[N]ames needn't conform to foreign orthographic strictures. Brad and Angelina can call their baby whatever they want, although if they'd chosen France Fat Racist Whore of Nation States Jolie-Pitt, they might have had a little difficulty checking into the Ritz.This reminds me of the old game of looking through your French vocabulary lists to find words that look like names but have inappropriate meanings. We laughed a lot about naming the baby Poubelle.
May 31, 2006
"The best thing about naming your kid Shiloh?"
Kim Cosmopolitan muses about the first name of the new Jolie-Pitt entity ... and links to this article that wonders whether the French are fretting about gender and that middle name, Nouvel, and concludes:
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13 comments:
Ah, the entry's become available again! :)
""The best thing about naming your kid Shiloh?""
Why would they name their kid after a Civil War battle?
;)
"Putin" always reminded me of "putain." Indeed, so much so, that I just spent five minutes looking for "Putin" in the online dictionaries and wondering why it wouldn't come up. Then I remembered that "Putin" wasn't the actual word, it just reminded me of it.
On a somewhat different note, Ambergris looks a bit like Amnestris or Artemis, and so a bit name-ey, but turns out to be a substance produced by or from sperm whale intestines.
Re: Tibore -- that's the first thing I thought of too! For most Americans, I think, the resonance isn't really "Hebrew word for peace," but "Bloody Battle of the Civil War!"
Amneris! I meant Amneris. That's the name. The antagonist from Aida. But oddly enough, there are still Google hits for Amnestris.
Ambergris? Someone would name their kid after whale barf?
Or is it something they'd chuck up? Is that how it comes out? I only know it's a product of the digestive process; I don't know how it gets... ummm... gets expelled.
Well, it's like Poubelle. In that it sounds vaguely name-ish, but really shouldn't be used as a name, in view of its meaning. There's stories (urban legends?) about poor people in urban areas naming their children things like Emphysema or Diarrhea or what-have-you, though, in ignorance of the English meaning.
And heck, but this just invites mention of that most famous of Texans, Ima Hogg.
The bigger question is what will the poor girl use as her last name?
I'm sorry, but Shiloh Pitt just doesn't have the joie de vie one would expect from this worldly couple!
Ima Hogg? Ambergris? Amneris? Why not Sieglinde? Or the equally famous American, Nosmo King?
Perhaps the parents wanted to strike a pose as the anti-Candide, and were looking for a name that would strike their average fan as so bad it must be cool (but only when used by Hollywood types). Despite its association in American minds with a bloody Civil War battle, Shiloh originated in the Bible as the placename of sanctuary for the Israelites and the dwelling place of the Ark before Solomon built his temple. So, if they were determined to name the baby after a place, Shiloh was not the worst of all possible choices. Not that there is any reason to think that the parents knew or cared about the Biblical allusions here.
Just before the divorce, the last kid will be named Appomattox. Appomattox Pitt! I like the sound of it!
I thought the Nouvel was after Jean Nouvel. Isn't Brad Pitt really into architecture? (Oh, I see the article mentions this too.)
Balfegor: I've met an Evian. Somehow the parents didn't think enough people had heard of the water to make the connection.
Ann,
re: Poubelle. We called our first child "Choucroute" in utero as a placeholder name. My commute to the highway at the time took me through some Wisconsin cabbage fields.
Just one day earlier -- I swear -- I told someone the problem with celebrity baby names is that they're really dog names. I was thinking of "Scout," "Rumer" amd "Apple."
But "Shiloh" really proves my point!
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