Tag Archives: Name

Unfortunate Character Names

Posted on by
15

Welcome to the Ignorant Historian! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This is the first time I’m participating in Top Ten Tuesday.  There have been some great topics in the past, but I’ve never been proactive enough to jump in.  Until today!

Today’s topic is the top 10 most unfortunate character names.  Since I’ve been writing for NaNoWriMo, character names have been something that I’ve been thinking about a lot.  For my novel, I purposely picked out names for three of my characters that have some meaning to them.  The others, are just ones that sound right and fit the time period(s).  Except I kept picking out names that started with vowels, and I realized that would be *really* confusing, so I had to do some rearranging.

So what names have stood out to me as unfortunate in others’ works?  Here are 10 in the order I thought of them:

1. Uriah Heep (David Copperfield by Charles Dickens). Actually, I think this name really fits him, though it’s ugly.  I love how Dickens picks names that you can help but remember.

2.  Katniss (Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins). When you’re writing a futuristic book, you can kind of pick any names you want.  I  get that (my novel is set in 2100), and that’s fun.  Katniss’s name has some meaning…but at the same time, it could have been something pretty and still have been given the same meaning.  I love the rest of the names Collins picks out (especially Prim!), but this one is a fail for me.

3.  Blue van Meer (Special Topics of Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl). Love the book, but don’t like the protagonist’s name.  It’s just too uppity sounding for a character that’s not uppity.

4.  Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky). I like Russian literature.  Russian names, not so much.  Though I dislike even more when the translator anglicizes the names…tried to listen to a recording one time of Anna Karenina that had done that, and I had to translate them back into Russian names to remember who was who.  Still, Raskolnikov has always been particularly hard for me to remember.

5.  Elfride (A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy). My apologizes to any of my readers named Elfride, but that’s one ugly name.  And she’s the one character in all of literature that I’ve most related to.  Sigh.

6.  Papa (The Shack by William Young). There is all sorts of things wrong with this book, but one of the problems just has to be the name of this character.

7.  Major Major Major Major (Catch-22 by Joseph Heller). Who am I kidding–the chapter bearing his name is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever read.  But as a person, of course, Major was definitely unforunately named.

8.  Reynard Muldoon, aka Reynie (Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart). Most of the names in this series are spot on (Ledroptha Curtain as the antagonist, Constance Contraire as the contrary, yet dependable toddler).  Not so sure about the main boy, Reynie, though.

9.  Bella (Twilight by Stephenie Meyer). This is only unfortunate in that Bella is a beautiful name (obviously)…but it’s now ruined.  Now when I think of the name “Bella” I think whiny and weak.  Thanks.

10.  Fanny Price (Mansfield Park by Jane Austen). No, you know what, she may deserve the name “Fanny.”

Out of Oblivion: Plucky Ronnica

Posted on by
7

Which do you think I should have chosen?

December 16, 2005

Here is a selection of user names MSN offered when the ones I entered were unavailable:

Gyrate_thrower

tilled_agate

InstalledChain

WarpedOhio3

WoodyHyperion3

Varyingpage

ComplicitEight

caustative_star

haywirebeatle3

BlaringSpark

JeweledFawn9

Loverly_Hornet

draughtjoker6

unbated_mussel

PremedZebra3

Plucky_ronnica

Any of those sound like me? If you interested, apparently they are available.

FQF: How is it Friday Already?

Posted on by
8

1.  Should juveniles be tried as adults if they commit murder?

This is SUCH a hard question. I think in almost all cases, youths know that murder is very wrong. But do they always recognize the consequences of their actions (I’m not talking about the punishment, but the finality of death and the impact that has on others)? No. I suppose it would depend on the situation. I don’t like the idea of minors serving time in adult prisons, nor do I think that they should merely be released when they are 18 or 21.

2.  Would you rather teach a young child to read or have to learn again for yourself?

I would NOT like to learn how to read again, since it’s harder for adults. Plus, that would mean I couldn’t read while I was re-learning. I would like to teach a child to read…I LOVE to teach and want to share the world of books to children.

