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  #21  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 4:06 PM
kwoldtimer kwoldtimer is offline
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
This seems like as good a time as any to bring up the traditional French Canadian naming convention. (I have no idea if they ever did things this way in France.)

Basically, the given name that's closest to your surname (so the last given name) is supposed to be your real given name that you use every day.

So "Joseph Yvon Jacques Tremblay" at school or the office is known as Jacques Tremblay.

If two given names are to be used then they are hyphened: "Joseph Yvon Jean-Pierre Pelletier" is the Jean-Pierre Pelletier you know.

This differs from what I have noticed to be the usual anglo convention which is that the "middle name" is usually not in every day use.

"William Robert Smith" is simply William or Bill Smith.

Also, French Canadian children were traditionally given Joseph or Marie as the first given name, followed by the other given name(s).

I have Joseph as my first given name and my wife has Marie. Neither of us has ever used Joseph or Marie in any capacity.

Of course, like anywhere else the naming of kids is now a mishmash of conventions here, and I suppose lots of people in Quebec aren't even aware of what I just posted.

There are still are tons of people who give Joseph and Marie as first names to their kids, often more out of tradition than religious fervour
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I believe the RC kids I grew up with used to refer to that as their "Church name".
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  #22  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 6:23 PM
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Many first generation South Asians shorten their names in colloquial use to a one syllable word that rolls easily off an Anglo tongue: Rav, Preet, Vik, etc.

Most Chinese have an English/Latin name that most white English Canadians would never use - Langston, Horace, Winnie - but everyone would know how to pronounce or spell.

Ironically, it's probably upper middle class whites who now give their kids the longest, hard-to-spell names these days.
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  #23  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 6:31 PM
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Originally Posted by hipster duck View Post

Most Chinese have an English/Latin name that most white English Canadians would never use - Langston, Horace, Winnie - but everyone would know how to pronounce or spell.

.
In addition to a purely Chinese name (whose meaning can be related or unrelated to the Euro name referenced above) as well, no?
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  #24  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 7:00 PM
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
In addition to a purely Chinese name (whose meaning can be related or unrelated to the Euro name referenced above) as well, no?
Yes. The purely Chinese name is relegated to the middle name and is hardly ever used by anyone other than older Chinese relatives in a Chinese-speaking context.

For example, my uncle will call me by my English name in English, but will refer to my Chinese name when speaking to others in Mandarin or Cantonese. Actually, he will refer to my English name in Cantonese sentences 50% of the time.
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  #25  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 7:09 PM
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
This differs from what I have noticed to be the usual anglo convention which is that the "middle name" is usually not in every day use.
It depends on the family. On my mom's side ("old stock" Irish Catholic), all women are named Mary, though my mom and her sister ended the practice when they had their own daughters. In everyday use, you'd use the second or third name. An older naming convention for boys on my maternal grandfather's side died out after him and his brother (who, like their father and his brothers) all shared one of two first names that were never used in practice. On my dad's side, the father's first name becomes the son's (or sons') middle name, so I'd never use my middle name to refer to myself.

In my family, we take a confirmation name as a second or third middle name. This practice appears to be dying out, and apparently was never used in most Catholic countries/ethnic groups. In a few environments--where use of my given name would be confusing for whatever reason--I go by my confirmation name. I would guess that this is rare.
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  #26  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 7:17 PM
wg_flamip wg_flamip is offline
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Originally Posted by hipster duck View Post
Most Chinese have an English/Latin name that most white English Canadians would never use - Langston, Horace, Winnie - but everyone would know how to pronounce or spell.
Many of my Filipino friends (especially women) have names that would otherwise sound outdated in Canada like Eunice, Dorothy, Lorna, &c.
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  #27  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 7:55 PM
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I've observed over time that the Chinese living on this continent very much tend to adopt archetypal Anglo first names for their kids. Bryan Wu, Frank Chu, Mike Lam, etc.

A healthy sign of willingness to integrate, at first sight. JMO obviously.
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  #28  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 7:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wg_flamip View Post
It depends on the family. On my mom's side ("old stock" Irish Catholic), all women are named Mary, though my mom and her sister ended the practice when they had their own daughters.
In my mom's family (old stock Catholic), the tradition was indeed that -- boys were named Joseph [RealFirstName] [FamilyName] and the girls were Marie [RealFirstName] [FamilyName].

