Sometimes I get jealous of parents in Tartu because they give their children extremely Estonian names laden with diacritical marks and vowels. For example, we recently met a young girl named Krõõt and Marta once played with a girl who was adorably named Pääsu. These names seem unique and interesting.But in Barcelona, I changed my mind. It was so great when the people at the cafe we stopped in asked our daughters' names and we could point to one and say "Marta" and the other and say "Anna." These names were instantly recognizable to them. Could you imagine if I had to explain the name "Krõõt" to them in Spanish?
We also bought Marta a kaleidoscope that had her name painted on the side by the vendor. She even was about to paint "Marta Ma." which is how Spaniards render "Maria" when it is a second name. I guess it's very popular in Spain. If Pääsu was in Spain, she would have some difficulty in obtaining a similarly painted kaleidoscope.
So, I feel somewhat vindicated by choosing international, semi-Latin-flavored names for our kids, even though the thing that made me warm to the name Anna was a box of cookies in Ikea.
7 comments:
Justin said:
Could you imagine if I had to explain the name "Krõõt" to them in Spanish?
Could you imagine explaining to us that you were going to name our beautiful granddaughter "Kroot"..
10 points, Martasmimi!
But "õ" is pronounced more like in "owning", so at least for me, it doesn't sound so awful like "kroot":)
In Italy there is always the problem with names like "Triinu", because a name that ends with "o" is by definition terrible, and if at all, it should be male.
But then again - I've been having a name unique in the world and I have to say that I enjoy it pretty much. People don't forget me. It doesn't get commercialized. It sounds "foreign" to everyone - equality guaranteed (but it doesn't have strange letters, so I can spell it to everyone fast) :)
Tatsutahime said...
10 points, Martasmimi!
But "õ" is pronounced more like in "owning", so at least for me, it doesn't sound so awful like "kroot":)
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Even with the long "O" sound it would have set off weeks of, to put it kindly ....controversy.
I was "quietly" (sounds of family laughing) hoping for the name Sophia.
Now when I see my Marta's huge Italian personality and watch her talk with her hands going in every direction, as only a true Italian can have a meaningful conversation, I am at least thankful that she was not named "Kroot" ..
As they say you can take the New York Italian American girl out of New York... but you can't take the New York Italian out of the girl....
Krõõt sounds nice in a certain context. Pääsu is even cuter. I think that it takes a certain amount of guts in Estonia today to give your kid a name like Vambola. Most kids have international names like Laura or Markus.
Oh these days were hard when we were expecting a baby and choosing a name... I think we made a good choice. We are an international family and their life is easy, as for "What is your name?" part.
At the same time, I am proud that I have these friends who name their children, using old Estonian names. Krõõt and Pärtel for example. (And like my mother and father did - Epp is an old Estonian name, too.) Less and less people use these names, more and more people think about being international.
Also, the double vowel is unique in international context: Riinu, Leenu, Tuule. Like David (another American-Estonian) said, Estonian language is the only (or almost only?) language who has the double vowel in names. They wanted to name their firstborn also Marta, but David wanted to have this unique feature... and they named her Teele.
I like the name Partel, Riinu and many other Estonian names.
I just didn't like Kroot.
Marta and Anna are simple and elegant international names.
They belong to the loves of my life, my grandaudies....
We actually write Marta Mª as a short form for Marta Maria :)
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