3.  Name 1 thing you love about being an adult:

Driving (and the freedom associated with it).

4.  If you had been named according to your personality what would your name be?

Lola Vavoom (JUST KIDDING…that’s a minor character’s name in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series).   I’ve always thought that Rebecca would have fit me (a name my parents had considered). When I was little I always thought Naomi Ruth Russell would be an awesome nom de plume (no, I wouldn’t have used the French back then, but I like to now!), but I definitely don’t think so now.  I also relate a lot to Hannah in the Bible, so that’s another option. Though really, Ronnica sums me up quite well.

5.  What texture irritates you?

Velvet.

That’s Not My Name

Posted on by
22

name plates

Right now I’m listening to the song that is the inspiration of this post (so catchy!).  As I’ve been out of the office most of this week, I’ve met quite a few people.  What’s a common subject that comes up when I’m meeting someone new?

My name.

Yes, Ronnica is my name from birth.  I actually really like it (along with my equally unusual middle name), but that doesn’t make it easy.  I’m named after my father, Ron.  Besides, my dad, his siblings, and my brother and I all have R names (goes with our last name).

Every time I go to Panera, I have to look at the receipt just to see what exactly was the name they entered for me.  (Side note: yesterday I tried their roast beef asiago sandwich for the first time…I’ve been missing out!)  ”Veronica” is the most common name substitute, but “Monica” and “Rhonda” occasionally show up.

Even if people get what my name is, they’re likely to forget the second N.  So close, but still not right.  Even if people have known me for a while, they’ll still ask me if it’s really short for Veronica.  I guess people think I’m just trying to be cute.

I suppose my own name “issues” is why I try so hard to get others’ names right.  I try especially hard with the little kiddies, even the ones who I’ve never had (that always gets to them, hehe).

Do you have a name that people always get wrong, mispronounce, or misspell?  What’s the weirdest misinterpretation you’ve gotten?

Photo by Eugene Hood Photo

30 Questions

Posted on by
9

1. Where was the very last place you went besides your house?

Church, where I had a lot of fun playing with a bunch of preteen girls.  I’m going to miss those girls.

2. What are you doing tonight?

Chillaxing in front of the TV…does that make me seem more real?  See, I don’t spend all my free time in books.

3. Who last texted you?

Jen.

4. Do you have a secret that you’ve never told anyone?

Yes.

5. Do you get mad easily?

Not really, but sometimes if I’m stressed.

6. Do you talk about your feelings or hide them?

HIDE.  But I have done better in recent years of processing them through journaling. 

7. Do you prefer warm or cold weather?

Give me 100-degree dry heat any day over 32 and snowy.

8. Who was the last person you were in a car with?

Jen, going to Blockbuster.

9. What color are your eyes?

They once were described as poopy brown but a particularly unkind guy friend.  They are pretty light for brown eyes, with speaks of green and yellow in them.

10. Have you ever given up on someone but then went back to them later?

Oh yeah, story of my high school relationships.

11. Have you ever thrown your cell phone in anger?

Nah, I’m not really one to throw/punch/kick.  I DO clench up and tear up. 

12. Has anyone told you a secret lately that you aren’t allowed to tell anyone?

A few preteens, haha. 

13. Honestly, if you could go back six months and change something, would you?

I can’t think of anything, so no.

14. Are you wearing any clothes that don’t belong to you?

Nope.

15. Do you have a lot on your mind at the moment?

Not really.  As far as seasons of life go, I’m in a pretty stable one.  Of course, that could change any day.

16. What side of the bed do you sleep on?

I have a twin, and believe it or not, I prefer it.  I like to always be touching at least one edge of the bed.  It’s not like I’m going to be inviting anyone into my bed anytime soon, anyway.

17. What is your favorite thing to shop for?

Books.  Or maybe shoes.  Hmm, I would love a big shopping spree at a book/shoe store.

