whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert
21. Who you have a crush on
22. A friendship you lost
23. Three achievements you’re proud of
24. Your political views
25. Your religious beliefs
26. Your perfect night out
27. Whether you like to plan ahead or be spontaneous
28. What you look for in a friend
29. Whether you’re a night owl or a morning lark
30. How you would like people to remember you
Links of the Day:
The Avengers:
capn_mactastic's Fic Lilo & Stitch & also LokiRandom:
ursulav's House with Bird Fee (unfinished story) ; Bluebeard's Wifetheweaselking's Novels where the villains win ; Ludmilla Tourichiva, 1975 Word Cup - Awesome gif ; Prequel, Or, Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure sets a new high bar for webcomics awesomeness todayDiscover Magazine's Richard Dawkins and Male Privilege
Racialicious' Obligatory Richard Dawkins Post
* W.H. Auden
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 08:27 pm (UTC)P.S.: In my head, I always pronounce your name as it would sound in Spanish, I don't know why. Comes more naturally for some reason. :D
P.P.S.: It was my dad who named me -- in honour of my mom, who is also called O. So much confusion to be had! -- whereas my mom wanted to name me Dina. Not sure which one I'd prefer to be honest. :D
no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 08:38 pm (UTC)You are awesome and I love you. And to me, you are squish. Mah squish. Because I love you.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 08:42 pm (UTC)Well, you're my darling then! *twirls you around*
no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 08:50 pm (UTC)That is an interesting name tradition and I had not heard of it before! Now I know more things about the world!
All this talk of name inheritance makes me think of the naming scheme of the elves in my infamous interspecies kissing porn - have I talked about this? Do you care? XD
no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 10:51 pm (UTC)Okay so, the main characters of said story are Alik and Thorn – Alik Telara Ceicess, an elf, and Fedor Thorntree, a human. (Later they will have a kid called Ceici Thorntree Alikai.)
Elves have only one gender, so they don't call their parents "father" and "mother", they call them "iatal" and "hiael", iiat and ayl for short. An elf's name is (usually) composed of three parts: a personal name and a derivative of each parent's personal name. I forget which one comes first, iatal or hiael, but which parent-word you use is based on the order in your name. Alik's parents are Itela Verkier and Ceici Laniri Mallas.
Which brings me to the special case! Sometimes, an elf has a child and doesn't want to admit who the other parent was. In that case, the kid only gets one surname, and the singular parent is their iiat. That's why Ceici T. A.'s name doesn't tell me what the ordering is - in their particular compromise of elf custom, Alik is little-Ceici's iiat because ey is her only elf parent, and Thorn is her papa. (Little Ceici is elf-to-female transgender, because I don't believe in making life easy for my characters. XD)
Also, to make things extra confusing, the same two parents can have two different kids with two different name orderings and be different parent-words to each of them. If Ceici L. M. and Itela had another kid and named em Hiam Ceiciri Telath (the kind of name derivative you use is based on the name position), then (assuming iiat comes first because that feels like the right way around to me right now) Itela would be Alik's iiat but Hiam's ayl, and Ceici L. M. would be Alik's ayl but Hiam's iiat.
I am sorry for the fact that little Ceici is named after her grandparent; it makes these examples even twistier. XD
Also, a cute historical note: name position used to be based on which parent gestated the kid, although I can't remember which one meant which. I think the gestating parent comes last and is the hiael. Why didn't I write this down while it was still fresh? No one will ever know. But now in this modern enlightened age (ha ha ha), the choice of name order is more arbitrary and the knowledge of which parent fulfilled which biological role is more private and less relevant.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 12:43 am (UTC)OMG I read the comments on one of those Dawkins links and it was not good for my blood pressure. It's like they need a questionnaire or something:
"Hey, guys, don't do this to women, it's creepy", do you respond with:
a) IKR?
b) Oh... I didn't know, I don't want to be creepy so I'll stop doing that.
c) WAAAAAAH HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A CREEPY SCHROEDINGER'S RAPIST?! I DEMAND THAT I DEFINE WHAT YOU FIND CREEPY OR THREATENING BECAUSE IGNORING YOUR FEELINGS ON THAT MATTER ISN'T CREEPY AT ALL!!!
You think of yourself as an intelligent guy, when faced with a situation you don't understand, do you:
a) find out more.
b) ask for help finding out more.
c) loudly announce your inability to understand by refusing to research any of the issues and yelling about it anyway.
Anyone who picks C for either question shall be beaten upside the head with a phone book until further notice.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 11:28 am (UTC)Have you or are you doing any sort of creative work for this world? Like, have you written anything or...? Because it feels like this is just the tip of the iceberg and you know what the whole iceberg looks like and show me the iceberg. *cuddles your awesome 'berg*
Basically though I just love your brain.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 11:46 am (UTC)/snuggles you
I could've sworn I showed you the interspecies kissing porn! I also have the very beginning and the very end of a book about the same characters - literally, I have two scenes from the start and the very end of the Climactic Battle Scene.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 12:58 pm (UTC)I also have the very beginning and the very end of a book about the same characters - *\o/* Book! You said book! Whoot! *cheers you on*
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 01:10 pm (UTC)That's not logic.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 02:49 pm (UTC)Basically, empathy, Sam, empathy! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGAIrocg8A#t=0m28s)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 03:21 pm (UTC)