Tenacity Smith

[asakiyume]

You know how at one time it was common to give children names that were desirable (from the parents' perspective) virtues? Patience, constance, chastity, and so on?

I was thinking, what modern-day desirable virtues might make good names? How about adaptability? Generosity? Valor? Indefatigability? Equanimity? Generosity Burkowitz. Indefatigability Choi. Equanimity Alawi. Valor Forrest :-)

Some virtues take more than one word to articulate. Speaker-of-truth-to-power Johnson. Dispeller-of-bad-moods Tanaka.

Well, right now my name is feeder-of-the-hungry. I'm off to cook supper.

Comments

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I once had a customer whose first name was Lawyer. I wonder what his mama wanted him to be? ;)
(He was a pro football player, BTW)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Career names are a whole nother possibility. Amusing possibilities when you combine a career personal name with a(n old-fashioned) career family name: Teacher Potter. Linguist Fisher.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Some are rare but real names:

Charisma Carpenter. I know someone who knows a "Gentle." Comfort Fedoke.

There must be real-life Serenitys, Justices, and Peaces.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

In my immediate environs there are a Serena and a Charity.

Charisma's a good one.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

Colin Dexter's cranky yet intuitive Inspector Morse never divulged his first name, and in one of the late books we find out why: his parents had named him Endeavor...

Still better than Faith or Charity, methinks.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I like Faith, Charity, **and** Endeavor :-)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

These days, I'd vote for Connected, Liked and Followed...

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

LinkedIn! Though that might be copyrighted.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Chun Woo's name, like all Auspicious Korean names, is replete with meaning. Chun means sky or heaven. Woo means good or great. The numerological meaning of name as a whole signifies that Chun Woo will be a contributor to the well-being of the universe, though he's not likely to get rich. (Mrs. Park says, "That doesn't matter for Christians!" She would like Chun Woo to be a benefactor to the universe and also get rich.)

I think that my secret name is Whimsicality.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Whimsicality ♥ ♥ ♥

It's always fun to ask people in Japan about the meanings of the characters in their names--though these days a lot of people have names that are just written with hiragana. When we lived there, my older son (younger one wasn't born yet, at that time) had a friend whose name was written with the characters meaning "great radiance"

[maryvictoria.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I have the feeling that if certain parents were absolutely truthful, they'd name their kids things like GodthinksI'mright Jones. Or Makeslotsofmoney Patel.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

"GodthinksI'mright" really made me laugh. Alas, you've probably got a point.

[selidor]

Aroha is a pretty common Maori name. 'Love' is kinda close, but 'generosity' and 'mercy' are also overtones in the meaning.

I always thought Sojourner Truth had a truly impressive name.

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

Sojourner Truth was not born Sojourner Truth, so there is hope for all of us.

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

My name could be Overworked and Overenthusiastic. At times, Overwhelmed. I'll just go by Over, shall I?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I was going to recommend something like "Over all" or "Over everything" but the latter risks being said with Valley Girl intonations (I'm so over everything...) and the first could sound like an opening phrase or else too domineering.

Hey hey, speaking of Valley Girl intonations, how about "So Over"

You could have a rotating name--Overenthusiastic for when you're just about handling everything, and Overwhelmed when it gets to be too much.

[aefenglommung.livejournal.com]

One of the Parliaments around the time of the English Civil War is called the Barebones Parliament after one of its Members, Praisegod Barbon or Barebone. (It had no achievements or events to make it memorable, but this backbencher's name has always stood out.)

And as I recall, another Puritan Parliamentarian of that era had the first name of Sword-of-the-Lord (his last name escapes me for now).

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

There's a Sword-of-the-Lord in Poul Andersen's Midsummer Tempest. (And yes, he's a seventeenth-century Puritan.)

[aefenglommung.livejournal.com]

Then there's the story of the preacher who named his three dogs Shirley, Goodness and Mercy ("will follow me all the days of my life . . .")

[zdenka]

That's adorable.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I knew some folks who were going to name their daughter Rosamond Fortitude. Their friends talked them into a more accepted middle name. Now I wish they'd stuck to it, because the name would fit the person, who is grown and awesome enough to really wear that name well.

Peace, Serenity, Grace, Faith, Patience, I love those old names still.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I know a number of people named Grace, and I definitely know a Serena.

I love those old names too!

[zdenka]

I am constantly tempted to name my non-existent daughter Sophrosyne (Ancient Greek for moderation/self-restraint/self-control). I also like Hope (though I might put it into Italian, as Speranza), Constance, and Sophia. It is one of my sillier pet peeves that I probably couldn't name a child some variation on Fidel(e) without people associating it with communism.

