The Sword and Laser discussion
Real People Named After Fictional Characters
Robin Williams' daughter is named after Zelda, the princess in "The Legend of Zelda."I have a friend with last name Walker who, if he has a son, wants to name him Luke Sky. I would think he's kidding but I know how crazy people can be with names; my oldest nephew's name still makes me shake my head (even though he's not named after a character of any sort).
Yeah, celebrities do that. Nic Cage's real name is Nicholas Coppola, but he changed his name to avoid being compared to his uncle Francis, taking his stage name from his favorite comic book character, Powerman: Luke Cage. Then he went and named his son Kal-El.But I've never met someone like that in real life before.
This one was especially surprising, given all the Star Wars hype happening currently.
I went to high school with a girl named Perelandra (more commonly known as Pear). And yes, she had a sister named Narnia.
Sean wrote: "I went to high school with a girl named Perelandra (more commonly known as Pear). And yes, she had a sister named Narnia."That has to border on child abuse.
I went to camp with a girl named Arwen.
Trike wrote: "That has to border on child abuse."Enh. She didn't even have the weirdest name in my circle of friends. There was Gwydion (AKA Guido), Lenore, Rawls, Cyrus, Fabian, Sass(afras), Tor, and you don't even want to know about the nicknames (we had a Cooter, a Hussy and a Bigguns...)
I have a friend who named her son Jedi. I tried to give my son the middle name of Lazarus, after Lazarus Long, but my wife said no.
I'm tired, so I may be screwing this up, but I think I know some people who used old country music stars for there kids middle names. First names they kept normal (well at least normal for this generation).And I always did think it was cool for Demi and Bruce to name there daughter Scout. Decent enough of a name, and a cool character to boot.
I had a mature student at the college I worked at who at some point in his colourful past had changed his legal name by deed poll to Obi Wan Kenobi.He had to fill out the enrolment forms twice, because the admission officer thought it was a joke the first time round.
Leia's a good handle, and a real name, I think.
I work in a pharmacy but haven't had any pop culture names that I can recall. I have seen some truly awful names people have saddled their children with though. Like, truly terrible, borderline child abuse because they'll be made fun of for the rest of their lives.
I was in a store sometime in the early 90s and a woman was trying to corral/discipline her three daughters. The oldest daughter was named Mercedes, which seemed rather old school to me considering her sister was named Lexis... but then my heart sank when she said the third girl's name: Infinity.She'd named them after car brands: Mercedes, Lexus and Infiniti.
Darren wrote: "Leia's a good handle, and a real name, I think."It's the Greek spelling of the biblical Leah. Luke is right out of the bible as well.
John (Taloni) wrote: "Darren wrote: "Leia's a good handle, and a real name, I think."It's the Greek spelling of the biblical Leah. Luke is right out of the bible as well."
He was a total rehash of Matt. I mean, c'mon, get some original ideas, dude.
::: watches sky for lightning bolts :::
Trike wrote: "I was in a store sometime in the early 90s and a woman was trying to corral/discipline her three daughters. The oldest daughter was named Mercedes, which seemed rather old school to me considering ..."That's kind of hilarious.
My wife works in a pharmacy as well in a very depressed area and the names she comes across just blow my mind.Worse one was when my wife was mispronouncing a woman's daughters name and the whole pharmacy got yelled at. It was spelled A-Ya and they were pronouncing it Eye-yah and the woman flipped out screaming they were stupid because her daughters name was OBVIOUSLY pronounced... A Dash yuh....thats right you were supposed to say the dash.
also came across between us...Master, Sparkles, Cinderella, Two Mill, im forgetting a bunch.
But also have heard Luke and Leia as siblings before.
I was named after the 50's tv and radio show character, Sky Kinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_King
Paul wrote: "My wife works in a pharmacy as well in a very depressed area and the names she comes across just blow my mind.Worse one was when my wife was mispronouncing a woman's daughters name and the whole ..."
Yes, I've seen the names where you pronounce the dash. So bad. We had one recently names Pryns (Prince). America needs to adopt naming rules like New Zealand. There are certain names banned and I think any punctuation is forbidden.
my oldest son Max is named after the main character from "Where the Wild Things Are", my middle son is Logan, named after Wolverine, my daughter is named Tully, named after the editor (played by Alice Krieg/The Borg Queen) that discovers the Mickey Rourke/Charles Bukowski character in the movie "Bar Fly"
Fresno Bob wrote: "my oldest son Max . . ." - That is awesome. I was the manager of a restaurant in Southern California almost 15 years ago and hired a bartender in his mid-twenties named "Strider". Our interview consisted of about 3 questions, and then ended with something along the lines of, "So, your parents were big LOTR fans, huh?" He said yes, and relaxed a bit because he was obviously tired of explaining his name. Then I said "me too....you're hired." One of our best employees ever.