18. Who knows you better than you know yourself?

There’s a few people that might, I’m not sure.

19. What are you doing this summer?

Nothing different.  No trips at all planned, due to lack of cash and vacation days (saving them up for November).  I do plan on keeping up the building of good habits that I’ve been trying to do lately.  And watch SYTYCD.  It’s really the only show that I’ll watch that you have a hard time missing a week on.

20. Do you miss your past?

I’ve liked every stage of life I’ve been in, each one more than the last.

21. Did you ever have tea parties when you were younger?

Not really, though I did have a ceramic tea set that sat on my nightstand for years.

22. What is your favorite line from a movie?

If I were to cheat, it would be part of the Ocean’s 11 Danny/Tess conversation, but if we’re talking about one line, I’d have to say the Pirates quote I mentioned the other day, “She’s safe, just like I promised. She’s all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised. So we’re all men of our word, really. Except Elizabeth, who is in fact, a woman.”   I don’t know what it is about it.

23. Would you rather be the opposite sex?

Boys are yucky.

24. What would you never name one of your children?

If it weren’t for Gone with the Wind, I think Scarlet would be a neat name, but I’d hate her to turn out to be a spoiled brat.  If it weren’t for a high school boyfriend, I would love the name Grant.  So yeah, not those names.

25. What is the coolest restaurant you’ve ever been to?

I don’t know about cool, as I don’t tend to like fancier places.  My favorite restaurant though, is a steakhouse in Kansas called Timberline.  Their salads, cheese fries, honey mustard, and mashed potatoes are the best I’ve ever had.

26. Where do you go when you want to get a really good sub sandwich?

If I’m going for a good sub, I prefer Quizno’s, but I frequent Subway because they’re cheaper and healthier (at least what I get).

27. What style of house would you like to live in?

I don’t know the names of the style, but ideally it would have a garden, a good sized living area, and a library.

28. Do you flip the channel when commercials come on?

Rarely.  I don’t like to watch commercials though (I still think commercials can’t be healthy), so I’m usually doing something else.

29. Have you seen any of the Saw movies?

Have I ever seen any horror movie?  Yeah right.  Just today, someone scared me by walking around the side of the building while I was watering my flowers.

30. What was your favorite book as a child?

I’m not sure about favorite, but I really like the Boxcar Children, the Betsy books, and the Babysitter’s Club books.

(Found this on Ministry So Fabulous.)

Lots of Noses

Posted on by
5

Oh, I’m SO loving your all’s (I’m sure that’s grammatically correct…) questions from yesterday!  I think that the questions themselves are telling as to what you know about me.  I can’t wait to answer them, but it will be a couple of days as I’m at training for most of this week.  I’ll try to get some of the lighter answers up tomorrow, and the more serious ones next week.  If you haven’t taken the time to ask a question or two, you still have time!

After being an Ignorant Historian for a couple of months, I am finally getting those funny searches that we all love…

“GIVE ME A RANDOM NOUN”

Just because you shout it at me doesn’t mean I’m going to comply.

“snot joke”

I don’t do snot jokes, because I’m not a 10-year-old boy.

“what do historians wear?”

I don’t think there’s a uniform.

“origins of brown noser”

I had NOTHING to do with the origins of any brown nose, real or figurative.

“I,m [sic] loser but I’m a cooler”

WHAT?

“octonutjob”

Again I say, “Huh?”

“Ronneaca likes to”

Haha, is that a new spelling of my name?  People drop the second “n” (or add “Ve-”) all the time, but I’ve definitely never gotten that one!

“nicknames for Ronnica”

How about Ronners, Ronnie, or Ronn? (those are the only ones I’ve had…but once I contemplated going by “Nicki”…get it…ronNICa?)

“scott and ronnica”

Sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S…wait a second, who’s Scott?

“how to waste time fast”

Most people aren’t worried about being efficient in their time wasting, but maybe they should be.

