Saturday, May 19, 2007

Class #5 Names

1. How do you choose a child's given name in your family?

I think in most families, the parents usually choose a name which they like (and that they both can agree on). Sometimes, though, families have traditional names. It is common in some families to give children the name of past relatives, such as grand parents, aunts and uncles, etc. For example, my sister was named after our great great grandmother, and I am named after my father (although we have different middle names).

3. Does your given name or your family name mean anything?

My given name comes from an old German word meaning "angry or violent wolf." I think this is kind of funny because it doesn't describe me at all. It is a very rare name in America, but much more common in northern European countries (Norway, Sweden, Germany). My family name comes from an old Norwegian tradition. In Norway a child's last name was the a combination of the father's given name + son or daughter. My family name, Siverson, means that somewhere in the past I had a relative named Siver, and he had a son. But in America we keep a single family name, so when my family came to America we kept the name Siverson.

7. How do you know if names are boys' names, girls' names, or both?

This is a difficult question, because usually it is easy to tell the difference between male and female names, but it is difficult to explain why. The only way I can explain it is that there are some names that are traditionally girls' names and some names that are traditionally boys' names. But some names can be either, and these are usually very confusing.

1 comment:

yellow dress said...

Hi, Rolf★ I was really interested in your blog. Thinking about "name" is very interesting, and especially I'm interested in foreign names. I think they are very attractive because they have some meanings and come from someone's name. This way of giving a name is often the same as Japanese do. By the way, the root of your name was really really interesting!! ^^