So, I'm on my lunch break at work now. I've been thinking about my students a lot lately. Some of their parents are sending them to study here because they want them to travel to the US and have a better life than they could have in Peru. I think they must have always wanted that, because of some of the names they give their kids. I think (and I could be completely wrong about this) that they want them to have good American or English names, so they do their best. For example....
I have a student in Basic 9 this month whose name is Buby (pronounced "Booby"). The poor guy insists that he be called "Moises" (the Spanish version of "Moses"), which is his middle name. I gladly oblige him. I can't imagine waking up with a name like "Booby" every day, either.
I have another student named Rut. I believe it is meant to be Ruth. And there's Grake...Grace? Butsy...Bootie or maybe Betsy? Parents, parents...please check your spelling!
I found out that there was a period of time, about 1960, when in Peru it was illegal to name your child anything except a Biblical name. If it wasn't found in the Spanish version of the bible, it was illegal, and the application for a name would be rejected by the governmental agency for vital statistics. Goodness...talk about control freaks. No wonder there are so many women named Maria and so many men named Jose and Jesus!
4 comments:
Thanks for that laugh, Kathleen! Those poor kids - perhaps you could do a 'name' exercise with names such as Betsy and Bobby and Ruth spelled properly......and then give them the correct pronounciation.
Good luck!
There is definitely a lot to be said in a name. That Mary and Joseph sounds like the Catholic situation. Used to be when you took your child to be baptized the priest added Mary to no what the girl's name and Joseph to the boy's name. There are three Joseph's in my husbands family. That makes it hard to do genealogy.
QMM
That is, sadly, hilarious! Iceland has Snorri. Does not translate well.
OH! and my hubby knows someone named, Ernie Bernie MacAnerny (I may have spelled that wrong).
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