'A rose by any other name will smell as sweet'
This quote is from the love sonnet of Romeo to Juliet. It meant to say that the names of things do not matter, only what things are.
Does it apply when it comes to names for our kids?
Recently I came across a name, Le'Maine. for a baby girl I would assume? Complete with an apostrophe in the name. I tend to think that it is quite strange to have any form of apostrophes or hyphens for that matter in a name. Le Maine is one of the traditional provinces of France, and is translated to 'the lake'. Maybe I am just being too judgemental, it could be that the parents had their honeymoon in this place and got so enamoured by it, that they decide to name their kid after it. Hopefully, the parents are not following the trend of replacing the first syllabus of the name to make it sound more unique, like 'Le'maine' instead of the traditional name of 'Germaine'.
Anyhow, I saw this name from a picture of a handmade hat that a local crafter uploaded on FB.
Picture this, child wears the hat, then a french person from Le Maine or is familar with place comes along and sees the child with the hat.
French : Le Maine, it is a beautiful place…
If parent does not know what the french is trying to imply, he/she gives a polite smile.
French : That's a nice hand-made hat, you must have got it from Le Maine. What's you lovely little girl's name?
Parent : It's Le'Maine.
If I were the french person, I would have mutter something like, "Oh..it's a unique name!" or something to that effect in an effort to cover up my surprise.
This is akin to naming your child New York or Beijing, or there's the more commonly accepted ones like Brooklyn or Georgia. I don't understand what goes through a parent's mind when they think of unique, but strange or outlandish names for their children. Do you really want your kid to stand out so badly? I would rather go with names that are commonly heard of for a peace of mind.
I wonder if the parent actually spare a thought for the child when he/starts to be tease mercilessly by other kids for their unique names or when they become an adult? Having a normal name like Rachel is not spared being teased by other kids. I used to be called 'radio' or 'ratio' when we started learning all all about ratios in primary school. Maybe people will likely not forget their name if they are named, 'Rainbow Tan' or 'Hero Ng', but how much credibility you will get with names like these?
As for Kyle's name, it does often gets mispronounced. I often hear versions like 'Kay-lee", "Kale', 'Cawl'. Instead of getting irate, I do find it quite amusing and will attempt to correct the mispronouciation. I will tell them, it's like 'aisle' but with a 'K' in front of it. It's interesting how a name like Kyle, which is not that uncommon, will seem a challenge to pronounce in the local context. What more an unique name like 'Le'Maine'?
Hb and I named our son Kyle because we liked the sound of it, 'Kyle' is of Gaelic origin and the meaning of the name is "narrow, straight". It would have little meaning by itself, but his second name is Christian, which means "follower of Christ". We hope that like his name, he will always remain in Christ and will take the straight and narrow path which leads to life.
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:14
We are always reminded with Kyle's name of the two paths in life, the straight and narrow which leads to life, and the wide, broad gate which leads to destruction. It's a sombering reminder at times, but it works well for us to keep ourselves in check.
What about you? Are names important for you and how did you go about choosing the name for your child?
I do think names have a significance because it’ll remain with us for a life time. Unless of course, one chooses to change his/her name along the way, which I thought would be quite a big hassle as many people would be confused. Take for example my cousin who have changed her english name multiple times, sometimes, I can’t even remember what her name is lol.
I agree that one shouldn’t try to be outstanding for outstanding sake in terms of picking a name for a child. I have also come across name such as Je’taime for a girl which I thought was a little odd as a name for a child then again, to each her own.
We named our children after much prayer and consideration. Timothy means honouring God, truly, we hope our son would grow up honouring God in everything he thinks, says and does. Also during the time when we were picking a name for our son, I had a strong inclination towards this name and can’t seem to move onto other boys’ name we have listed. As for Joyce, we had so much joy having our first child and wanted our second one to be a joy to all around her as well; in addition, we hope that she will remain joyful in the Lord everyday of her life
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After seeing these strange names lately, I am very thankful for my ordinary and common name…haha
Yeah u are right about some parents do name their children outstanding names just to stand out from the crowd of common names. How about this one, Reuter, as in Reuters News Services? I have come across that name before..and I found it quite strange when I first heard about it.
Oh yes! Choosing names were crucial man! Living in a multilingual country, the last thing I want is to have my child’s name sound like ‘something else’ in another language. So picking the ‘right’ names were already done even before the making baby plan was in process. *giggle* We are just so kiasu!
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So true. Must think carefully when choosing names, its best not to choose the take the route of being unique for unique sake…but I guess these days, some parents do think quite different.
It’s so true that our names hold significance to who we are.
We chose the name Sophie for my daughter and it means wisdom. That’s our wish for her to grow up in wisdom and also be blessed with the wisdom of the Lord. Her Chinese name, 佳宣, means good announcement which was how we felt when we had her and also that she’ll be a bearer of the Good News
.-= Susan´s last blog ..I Don’t Know How She Does It =-.
Sophie is a lovely and meaningful name, it was in fact one of my shortlisted names that I had in the past when looking for names for my child
If you remember, some time back a baby was named LIKE after the Like button on Facebook. Beat that for absurd!
In any case, thanks for sharing the history behind Kyle’s name. I did 2 very thorough posts on my kids’ names too
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Oh yes, I heard about it before. English must have been not the parents’ first language…it is just like how I have seen very strange English names amongst Taiwanese and HongKongers as well.
Haha! Its like someone naming their kid ‘somerset’ or ‘tampines’! I always go for meaning of names coz I want pple to call out blessings over my kids. I.e the name ‘joy’ for a girl, as her name is being called they are confessing joyfulness over her, or even the name ‘grace’. Neither are the names of my girl if you’re wondering! I do cringe when proud parents declare their kids ‘unique’ names. I simply don’t know how to react.
I agree with your attitude when it comes to names, important to find those with good meaning for the child.
Names have their own evolution starting from Bible ages ’till today and still Bible names are the most popular today – wonder why.
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Well, my take on it is this. Most people who use bible names for their kids are Christians, although there are also non-Christians as well. For the former, the meaning of these names chosen have personal significance for the parents,as most have that conviction in God and the bible that they believe it, and these names originate from there.
The names given to the children nowadays do stressed me out at times. The pronouciation can be a challeng and it does look bad if I got it all wrong. =p And it always puzzle me whenever I come across a odd name or super difficult to pronouce one that get my tongue all tangle up!
A name holds a person identity and brings significance meaning to one’s life. Whatever reason the parent might have to choose that name for their child, I just hope the little one won’t have to live with the teasing and hassle to keep correcting others with the pronouciation.
.-= Rachel´s last blog ..The Six & Three-To-Be =-.
Names are indeed important for anyone…really so much to consider when naming a child!
I think Kyle is a nice and rather unique name. Thanks for sharing the significance behind it.
We went about choosing our kids’ names in a rather systematic way. My hub’s name begins with V and mine, J. So we decided to name our first child with a name beginning with V and our second, J.
So #1 is called Vera, which means faith and truth, in russian and latin respectively.
We named #2 Javier, which means bright and brilliant. Though most people would think immediately of intelligence, I think we were thinking more in context of Matthew 5: You are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Our hope is for him to shine brightly for Christ.
Great names for your kids!