I used to know someone who threatened to name her future child Theodicy.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I've *heard* of the name Sophronia--now where did I run across it, I wonder--but I never knew the meaning! Thanks for sharing.

I bet if you gave the name an Italian twist--Fidelio--you could get away with it.

Amadeus always struck me as an awesome name. Theodicy makes me laugh (or tremble?)

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I am very fond of Admonition Radcliffe, of the Devonshire Radcliffes. There is a painting of her at the Denver Art Museum. The name was used for several generations in her family.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Oh, nice.

Nine

[sovay]

I rather like Equanimity Berkowitz.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Song!

Nine

[westerling.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, the Molly dancers were at an English Country Dance, and somehow we started writing our nametags out with those kinds of virtue-names, except they were a commentary on the person's nature, i.e. the opposite of. So now our team sports people named, "Patience" "Temperance" "Chsatity" "Virtue" "Silence", and I was nicknamed "Obedience". We puzzled the genuinely nice country dancers, who just couldn't quite figure out what had happened. We all have badges now with our old-fashioned virtue names on them.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Excellent!! LOL, I fear to meet Temperance, and I guess Silence must be quite the conversationalist.

[amysisson.livejournal.com]

...what modern-day desirable virtues might make good names?

Tolerance.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh man, you are so right.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I like Joan Aiken's long-suffering Dutiful Pentitence Casket. As Dido Twite says, "Croopus ... whoever tied that handle to you musta been dicked in the knob."

Nine

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It's the "Casket" part that seals the deal--though that poor kid is pretty well sunk with the "Dutiful Penitence" part, too.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Valor...I like that name!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Definitely Definitely.

[aefenglommung.livejournal.com]

Then there was the realtors' son born when I was a boy (true story). The family name was Steele and his parents named their son Richard Stainless.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Nooooooooooooo!

That said, my older daughter's classmate is named Sandy Beach. I could always make my daughter roll her eyes by asking if the classmate's brother was named Rocky.

[deponti.livejournal.com]

Sanskrit has such lovely names for those "compound concepts"...You would be "annapoorni" or "anna pradAyini"...

I couldn't help remembering the comic strip, "Modesty Blaise", which my male friends referred to as "Modesty Ablaze".

But I cannot understand why some parents would call their daughter Virgin, even if she was named after Mary (yes, I know two of them!)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes, "Virgin" doesn't bode well for grandchildren, does it?

What do "Poorni" and "PradAyini" mean?

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

Nice! What everyone else said about linked/connected. So many things that some people consider virtues are not considered virtues by others...

Glammed
Awesome
Self-esteem
Aware
Pride
Slender
Sexy
Wicked
Cut
Fit

Could see all of those as rebirth-of-the-trait-names trend, even if I wouldn't like most of them.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Self-esteem--ouch!!

"Glammed" makes me laugh. "Awesome" I can well believe has actually been used. And man, you are so right about those other ones. We could add Pumped and Built to the list.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

And now I have been entertaining myself looking up Puritan names on Google...

I rather like Peaceable, Perseverance and Providence.

I'm not too sure about Dust, Delivery and Discipline.

I think naming your child Pardon might be confusing. And I think naming your child Continent or Fly-Fornication is just plain cruel.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

If Fly-Fornication doesn't take up a life of piracy, then he's doomed.

[tltrent.livejournal.com]

I've kept lots of Victorian names about for the sheer love of them...one girl's middle name was Fear. I couldn't help swiping that. I also remember once watching a show about the weirdest names, and one woman had named her child Zippetydoodah. LOL. I think Zipporah would have sufficed!

speaking of Zippitydoodah

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I've got a character in my current project named Jiminy.

Fear is an awesome--in the true sense of the word--name.

[avalonestel.livejournal.com]

I personally like Valor a lot. X3 (And feeder-of-the-hungry!)

I think it's cool that a lot of names have meanings like that, and people today just aren't as aware of what their names mean. Like my mom's name means "helper of mankind". I always liked that.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that about your mom's name. I'll remember that :-)

[dudeshoes.livejournal.com]

Kindness, Empathy. ... Probably not a good idea to set a child's agenda that way, though. You can end up being rather surprised by the results. I remember thinking that Sonny and Cher were being kind of weird to name a baby Chastity. It's bad enough if you use a relative's name that you don't especially admire but feel like you have to honor. You might not treat your innocent kid very well. Names without too many associations could be best.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I always wondered about Chastity Bono's naming. I wondered because although there are plenty of people in the United States who might name a child that out of a genuine desire for her to be chaste, I wouldn't have suspected Sonny and Cher to be among them--and so it struck me as, I don't know, almost ironic? And who names a kid with an ironic name? But maybe it was a grandmother's name, or something...