Southerly by David Haywood

Read Post

Southerly: Late for What?

105 Responses

First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 Newer→ Last

  • Michael Savidge,

    I feel like I have to apologise somewhat for the wee rant, as it is a bit off topic.

    But crikey, some parents just make we wanna.....

    Back to topic. Who remembers the case in Perth of the parents naming their son Drew Peacock?

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    The woman wasn't Indian then?

    "Padme" is Sanskrit for "Lotus" as in "Om Mani Padme Hum".

    So I guess it might be a reasonable name if you're from that part of the world.

    [**REPLY:** She didn't look Indian to me -- but I suppose it's vaguely possible that she was Anglo-Indian. But, frankly, the pairing with 'Anakin' seems pretty conclusive-- DH]

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    A lot of parents give their kids those weird names with weird spellings because they are unique, which probably stems from the parents having to go through their school days known as Rebecca H and Chris A. This will never be a problem for little Jayneeshagh.

    But here's something - in the age of Google, if you search for Jayneeshagh (and let's assume that she's only Jayneeshagh in the world), all the search results will be about her. It's all signal, no noise.

    But imagine trying to Google a Jane Smith.

    And who's to say that only made-up names are unique? My first name and surname are nothing out of the ordinary for New Zealand names, but I've never met anyone with that exact name. And, hey, I totally pwn the google results for my name!

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • anjum rahman,

    i keep a list of all the names people have called me over the years, which include eugene, angela, angie, andrum, angelique, anyun and more. this even though i always say my name slowly & clearly. and i hate that people who haven't spoken to me will use "mr" when they write to me. why do they assume i'm male? do they think women are less insulted at being called males than males are at being called female????

    oh, and congratulations from me as well. i remember being invited by a friend of mine to her 2-year old's birthday party, back when i was childless. it was the most awful experience, with noisy kids, food spillages, and parents who had nothing else to talk about except their own kids. yes, definitely boring! but then i had my own & absolutely fell in love with them. sigh.

    i still believe though, that God sends us children to punish us for the misery we caused to our parents...

    hamilton • Since Nov 2006 • 130 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Oboe Player: My name is Ball, sir.
    Sir Thomas Beecham: How very singular.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    why do they assume i'm male?

    I confess, I thought you were a guy at first. To my pakeha brain "Anjum" sounded like it'd be a guy's name, I don't know why. I'd probably make the same mistake with the name "Stacey".

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    congratulations!!

    i vote female = "sharrin", male = "jonnathin".

    will always show up when ego-surfing.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • noizyboy,

    Where's Noizyboy? He should totally be in on this conversation.

    I should? I suppose the wife and I did give our kids exceptionally good names.

    ...parents having to go through their school days known as Rebecca H and Chris A

    Hah! Indeed. Although, at our local primary, there's a new breed: Finn R and Finn B, Ollie G and Ollie S, Olivia X Y & Z...

    wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 171 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard,

    At high school, I thought that everyone was being rude about a boy's Scottish heritage when they kept calling him "McSporran". But no, that was his real name: Robbie McSporran, no less.

    Has anyone read the chapter in Freakonomics about correlations between children's names and the educational levels of their parents?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    it was the most awful experience, with noisy kids, food spillages, and parents who had nothing else to talk about except their own kids.

    I still feel like this, did so all through my own children's birthday parties. I particularly can't stand parents who can only talk about children and who won't admit that all babies look exactly the same.

    Should David become one of said, I shall feel compelled to pop around for a quick mercy killing.

    Babies do make good platforms for books while breastfeeding, though.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • David Haywood,

    Bart Janssen wrote:

    Can we run a competition to name your child?

    By awkward co-incidence, Jennifer's surname is 'Hay'. So we've already had the suggestions of:

    -- Hayden Hamish Hay Haywood

    And the inspired combination of Maori and Heywood R. Floyd tribute:

    -- Heywood Heihei Haywood-Hay

    Dunsandel • Since Nov 2006 • 1156 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    My gym is pretty kooky - all the girls have perfectly lovely names, but if you line them all up it sounds like the cast of young & the restless. We're required to come up with stage names, but the lists are practically interchangeable. The list includes Tegan, Paige, Alex, Alix, Alyse, Elise, Margaux, Amber, Ann-Sophie, Kara, Greta, Nicoletta, Zuleika, Senta, Charisse, Sabrina, Serena, Selena, Celine & Sarita.

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Scott Common,

    A lot of parents give their kids those weird names with weird spellings because they are unique, which probably stems from the parents having to go through their school days known as Rebecca H and Chris A

    My school years should really have left me with a major complex I figure. It was the tradition for teachers to refer to students by their surnames only (which was pretty funny for the Smiths) - so I spent a good (or not so good) 5 years being only refered to as "Common" at school...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 62 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    heh. went to school with "scott lander"

    i was maybe 22 before i realised the pun.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • anjum rahman,

    I confess, I thought you were a guy at first. To my pakeha brain "Anjum" sounded like it'd be a guy's name, I don't know why.

    well, just to make matters a bit more confusing, anjum is a name that is commonly used by both males and females... when i say commonly, i mean in south asian countries of course!

    but i just wonder, if people don't know for sure, why do they put "mr" instead of leaving you without a title? i'd prefer a "dear anjum" to a "dear mr rahman".

    hamilton • Since Nov 2006 • 130 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen,

    i'd prefer a "dear anjum" to a "dear mr rahman".

