h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My full name, (first name and surname) is unique.

There are only 172 other people with my first name with my spelling, and 180 with my first name with a varient spelling - which makes it odd that I am working with one of them!

Having been given an unusual first name, I can report that I loathed it as a child, and find it just about ok now. It did teach me grace though, when the same stupid stupid remark was made for the nty-nth time and I had to smile like it was original and witty. On the other hand, Like az, it has been a professional advantage to have a name which is a male name.

However, looking at my maiden name which I shared with only 72 others in the UK, and one which moreover was spelled differently from the way it was pronounced, and being asked my name was a tedious trauma. My maiden name is, however, a google whack, though not about me.

If I were naming a child I would look at names name which can be shortened in a variety of ways:

Alexandra - Alex - Alexia - Alexa - Lexie - Sandra - Sandy

Katherine - Kat - Kate - Katy - Kit - Kitty and so on.

Mind you, Katherine can be spelled so many ways (Kathryn, Catherine, Catharine, etc, etc etc), and I would therefore avoid it. It makes sense to have a name which can only be spelled one way. Unfortunately that is not so true these days, even for traditional names like Sean / Shaun or Stewart / Stuart or Jeffrey / Geoffrey.

Another thing I would tend to go for is a name which has the same initial in its abbreviated form, unlike Anthony / Tony, for example.

Jack, incidentally, is an 'abbreviation' for John. Dunno how that works.

I guess that I would have over-compensated for my own experiences, though.

Mind you, I quite like the idea of a child called McKenzie, but not a child of mine! So many names were originally adapted from surnames anyway, why not that one?

Aristocratic Romans used to number the boys, and give the girls all the same name. Anything has to be an improvement on that!

Ben (really my name, really a girl)

Is Jack not the Gaelic equivalent of John?

In the same way that Johann or Juan is?

B

No - James is the Scottish version of John. I think Seumas is the gaelic equivalent?

Jack is a diminutive of John. Which makes about as much sense as the diminutive Peggy, for Margaret.

And I've just discovered that Seoc is the Gaelic version of Jock which is the Scottish version of Jack.

http://www.savegaelic.org/page/names.php#s

No, Eoin is Gaelic for John; a lot of people think Sean is too, but not really - after the Normans came to Ireland, Sean developed as a bastardisation of Jean, the French version.

James and John are different names. I always thought the Scots versions of the two were Shamus and Iain respectively. You can hear the link between Iain and Juan easily enough.

B

Seamus is the Gaelic for James.

Good call. My bad.

B

Eoin is Irish gaelic for John

Being a teuchter, I only deal with the Scots stuff.

A young friend of ours was instructing his younger brother in etiquette at chess games. He advised that having introduced himself, he should then smile patiently while his opponent made a joke about their surname.

So is Ewen a variation of Eoin or a completely different name?

My dear dead Grandma was called Peggy. I only found out when i was about 15 that her real name was Margaret. How *do* you get Peggy from Margaret?????????????

Peggy from Margaret is a bit of a mystery, but it is a recognised nickname/contraction.

One of my great-great-aunts was called Patience.

PS Kylie in April? Pah, I'm going to see Napalm Death in June.

mmmm...Kylie!!!!

April the 27th to be exact!!!
Never heard of who your going to see Dr Dreadful!!???

Napalm Death: Grindcore band from Birmingham ('cept their vocalist ain't a proper Brummie because he supports Villa).

....and Grindcore means???........
Gawd i'm sooo cultured!!

Grindcore: a little bit of death metal, a little bit of punk and a whole lot of social conscience.