Alas, the arbitrary names that are inflicted on us! It reminds me of a news story. To help you understand the story, a little context first: a lot of Chinese nationalists still hate Japan for the Nanjing Massacre, and for Chinese names, the surname is written first (for example, Xi Jinping, Xi is his surname). Now, the story went that a man got a newborn son and he’d need to name him. This man had a rare surname: ‘操’. This character has multiple meanings and all of them are innocuous, except one: ‘fuck’. Apparently, this man was a true patriot because he named his boy ‘日本’, which means ‘Japan’. Yup, you’ve got it: the boy’s name was ‘Fuck Japan’.
I wonder, though, if the kid would grow up hating the foreign country or his own father.
My money is on the father. Mind you, I haven't forgiven my parents yet. And I'm intrigued by the way that such an elaborate character has multiple innocuous meanings, plus 'fuck' to top it all.
My maternal grandfather's name was Rafael (or maybe Raphael?) but everybody called him Rifel. My mother wanted call me Rafael after him but my father, who was English (my mother was a Russian Jew), insisted I be named after his father, some thing I've always regretted. Talking of names, my mother was named after the Russian Bolshevik, Vera Zazulich, who went into exile to Zurich with Lenin. The British, who couldn't understand my granma's thick Yiddisher accent named her Lily instead.
William, there's a whole novel in there! Can you speak Yiddish at all? I read many years ago that Yiddish has the highest number of swear words of all the languages in the world, and I regret not to have such a treasure at my disposal.
Portia, you have no idea! My maternal family (never mind my paternal side), started in England when, in 1901 Rafael and Etty arrived in Hull, Yorkshire (they had both fled the Black Hundreds Pogroms in the 1890s) with Etty already pregnant with my Uncle Isaac and on the way to Leeds, got married in Bradford. Actually, Etty was on her way to New York to join relatives there but never made it. Etty came from a small village in the Pale, near Vilnius and spoke very bad Russian but excellent Yiddish. My mother used lots of Yiddish words but never actually spoke it, she got instantly Anglicised. The Gay secret language, Polari, has much in common with Yiddish, being, like Yiddish, a mixture of many languages depending on which country the speaker lived in. I'm very proud of my revolutionary family who were well known in Leeds, people would stop the kids on the street, 'Hey the Barofskys!'. I have started writing about them but aside from one Aunt, well half aunt actually (Etty left the kids and went off with a comrade from Birminghsm) , all that generation has gone. By the time I realised what I was missing, it was too late.
Alas, the arbitrary names that are inflicted on us! It reminds me of a news story. To help you understand the story, a little context first: a lot of Chinese nationalists still hate Japan for the Nanjing Massacre, and for Chinese names, the surname is written first (for example, Xi Jinping, Xi is his surname). Now, the story went that a man got a newborn son and he’d need to name him. This man had a rare surname: ‘操’. This character has multiple meanings and all of them are innocuous, except one: ‘fuck’. Apparently, this man was a true patriot because he named his boy ‘日本’, which means ‘Japan’. Yup, you’ve got it: the boy’s name was ‘Fuck Japan’.
I wonder, though, if the kid would grow up hating the foreign country or his own father.
My money is on the father. Mind you, I haven't forgiven my parents yet. And I'm intrigued by the way that such an elaborate character has multiple innocuous meanings, plus 'fuck' to top it all.
I love the name Portia - and it still relates to a quick witted and charming woman.
Laura Carmichael is stunning here. I liked her in Downton Abbey, but this is something else !!
Terrific actress, I agree.
Miss Piggy would not be pleased to know that her name in Italian equates to a whore!
A whore, moi?
My maternal grandfather's name was Rafael (or maybe Raphael?) but everybody called him Rifel. My mother wanted call me Rafael after him but my father, who was English (my mother was a Russian Jew), insisted I be named after his father, some thing I've always regretted. Talking of names, my mother was named after the Russian Bolshevik, Vera Zazulich, who went into exile to Zurich with Lenin. The British, who couldn't understand my granma's thick Yiddisher accent named her Lily instead.
William, there's a whole novel in there! Can you speak Yiddish at all? I read many years ago that Yiddish has the highest number of swear words of all the languages in the world, and I regret not to have such a treasure at my disposal.
Portia, you have no idea! My maternal family (never mind my paternal side), started in England when, in 1901 Rafael and Etty arrived in Hull, Yorkshire (they had both fled the Black Hundreds Pogroms in the 1890s) with Etty already pregnant with my Uncle Isaac and on the way to Leeds, got married in Bradford. Actually, Etty was on her way to New York to join relatives there but never made it. Etty came from a small village in the Pale, near Vilnius and spoke very bad Russian but excellent Yiddish. My mother used lots of Yiddish words but never actually spoke it, she got instantly Anglicised. The Gay secret language, Polari, has much in common with Yiddish, being, like Yiddish, a mixture of many languages depending on which country the speaker lived in. I'm very proud of my revolutionary family who were well known in Leeds, people would stop the kids on the street, 'Hey the Barofskys!'. I have started writing about them but aside from one Aunt, well half aunt actually (Etty left the kids and went off with a comrade from Birminghsm) , all that generation has gone. By the time I realised what I was missing, it was too late.
Such a shame, it'd make a wonderful story! I look forward to reading more from you, William.