Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Names Not To Call Children By

So there I am, typing away on a big SCA research project having to do with medieval Jewish names, and the fella happens to ask me what 'stein' means--so I tell him--and then he asks what "Frankenstein" means, and I say I don't know, and I chat on for a bit about the origins of German Jewish surnames.

Apropos of this, the fella declares that if he were to be asked to choose a family name, it would be "Schadenfreude".

I tell him that while he still has some lingering hope of persuading me to take his last name, making it "Schadenfreude" will kill that off right quick.

He says that that's okay, but he and the children will be Schadenfreude. The children, he declares happily, will be Bubba Schadenfreude and Jezebel Schadenfreude.

He has a recurrent interest in "Jezebel" as a name for a child of ours. I don't think he knows her story, he saw the name in a list of 'Biblical names not to give your baby'. He was briefly interested in "Cain" at about the same time.

I've said I will consider Jezebel as a middle name if her first name can be Yentl.

Yentl Jezebel Schadenfreude. Sounds presidential to ME.

4 comments:

Barefoot Jewess said...

Bwahahahahaha!!!!

I loved the post!

Eliyahu said...

possibly he's testing a new form of birth control?

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

Names that Israelies use to keep their kids from making Yerida/Moving to America:

(BTw - all these are valid and common Israeli names)

Moran
Dudu
Tehell
Nofeet
Osnat
Sneer

Anonymous said...

Gah! No Schadenfreude children! Noooooo

-- Niamh