“sneeze nose not coming out”

When I sneeze I don’t WANT my nose to come out!

I hope you all found what you were looking for!

Marie

Posted on by
1

This is the 5th and final part of my storybook series.  See What is in a Name?, Rumplestiltskin, Tikki Tikki Tembo, and Isantim.

After eating the sandwich, I laid down for another nap.  Little did I know that this would be the last dream before my child was born.  This dream was by far the scariest of all the dreams, however I will never forget it.  It is the story that gave the name of my child, though you might laugh at the dream itself, but it is great to have a memorable story that I can tell my daughter as she grows up.

I dreamt that I am witch.  As a witch, I am quite evil and almost terrify myself.  My biggest desire is to gain wealth for myself.  The easiest way to do this is by making the wealth come to me.  I live on a farm of sorts, so the kind of wealth I seek is animals of great value.  This is convenient because I have all sorts of power over the animals, but the only way I can exercise them is to become an animal myself.  My husband, though he has no magically powers (nor does he in reality) cannot really stop me, but he is full aware of my crazy doings (is that not grounds for divorce?).

One day, I go out and decide to gain my neighbor’s cattle.  I decide to turn into a werewolf of all things in order to bewitch the cattle into going to the market with me that I may sell them to make very good profit.  I sneak out at night after my husband was asleep, and under the light of the moon I turn myself into a werewolf.  I am so scary looking!  As I start approaching the cattle, I hear a noise from behind me.  It is my husband, pitchfork in hand.

“Marie!  Marie!” he calls out.  Apparently that is my name.

The sound of him calling my voice is enough to make me snap out of my werewolf façade and turn back into a human.  It takes me a few minutes to loose all that hair, but I do and I go running into my husband’s arms.

At that moment I woke up and realized that indeed, I was in my husband’s arms.  “I want to name our little girl Marie,” as my water broke.

Retold from:
“A Witch as Werewolf” by Karl Bartsch
(originally published in Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg (Wien: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1879), v. 1, no. 185, pp. 150-151).

Isantim

Posted on by
2

This is part 4.  See What’s in a Name?, Rumpelstiltskin, and Tikki Tikki Tembo.

The next afternoon, I had another dream while I was taking a nap.  In this one I am a tortoise, which is a very odd feeling.

I, as a tortoise, go to a feast hosted by a hippo king.  This hippo is quite the character, and has seven hippo brides.  Their pink outfits are adorable as they are covered with ribbons and bows.  As I look at the feast table, my mouth begins to water.  There are rows of turkey and asparagus sandwiches interspersed with spoonfuls of creamy peanut butter.  To top it all off, there was a fountain of chocolate milk with Oreos floating in it.  I cannot wait to begin to devour the food before me, but there is a rather large obstacle in my way.  The hippo king stands up as if he is going to give a toast, but instead, he says that no one will be allowed to eat because no one knows his name.  Instead, we just all come and eat his food.  He dismisses us all, and I vow to find out his name so I can indulge in this stockpile of rich food.

I somehow know where the hippo and his wives go to drink water, and so I wait out, hoping to catch his name.  A couple of his wives, who are larger than the rest, had a harder time walking away from the watering hole, so I bury myself in the muddy path just enough to be a stumbling block for a hippo.  Sure enough, one of these last wives stubs her toe on my shell, and calls out to her husband, “Help!  Isantim, my dear, I have stubbed my toe!” 

I jump out of the ground and yell, “Aha!  I now know the name of your husband!”  Then I turn to the hippo king and say, “Your name is Isantim!”

As Isantim approaches us, I ask to make sure it is okay that I reveal his name to all the animals that we may partake in his wonderful feast.  Next thing I know, we are all sitting around the feast table enjoying the food that I had been eyeing.  It is so delicious that I wake up from my nap craving a turkey and asparagus sandwich topped off with chocolate milk.  However, the name Isantim does not leave a good taste in my mouth, so I decide to cross it off the list of possibilities for my child’s name.

