WHat's in a name?

January 1, 2005 11:14 AM

'Tsunami' born out of disaster A young mother gives birth to one child while losing track of another.
posted by Cranberry (26 comments total)

Well, that's not going to cause a complex for the kid when she grows up or anything. I wouldn't want to saddle my kid with a constant, life long reminder that she was born while tens of thousands of other people died.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:22 AM on January 1, 2005

attention whore....
posted by HuronBob at 11:27 AM on January 1, 2005

i'd tsu
posted by tsarfan at 11:30 AM on January 1, 2005

My three-year-old twins, One World Trade Center North Tower Smith and Two World Trade Center South Tower Smith, think it's great.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 11:39 AM on January 1, 2005

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are such euphonious names.
posted by digaman at 11:51 AM on January 1, 2005

It's nothing new to name a child in honor of some dramatic situation which preceded their birth in order to carry the story forward. That's common practice in many cultures. Well, at least that's what my older brother, Broken Condom, tells me.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:54 AM on January 1, 2005

It's alot better than some of the other ridiculous names people slap on their kids. A child named Mercedes should have her parents slapped.

By the way, for folks who treat this lightly, the woman gave birth to one child while her other child was lost in the tragedy. Try not to overlook the fact that one of her children is probably dead. And yes, I am looking at you HuronBob.
posted by fenriq at 12:07 PM on January 1, 2005

If you read the article to the end you will see her other child was traced to a shelter elsewhere-for some reason they have not reunited him with his family yet.
posted by konolia at 12:08 PM on January 1, 2005

A child named Mercedes should have her parents slapped.

Mercedes has been a legitimate female name for a long time, far predating the car.

However, the parents of little A'Lexxus (which I saw on a hospital baby website awhile ago) have a lot to answer for.
posted by lisa g at 12:12 PM on January 1, 2005

Mercedes is a very old spanish name. It's my 80 y.o. auntie's name.

Toshiba on the other hand, I'm not so sure about.....
posted by Juicylicious at 12:18 PM on January 1, 2005

lisa_g beat me to it. I tried to locate it on line, but couldn't find it. If I remember correctly, Karl Benz named the auto he developed after his Spanish wife, whose name was Mercedes. I agree with the sentiment. My wife has a friend who named their first born, Jaxon. I fear for the kid when he has to deal with the inevitable Jaxon Jaxoff teasing in the fourth grade.
posted by psmealey at 12:18 PM on January 1, 2005

fenriq...

had they done it with no interviews, I would have not said a word!
posted by HuronBob at 12:33 PM on January 1, 2005

Mercedes should have her parents slapped.

Excuse me, sir, I'd like to have my parents slapped, please? How much will that be?
posted by thejoshu at 12:39 PM on January 1, 2005

Ahh, true, true. But perhaps they didn't seek out the interviews? In the midst of all the tragedy and death, its only sensible to glom onto some good story, something that lifts (and unites, lifting and seperating is for wunderbras). I do get your point though and apologize if my reaction was headstrong.

And thanks, I'll withdraw the objection to Mercedes and replace it with Dorita, Fahrvegnugen and any name that is just a standard name with one extra arbitrary letter tossed in to "unique" it up.
posted by fenriq at 12:40 PM on January 1, 2005

Saddest name I have ever come across: Simonella.

"Simonella, time for dinner. Wash your hands....."
posted by sageleaf at 12:47 PM on January 1, 2005

All it needs is someone called Simonella to give it a good spin. Like Nigella Lawson, Nigel Lawson's daughter, did for her moniker.
posted by Navek Rednam at 1:55 PM on January 1, 2005

"Our baby is looked after by everyone here. They have named her Tsunami and we have accepted. Even naval doctors took great care of this little baby."

It appears the community of refugees - who are taking care of the girl - have decided on the name.

If we want to blame someone, why not the story editor who demanded a feel-good story.
posted by dismitree at 2:04 PM on January 1, 2005

Why blame anyone? These people are happy to be alive and when you think about it, it's a lot better to live with a lame name than be dead. IMHO, it just seems a bit inane to spend time bickering over details of a feel good story when there are so many people lost.

And for the record, my first name is WILDA. Try that one on for size. I was named after my grandmother who died 2 weeks before I was born. Went by Lynn because I didn't like being called "Wildabeast" by kids. But you know what? While I hated it as a kid, now I'm thrilled that I have that first name... I learned to embrace it & that I'm a much different person than I would've been had I been born with a name just like everyone else's. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that in the end the name you're born with is only as horrible as you choose to make it. So, it's really up to Tsunami herself how that goes.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:29 PM on January 1, 2005

who are taking care of the girl

There appear to be at least two different babies: a girl in Alapuzha, India, whose parents are called Priyanka and Kutten, and a boy on Little Andaman Island whose parents are Namita and Lakshmi Roy.

("And if I ever have a son I think I’m gonna name him Bill, George, anything but Tsunami").
posted by raygirvan at 2:51 PM on January 1, 2005

I actually heard Johnny Cash for a second there, raygirvan. ;)
posted by miss lynnster at 2:53 PM on January 1, 2005

Isn't this link a bit National Enquirery for Metafilter?

(Oh, and I think the name "Wilda" rocks.)
posted by rushmc at 6:29 PM on January 1, 2005

One day he'll make a great tag team partner in the WWE...
posted by unsupervised at 6:57 PM on January 1, 2005

Nigella's sister is called Thomasina, btw.
posted by slightlybewildered at 8:14 PM on January 1, 2005

She has another sister called Horatia. More about the naming in this Guardian Books interview, where she explains that her name wasn't some ego-trip by her father Nigel, but an affectation of female relatives (the inspiration being partly botanical).
posted by raygirvan at 8:34 PM on January 1, 2005

Isn't this link a bit National Enquirery for Metafilter?

Best of the web indeed.
posted by dazed_one at 9:39 AM on January 2, 2005

excerpt from the discoverychannel science website:

Geologists believe the rising sea level will have added implications which may prove even more decisive than the weather. The extra weight from millions of cubic kilometres of water may cause stress on weak points in the Earth's crust - known to experts as the lithosphere.

This could trigger earthquakes and volcanic eruptions along fault lines causing local devastation and send harmful gasses and debris into the atmosphere. There's also an increased danger of tsunamis
posted by diff:eye:ant at 6:00 PM on January 2, 2005