"RealFirstName" would be the one people would go by, generally. Maybe the firstborn can get to actually be Joseph or Marie though...
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  #29  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 8:01 PM
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Originally Posted by wg_flamip View Post
On my dad's side, the father's first name becomes the son's (or sons') middle name, so I'd never use my middle name to refer to myself.
We tend to do the same thing, but skipping a generation. My own second name (which is the same thing as a "middle name", right?) is my grandpa's first name. If I end up having kids with my gf, I am dead set on giving them names from our parents. I think the grandparents would be very touched by that attention (I wouldn't do that if I hated the names, anyway), so, why not.
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  #30  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2017, 8:08 PM
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Originally Posted by kwoldtimer View Post
There was a very senior civil servant named de Montigny Marchand. It is the only way I ever saw his name styled or spoken. Your comment made me curious, however, and I found a bio site on-line that gives his name as "J.C. De Montigny Marchand" and that of his father as "Jean Charles Marchand". It makes me wonder if "de Montigny" was adopted at some point to distinguish him from his father?

In any event, and meaning no disrespect to the individual, I could never hear the name without a woman's voice in my head saying "Prochaine station, de Montigny Marchand"!
For the record, I wouldn't put it past American blacks to name a kid like that -- DeMontigny Smith or DeMontigny Jackson almost seems normal.

In Quebec though, it's a family name, not a first name. The guy you're referring to must be using his two family names... Sometimes in French we refer to people by their last names only (that tradition is way more solid in France than in Quebec -- for example, we had a French university teacher who'd always call us by our last names, barking them the way a drill sergeant would; a very French way to do it, no Québécois would do that outside the military) ... so, it's very possible that guy is just using his last names. That'd make some sense. Especially now that you actually know his first name is Jean-Claude.....
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  #31  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2017, 6:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
For the record, I wouldn't put it past American blacks to name a kid like that -- DeMontigny Smith or DeMontigny Jackson almost seems normal.

In Quebec though, it's a family name, not a first name. The guy you're referring to must be using his two family names... Sometimes in French we refer to people by their last names only (that tradition is way more solid in France than in Quebec -- for example, we had a French university teacher who'd always call us by our last names, barking them the way a drill sergeant would; a very French way to do it, no Québécois would do that outside the military) ... so, it's very possible that guy is just using his last names. That'd make some sense. Especially now that you actually know his first name is Jean-Claude.....
I think there was a tendency in Quebec among those connected to Quebec's ancient seigneurial aristocracy that led to the ostentatious use of "de" names, as in the media magnate Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien and Senator Hartland de Montarville Molson. Some of these may have dropped the first name on occasion to add to the effect.
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  #32  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2017, 6:58 PM
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I remember there was a "de Lotbinière" guy as well, maybe a senator. Can't recall the rest of his name. It seemed to be a status indicator in the way that a "von" name signals noble roots in Germany. I guess I'm thinking of the Joly de Lotbinière family - http://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/Genealo...1227043&lng=fr
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  #33  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2017, 7:03 PM
Phil McAvity Phil McAvity is offline
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The most common names are Bob, Doug, Terrance and Philip.


Quote:
Originally Posted by vid View Post
There is a corner store near my with a female employee named "Ramindeep", which I always thought was invented by Russell Peters for the joke but I guess it wasn't?
With a name like that she must love sex

Her husband, who enjoys scuba diving, is named Mandeep
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  #34  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2017, 9:34 PM
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Despite being first gen HK Canadian, my middle name is not my Chinese name in pinyin, but actually a name in English. Same with my first name, of course. I've never been called by my Chinese name except maybe a few times in Chinese school. Really only ever been called by my English name.
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  #35  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2017, 1:19 PM
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Just thought of another one - former Commissioner of Official Languages D'Iberville Fortier. No other given name is mentioned in his obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ott...x?pid=17552031
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Last edited by Andy6; Mar 27, 2017 at 2:35 PM.
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  #36  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2017, 1:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Andy6 View Post
Just thought of another one - former Commissioner of Officisl Languages D'Iberville Fortier. No other given name is mentioned in his obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ott...x?pid=17552031
Occasionally rendered, perhaps incorrectly, as "d'Iberville Fortier". It seems odd, but if (many) Scottish surnames can be used as given names, then why not French?
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  #37  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2017, 7:44 PM
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Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker View Post
I've heard of Zainab before. Don't know one personally but I've heard the name.
You're probably thinking of that vile sister of Omar Khadr.
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