[OT] Naming a child Arwen
- Thread starter Utrecht
- Start date
terminal blue
First Post
zhure suggested that i respond to this thread, so here i am...
i named my youngest daughter arwen elanor. she is now 7 years old and there are no major problems that i know of yet. most people have no clue where the name came from, and even now, after the movies have come out, don't seem to correlate her name with tolkien until i tell them. certain people i have known from england thought the name was welsh in origin since it is similar to bronwen.
one minor problem is mispronunciation of the name by her teachers... go figure.
even the boys who pester her haven't found a way to adulterate her name yet.
i say go for it.
i named my youngest daughter arwen elanor. she is now 7 years old and there are no major problems that i know of yet. most people have no clue where the name came from, and even now, after the movies have come out, don't seem to correlate her name with tolkien until i tell them. certain people i have known from england thought the name was welsh in origin since it is similar to bronwen.
one minor problem is mispronunciation of the name by her teachers... go figure.
even the boys who pester her haven't found a way to adulterate her name yet.
i say go for it.
I have a friend whose middle name is Arwen. She hates it, thinks it's ugly, got mad at me for complimenting it, and is planning to change it.
My general philosophy on names is to go for a normal first name, and then a strange middle name. My parents went with this and it's worked out pretty well for me; I give people my first name, then tell them my middle name if I think they'd appreciate it. I think Arwen is a pretty name though, no matter what my friend says, so if you want to then go for it.
My general philosophy on names is to go for a normal first name, and then a strange middle name. My parents went with this and it's worked out pretty well for me; I give people my first name, then tell them my middle name if I think they'd appreciate it. I think Arwen is a pretty name though, no matter what my friend says, so if you want to then go for it.
mythago
Hero
We named our son Harry after his grandfather. Guess what book got popular right after he was born.
"We named her Bubbles because we wanted her to be an exotic dancer, but she grew up to be a marine biologist, so it all worked out." (Mr. Boffo)
The problem with naming a kid after an elf is if she grows up to be very unelf-like; are you going to have cognitive dissonance if she doesn't "fit" her name? If not, then go for it.
"We named her Bubbles because we wanted her to be an exotic dancer, but she grew up to be a marine biologist, so it all worked out." (Mr. Boffo)
The problem with naming a kid after an elf is if she grows up to be very unelf-like; are you going to have cognitive dissonance if she doesn't "fit" her name? If not, then go for it.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Aitch Eye said:
Susan and Johnathan, obviously.
Among other fascinating names, to make you wonder how much time some parents place in naming their children:
My wife works in public education. She and I spoke after I told her about this thread. Some of the names she has revealed to me over her years of teaching:
-Doral (accent on the second syllable)
-Monistat
-Decappuccino
-Tampaxia
I swear I am not making this
up. 
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WanderingMonster
First Post
I think pulling names from literature is a time honored tradition! Arwen is a very pretty name. Maybe give her a more "mainstream" middle name. That way if she chooses a profession that she feels needs a more mainstream name she could always use it instead.
If my daughter had been a boy, we were agreed that he would have been Parker Ace. If my son had been a girl, I liked Eva Victoria--her first name would have also been her initials.
I like quirky names. Although I'm sure that Peter didn't when he started getting teased in school. Shame on Mr. & Mrs. Ness! (That's true, by the way...)
If my daughter had been a boy, we were agreed that he would have been Parker Ace. If my son had been a girl, I liked Eva Victoria--her first name would have also been her initials.
I like quirky names. Although I'm sure that Peter didn't when he started getting teased in school. Shame on Mr. & Mrs. Ness! (That's true, by the way...)
William Ronald
Explorer
I do not see what the fuss is over the name Arwen, as it is a pleasant literary name. One person I worked with a couple years back mentioned that the name Wendy did not exist prior to the book Peter Pan. (I cannot verify this.)
I know that Tolkien borrowed a few names. Morwen, the mother of Turin Turambar in the Silmarillion, is originally taken from Welsh.
Uzumaki does make a valid point. I have known a few people who have adopted. I think what matters is not so much what a child is named, but how a child is raised.
I know that Tolkien borrowed a few names. Morwen, the mother of Turin Turambar in the Silmarillion, is originally taken from Welsh.
Uzumaki does make a valid point. I have known a few people who have adopted. I think what matters is not so much what a child is named, but how a child is raised.
mythago said:
Very true. THe Eowyn I used to know was about five feet tall and dark complected. Names like that work OK if you are a huge Anglo Saxon or something but not for a hispanic.
Heck I knew an African American named Gandalf, his dad was the one responsible for that and well JMO it was bloody cruel!
Heck it works in lots of directions I would make a lousy Sven or M'Kumba
My general advice is to select normal names appropriate to your culture. Names like Aullustrie or Vanyel are only OK if you are Ren Faire folk or Fantasy Hippies or something like that.
No offense to Ren Faire folk intended of course.
The jist is give the kid (boy or girl) a name thats appropriate for the type of people they will spend the most time with.
Arwen (as I mentioned before) is a wobbler. Elanor otoh is just an odd spelling of a real name so its OK IMO
JMO, my 2 cents, take with grain of salt, YMMV etc
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