Taboo names
26d 1h ago by lemmy.world/u/DioramaOfShit in showerthoughts
Naming your kid Donald now a days is like naming your kid Adolf in the 1940s.
One of the funniest videos of politicians that I've seen recently was a casual meetup of Poland's PM Donald Tusk and the then incoming Hungarian PM Magyar. He had just defeated Viktor Orban, Putin's fifth column in the EU and authoritarian asshole of the year. Magyar introduces one of his ministers to Tusk. I don't remember which ministry but her name is also Orban. Tusk is ever so briefly taken aback by the mention of that name, which Magyar realizes and quickly adds: "No relation." They giggle at the mixup and Tusk just fires off nonchalantly something like: "Well, my name is Donald." They laugh and move on.
#WholesomePolitics
All hail the age of Doug!
Dog bless his soul
Yeah, I fuckin hate Bezos. /anti-joke
I think the name Donald has been out of style since before Trump was born.
Imagine spending your whole life being compared to Donald Duck.
Well, there's Donald Knuth
Who?
The author of the most boring software development book in history.
The most recent famous Donald I can think of is Glover, who was born in '83.
Yeah I was just thinking that, all the others I could think of were at least 60.
Being compared to a cult figure is why exactly bad?
Donald Duck is awesome. Not so boring like the Mouse. Litigious little shit.
My grandpa’s name is Donald. I was gonna name my kid after him.
Sorry, grandpa.
The solution is obvious: name your kid Grandpa.
Name your kitten/puppy grandpa. Then you can tell everyone that you had to have grandpa put to sleep
Middle name, maybe?
Karen is similarly poisonous
I love the line “The last Karen…”
That one at least is a shortened form of Katherine, which people won't associate with Karen.
...it is?
I have never once seen Katherine shortened to Karen. I've only ever seen it shortened to Katie or Kat. Any Karens I've seen, it's always been a standalone name.
God I fucking hate how people use this to vilify women. It's currently being used to imply that any woman who stands up for herself is a bitch. Just more misogyny
Of course he's a cop
Nominative determinism
Of course he's a cop in the state that's pretty much where "coronelismo" still reigns
Hillary. No one names their daughter Hillary and haven't for a while now.
Grover, Kermit. These were also common names. There was president Grover Cleveland. Teddy Roosevelt named one of his sons Kermit. Sesame Street had such a strong cultural impact that these names also fell out of use.
I dated a girl named Hilary once. She was okay.
Must have been hilarious.
If she didn't commit war crimes in Libya, she's alright by me.
Elmo too certainly
Kermit Roosevelt. I'm sure with a name like that, he definitely didn't do anything of consequence that ripples through geopolitics to this day.
I'm sure, like most Kennedies, he Kermitted his fair share of crimes
His great grandson Kermit Roosevelt III is alive today, and writes law novels
I wouldn't say Hilary's poisoned. Matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I saw a Clinton headline much less scandal. Also, my definitive Hilary will always be Hilary Banks lol
Taboos can be positive, negative, or just reserved. For example in Judaism writing "God" is taboo, and Jews will frequently write "G-d". Same with YHWH. They will not say the tetragrammaton. Instead many will substitute the word Adonai.
Of course there are diverse groups of people. So for Hillary, depending on someone's political persuasion could be a positive name, a negative name, or just so synonymous with her it's reserved.
Knew a grover. He's over 100.
Checks out
Of topic but is Sesame street still a thing? With the CPB getting eliminated it is hard to know anymore.
It is. Over a decade ago they cut a deal with HBO where they would get priority on new episodes over PBS. That was a bit controversial at the time. Warnerbros cancelled the deal a couple years ago. Then Netflix picked up the show this time without the exclusive delay.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5403663/sesame-street-netflix-pbs
Nobody names kids "Adolf" here, even today. That name is thoroughly burned.
I am German and have an uncle whose name is Adolf. His dad/my grandpa also had the name Adolf, but he got the name before WWII.
My parents told me that my uncle has this name because my grandpa misunderstood the nurse when my uncle was born. He supposedly understood "What's your name?", while she asked "How should he be named?". He then said "Adolf" obviously, because that's his name. And it's said that once they figured out the error, it was too late to be undone.
There's a certain scepticism about this story being real. But for sure my grandpa didn't do it to honor Adolf Hitler (aka being a Nazi. I don't know about his doings during WWII tbh, but at least how I perceived him, he didn't have any sympathy for Nazis), maybe he did it because he wanted to name a son after himself while the name was burnt..
Just a tidbit from my life :D
your uncle prob thought “if I dealt with it my whole life someone else will now, too”
Grandpa*
My uncle was the "victim" :D
President of Africa.
The country of africa?
I had a black student named Adolf, in the US. He'd be mid 30s by now. I wonder if his mom was African instead of the more common African American who's grsndparents were part of the migration from the aouth to upper midwest.
Nobody shied away from Joseph after Stalin.
There is a very famous Joseph in a old fairy tale book which most people associate with that name.
But Donald or Adolph?
I mean at least Donald has a Duck, Knuth and Glover.
But Adolf, yeah you named your kid after him...
If you allow Don as a shortened version of Donald there are a bunch. Don Juan, Don Quixote, etc.
Don here is a title, not a given name, but your point stands.
Don in Spanish literature is not short for Donald...
Its literally just a name and was a very popular name before Hitler. I don't see why you would have to be named after him. Are all Josephs, peter, Paul's,Mathews marks named after the bible. No they are just names.
Sure. Go ahead. Name your kid Adolf.
No one is going to think you're a Nazi...
why would they?
Ah the innocence of youth.
Indeed
Hmm. You seem kinda stupid. There is no correlation between the U.S.S.R. participating in WWII, and the negative opinions people hold for Joseph V. Stalin.