Retold from:
“The Hippopotamus and the Tortoise” by Elphinstone Dayrell, edited by D.L. Ashliman
(originally published in Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria, West Africa.  London: Longman, Green and Co., 1910).

There’s one last post in this series, to be posted at a later date on a day when I don’t have anything else to say.

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Posted on by
2

ETA: Thank you, thank you, thank you for your help and bearing with me through this bloggy slump.  I feel back on my game.  Obviously, since this post is prescheduled, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see the fruit of your encouragement and suggestions.

This is part 3.  See What is in a Name? and Rumpelstiltskin.

I woke up to the sound of my husband’s alarm going off.  As he was getting dressed, I related to him the dream about the funny little man, Rumpelstiltskin.  He laughed and attributed it to the cheese and pickle sandwich I ate as a midnight snack the night before.  Of course, the name Rumpelstiltskin did not seem as appealing as it did previously.  It wasn’t until the second dream when he started taking the dreams more seriously. 

In the second dream, I have two boys that are very adorable.  The youngest is named Sam: a short, common name I’m not too keen on.  However, the oldest certainly has a long unique name: Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako.

My husband, our two children, and I are at the public pool on a nice warm day.  The boys are playing together in the shallow end.  While I am sunbathing on the other end of the pool, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako runs up to me and says, “Sam has gone under in the deep end, and I cannot get him out.

Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako runs to Bill who is in the snack bar and tells him that Sam has fallen under in the deep end of the pool.

“Sam has gone under in the deep end?  Run and tell the lifeguard that Sam is in trouble,” my husband, all too calmly, says.

Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako runs over to the lifeguard and tells him that Sam is in trouble.  The Lifeguard quickly jumps in and rescues my young son.  We are all grateful for his recovery.

Apparently not learning the lesson from the first time around, I allow the boys to continue to play in the pool relatively unsupervised.  This time, Sam runs up to me and lets me know that Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has gone under in the deep end and needs rescuing.  I direct him to Bill, to whom he relays the unfortunate news.  They both run over to the lifeguard stand and shout out, “Sir, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the pool and needs help!”

The lifeguard once again jumps off his stand and into the water to rescue my son.  As he pulls up the lifeless body from the bottom of the pool I realize that we are not as fortunate as we were the first time.  We have lost Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako simply because his name was too long.

As I wake up and think about the dream, I once again tell it to my husband, who is not amused.  We both agree that a shorter name was better than a longer name, so we know that Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako would never be good to name our child.

Author’s Note:

In it’s original form, this is a chain story from China.  I remember my mom reading it to me when I was little, as it is in children’s book form.  It is one of my family’s favorite stories, and I can remember the inflection in my mom’s voice as she would say Tikki Tikki Tembo’s full name.  I have changed the original story to place it in modern times.  In the original story, the two boys fall into the well and are rescued by the gardener.  While modernizing, I changed where the boys fell into from the well to the deep end of a public pool.  This also meant I had to change the character of the gardener in the original story to a lifeguard.  The rest of the characters remained the same, except for the modernization.  Also, to fit with the frametale, it is now a dream told from the point of view of the mother of the two boys.  I think that this story works well with this storybook because it was one of the original stories that I thought of when the idea came to my head to do a storybook about names.  It is very clear that Tikki Tikki Tembo’s name is central to the plot of the story.  It was a fairly easy story to retell, and certainly is a convincing argument not to name your children extremely long names, at least not without a short nickname.  The story I think is a good one to include because it is a Chinese story, which adds to the multiculturalism of the storybook.

Retold from:
“Tikki Tikki Tembo” recalled by D. L. Ashliman

Come back Monday for the next installment.

Rumpelstiltskin

Posted on by
Reply

This is part 2.  See part 1 here.