I'm a character-named kid, not the one you'd think though. I was 11 when The Little Mermaid came out. Named for the faerie in The Tempest. My daughter suffered the same fate, Aramina, from Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. She was the girl who heard dragons. It's cool though, we call her Mina, and she loves her name.
One of my nephews is named Otto. His middle name is Maddock (not a family name). Our last name is pronounced "pilot." Yeah...
I once met a clerk whose name badge read "Siobhan." I asked her if her parents liked the soap Ryan's Hope, and she looked stunned; I was the first person who got it. Which surprises me a LOT; that was a pretty popular show for a while. (Pronounced shi-VONNE.)
Serendi wrote: "I once met a clerk whose name badge read "Siobhan." I asked her if her parents liked the soap Ryan's Hope, and she looked stunned; I was the first person who got it. Which surprises me a LOT; that ..."It's a traditional Irish name.
terpkristin wrote: "One of my nephews is named Otto. His middle name is Maddock (not a family name). Our last name is pronounced "pilot." Yeah..."One of my friends in high school had a sister who was named Willa Rose Suter.
I work with a couple who named their newly born son Dax, who I think is fairly deep in the Star Wars universe. When the dad was called on it, he just looked kind of chagrined at having to flash his geek card.
Serendi wrote: "I once met a clerk whose name badge read "Siobhan." I asked her if her parents liked the soap Ryan's Hope, and she looked stunned; I was the first person who got it. Which surprises me a LOT; that ..."That doesn't seem like an odd name to me. I have a cousin and a former classmate named Siobhan. Then again, a lot of Irish where I'm from.
Mod
Star Wars might be the modern day version of the bible, as far as naming conventions go. ;-) Probably not.
In my day a kid with an unusual name would have stood out. Now anything goes, within reason.
I know Siobhan is an Irish name; the part that surprised me is there weren't more Ryan's Hope fans who recognized the show as a possible source. The clerk confirmed that her Mom did indeed name her after the character.First few years of the show I was obsessed with it...
Serendi wrote: "I know Siobhan is an Irish name; the part that surprised me is there weren't more Ryan's Hope fans who recognized the show as a possible source. The clerk confirmed that her Mom did indeed name her..."Im not sure what Ryans Hope is exactly Ive never watched a daytime soap in my life or would I, but the name appears in Orphan Black and I believe The Iron Druid series and my wifes families are from Scotland and Ireland so the name is pretty common to them.
Tassie Dave wrote: "Star Wars might be the modern day version of the bible, as far as naming conventions go. "Darth Judy.
R2Deepak.
Finn No-not-from-Adventure-Time-from-Star-Wars.
In South Africa/Lesotho there is the surname Ts'olo. You name a kid Hans and voila, one space rogue.
If I had more kids Now I would probably burden them with Literary or geeky names my two boys are named after sports things :) but I have always done it to my pets. Have 3 Cats now that I themed Kaiju, Katana, Kirito and they dont complain :)I have talked to people online with children named Ripley, Peter Parker (first and Middle), Brothers named Duncan and Conner specifically due to Highlander, I have a friend who named her son Legion Yeah the bible version, and Kevin Smith Named his Daughter Harley Quinn Smith.
Shoot, I totally forgot I was named after that Bewitched show... Like a whole whack of Darrens from the 70s.
You can get away with a strange first name, but I think it's prudent to give the kid a dead boring middle name as a backup if you do that. Galadriel Mary. Maximilian Robert. That sort of thing.
Joanna wrote: "You can get away with a strange first name, but I think it's prudent to give the kid a dead boring middle name as a backup if you do that. Galadriel Mary. Maximilian Robert. That sort of thing."Agreed - one or the other has to be boring. I want to name my son Christian King (like Jesus haha) - but my wife wouldn't let me name him Christian, so it will be his middle name (Aiden Christian King, with the nice initials ACK). And Aiden was an Irish god of the underworld, so he can be king of the underworld, while I am king of the sky :P
But I suppose joke names while funny for parents can be downright cruel for kids, so I should listen to my wife :)
Funny story - I told my mom, and she said my dad (who is now deceased) had also wanted to name me Christian, but she also but the kibosh on it.
