16 Comments

My parents chose my first name based on one of Hafiz's sonnets. I had no problem with my first name for many years. During my english learning years, only during one term my teacher got a problem with me (my first name and another girl's name was the same, but i was taller and she was shorter. Our teacher decided to call her "small Negar", and me "big Negar". 😁😁

Anyway, i am still proud of having such an uncommon and meaningful name. I just wish more of my classmates had uncommon first names like me (my classmates' first names were mostly Zahra and Fateme, which are Islamic names).

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I love that your name is connected to poetry--that's amazing. We named our oldest daughter after one of my favorite poets, Gwendolyn Brooks.

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Yes, it's amazing. Truth be told, it's one of lesser-known traditions among some Shirazi people that they choose their kids' first names from literary works. Hafiz and Sa'di are two stars in the literary sky of Shiraz. I can talk a lot more about this, but i need to be more careful not to overshare.

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I bought a Hafiz book on your recommendation, and I'm still waiting to get to it, but it's on the shelf.

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Great to hear you bought that Hafiz book. I'm sure you'll read it when you have no other book to read. Also, i'm sure you'll enjoy reading those sonnets.

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Car names have gotten weird (i.e. totally made up), too.

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One of my favorite lines from Don DeLillo, a stand alone sentence with no context in his novel White Noise, is "Toyota Celica." That's it.

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I'm always happy to be known only and simply as Bill, but one advantage of a name like Karenlynlee is that it [hopefully] can give the child some agency over nicknames/diminutives. To get to choose to be Karen, or Lyn, or Lee, or Lynlee, seems an embarrassment of riches.

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I confess to liking "Billiam." But yes, I agree--Charles and Chuck leave horrible alternative options.

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Charles --> Chuck

William --> Wuck

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Freegan????

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I can certainly empathise with this as someone who grew up in a time of Fred / Albert / Susan / Alice / Sheila / Christine / Bill / Ken / Dave and ....

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Sheila. Now there’s a good one, even immortalized in song by… Sheila E.

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... and Tommy Roe

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Turns out that people do name their kids after the days of the week

https://onomasticsoutsidethebox.wordpress.com/2024/08/04/days-of-the-week-as-names-sunday-and-monday/

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Now this is cool.

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