Random question…have you or anyone you know named any human or animal children after WOT characters?

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

I’ll start…I’ve heard people have done this but no one I know. I do have a friend who really wanted to name his son Rand but baby mama vetoed. I had my kids before reading, so I’m not sure there, but I could see naming future fur babies something inspired by WOT. 

[Gypsum]

If my mare's BOGOF foal had been a filly, she might have been called Nynaeve or Anaiya. But he turned out to be a colt, and I didn't like the male names as much for him.

 

My gelding came with a stupid barn name, so I changed it. I did think about changing it to Rand but quite frankly, most people I know would have wondered why on earth I named my horse after a Republican senator from Kentucky or South African currency.

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Gypsum

[DojoToad]

I have not.  No one I know has either.

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

20 hours ago, Gypsum said:

If my mare's BOGOF foal had been a filly, she might have been called Nynaeve or Anaiya. But he turned out to be a colt, and I didn't like the male names as much for him.

 

My gelding came with a stupid barn name, so I changed it. I did think about changing it to Rand but quite frankly, most people I know would have wondered why on earth I named my horse after a Republican senator from Kentucky or South African currency.

 

Love it! I definitely had to google BOGOF…I’m a 43 year old 😂

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

I guess I found it interesting to hear that the WOT affect has for at least a few been so profound that they have transferred the experience to such a degree to their lives, like permanently naming children. For the most part the names in the series are great “in world” tools that due to their unfamiliarity help readers become immersed in the world, but I guess few are able to hold up in ours. Except maybe Bela 🥰 on the other hand, names aside, WOT has had some other quite significant influence for those of us on forums who read and reread, but those effects are probably more difficult to articulate. I will admit I dated and continued to date someone who was otherwise wrong for me because we were both WOT lovers. 

[Gypsum]

3 hours ago, Lightfriendsocialmistress said:

Love it! I definitely had to google BOGOF…I’m a 43 year old 😂

Yeah, it means the horse was pregnant when I bought her, but no one had a clue until she was close to foaling. 'Buy one get one free.' Happens more often than you'd think. 🙄

 

Back on topic, people give kids all sorts of weird names. I'm sure there's someone out there in the world who has called their kid Perrin, just as I am sure someone has saddled their poor child with the name Aragorn. Or Frodo. Oy.

 

Wheel of Time has options if you don't want your kid to get bullied for having a weird name. Mat is obviously a normal name in Western countries (who cares if it has one or two 't's'). If you named your kid Matrim, he would probably go by Mat, and no one would bat an eye except maybe at things like graduation, or going through passport control, when people see or hear the full name that's on your birth certificate.

 

No one would look twice at Elayne, either. With odd spelling, but lots of people have common names with creative spelling. A kid called Aviendha or Egwene, however, might resent her parents.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Gypsum

[SinisterDeath]

21 minutes ago, Gypsum said:

Yeah, it means the horse was pregnant when I bought her, but no one had a clue until she was close to foaling. 'Buy one get one free.' Happens more often than you'd think. 🙄

We bought a male Guinea Pig, and named 'em Jack. A few months later, we were greeted with a new guinea pig out of nowhere. We named that one Sally. Apparently Jack was a girl all along.

 

*Looks at the topic*
Well 'erm... I dunno that WoT names are any worse then people naming their children "Le-a" (le -dash-a). 

My preschooler has so many kids with names just.. spelled wrong, that I don't know that an "Aveindha", or "Egwene (eggs)", is going to be all that weird in comparison. At least those ones are spell correctly. 😄 
 

[WheelofJuke]

After my wife vetoed Thelonious, Coltrane, and Miles as potential names for our first child, I didn't even attempt to float any WoT names. 😄 

Do not know anyone else to have done so, either. 

Edited March 24, 2023 by WheelofJuke
spelling

[WheelofJuke]

On 3/23/2023 at 7:31 AM, Gypsum said:

If my mare's BOGOF foal had been a filly, she might have been called Nynaeve or Anaiya. But he turned out to be a colt, and I didn't like the male names as much for him.

 

My gelding came with a stupid barn name, so I changed it. I did think about changing it to Rand but quite frankly, most people I know would have wondered why on earth I named my horse after a Republican senator from Kentucky or South African currency.

Couldn't a gelding be named 'Gentling'? ;)

 

[KakitaOCU]

I have met an Aviendha.  To be fair I've also met an Alanna, Elayne and Zarine, but I couldn't tell you offhand if it's from the series or just that those are not uncommon names.

[Gypsum]

5 hours ago, WheelofJuke said:

Couldn't a gelding be named 'Gentling'? 😉

 

LOL. For sure. My colt was definitely getting a bit too full of himself before we said "bye bye" to his man bits. Poor guy was eight months old.

5 hours ago, KakitaOCU said:

I have met an Aviendha.  To be fair I've also met an Alanna, Elayne and Zarine, but I couldn't tell you offhand if it's from the series or just that those are not uncommon names.

