Icelandic girl fights for right to her own name

AP ^ | 01/03/2013

[Einherjar]

A 15-year-old is suing the Icelandic state for the right to legally use the name given to her by her mother. The problem? Blaer, which means "light breeze" in Icelandic, is not on a list approved by the government.

[Lazamataz]

[catfish1957]

Still have not made the decision not to be a jerk, eh?

[catfish1957]

I agree. Laz is an icon here at FR. Don-O???, never heard of the sucker.

[GraceG]

Laz would hit one who was Tall Laz would hit them at the Mall

Laz would hit a girl in the Fall Laz would pretty much hit them ALL!

[Lazamataz]

Huh. My book reads:

One fish,
Two fish,
Red fish,
Naked sweaty bodies all writhing in a pile and moaning.

[catfish1957]

I am a genealogist, and can give several examples. One good seasonal favorite of mine is the name Ebenezer. If you have an Anglo background, I'd say the odds are better than 50-50 that you have an ancestor by that name.

Guy in the 19th century named Dickens kind of changed the frequency of the use of that name.

[BillyBoy]

They have done studies in America that show that if there are two equally qualified black applicants for a job, and one is named something like "Dayqyan Mfundo" and the other is named "Mike Jones", then "Mike Jones" is something like 5X more likely to get the job. Giving American born kids idiotic "exotic" names tends to hurt their chances of success and alienates them from mainstream society.

People will scream "racism!" if you crictize black people for doing it, but Field is right that I've seen the trend of ridiculous sounding names very common among white and hispanic Americans since the 1960s too. Some examples of idiotic names that rich white celebrities have given their kids include Pilot Inspektor, Fifi Trixibelle, Sage Moonblood, Memphis Eve, Blue Angel, Audio Science, Moxie Crimefighter, and Bronx Mowgli. Some of the American born hispanic names I've heard include Iker, Jerónimo, Jesús Concepción, Eustaquio, Casimiro, Melquaiades, Crisostromo, Rutilio, Humberto, Aniceto, and Luz (spanish for "light"). And examples of crazy black names include Aaja, Acacia, Ajeenah ,DaQuan, Diezel, Placenta, Lemonjello, Timphanie, Tryphenia, Tywana, Tzaddi and Tzavvi.

Notice I don't include "unusual" names, such as Claribell and Francis (for a guy). Those names are no longer common but I've met people with those names and they're actual legitimate names.

The problem is black people giving their kids faux "African" names they made up themselves, white people naming their kids after cutie objects and things that are not suitable human names, and hispanics giving their kids faux "spanish-sounding" and/or religious blasphemous names. Any of these is going to ostracize the kid in society, IMO.

I've been joking for years that since only Asians consistently give American born children "normal" names (John, Kimberly, Eddie, David, Jane, Molly, etc.), we should appoint a blue ribbon panel of asians to review baby names in this country and fine anyone $200 who gives their kid a retarded name. It sounds a bit fascist but this trend of Mackenzie's and Mackayla's (I know at least 3 women who gave their child that name, including my cousin) has got to stop. I even know a guy who named his newborn son "Rex". That should be a dog's name, not a person.

[ksen]

They have done studies in America that show that if there are two equally qualified black applicants for a job, and one is named something like "Dayqyan Mfundo" and the other is named "Mike Jones", then "Mike Jones" is something like 5X more likely to get the job. Giving American born kids idiotic "exotic" names tends to hurt their chances of success and alienates them from mainstream society.

The problem you are describing is not with the one's having the "exotic" names. It's with the decision makers bypassing perfectly acceptable candidates based simply on how their name sounds.

[RedWhiteBlue]

In reverse, look what happens when an inner city teacher subs at a mostly white school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw

[marsh2]

I lived in Iceland as a Navy wife for a couple of years.If I recall, the last names of the Icelanders is their father’s name plus dottir (if they are a girl) and son of they are a boy. So if your Dad’s first name is John and you were a girl, your last name would be Blaer Johnsdottir. If you were a boy it would be whatever Johnson.

I think it would be more important to keep the boy’s names traditional to preserve the culture.

[GOPsterinMA]

First off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCVHpnixj88

Secondly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52ilv_bS9E

Regarding names, I’ve posted this before. When my Grandfather came here from Italy at age 14, he changed his name to sound “American” and from what I’ve been told, forbade any language but English to be spoken in his house.

Those days are gone. This country has become a whorehouse run by diseased harlots with a Communist bent.

As for the celebrity names, I’ll add “Zooey” to the list. Sweet, sweet, Zooey.

[fieldmarshaldj]

So therefore you blame the employer rather than the parents practice of cultural apartheid for placing them at a disadvantage. Got it.

[Hoffer Rand]

And dangit, if my Momma called me "Dog Poop" and the Government wanted to call me "Humilis Vectigal Generans" (look it up), I'd probably settle on "Skyway Thunderbolt" as a reasonable compromise, and use it as outlined above.

Stormageddon, Lord of Darkness.

[ksen]

So therefore you blame the employer rather than the parents practice of cultural apartheid for placing them at a disadvantage. Got it.

If the decision between two qualified individuals is made simply on whether the hirer likes the name or not then yes. This isn't rocket science.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I saw that when it aired, funny stuff. I had an old Black teacher who had been around for the pre-1960s segregated system (this was in 1984). He was completely incomprehensible (one, he was hard to understand because of his age, and two, his Southern-fried ebonics) and teaching to a forced-integration class of mostly Whites whom were bused in from the suburbs. The principal had to move me out of his class because there was no way I could learn (he was teaching English, btw).

[fieldmarshaldj]

Still awaiting your reply to post #77.

[ksen]

Still awaiting your reply to post #77

There's not much to say to someone who believes that Kunta Kinte was fictional. :shrug:

[fieldmarshaldj]

Nice dodge. That you don’t know that Alex Haley was prone to, shall we say, embellishment (and plagiarism) is merely a convenient red herring. A cursory glance at your posting history indicates you’re anything but a Conservative. The fact you have no problem with cultural apartheid speaks volumes to your mentality.

“Are you not paying attention, people with their hat on backwards, pants down around the crack. Isn’t that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn’t it a sign of something when she’s got her dress all the way up to the crack...and got all kinds of needles and things going through her body. What part of Africa did this come from? (laughter). We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans, they don’t know a damned thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Shaligua, Mohammed and all that crap and all of them are in jail.” — Bill Cosby

[ksen]

They have done studies in America that show that if there are two equally qualified black applicants for a job, and one is named something like "Dayqyan Mfundo" and the other is named "Mike Jones", then "Mike Jones" is something like 5X more likely to get the job.

Who is "they" and do they also have links to those reports?

[campaignPete R-CT]

Cozi TV joins THIS movies with shows of old
Zooey interruptus of Fox ... our new heart-throb
Mila cast aside like a rag doll

Stunned America has stopped the study of tax code controversy
illiterate women searching tax books
did we lose our tuition credits,
they ask one another
in the canned vegetable aisle?
the FICA deduction really increased?

We’re the Beatnik crowd now
Freepers who in recent past
fretted the nation, ward by ward

our weary civic hearts have led us away
no longer riding on the merry-go-round,
we just had to let the nation go!

Kerouac and Ginsberg would know
we’ve chosen the better path
But where, where are the Beatnik chicks?