Contentious doll names - gods and so on.

I wouldn't make a a doll with Judeo-Christian religious symbolism (for example, a doll named Lucifer, however much I do like the name) unless it was actually intended to *be* whoever it was named after, straight up. Not too much tinkering around with the original concept. I'm not huge on the creative angelology deal (especially people who just make up an 'angelic' sounding name by tacking some random vaguely-apropos Latin noun and tacking a spooooky ending on) but I wouldn't name my dog or my iPod Lucifer, either. It's not a problem with people who do do that, but it just seems a bit odd. Like naming a doll "Sister Pauline" who wasn't a nun-- or named Pauline. But connecting it with the actual Satan seems like a stretch for me.

If a name has only one possible meaning, and it's obviously being used to be offensive or subversive (such as naming a doll "Christ" vs. "Jesus", which is, after all, just a name-- nobody'd object if you named a doll Josh, right? Or naming a doll specifically Hitler and not simply Adolf.) I think it'd be in somewhat poor taste. But it's someone else's doll, not mine.

 

Yeah, like that poor Adolf-Hitler Campbell kid I don't think you should saddle your child or your doll with a difficult name. Your child will get teased into insanity at school and I think it would be difficult to come up with a look and personality for your doll that didn't play on this unusual/difficult name.

 

Jesus could be pronounced like (Hay-soos)

 

It's actually a common Hispanic name ^^;

I have no problem with anyone naming their doll with religious or historic names. If it suits the character; GREAT! I, myself, am working on a...very long story. And in it, there are 5 brothers named after the 5 Princes of Hell. There are also Dukes and Lords of Hell named and used as well as Lucifer himself.

 

While I personally wouldn't name a doll Satan, Lucifer, Jesus, Christ, Confusius, Buddha or Mohammed, I can see where others might. I just find names like that a bit sacrereligious to various folks & in the case of of Satan & Lucifer a bit scarey. I'd also avoid Kali for the same reason.

But then naming dolls after other ancient gods & goddesses may be offensive to some of our pagan friends. Still, many of those names have taken on a common usage, even in brand name products, so I find them fair game. Since many of my dolls have Celtic & Welsh names I've probably used some names of pagan deities without even being aware of it.

I guess I draw the line at sacred names from the world's major religions though things like angel names & the names of saints don't bother me.

 

I think I may have commented on this thread before, I can't remember.

Anyhoo, I now have a doll called Ezekiel, who is supposed to be an angel. (Yes, I now know Ezekiel was a prophet, not an angel, but at the time when I named the character, two years ago, I didn't). Obviously I have no qualms about naming things after mythical creatures (or places--all my PC drives and memory sticks are named after places in Hell). I'm not doing it to spite the mythology, so I fail to see the problem. I wouldn't call a doll Jesus, but that's because I don't like how it sounds. Joshua, on the other hand, is one of my favourite names. One of these days I'd love to have dolls of all four Lords of Hell.

Personally I think that unless the person naming the doll is doing it deliberately to spite and bait people, it's not a problem. You can't please everyone.

 

I get very tingly when I see people giving their dolls Welsh names. I'm Welsh and I do speak Welsh, so naturally that is dear to my heart and it makes me really happy that someone outside my culture and country would like our names enough to adopt them! I am curious how the non-Welsh speakers would pronounce those names though and whether I would recognise the names if I heard them spoken by a non-Welsh person.

I might have to do that. Technology is always badly behaved around me.

 

Eeeeh, I'm not bothered by it, but I'm an atheist.

 

I have both friends and relatives named Jesus. I don't understand what the big deal is. :P but I guess that non-latino people might be put off by it? I just don't really like the name that much, haha!

 

Heheh. I just had to reply to this. A majority of my boys have Welsh names, and I'm not sure why I have such a thing for Welsh (probably from reading Lloyd Alexander's work when I was a child). I can't speak it very well, but I have looked up how to pronounce them, and I hope that I don't mangle them too badly. ^^; So I hope you'd be able to recognize them if I spoke them.

I try to pronounce & spell every name I use correctly. I feel it does the name injustice if I don't at least try my best.

 

That's so sweet! I'm fascinated with ancient Wales & the mythology surrounding it. Unfortunately I haven't much of a clue when it comes to pronounciation. I'd love to learn Welsh & Gaelic as I know I'm murdering the names I use. I wonder if Rosetta Stone offers a course in Welsh?

