Message: "Re: The name Kissy in James Bond"

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Re: The name Kissy in James Bond

by Getb2 (guest)

12/21/2012, 12:06 PM

in reply to a message by clevelandkentevans

Pussy Galore, Octopussy and Plenty O'Toole are nicknames, codenames or nom de guerres... In the case of Plenty O'Toole the surname can actually be O'Toole since it is a normal surname nonetheless "Plenty O'Toole" can be understood as "Plenty tools" where "tool" can be there as part of the semantic part of the pseudonym, however in Kissy Suzuki there is no such pairing; Kissy and Suzuki aren't a meaningful combination... Mirfak's hypothesis that Kissy is derived from Kesiah (which means cassia) is a slightly superior possibility, yet as an African name it makes no sense in a full-bloodied Japanese woman... I guess rather than asking this among onomastic fans I should ask it among literature analysts with an expertise in Ian Fleming... If there are any...

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- overtheclouds +9

12/21/2012, 1:01 PM

Kesiah / Keziah is Hebrew, not African. It's a Biblical name. I believe the association with Africa comes from the 1970s TV series "Roots".

- Getb2 (guest) +8

12/21/2012, 1:18 PM

True, my bad... However a hebrew name is still farfetched for a Japanese character with no Jewish ancestry...

- ClaudiaS +7

12/21/2012, 4:25 PM

"Kissy" is not a possible Japanese name (the sound combination does not exist in that language), so the fact that the character is Japanese is apparently irrelevant here. It may very well be just a nickname.

- Getb2 (guest) +6

12/22/2012, 1:48 PM

Yes Claudia... it doesn't sound Japanese at all... However... could it be an English hypocorism of a Japanese name? although "kiseru" is not a Japanese name ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiseru )it is a Japanese term... Kissy could be a hypocorism for it... Couldn't it?

- ClaudiaS +5

12/22/2012, 2:30 PM

It's certainly possible, but if Kissy is a diminutive of any Japanese word it seems more likely that it would derive from the common word "kisu," a loanword from English "kiss."

There are various female Japanese names which begin with Kis-, including Kisa, Kisae, Kisako, Kisaki, Kisara and others. It's possible that a bearer of one of these names might go by Kissy in an English-speaking context.

- Getb2 (guest) +4

12/22/2012, 5:04 PM

Thanks... I will try finding those names... I guess the list is too long so you didn't gave all those... But it certainly gives a good idea...

- ClaudiaS +3

12/22/2012, 6:16 PM

Did you want an exhaustive list of Japanese Kis- names? This one is about as comprehensive as you'll find. Many of these names are extremely rare; perhaps one-of-a-kind.

Kisa
Kisachi
Kisae
Kisai
Kisaka
Kisaki
Kisako
Kisami
Kisana
Kisane
Kisano
Kisara
Kisaragi
Kisari
Kisato
Kisaya
Kisayo

Kise
Kisea
Kisei
Kiseki
Kiseko
Kisera
Kiseri
Kiseto
Kisetsu

Kisoe
Kisoko

Kisu
Kisue
Kisugi
Kisuka
Kisuko
Kisuku
Kisumi
Kisun
Kisuna
Kisuyo
Kisuzu

- Getb2 (guest) +2

12/23/2012, 3:09 PM

W0w thanks... Mmmm Now I have the mission of finding their etymology... That will be a daunting task but you have already helped me a lot

- ClaudiaS +1

12/24/2012, 6:35 AM

If you like, shoot me an e-mail at csegger@sbcglobal.net, and I'll send you a list of the characters used for these names and a site where you can look up their individual meanings. It's really too long to post here.

- Getb2 (guest)

12/25/2012, 5:35 AM

Thanks for the offer... If you are willing to do that... I gonna do so :D

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