But hey, you're young and dumb. You've got time to grow out of it.
Hmm. You seem kinda stupid
LOL as if that isn't projection.
But hey, you're a dumb americunt who doesn't know history and at best has had the colored education from his backward shithole.
The peasants having to resort to insults when confronted with things they don't like.
Glad you're going down the shitter fast, am enjoying it tremendously.
Great entertainment.
Blocking you now since I you have nothing of value to offer.
Bye loser
Contrary to what other peole say, donald is still super common as a name. It's culturally significant to many nationalities and scottish people don't really let the fact that the 47th POTUS is a tosser interfere with what they name their kids. I think various commonwealth countries (e.g in the caribbean) like it as a first name, and loads of american people born since '45 have had it - actors, musicians, artists.
I think people should be allowed to use the name adolf without it conjuring association with 🚨🗿.
Edit: btw, Donald Trump is an interesting name because it etymologically means "World Ruler Trump" and Trump, in card games and such, means "victor," so 47's name is "Victorious World Ruler."
No wonder he has issues.
I think people should be allowed to use the name adolf without it conjuring association with 🚨🗿.
First can of worms of the day, thanks.
Wdym?
They're going to treat themself with a can of worms for breakfast. Duh...
Adolf Israel Jihad
I wonder if it could be refined to be less…literal? “Adolfo Semit Al-Jihad” or something.
I think I went to school with that guy...
Not yet, there are people who have, and will, name their kids Donald. They might actually give him the "t" middle initial too.
It is also just...an old person's name right now.
It is up there with Donna
I've heard a fun fact about this! Nowadays, at least in North America, they make great effort to always use the full names of people that become infamous to reduce the poisoning of names like that, as well as to minimize the incidence of living people with the same name.
In Germany I usually see either both or just the last name.
Just make their middle name Duck and you are golden.
Is Isis still off-limits?
Probably, this standard has been forced to rename itself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_and_Scanner_Interface_Specification
They simply changed their head headchopper's name to Al Jolani and suddenly presidents can shake hands with him and do business.
So who TF knows?
eyesis
One of my good friend's is named Adolf.
In Sweden there are lots of Adolfsson (son of adolf). I think it's more Hitler that's the forbidden name.
Adolph was a relatively uncommon name in English, and thus became taboo easily. In Sweden, Adolf has historically been a common name, largely eclipsing all that unpleasantness happening to the south that Sweden didn’t participate in anyway, do why should families change their surname?
Having said that, naming a child Adolf in Sweden is still uncommon, though presumably more out of concern that he may have a hard time if he travels.
Yeah we also had a bunch of kings named (gustav) adolf so...
In germany though Adolf is also taboo. There is even a german drama movie about this naming choice (I think its called "Der Name", so "The Name")
Wasn't the guy who killed Hitler named Adolf?
Unless you're in Asia or somewhere in Africa, I'm guessing your friend's parents have dodgy political views.
Sure think that way.
Story went that he was named after his grandmother's boyfriend.
Naming your kid Judas or lucifer has been pretty taboo for the past 2000 years.
I wanted to name my son Lucian and my wife was vehemently opposed to it because it sounded too much like Lucifer to her...
However, DioramaOfShit is a great name!
Is Adolf a safe name yet? How long needs to pass?
Why would you want to?
I wouldn't, im not German it would be silly, but for other Germans. Edit : Austrians and Belgians abd etceteras.
Also the moustache AND hair have been absolutely banned for many a young gentleman since then
The stache for sure, but the hair?
tangent: do you think names only fit a particular nationality?
Sort of? Like calling a native Scandinavian Jerwayne or Tâo isnt going to go down great.
Of course someone is free to do that, you can call them X Æ A-Xii if you want. But still. Not really ideal.
I disagree, because Donald is already owned by many other famous figures, many predating trump. It is a name with notoriety, but it is more in grounds with say Napoleon Bonaparte, and other such significant political entities. The dilution period for his name will be even sooner than Napoleon though because of the popularity of his name, so we probably won't see it entirely disappear from naming conventions the way Adolf has. It might raise eyebrows within certain social circles for a while, but honestly not much more, particularly as you leave the American sphere of influence.
A mechanic in Denmark has Adolf has his middle name. He's about 50. I only went there once...
A mechanic in Denmark has Adolf has his middle name.
He's about 50.
Donald, Vladimir, Zedong, Jinping, Il, or Un
Also sort of shifty is Muammar and Hugo.
Joseph seems a little more benign by comparison, no?
Small correction: Jong is Kim Jong Un’s given name, not Un. his father was Kim Jong Il whose given name was also Jong and his father was Kim Il Sung whose given name is Il.
You guys are both wrong.
Their given names are Ilsung, JongIl, and Jongun(I prefer Jeongeun). We do not have concept of middle name.
Ilsung and Jungil are not so common. Never seen anyone personally.
Jungeun: pretty common. It's a girl's name actually.
Source: am Korean.
Can Cyril make a return then?
Real dude... I was writing a story a while back, and usually when naming characters I just pull one from the noggin that "feels right", and I fell on "Donnie" for a young delinquent that was meant to bite off more than he can chew picking a fight with real criminals. When I revisited it a bit later in time, I internally cringed and had to pick a different name altogether lol
Shame because I felt like the name suited him so well that I wound up not continuing the story much after that.
I see the throught process but I doubt most people care
giving non-gender-neutral names should be taboo
this is not supposed to be like a rude comment but what actually makes a name non gender neutural besides socital expectations.
societal expectations
not much else really
but the societal expectations do exist and do have an effect
your question sounds like gatekeeping/invalidating trans ppl