 

I don't have any Welsh-named dolls...yet. I think my twin princes may have Welsh names, although I haven't firmed that up yet. But judging by the pronunciation guide in my copy of the Mabinogion, Welsh pronunciation is really not that hard for an English speaker (nothing like Irish Gaelic, for example!). So I, too, like to imagine that my pronunciation of names would be recogniseable by a native speaker.

For anyone who's interested in Welsh names, here are a couple of pronunciation resources I found:
the Omniglot (you need to know IPA symbols for this one...but you can probably find a key for those on the same site)
Getting Started with Welsh: Pronunciation gives pronunciation in terms of common English words, with links to other sites' audio lessons for some non-English sounds (like Ll).

Hmm, maybe I should get back to my childhood love of Welsh (I too grew up on the Chronicles of Prydain and Susan Cooper's novels and as many Arthurian romances as I could get my hands on) and make it my next language to learn (until I know it well enough to understand the gist of a song, at which point I will move on to the next shiny thing to catch my eye...). It seems like there are a lot of resources out there (check out the Omniglot for links to teaching sites)!

Ooh, be careful that you don't invoke dark forces that will cause it to misbehave even more...! Isn't that precisely the reason many people find certain names to be inappropriate?

 

Hmmm. I Probably wouldn't name my doll after any religious figures.
So in other words, yah. Jesus, Mohammad and so on so forth, are off of my list. And secondly, I wouldn't like to choose any names of a person I've met. I Like making up all my names, preferably. xD

 

I agree very much with this, if I'm using a name outside my culture or language I try my best to pronounce it properly, otherwise I feel like I'm cheating!

Rosetta Stone does do a Welsh course I find Gaelic very difficult to understand written down, but when it's spoken I have a reasonable chance of figuring out what is said and Scottish Gaelic is easier to figure out than Irish Gaelic!

The Omniglot site is very good, I used it a lot when I was doing my degree (I'm a linguist!) It also helps to translate nursery rhymes, translate English ones into Welsh and vice versa, because if you get stuck you have the tune to carry you along.

I have actually yet to read a single book by Susan Cooper or Lloyd Alexander, a lot of my friends read the Dark is Rising sequence and the Chronicles of Prydain, but it passed me by completely!

 

my name irl is Megan, which is Welsh. My mom wanted to name me Cerridwen, actually, but she pronounced it incorrectly and said it with a soft C rather than a hard one, as is proper, correct?
I don't see a problem with naming a doll after most of the things mentioned, although some might be kind of scary...I wouldn't want a scary doll, though, or one that has an evil personality or anything. My dolls have vaguely Celtic names---Nola (which is derived from Nuala) and Rowan (but I call her Charlotte). Their mother, who I don't own yet is called Berwyn, and their dogs are called Saba and Liath.

 

Ceridwen is pronounced with a hard 'c' and a rolled 'r' 'kerrrrr-id-when' It's a nice name, but Ceridwen in the legends isn't the nicest of people! She's a water Goddess and features very strongly in the story of Taliesin the Bard.

 

I know! When I found that out, I was sort of glad she didn't name me that, actually! THere was something about her having the ugliest child in the world or something, as I recall from my Celtic Studies classes in college. I always liked Arianrhod as a name, too--so pretty.

 

My friend and I are going to name dolls after angels Ecanus and Hayyel and the fallen angel Amon, things like that don't bother me

 

Yeah, Ceridwen's son, Morfran, was the ugliest child in the world but she made a potion where he would become clever to outshine his ugliness. Only the first three drops would do this, the rest of the potion would turn to poison. Ceridwen's servant boy, Gwion Bach, stirred the potion for her, but burnt himself when three drops fell on his hand. He sucked the potion off and inherited the cleverness that should have gone to Ceridwen's son. She gave chase and they turned into a series of different animals before he turned into a grain of wheat and she became a hen and ate him. Ceridwen fell pregnant and knew it was Gwion, trying to be reborn and she decided to kill him, but when the child was born, he was so lovely and so wise-looking that she couldn't bring herself to do it. She set him afloat on the ocean, where he was found by a prince and grew up to be Taliesin the Bard. Ahhh!

Arianrhod is definitely a beautiful name, although you don't hear of many people with that name. It depends on whether they live in an area where the old legends are still told. A lot of Wales is very Christianised, so the legends have a Christian side to them, rather than a supernatural Pagan side, and a lot of the Gods have been transformed into saints and their names changed into Latin ones.

 

That was a really interesting story, thanks for posting it! I don't know much about Welsh mythology and I kinda wish I did. ...Also I have a close friend named Gwion, so that makes that even more interesting.