Khan_Sama wrote:
ValMikeSmith wrote:
but they mean something. Not like John Doe. More like precolumbian Americans,
which have names like "Red Arrow", "Crazy Horse", "Sitting Bull", etc.
Barrack = derived from Hebrew Barukh = Blessed
Hussein = Arabic = Good, handsome one
Obama = Derived from that Luo word "Bam" = "crooked (slightly bent) one".
People outside the west have names which generally have a meaning attached to it. For example, my name is Minhaj [the (correct) way of] Ahmed (highly praised) Khan (leader).
People in the west also have many names with meanings. For example, Benedict is the Latin version of Barukh.
Pfft, my given name is derived from English and means a purveyor of goods, or keeper of provisions. I'm no shopkeeper.
My middle name is derived from Greek and means "defender of men" but I'm no warrior.
My last name, though inherited from Italy, was distorted either by some mistake by immigration officials or by a deliberate choice to a different name that would, by freak coincidence, register as originating in Scotland or Ireland. The original Italian name refers to a specific location where an ancient ancestor of mine in patrilinear descent presumably lived, the coincidental Irish name that was accidentally created from it means "little black one."
Now, I am not English, Greek, or Italian. I am predominantly Scottish and Irish (meaning Celtic, not Anglo-Saxon) in ethnic background. Though my surname would register as Irish/Scottish, that is only by accident and the name was inherited from an Italian a couple generations back. There are also many Spaniards with a similar last name.
People who try to read to much into the literal meaning of names are morons. Dissecting the meaning of my name tells you nothing about me- I am not a keeper of provisions, a defender of men, or someone from a particular location in the southern parts of Italy. Nor is the accidental Gaelicization of my surname of any value- "little black one?" Nope, I'm about as white as they come, and of average size.
_________________
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH