Quotes About Naming

What I did when I identified Mike Webster's thing, I showed it to other doctors. We all agreed that this was something new, but we had to give it a name. This was not dementia pugilistica. Maybe we could have called it dementia footballitica!

I named all my children after flowers. There's Lillie and Rose and my son, Artificial.

If your last name is Christ, don't name your son Jesus.

A few years after my first son was born, he wanted to know how we chose his name, so I began reading him the story of Noah's Ark.

On the day I was born, or possibly on one of the following days, my father went on a walk in the forested hills and thought of a name for me. His first son was called Daniel, and Samuel in memory of one of his forefathers.

In South Korea, some 20 million people share just five surnames. Every one of Denmark's top 20 surnames ends in '-sen,' meaning 'son of,' a pattern that is replicated across Scandinavia. British surnames have never favoured such neatness, and we can be grateful for that.

My full name is Olatunde Olateju Olaolorun Fagbenle. I was named after my grandfather. It's Yoruba, which is, like, southern Nigeria.

Neil Mars?! I could blame him for having killer looks but he could not be faulted for this. He couldn't have chosen that name for himself. No wonder he tortures his Mom by calling her by her name.

A chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to spell.

A name, it has more than nominal worth, And belongs to good or bad luck at birth

To name her is to sink her," he told me. "That which we name takes greater weight than the sea it displaces. Ask any shipwreck.

That which we name takes greater weight than the sea it displaces. Ask any shipwreck.

Almost everyone agreed that the new name was a big improvement, logically speaking. Unfortunately, nobody used it. Not for the first time in Native American history, the confusing, incorrect name prevailed.

Smith returned to Maine and then England. He had a map drawn of what he had seen, persuaded Prince Charles to look at it, and curried favor with him by asking him to award British names to all the Indian settlements. Then he put the maps in the books he wrote to extol his adventures. In this way Patuxet acquired its English name, Plymouth, after the city in England (it was then spelled "Plimoth").

A snake was never called by its name at night, because it would hear. It was called a string.

Sandwiches were invented by the Earl of Sandwich, popcorn was invented by the Earl of Popcorn, and salad dressing by the Oil of Vinegar.

What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.

I have been told that there are two human responses to the perception of chaos: naming and violence. . . There is, however, a third response to chaos, which I have not heard about, which is stillness. Such stillness can be passivity and dumbfoundedness; it can be paralytic fear. But it can also be art.

This is what separates the men from the boys. Because as a kingdom man, you get to name things. Better yet, as a man under God's authority, you get to name things

When you were born, just a fresh babe, and I held you in my arms for the first time, I knew that we had to call you Bridie, after the blessed St. Brigid. I knew because the moment I set eyes on you, I saw you had holy fire in you, exactly like our own St. Brigid.

We begin our naming. The names drop into greens that tighten. Greens that deepen. The wind has begun its relentless thinking. Now the red veins in the small burrowed creatures begin their murmur. How the urgency of this red spurts inside us. Another eye wills itself open. Another eye roves.

She had gradually changed her name. "Jane" was too dull. Last year, she'd added a "y", becoming Jayne, which had more personality.

Then one last thought tugs at me, so I turn back. "So why did you name me Tamsin?" I ask. "You always promised to tell me later. Even though, technically, it's earlier." My grandmother's smile flickers, deepens. "It's how you introduced yourself to me tonight. I just assumed that's what you wanted to be named.

And I ultimately not only addressed it, I named my two moods Roy and Pam. Roy is Rollicking Roy, the wild ride of a mood, and Pam is Sediment Pam, who stands on the shore and sobs. (Pam stands for "piss and moan.") One mood is the meal, and the next mood is the check.