• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

What's in a name?

German Hops

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
Hello all,

I looked up "Trump" in the dictionary lately, and what I found was very interesting.
(Oxford Universal Dictionary)

Trump means to trumpet or proclaim.



trumpery is fraud.

How much are people influenced by a little thing like their name, and what it means? Or for example, where they are "from." Bill Clinton claims to be from Hope Arkansas, although he was probably from the town next door. Wow, a politician lied, imagine that. When Hillary and Obama made up on the 2008 campaign trail, they meet at Unity, Missouri (I believe). Obama and Bill got together for a rally at Kissume, FL. Is a name like that a coincidence? I kind of doubt since Obama at the time was one big democratic love fest. Is a rose, by any other name, just as sweet? Or can we leverage these names for influence on others and on ourselves? It is interesting to me that anyone would ever believe Trump is telling the truth because his unscrupulous business practices and his very name cries out fraud.
 
DESTROYA

DESTROYA

Member
Vier said:
nah, man think about it. It's like when you speak something in the universe, it happens.

it's manifest destiny.
Click to expand...
That‘s the biggest load of BS I’ve ever heard, so if I say “hey universe I want a million dollars” it’s going to appear in front of me......Oh I thought about it and it’s sounds dumber the more I think about it.

Do you even know what Manifest Destiny even means?
 
Last edited:
German Hops

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
DESTROYA said:
That‘s the biggest load of BS I’ve ever heard, so if I say “hey universe I want a million dollars” it’s going to appear in front of me......Oh I thought about it and it’s sounds dumber the more I think about it.

Do you even know what Manifest Destiny even means?
Click to expand...

Ok, look. There was this pornstar named Dick Nasty... Right? Do you think it's a coincidence that he became a pornstar given his name? I don't think so.
 
timeflais

timeflais

Banned
Trump isnt the same as Trumpery.

I will contribute to this thread though since you like coincidences.

Names also have numbers. And in simple Gematria Trump = 88

Two movies that deal with time travel revolve around the number 88.

Donnie Darko:
- Set in 1988, starts off with the family disagreeing about a presidential candidate as one is more unliked than the other.
- Main character called Donald.
- When Donald wakes up on the golf course (!) he is told when then world will end, which is tattoo'd onto his arm, "28 days... 6 hours... 42 minutes... 12 seconds. That... is when the world... will end. " Add days + hours + minutes + seconds = 88.

Triumph = to Trump. ;)

Back to the future:
- DeLorian activates the flux capacitor going at 88 mph.
- 2nd movie has a whole character based on Donald Trump - Admitted by the director, but even then it is obvious.


For fun, if time travel WERE possible, who would you think alive in history would be closest to achieving it? If you know me yet, you should know my answer would be Nikola Tesla, suppressed technologies like the death ray and free energy.
This man was way ahead of his time, but who was the first person to get access to his work after the FBI seized it when he died in NY?


q96cW2n.png
 
DESTROYA

DESTROYA

Member
Vier said:
I don't see your point.
Click to expand...
www.neogaf.com

What's in a name?

Hello all, I looked up "Trump" in the dictionary lately, and what I found was very interesting. (Oxford Universal Dictionary) Trump means to trumpet or proclaim. trumpery is fraud. How much are people influenced by a little thing like their name, and what it means? Or for example, where...
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com

Vier has it’s own meaning in the dictionary
 
Last edited:
Cutty Flam

Cutty Flam

Banned
Dick Masterson

I’ll tell you what’s in that name: The indomitable will and fighting spirit of man. The level of respect and self esteem for oneself of an enlightened being. A champion of equality and free speech. A hero, to be frank, and not francine...
 
RokkanStoned

RokkanStoned

Member
What's in a name? Not much except a history of language, though people will use their preconceptions to make patterns out of everything and justify their own judgement. So what's in a name is more a reflection of what's in your head. It's the same with feminists and anything with the morpheme "man" in it. See the latin word manus.

See the name Adolf, meaning noble wolf. Once those meanings exist, your brain will either connect them or reject them, as it suits your perspective. Though it has very little do with a person. Whatever your name is will not be a reflection of the person you are, because your name is given to you. The only connection is made in your own mind.

If anything with a name affects you it's the preconceptions of the name, as names generally have stereotypes or different sense of aesthetics to them. Thus a name can affect your life. Whether it's your position on a list, people's attitude to you before they meet you and even your own expectations of yourself. Being named after a figure might lead you to be inspired to be like a figure as well, though this never occurs in a vacuum and its importance is definitely not large.
 
Nymphae

Nymphae

Banned
Vier said:
Ok, look. There was this pornstar named Dick Nasty... Right? Do you think it's a coincidence that he became a pornstar given his name? I don't think so.
Click to expand...

Do you honestly think his parents gave him that name or is it more likely that it was chosen for the profession

Edit: Unwilling/unable to research this at work.
 
Last edited:
The Scrivener

The Scrivener

Member
DESTROYA said:
How does this even remotely make sense OP?
OP is trying to connect imaginary dots
Click to expand...

He did a bad job at portraying the idea.

I think he means something like how character names are written. A famous example is seen in the film Taxi Driver, De Niro's Travis Bickle means travels (as a taxi driver) and fickle or prickle., because he's mentally ill and cannot rest.

Oh yeah, I forgot, Darth Vader, lol

It's pretty normal in literature for names to be unoriginal and based on an historical influence, like Peppa Pig the TV cartoon from 1865's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland chapter "Pig and Pepper" (probably, I'm assuming that one).

