Names are a different sort of concept here. They're not just names they usually mean something, so most people end up with names like Wise or Beautiful City or something really literal along those lines. I haven't been asking the meaning of everyone's name, but a number of people have offered the meaning of their names. Admittedly this literal naming system exists to some degree in English with the flower related names being relatively common and I do have a friend named Moss. I think it's more common in not-English languages to name things in a more literal manner.
For example let's all go to our favourite Engrish example which are probably Japanese products which tend to have names like Happy Delicious Cookie. This exists in Ethiopia mostly with regard to businesses who like to describe what they are with their name. There is Tiru Pub (which literally translates to Good Pub), Best Supermarket (it's apparently ironically only second best), Gorgeous Cafe (which is apparently terrible), Fantastic Restaurant and my personal favourite, Decent Pub. Myself and some British English teachers plan on going to see Decent Pub this weekend in the hopes of having the following conversation:
Us: I went to Decent Pub last weekend.
Someone: How was it?
Us: Decent.
There's something appealing in its modesty and simple honesty in that it's only decent. As long as it lives up to the claim of this vaguely positive word I will be more than satisfied with the advertisement as most other places that name themselves in this manner tend to be lying.
2 comments:
A lot of names that get used in English speaking society stem from old words that are no longer in popular use, or come from other languages in which they do have literal meanings.
Not quite so with business names though. I do like "Decent Pub". You know that any place that calls itself the "Best ___" is lying, but you're right, "Decent" is so honest.
Wow, sounds like a real improvement over what they do in Benin, which is name everything after their religion. So you have "The Lord's Barber Shop" and "Auto Repair of Jesus Christ" and so on. I had no idea Jesus sold so many dollar CDs.
-Kerrie
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