naming of names

[ilanarama]

I'm reading The Devil Wears Prada (and I'm only about halfway through, but so far I really like it - I haven't seen the movie) and I just encountered a character named "Ilana." And I can't help it: I always get a little weirded out, a little thrilled, and a little tossed out of the story, because that's my name, damn it, that is me, and what am I doing in this story?

At least in this book I seem to be a sympathetic character, unlike most of the others in the book (and if I turn out to be a supervillain, please don't tell me!). I was a little depressed when reading The Source because I got killed fairly early on. Ditto that really bad movie, The Arrival, and hey, that character was even actually named for me (although she was modeled on Susan Solomon), so I was totally justified in my over-identification. Then there was the Harry Potter fanfiction story I read (because it was a meme: search on your real name at ff.net) where I was a History of Magic teacher who'd gone to school with the Potter, Sr. generation, an animagus from the age of six, and a half-elf with waist-length azure hair and a nice set of dragonfly wings. (All at the same time.)

Do the rest of you get this weird jolt when you read your name in fiction (or hell, in a newspaper article)? I feel ridiculously proprietary about my name, maybe because I was thirteen years old before I met someone else who shared it (and she didn't spell it "right," so she sort of didn't count). I can't imagine what it would be like to be named Lisa or John or something like that.

Comments

[melusina]

It weirds me out a bit, and my RL first name is relatively common. I think it would be even stranger if you had a relatively uncommon name. . .

[kar0na.livejournal.com]

I get that way about "Karen", though I can still find seashore souvenirs with my name on it, so I can't imagine having an even rarer name. Ditto on folks who don't spell it right, though I think there are some pretty spellings out there (Caryn). I'd hate to have to spell my name out for everyone all the time. I have to do that for my last name as it is.

[frosch.livejournal.com]

Every generation has a set of trendy names that are extremely popular for a few years, and then give way to new trendy names. I have one of the names that was really hot for eight or ten years after about 1958.

A long time ago I got used to the idea that when I hear my name anywhere but at home, the speaker is usually talking about/to someone else.

I have more of a proprietary sense about my last name, although that's not exactly rare either.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

I almost never come across your name, so I can imagine that it would be odd to encounter it.

Laurel used to be uncommon, to the point where I'd get annoyed if I heard that anyone else had it because, dammit, that's MY name! But working in a health food store where the Laurel's Kitchen cookbook was so heavily referenced and THEN meeting another Laurel (with my same married surname!!) sitting right behind me at a wedding sort of wore away at the novelty factor. It's still not super common, though, so when I ran into another Laurel at Zoe's school, our mutual response was to high-five each other. :)

[triestine.livejournal.com]

I feel all special too - not many Mias in fiction. And should I encounter my last name, well, that would deserve a party!

[thalia]

My first name is ridiculously common, so that doesn't phase me. But a couple of years ago I read a story with a character with my full maiden name, and *that* freaked me out. Very weird.

[helkamaria.livejournal.com]

Do the rest of you get this weird jolt when you read your name in fiction (or hell, in a newspaper article)?

Don't I ever! My name isn't the rarest of all (3453 people (some of them no longer living or having it as a second name) in Finland), but it's rare enough that I was in my teens when I met a person who shared my name (and she was the woman who came over to clean our house sometimes!). Imagine my chagrin when, in my early 20s, I found out that, in my city, there had suddenly appeared a person who shared both my first name and my surname. I was totally weirded out.

Also, I get really annoyed if my name is spelled "Helga". I spent my childhood and early teens correcting everyone's spelling. These days mistakes aren't as common, but "Helga" is still more common than "Helka" (7207 people in Finland, one of them a man (same conditions apply as above)).

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine what it would be like to regularly hear someone calling your name, turn your head, and have it NOT BE YOU.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee, there are so many Karens in film, literature, and lj :-) that if you have this reaction, you are probably getting it constantly!

And oh, let me tell you, the one thing that is annoying about my name is that in the US, at least, if someone hears it they can't spell it and if they see it written they can't pronounce it. Native German or Spanish speakers (or anyone who speaks a language following similar long/short vowel rules) get it right off. But I am unfortunately used to the phenomenon of spelling it three times on the phone and still getting the package addressed to Illana, Ilaina, or Elana.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

A long time ago I got used to the idea that when I hear my name anywhere but at home, the speaker is usually talking about/to someone else.

And for me, that is SO WEIRD.