By extension, there's no reason we can't interpret symbolism in real life, from a story based perspective.
 
Last edited:
B

Breakage

Member
The fascinating thing about names is we don't get to pick them. You can only hope that you won't be given a name that is stupid.

I recently read that the trashy American rapper Cardi B named her daughter “Kulture”.

Imagine being saddled with that name.
 
RokkanStoned

RokkanStoned

Member
Breakage said:
The fascinating thing about names is we don't get to pick them. You can only hope that you won't be given a name that is stupid.

I recently read that the trashy American rapper Cardi B named her daughter “Kulture”.

Imagine being saddled with that name.
Click to expand...

I don't know. You never know how you react to a name and often standing out is as much an advantage as it can be a disadvantage. Personally I don't find the name "Kulture" odd. "Kultur" is the norwegian word for "culture". But if one imagines it as not norwegian, you can also imagine it as an exotic foreign name. I don't know how it's pronounced, but if it's pronounced the same as culture then it's not the first english name based on concepts. Hope, Summer and Grace are examples. Naming acceptance depend on exposure. A name might seem odd, but once you get used to it the name settles down.

So people being too invested in how people name their children seems a bit odd to me, unless they literally call their child "asshole" or "shitbag" or something degrading. Funny enough Mens Mensen, which would be kinda liked being named Period Periodson, is an actual Norwegian name, though understandably not in fashion anymore and I think there's like barely anyone named it anymore.

I also think the act of being given a name is a beautiful one. Something is given to you at birth from your parents, of their image of you. If you start despising it, you can always later change it, but it's still something given to you from the people that made you, of their cultural background and interests and likes, or even their whims as they pondered what to name you.
 
MaestroMike

MaestroMike

Gold Member
I think Freakanomics had a story where a dad with two sons named one Loser and one Winner and Loser ended up doing better in life than Winner. Gotta admit I felt special being named Michael growing up with Michael Jordan killing it in the NBA and Michael Jackson still being the King of Pop and Michael Corleone being the main character of the GOAT series The Godfather. (Also, Michelangelo from TMNT lol) Lotta successful people had my name didn't want to like damage the name. lol no one can ever be named adolph or hitler either one of those names is straight up retired.
 
Last edited:
RokkanStoned

RokkanStoned

Member
MaestroMike said:
I think Freakanomics had a story where a dad with two sons named one Loser and one Winner and Loser ended up doing better in life than Winner. Gotta admit I felt special being named Michael growing up with Michael Jordan killing it in the NBA and Michael Jackson still being the King of Pop and Michael Corleone being the main character of the GOAT series The Godfather. (Also, Michelangelo from TMNT lol) Lotta successful people had my name didn't want to like damage the name. lol no one can ever be named adolph or hitler either one of those names is straight up retired.
Click to expand...

You share the name with this guy as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bruce_Ross

190px-Michael_Bruce_Ross.jpg


Michael is a common name, so of course there'll be a lot of celebrities named Michael. Just like there'll likely be a lot of shitty people named Michael as well.

And you've got a rather famous guy as well:

Michaelmyers2007.JPG


Also, on Adolph

adolph
a-dolph
-dolph
Dolph

200.gif


Personally I don't mind the name Adolph or Adolf and would likely not think too much about it. I think the Hitler part is the bigger pariah. It's like with Stalin. His name is Josef Stalin, still lots of people are named Josef/Joseph. I think there was a jewelry store by some guy named Adolf in my hometown and albeit we recognize the name (because the most famous guy with that name was a genocidal evil freak) I can't remember anyone thinking too much about Hitler regarding the store. Just checked the national statistics and there's like 84 menn named Adolf in Norway. Most of them really old, but I imagine that give 50 or 100 years and it might return in style. That's kinda how names work, with some that are generally always popular and others that suddenly come back in style. Adolf wasn't ever that popular in Norway from my impressions of parish records though, so it'll likely not be that many taking the name if it gets a resurgence.

That said, there's a lot of preconceptions that exist due to name. Foreign names will often make it harder to get interviews, not always because of bad preconceptions of foreigners necessarily, but also because of sense of familiarity. There's also lots of national names that are generally considered working-class criminal names, like Roger, Tommy, Ronny, Remi, Tony and Rolf. Or even worse, combination names of those "worst names". Like Rolf-Roger. People will either think you're a backwards hillbilly or a criminal from their preconceptions. However, that's not necessarily the case and often the more common national names will still be prevalent amongst criminals. Though since crime is often a socioeconomic dependent factor, naming culture in those demographics will obviously be proportionally overrepresented. Mohammad has also gotten bigger on the representation of crime names, but that's also due to clearly socioeconomic factors, asa large part of immigrants from islamic countries name their sons that name and they generally move towards urban areas and are socioeconomically "disadvantaged".
 
Last edited:
Fbh

Fbh

Member
I'll just say I fucking hate my name.
It sounds stupid, the meaning is related to something I don't even like and it's not a local name so everyone either mishears it or has trouble understanding it . I've just switched to using a fake name when ordering take out or things like that because it's just easier.

Give your kids normal local names people
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Fans of Japanese adventure games/mystery game fans, we shall feast in 2024!
10
2K
Nok Su Kow replied
So What is Sony Doing For The PlayStation 6?
2 3 4
171
10K
HighPoly replied
LTTP: Lords of the Fallen (2023) | Great potential, bad design decisions
Opinion LTTP
11
1K
ChoosableOne replied
Starfield Q&A on Discord Details
15
2K
balls of snow replied
Starfield Devs Q&A Session
37
3K
Hendrick's replied
Top Bottom