The first dream I had was very strange and almost like a fairytale.  In it, I was not yet pregnant but was the daughter of a miller.  My father and I lived in a kingdom of some kind.  My dad needed to see the king about a new business opportunity but he was not allowed into the king’s court because he was only a miller.  In order to convince the king to see him, he said that I was able to spin gold from straw.  Of course this was not true and I could not even spin wool, but I got ushered into a room full of straw and a spinning wheel anyway.  I had all night to spin the straw into gold.  I knew that I would do my father a great disservice if I were not able to produce the gold, so I just sat down and wept.  The next thing I knew a small man was in front of me.  He had a wart on the end of his long crooked nose, and he had very hairy hands with long bony fingers and was quite generally quite unattractive.

“Why are you sobbing, my dear child?” he asked with such a tender tone.

“My father and I will be in a lot of trouble if I do not spin all this straw into gold, and I am unable to spin gold from straw.”

“Ah dear, what you see as such a problem I see as such an easy task.  You see, I have been blessed with the ability to spin straw into gold.”

Hopefully I responded as I wiped away my tears, “Will you?  Could you do that for me?  I’d do anything!”

“Surely, love, surely.  For only a small price I will do this for you and rescue you.  All I ask for is your necklace.”

More than willing to give up my little trinket, I breathed a sigh of relief, as I was able to live again.  The little man worked all night, but by morning there was a pile of gold and the straw was all gone.  As quick as the task was completed he disappeared and in walked the king.  He greedily eyed the gold that he saw and ordered me to be given a feast and an afternoon in the park, after which I would be put back to work.

The next night, the pile of straw was much bigger.  I once again looked upon it with big eyes wondering what I would do.  My only hope was for the little man to appear once more.  I did not know his name, so I was unable to call him, but with only a little bit of fretting he appeared in front of me again.  He quickly bargained to do the work for the most costly thing I owned, my ring.  To spare my father and me I quickly gave it up.  Once again he worked all through the night, but the king was well pleased when he showed up at my door the next morning.  Yet the king was quite greedy and every bit of gold he received only made him want more.  He knew that he was being hard and demanding, so he only asked me for one night more of work with the promise to make me his daughter-in-law.

Knowing full well that I had nothing to offer the little man this night, I knew I had no hope of being a princess.  Yet he showed up once again.

Bawling, I cried, “What do you want, cruel man?  I have nothing to offer you for your work.  Just leave me alone to sulk in my bitterness.”

“Ah, little one, it is true.  You have nothing of value on you.  But you have something much more valuable to offer me as a princess: your first-born, royal child.”

Knowing full well this was a lot to ask, it seemed little compared to the joy I would receive as princess.  I made the offer, and he made the gold.  The king was quick on his promise and I was married to his son the next day.  All went well and I generally forgot about the circumstances that made me queen.  I had a beautiful boy that all adored and my life was happy.  Yet the little man heard of my child and came after it, as his prize.  I begged and begged that he not take my son, but it was no use.  He would not give in.  Finally, however, he made a deal.  The deal was if I could guess his name in three days, I would be able to keep my child.  It was an easy task, I thought, as I set out asking, “Is you name Jerry, or Chris, or Manny, or George?”

“None of those are my name, but keep guessing.”  He left to let me think.  I came up with a list of all the names I could think of, and spent the next day just reading them to him.  I felt hopeless and tired of thinking about names.  I had only confided this secret of mine to one person who was a guard.  He was walking home from work that night, when he passed by this same small man dancing around a bonfire, chanting,

“The little princess’s son will soon be mine,
Thanks to the name that’s almost divine.
I can always continue with my cute little grin,
Because she’ll never guess my name is Rumpelstiltskin!”

The guard was astonished that he just stumbled upon the key to my fate and told me early the next morning before the little man came back to visit.  Rumpelstiltskin, expecting to see me bawling and pleading for my son’s life again, was shocked to see me calmly sitting in a chair.  As he approached me, I did not hesitate to nonchalantly ask, “Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?”

Retold from:
“Rumpelstiltskin” by Andrew Lang
(originally published in The Blue Fairy Book.  New York: Dover, 1965).

Come back Thursday for the next installment.