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Long name
I'm just wondering, do a lot of cultures have long names? Because I have a german friend named (get ready) Frederick Vilhelm Maximillian Kenneth Hanau Schomberg. But I also know some cultures have only first names.
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Names are factors used in identify specific individuals and the family lines we descend from. Many cultures do give their children long names for that reason as a religious, traditional or cultural habit. I have a long (longer than I am tall) formal name that I almost never use but, this name is a common practice (it was in my childhood and youth) amoung the Hebrew and Jewish people. I know people who are of Castillian decent who have long names and some Eastern Indian and Native Americans. I think we (human beings) just like to have a whole nest of names around ourselves because in them we know who we are and from whom we come and where we are going, and it is a legacy we can pass down generation to generation, that is only lost when the particular name is no longer used or so changed it is unrecognizable. Of all the names I have, and have been called the one I love best is simply "redeemed".srsr
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many Germans actually don't have a middle name at all...it's not nearly s common to have one there as it is in America or the UK.
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Catholics usually have at least three names (first, middle, confirmation...though your confirmation name isn't part of your legal name unless you make it so). It seems the European royal families are big on lots of names, too (look at any of the British princes). The Japanese, however, do not bother with middle names... I have actually heard they are illegal in some parts of Japan, and I have never met a Japanese person with a middle name.
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Chinese don't have mn eitherThough according to tradition their given name had two parts, one sibling/generation part and one individual part. So Mao Tse-Dungs brothers would all have fn beginning with Tse- too. And the family name (Mao) is always placed first.
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Long names from IndiaNot to repeat, see my post in the Indian MN thread (a bit further down) http://www.behindthename.com/bb/arcview.php?id=225714&board=gen
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Many French people have 2+ middle names (up to 9), and Jews can have up to 8 probably.
~~ Claire ~~
My ! are Alia, Eidel, Enola, Israel, Dudel, Yuri, Lina, Lorelei, Leilani, Owen, Julian, Glorinda, Mirinda
My ? are Hillel, Meshullam, Johnny, Ginny, Cordelia, Fiammetta, Yocheved
My ~ are Tehila, Tilda, Hailey, Gillian, Huldah
My / are Aglaia and July
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Hi, Claire! Among South African Jews it's my impression that the girls tend to get two given names and the boys one. That's not counting their Hebrew names, that they use for liturgical purposes. So you have, say, Morris marrying Anne Penelope and that's what's on all the forms; but at the wedding it's Moshe marrying Chana (not Chana Pnina!)I'm fascinated that it's so different in France.
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In fact even in the Bible people have sometimes many middle names!
~~ Claire ~~
My ! are Alia, Eidel, Enola, Israel, Dudel, Yuri, Lina, Lorelei, Leilani, Owen, Julian, Glorinda, Mirinda
My ? are Hillel, Meshullam, Johnny, Ginny, Cordelia, Fiammetta, Yocheved
My ~ are Tehila, Tilda, Hailey, Gillian, Huldah
My / are Aglaia and July
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They do? I'm familiar with the name changes - Abram -> Abraham, Sarai -> Sarah - but not with middle names. Middle of what? Isn't the biblical form something like A, son of B? Not the same as A Bson, just as Jim, son of Jack isn't the same as Jim Jackson. But I can't recall a character who's multinamed from the start - except those children of a prophet (was it Jeremiah? I'm rusty!) whose names were whole sentences - and I always thought they were plot devices, not real people.I'd be interested to learn more!
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In fact they are middle names in the French sense: many first names, but most of the time only the first is used. The Biblical / Jewish form is indeed X son of Y, but X & Y can be Nathan, or Yeshayahu David, or Gershon Shaul YomTov Lipman (all real names from my family).In Jewish tradition (I can't remember if it is in the Bible or in the Talmud or both since we learn them together), Miriam (sister of Moshe) must have a full name like Miriam Azuvah Puah Efrat (I know I forget some). All these names refer to a period or event in her life, because the parents are given a 60th of the gift of prophecy when they name a child.Jethro (Zipporah's dad) has seven names: Yitro Yeter Reuel Heber and others I've forgotten...Moshe has also many names (7 for the 7 midot http://www.jewishmag.com/54mag/omer-insight/omerinsight.htm). When the daughter of Pharaoh converts to Judaism, she receives two names Batyah Yehudit.These are the examples I remember :)
~~ Claire ~~
My ! are Alia, Eidel, Enola, Israel, Dudel, Yuri, Lina, Lorelei, Leilani, Owen, Julian, Glorinda, Mirinda
My ? are Hillel, Meshullam, Johnny, Ginny, Cordelia, Fiammetta, Yocheved
My ~ are Tehila, Tilda, Hailey, Gillian, Huldah
My / are Aglaia and July
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