Native American Names

[Graham_S]

I worked with one guy who was nicknamed "8 Gauge"

Because he was thick and difficult to work with.

I picked up a few myself in the RAF.

I'm not sure what my native name would be, apparently my first actions upon being born were to look around, then fall asleep.
Dozes with Doctors?

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Well I watched Dances with Wolves again at the weekend, saw it for the first time in a long while earlier this year and was pretty fascinated by it and the culture.

Did you shed a tear when Dunbar's horse & wolf were killed ?





My user name could be a Native American one.

 

[Pandabean]

Tried to keep away from that Native American name generator, kind of random but doesn't really describe the person though.

... I once did that with the TV remote to my missus... the look on her face was a picture to behold.

Whereas she really didn't appreciate the funny side of it

I will add that to the list of things to do.

Did you shed a tear when Dunbar's horse & wolf were killed ?
My user name could be a Native American one.

The wolf I was close to. Felt for the poor thing.
Not so much on the horse though but still saddened me to see it.

 

[Loenja]

im known as the incredible German hulk, el massivo, bfgg (big friendly German giant)
basically all the same

 

[British Red]

My real given name translates from the original language as "Spirit of the Bear God"

A fact which in no way resembles me, and additionally I suspect a matter of which my parents were sublimely oblivious

Still cool as hell though

 

[bojit]

In my younger years i should have been know as Drinks-like-a-fish !
but now its more like Tea-milk-and-two ! or Swears-like-a-trooper !

Craig...........

 

[blacktimberwolf]

"Spirit of the Bear God"

"spirit of the Beer God" sounds pretty cool too.......

 

[British Red]

Certainly more realistic

I guess I am like a Bear though...when woken early!

 

[Tengu]

I was named for the Apollo missions...but its not my using name.

 

[Imagedude]

I was called 'Sprout Ar5e' at school, no idea why.

 

[robin wood]

I understand that some of the plains-dwelling First Nations peoples named their children after the first thing the father saw when he left the tipi immediately after the child was born. Hence, for example, the firstborn happened to be called Shining Moon and the second born was named Two Dogs.

I had heard this too and good to see recognition that native American cultures varied enormously.
I guess if we used this one now (if the father was present) then we would end up with "white room", "machine that goes beep" or "waiting room queue".
I like the Welsh system Jones the steam, Dai the post etc.

 

[Kotteman]

Here in Sweden it's not unusual to see people with surnames like Björn(bear) Ulf(wolf), Sten(stone) Rune/Runa(letter) Bror(brother) Tor(thor) Dag(day) Lo(lynx).

In Dalarna they have a tradition to take their surname after the farm they live at, so a guys name can be Maria sven andersson (Maria young man son of anders)
My old class mates called me Henrik the hero, i don't know how they came up with the name and they don't know either... One class mate was called Gurkan (cucumber) because he was vegetarian.

 

[suburban bushwacker]

I have a friend we call "Lunches with Sharks" he works for a management consultancy.
SBW

 

[santaman2000]

I had heard this too and good to see recognition that native American cultures varied enormously.

It's also interesting to note that the native names recorded by history don't always reflect what we would believe. Hiawatha, Squanto, Pocahontas, Sacagawea, Montezuma are all prime examples. It would seem that the names we associate with the trend of naming people after something significant (Roman Nose, Three Bears, etc) don't appear until after long interaction with Europeans, and even then it wasn't universal (Geronimo would be a later example)

 

[oldtimer]

This really started something, didn't it? I guess many of us, given our interests, have a huge respect for Native Americans. It is sad that many of their traditions have been lost through enforced cultural assimilation. A Dakota Sioux in "Reservation blues" remarks that he knows all about his culture because he saw "Dances With Wolves" -sad. There is quite a large body of information but the majority is derived from research by American academics. A tutor of my wife at Cambridge married the daughter of a Sioux who had been brought up on the Pine Ridge reservation. She did her PhD thesis on the white man's perception of the Native American. As for names, I seem to remember reading somewhere that names were earned and that a person could have several names in their lifetime. One needs to be wary of such generalisation, however. We so often erroneously lump "Indians" together when tribes, customs and lifestyle varied enormously just as Europeans vary from, say Lapps to Island greeks. Many,like the Spanish under Franco and the French under Napoleon suffered loss of language and culture, but anyone with an Irish, Scots or Welsh background knows all about that. Just try defining "British" and you have a lifetime study. Enough for now, I'm off to put warpaint on the hobby horse!

 

[ganstey]

A friend of a friend (yeah, I know, but I also worked for her for a couple of weeks) was given the name Purgle by her parents. I'll leave you to look it up (you might need a medical dictionary). I'm guessing her parents didn't know what it meant

 

[Dan Wound]

My wife is a little clumsy, my native american name for her is 'Runs with scissors'.

 

[Mick w.]

What about the vikings then? Eric Bloodaxe, Harald Bluetooth, Svein Forkbeard...
marvellously evocative names, and often, like our modern nicknames, with a heavy dose of irony. We have a bloke at work called Gorgeous George because he's ugly as sin.

 

[Miyagi]

My sister lives on the 12th floor of a block of flats and puts scraps on the window sill for for the seagulls etc., as she does a good seagull impression (vocal only) we call her "Squawks wi Gulls".

In return she named me "Walks wi Dugs".

Liam

 

[santaman2000]

This really started something, didn't it? I guess many of us, given our interests, have a huge respect for Native Americans. It is sad that many of their traditions have been lost through enforced cultural assimilation. A Dakota Sioux in "Reservation blues" remarks that he knows all about his culture because he saw "Dances With Wolves" -sad. There is quite a large body of information but the majority is derived from research by American academics. A tutor of my wife at Cambridge married the daughter of a Sioux who had been brought up on the Pine Ridge reservation. She did her PhD thesis on the white man's perception of the Native American...

It's ironic that since they had no written language, the Native Peoples perception of their own history is so heavily dependent on our perception of their history.