    Interesting. I guess people feel less uncomfortable about getting your sex wrong than they do about using your first name.

    I guess the use of your first name implies an intimacy. Which implies folks (probably me included) are more afraid of the offence of unwarranted intimacy than the offence of getting your sex wrong. How silly.

    Odd and interesting

    And yes, if I had to guess, I would have guessed male, no idea why.

    cheers
    Bart

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Oh and watch the out for the pains of spelling!

    "Hadyn". And thanks David for spelling it right first go. I've had "Haydn" "Hayden" "Hadon" "Haydon" (the DomPost did that) and the worst one "Loelyn" (poor handwriting by someone caused that).

    But the wierdest thing (and this is sort of @ Robyn), I have met another Hadyn Green. Yet I OWN the Google search.

    But for the bestest craziest names one must head to the mighty continent of North America and scan the players in American Football:

    Sinorice Moss
    D'Brickashaw Ferguson
    Tank Johnson
    Little John Flowers

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    D'Brickashaw, classic.

    but i just wonder, if people don't know for sure, why do they put "mr" instead of leaving you without a title? i'd prefer a "dear anjum" to a "dear mr rahman".

    I've asked this question a couple of times, because I refuse to use a title as much as possible. It seems several data entry programs have 'title' as a required field. The person entering your information can't send the form unless they have something in that field.

    So, there's another thing programmers are to blame for.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Rebecca Williams,

    congratulations david! i have recently had a baby (he's nine months old, no matter what people say reassuringly about childbirth, nine months ago still feels pretty damned recent).

    bad names - here are two as evidence that a perfectly nice name with no hint of capacity for fearsome teasing: gabrielle (gabbie)tabron. the poor girl got scabby tampon throughout primary school, shook it off by the time she hit high school, only to have it devastatingly resurrected when she was in fifth form. fortunately she was sufficiently pretty and had a well developed withering glance, and managed to shake it off again fairly quickly.

    the other - lana kiss. what can you do with that? i'll tell you what - turn it backwards and it becomes anal sick. oh dear.

    we also had a kid at school who had a totally ordinary name, but he wore his waistband somewhere around his nipples, was skeleton skinny with big hangdog eyes and an excruciating overbite. for reasons best known to those who made it up and hassled him mercilessly throughout high school, he was simply "trannie". poor kid.

    as for ME i have been rebecca woodpecker, rebecca double-decker, rebecca black and decker ... if you're gonna be hassled, you're gonna be hassled ...

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 120 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Lifehacker had a tip for guessing the corrent sex of a person with a non-English or unusual name. Do a Google image search and see which sex is more predominant in the results.

    "Excellent" I thought, I'll give that a go and tried my friend Dom, to see if it would work on anyone. I got pictures of houses.

    So then I tired the name of the Indian man I worked with: Debi.
    Pictures of women in bikinis.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Rebecca Williams,

    ps - hadyn, my brother-in-law went to school with benson and hedges .... small world ....

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 120 posts Report Reply

  • jon_knox,

    Can we run a competition to name your child?

    Something that can be abbreviated nicely is always useful.

    Woody Hay-Haywood seems to have a nice balance to it.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Scott Common,

    But the wierdest thing (and this is sort of @ Robyn), I have met another Hadyn Green. Yet I OWN the Google search.

    Hehehe - I discovered another Scott Common via email last year - his machine had got infected with something viral and was spamming out emails to all sorts of address's. I got one at my work email and fired something back saying, "blah blah, identiy theft, blah blah". Turned out not to be ID theft, and Scott was very nice (spoke to him breifly) and advised him that his work PC was infected with a virus!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 62 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Rebecca, I got an email from Peter saying his Dad did too.

    Though the ones I know of were from Managere and Peter's Dad's ones were from Tauranga.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Jen Hay,

    >And yes, if I had to guess, I would have guessed male, no idea why

    It's probably cause male and female names in English show different properties, and 'anjum' seems to be closer to the typical profile for male names than female names. This is because:

    - it's two syllables (female names are more likely to be three syllables)
    - it ends in a consonant (female names are more likely to end in vowels)
    - the final vowel is a short vowel (more typical of male than female names)

    (gratuitous self-reference:
    Wright, Saundra, Hay, Jennifer and Tessa Bent (2005) Ladies first? Phonology, frequency, and the naming conspiracy. In Linguistics 44(3), 2005, 531-561).

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 43 posts Report Reply

First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 Newer→ Last

Post your response…

Please sign in using your Public Address credentials…

Login

You may also create an account or retrieve your password.