I've come across a few people called Alanna. One was a total b1tch of a landlady who owned a flat I rented. But it's a normal enough name that doesn't scream 'I've named my kid after a character in a fantasy series.'

Edited March 24, 2023 by Gypsum

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

12 hours ago, KakitaOCU said:

I have met an Aviendha.  To be fair I've also met an Alanna, Elayne and Zarine, but I couldn't tell you offhand if it's from the series or just that those are not uncommon names.

Wow, that’s a lot actually! Alanna is not uncommon, and elayne aside from maybe the spelling. I think Aviendha and Zarine are pretty unique to WOT but I could be wrong. The fact that you’ve encountered 4 named characters in your travels on earth is pretty cool though. 

[KakitaOCU]

Guess just depends on the culture make up you get exposed to.  Zarine or Zareen is a fairly normal name from Persian backgrounds, so you don't see it much in like an Irish or French family, but it does show up more the further east you get.  🙂

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

On 3/30/2023 at 10:25 AM, KakitaOCU said:

Guess just depends on the culture make up you get exposed to.  Zarine or Zareen is a fairly normal name from Persian backgrounds, so you don't see it much in like an Irish or French family, but it does show up more the further east you get.  🙂

Very good point…thanks for expanding my awareness 😊

[Kalessin]

For what very, very little it's worth, I had a bottle of Perrin the other day. (Pear Cider - very refreshing.)

 

I don't happen to have a child or a fur baby; but I suspect if I did, my (currently nonexistent) partner would not be impressed at the idea of naming a child after a character in a fantasy tale. Thinking of some past prospective partners, I expect they would be more interested in commemorating grandparents or friends than characters in novels. So far I've managed to name cats Doof (Food backwards: she was a foodaholic) and Catty-Puss (very discriminating, with sharp claws and no hesitation about using them. 🙂 ), but never Aviendha or Egwene or the like. 🙂

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

19 hours ago, Kalessin said:

For what very, very little it's worth, I had a bottle of Perrin the other day. (Pear Cider - very refreshing.)

 

I don't happen to have a child or a fur baby; but I suspect if I did, my (currently nonexistent) partner would not be impressed at the idea of naming a child after a character in a fantasy tale. Thinking of some past prospective partners, I expect they would be more interested in commemorating grandparents or friends than characters in novels. So far I've managed to name cats Doof (Food backwards: she was a foodaholic) and Catty-Puss (very discriminating, with sharp claws and no hesitation about using them. 🙂 ), but never Aviendha or Egwene or the like. 🙂

I enjoyed your post!  And your cat names! I always seem to choose way too human cat names, nothing fantasy at all, for example one was mrs miller and another was Gary. I did inherit my sister’s cats named Minerva and albus, but ended up unintentionally being a d**k and turning their god given legit fantasy characters names into boring minnie and albie. 

[Asthereal]

On 3/24/2023 at 10:28 AM, Lightfriendsocialmistress said:

Love it! I definitely had to google BOGOF…I’m a 43 year old 😂

 

I'm 39 and I have to Google stuff like that all the time.

Example: I was today years old when I learned what AITA means. 🙂 

 

(I am very happy with modern internet search engines. How lost I would be without them...)

OT: I have yet to encounter a name from WoT. Haven't even seen a Dutch version.

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

17 hours ago, Asthereal said:

 

I'm 39 and I have to Google stuff like that all the time.

Example: I was today years old when I learned what AITA means. 🙂 

 

(I am very happy with modern internet search engines. How lost I would be without them...)

OT: I have yet to encounter a name from WoT. Haven't even seen a Dutch version.

Thank you for giving me another thing to google! I will admit it took me some time to stop asking people what things meant before I realized that is irritating to people because the internet exists!

[Disco]

If you named your kid Elayne you'd have to live with it being a spoiled brat who thinks she knows better than everyone, never learns her lesson and refuses to love her brother because he told on her a few times 

[DojoToad]

5 hours ago, Disco said:

If you named your kid Elayne you'd have to live with it being a spoiled brat who thinks she knows better than everyone, never learns her lesson and refuses to love her brother because he told on her a few times 

Because everyone with the same name acts the same...  🤣

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

21 hours ago, Disco said:

If you named your kid Elayne you'd have to live with it being a spoiled brat who thinks she knows better than everyone, never learns her lesson and refuses to love her brother because he told on her a few times 

If names determined characteristics, I’d personally avoid naming anything nyneave 😂

[Elder_Haman]

I have a very hardy houseplant named Aviendha. But other than that, no.

[Nenriel Sedai]

My family got this pretty thing as a kitten over 15 years ago when I had just started reading the series. I named her Thom. 

 

Can you see her mustaches? 

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

13 hours ago, Nenriel Sedai said:

My family got this pretty thing as a kitten over 15 years ago when I had just started reading the series. I named her Thom. 

 

Can you see her mustaches? 

Love it! Side note, off subject, I never saw mustache used in plural form before reading WOT 😂

[girlinredlover]

no but.... i read about this guy and he named his child aes sedai like wtf