Re: OT: Anthroponymics

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005, John Vertical wrote:
>
> >How many first names can people have in different nooks of the world?
> >Nowadays Swedes can have any number from one upwards, but most have
> >only two. (I and my son have three each, but I never use Jung 'coz
> >most people -- even Swedes -- think it's a surname.)
>
> In Finland, the standard is two first names, but one and three are also
> allowed by law. I think joint names such as Jean-François count as two,
but
> don't hold me on that.
>
I'm not aware of any Australian law limiting the number of given names
a person can have.  It's common for most people born since the beginning
of the 20th Century to have two given names, of which the first name is
almost always the one chosen for everyday use.  A few people have only
one given name, whilst some have three or four.

If you decide to change your name (say because your Dad was born in
Philadelphia to an alphabetising faimly), they will probably insist that
you have at least one given name and at most one - possibly hyphenated
- surname.  So you could take out a deed poll at the registry office to
change your name to -
Freddie Mercury-Jones-Hampton, or to -
Freddie Mercury Jones Hampton, but not to -
Freddie.

Unlike the USA, we don't use the form John X Jones very much; it's
either plain John Jones (even in signatures) or the full John Xavier Jones.

Also, unlike in some countries, it's perfectly OK here to use a diminutive
as a given name: Johnny, Rob, Jim, Jack, Meg, etc are common enough.

Funny thing about "diminutives": they're often longer than the full name,
even though the label diminutive seems to imply they're smaller.  For
example, "Johnny" is a diminutive of "John".  My favourite diminutive is
one I learnt in German class, when Mutter spoke of her son Johannes as:
"Meine kleine Hans-    -ie-    -lein-     -chen".
[ my    little   Johnny  little   little     little   ]

Wouldn't that make you feel ... small? :-)


>
> >BTW there is on record a Swede having 29 names -- one for each letter
> >of the Swedish alphabet [A-ZÅÄÖ]!
> >
> >--
> >
> >/BP 8^)>
>
> That reminds me - I read from an old (70s I think) copy of Guiness World
> Records that a Pennsylvanian man born in 1904 had the longest known
personal
> name, and he also had first names for every letter of the alphabet. But it
> was his family name that was the totally insane one. I think I wrote it
down
> somewhere ...
>
> OK, here goes:
> Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John
Kenneth
> Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor
> William Xerxes Yancy Zeus
>
Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenschaftschafer
swessenschafe-
>
warenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvonangreifeudurchihrraubgierigfe
indewelchevor-
>
alternzwolftausendjahresvorandieerscheinenerscheinenvanderersteerdemenschder
raumschiff-
>
gebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternait
igraumaufdersuche-
>
nachdiesternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneurasse
vonverstandig-
>
menschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfeuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhem
itnicheinfurchtvor-
> angreifenvonandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischenternartigraum Senior.
That "Senior" at the end implies, of course, that he named one of
his sons:
" Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John
Kenneth
 Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor
 William Xerxes Yancy Zeus
 Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenschaftschafe
rswessenschafe-
 warenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvonangreifeudurchihrraubgierigf
eindewelchevor-
 alternzwolftausendjahresvorandieerscheinenerscheinenvanderersteerdemenschde
rraumschiff-
 gebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternai
tigraumaufdersuche-
 nachdiesternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneurass
evonverstandig-
 menschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfeuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhe
mitnicheinfurchtvor-
 angreifenvonandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischenternartigraum Junior"
!!!

> My German is a little rusty (OK, a lot rusty) - can anyone provide a
> translation of the family name?
Not me; I'm not sure I even know that many words in German!
I do hope that someone: Herman or Jörg?: will rise to the challenge.

> John Vertical
Regards,
Yahya

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