Sky wrote: "Joanna wrote: "You can get away with a strange first name, but I think it's prudent to give the kid a dead boring middle name as a backup if you do that. Galadriel Mary. Maximilian Robert. That sor..."I like "Christian" as a set of sounds, but it kind of puts pressure on the kid to be...well, Christian. A pressure that I think is unfair. Christopher means "Christ bearer", but there's enough distance on that meaning that I don't think most Christophers think about it.
My cousin is named Krista Lynn. Run them together.A neighbor of a high school buddy was also named Christa; turns out her full name was (probably still is) Christa Chandra Leers. I am not kidding.
If you look in the Dayton, Ohio, phone book, under W you'll find Gandolf T. Wizard. He's been in the book for at least 35 years. We called him once back in the 80s and asked for Bilbo. The woman who answered laughed and said they get that a lot. She wouldn't tell us why he has that name, though. Witness relocation to protect him from Saruman, perhaps.
Joanna wrote: "I like "Christian" as a set of sounds, but it kind of puts pressure on the kid to be...well, Christian."Becoming Christian was certainly not the intent. The intent was more one of blasphemy, plus I liked the alliteration. This is a good case in point of potential misunderstanding :)
While we are on the subject of baby names, I've been looking at nursery themes. I found one lady who was doing a kraken/steampunk nursery. That's pretty awesome. My idea of a Lovecraftian nursery was rejected though I can still sprinkle around some Cthulhu plushies.
I almost forgot that my friends named there boy James Olson. It took me a while to think Jimmy Olson. When I asked my friends, while the boy was a few months old, his father told me he hadn't thought of the Superman connection. I wonder if that will haunt the kid, or if that is to odd a reference these days. They do still consistently call him James, and he is several years old now.
We named our daughter Ronja, after the book
(Ronja robbers daughter), which is a popular childrens book here in Germany. Everyone gets the connection, but it's not that unusual a name here.
terpkristin wrote: "One of my nephews is named Otto. His middle name is Maddock (not a family name). Our last name is pronounced "pilot." Yeah..."That's... yeah... unfortunate.
Trike wrote: "She was born in September of '77, so yes, she's named after the character."The one and only time I had to check someone's I.D. as part of a job related function, I noticed she was born on May 25th, 1977. How cool is that? Born on Star Wars Wednesday. I should've asked her if she was a fan of the movie.
Trike wrote: "Has anyone else met someone named after a fictional character?"
A Radio Shack I used to shop at had an employee with Tony Stark on his name tag. It took me forever to figure out why that name sounded familiar.
I was born on 5/24/77, and by pure coincidence, my best friend growing up was born on 5/25/77. The funny thing was, I was the bigger Star Wars fan, and he was a bigger Star Trek fan. It was also cool to hang out and celebrate our birthdays on Memorial Day weekend.
I work in a NICU so I see a bunch of names parents are naming their kids these days. I have seen a few baby girls named Khaleesi and I always wonder...do they realize that's the character's title, not her name?
Both of my daughters are named after characters in my book series, though the names are fairly typical (Audrei and Deirdre). :)
Jessica wrote: "I work in a NICU so I see a bunch of names parents are naming their kids here days. I have seen a few baby girls named Khaleesi and I always wonder...do they realize that's the character's title, n..."It's not that different that naming a baby "Princess", though, isn't it? And it falls off the tongue nicely. Not that I'd name any child of mine "Princess", at least not in English. It's a little too cute.
I agree, Khaleesi doesn't sound half bad to me, but I just wonder if the parents realize that about it. If they do, great! If not, then, well...obviously they haven't actually read the books, I guess. Or paid close enough attention to the show.
I knew an Anakin. He was as likable as his namesake.
My daughter is named Luna Kathryn. Luna for Luna Lovegood and Kathryn for Captain Janeway from Star Trek Voyager.
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Starcrossed (other topics)Howl’s Moving Castle (other topics)
Ronja Räubertochter (other topics)
Perelandra (other topics)
Perelandra (other topics)
Until tonight.
While at the ER (everything is fine, excellent docs sorted things out; no, it had nothing to do with my fiction addiction) the nurse was named "Leia".
Here's proof:
I said to her, "Has it been annoying lately to have your name?" She laughed and said it hadn't been too bad. "I just tell people I'm a princess," she added. She said it was worse when she was a kid and in college. She was born in September of '77, so yes, she's named after the character.
Has anyone else met someone named after a fictional character?