But your name, yeah, pretty common for our generation.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee, it must have been REALLY weird to meet someone with your same exact name! Once I got email from someone (back in Usenet days, when I used my real name and work email all over the place) asking if I was the same Ilana Stern who sat behind him in third grade in some NYC school in 1960, and I had to tell him sorry, I wasn't born yet then. :-)

I actually can't remember ever meeting another Laurel up until very recently.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee! Is Mia a common Croatian name, or is it unusual in real life as well as fiction?

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee, I bet!

My father's name is David Stern, which is also the name of the commissioner of the NBA. It is weird seeing my dad's name in the sports pages.

[revbiscuit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do. I think it's because in the UK they spell my name differently but not by much, so actually seeing it spelt "correctly", as it were, always makes me think they are talking about me!

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

In the US, though, your name would be quite rare! (And also probably more likely to be misspelled or mis-heard as Helga...)

Imagine my chagrin when, in my early 20s, I found out that, in my city, there had suddenly appeared a person who shared both my first name and my surname. I was totally weirded out.

I bet! See my comment to laurelwood above about the only other person I have heard of with my exact same name...the thing is, though, that my last name is not uncommon, and because of the ethnicity factor, someone with my first name probably has a higher-than-average chance of sharing my last name too, so it's surprising I haven't met another one.

And I hear you on the annoyance. I get annoyed when my name is spelled "Elana" but lots of Americans do that as they are not used to the I being pronounced as long-e (eee) rather than long-i (eye). Or when they use two l's.

I quite like your name, by the way! It's unusual (here) and pretty.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hah, yes. And you are probably also tired of correcting people's misspellings.

[helkamaria.livejournal.com]

My last name, otoh, is quite uncommon: currently 533 people in Finland and 82 in other countries (not all of them are related to me). Although it's nowhere as uncommon as my mother's maiden name: currently 16 people in Finland (every single one of them quite closely related to me).

I got teased over my first name when I was a child. There's a song which translates as "I've seen Miss Helga in the bath", and although Helga isn't my name, it was close enough for some stupid people. It's only lately that I've begun to appreciate my name.

[triestine.livejournal.com]

It's not strange to Croatia, if that makes sense, but it's not terribly common either. So far in person I met three other Mias. The cool thing however is that there doesn't exist - nor did ever - another person with my name+surname. It's not even that the surname is that rare, it's that being a mix of three languages it exists in a variety of spellings. Small wonder I'm not into switching to Future Spouse's surname. ;)

[thalia]

Yeah, that's gotta be strange--at least there's no one famous with my name. Although before I got married, my gynecologist had three patients with my first and last name, which was a whole other kind of weird.

Also, "faze." I can't believe I did that. Sheesh.

[frosch.livejournal.com]

reading through the rest of the thread I'm suddenly reminded of the day the circulation department head at the Northwestern library came to me to respond to a note she thought I'd left for her that had actually been written by one of the other two Jeff Carrolls on campus.

I only met him in person once; since I'm from the Teutonic corner of Indiana and he from 95th Street in Chicago, you might say we didn't exactly hit it off. The third one I never even ran into.

For some reason Jeff Carrolls seem to have a tendency to become realtors. There's one in Seattle and another in Indianapolis, so I've gotten fairly used to reading my name on signs.

[kar0na.livejournal.com]

I always mentally pronounced it "eee-lonna". Which way is it really?

[kar0na.livejournal.com]

I've noticed a LOT of Karens are dirty-blonde-ish. And are cool. ;)

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

The worst part about seeing my name in the media, though it's not used very frequently, is that the character is ALWAYS a cheerleader and/or a dumb bimbo. I've actually known quite a few people with my name, though they typically haven't ever met anyone else. And I've been friends with almost all of them - and NONE of them were bimbos. Or cheerleaders. Hee.

[kar0na.livejournal.com]

1) I think I do the same thing with faze and phase and just noticed it now.

2) My gynie had a patient of my same name who was older and had had a mastectomy. That was a weird first few minutes the first time I went to see him.

[hedda62.livejournal.com]

I met one person who shared my name in high school, then (variant spellings allowed) two in college and oddly three in a small grad school program - but now they are all over the place, although all much younger than me. So I get the head-turning thing fairly often, usually addressed to a teenage girl. And it is still very weird. In fiction... well, I don't read a lot of teen fiction, but I suspect the ratio would be the same. I have encountered at least one villain with my name, which was fun if slightly disturbing.

I don't believe I've met anyone else with your name!