Re: CHAT: new names (was: Re: Bopomofo and pinyin)

Matt Pearson wrote:

> >    Oh I get it now, that's my "Chinese" name, right? Actually, when I was
> >translating, it was 'Mo4 ke4lin2'. I'm the Aelya guy  Clinton
> >Moreland-Stringham. My husband and I just got tired of 17 letters in our last
> >name, and we both HATE those first names, so we're getting them legally
> >changed (me to Aidan Michael Grey, him to J. Brent Grey).
> >But now I wonder what cool meaning I can give my new name (my old one was
> >rather lame - 'inky border of the forest'  or something).
>
> I like "inky border of the forest"!  It's a lot better than *my* Chinese name,
> Pi Risheng, which means "leather sunrise".  Of course, nobody can beat
> Richard Nixon, whose Chinese name means "mud overcoming the forest".
>
    This is true. On of my compatriots was given Bao as a last name - which meant
'swollen afterbirth'! One of the games we used to play was to transliterate names
as weirdly/humorously as we could. Some example:
    Donald > dan ou > Bomb Australia!
    Sarah > si re> 4 crazy nuns


> So why did you choose the name "Grey"?  Is there an Aelya equivalent
> as well?  If you were to translate "Grey" into Tokana, you'd have to choose
> between "Hiem" (pronounced /hjEm/) and "Hemak".  "Hiem" means "light
> bluish grey", while "hemak" means "dark/ashen grey".
    Chose Grey for religious reasons - it's significant in our religious mythology
as the color of Present-Moment (aka Lugh), who is born as a grey raven and is one
of my clan's ancestors. Also, it's short!
    In Tokana, we'd go with Hiem - the color really does have a bluish tinge.
Sometimes described as glas in Old Irish or Welsh.
    Aelya would be aelas (ay-l@s)  or ilyath (il-yaT) both with stress on first
syllables. We'd probably use Aelas for the reason given above - but, that color is
associated with swans and death, too, so we may go with ilyath just to avoid any
unpleasant correspondences!

    Aidan Grey

        Edhan Aelas (in Aelya)