philippos42

Do you ever have a made-up name that pops into your head and you decide just to run with it?

I don't know how many years ago I came up with the last name 'Caravilla' for a character. I was pronouncing it to kind of rhyme with the N. American pronunciation of 'tortilla,' so more or less (and my IPA is not great) /ˌ kɛ rə ˈ vi jə/. It was almost certainly influenced by the term 'caravel.' This was, what...over ten years ago?

Well, I don't remember ever actually writing anything with Ms. Caravilla, so I don't think I told anyone about it. But now I thought I'd see if it is in fact a real name. Let's see what Google has to say.

Well, apparently that spelling does exist as an Italian name, so, OK. But what I found first is that it's also some sort of portmanteau of 'caravan' & 'villa' in...Israel & Australia? I...wow. Maybe I should change that.

Yesterday I was surprised to see that DCnU has a new version of Timothy Hunter.

Then I woke up thinking about that name...

If Rip Hunter can be read as a hunter of rips, can Timothy Hunter be read as a hunter of Timothies? "Be vewy vewy quiet, we're hunting Timothies"?

Well, of course not. But I did start thinking about how you end up with a name like "Hunter."

I have taken it as given that many people have what seem to be occupation names, like Cooper or Smith. Growing up, one learns that this is how society is, and takes it as normal.

But "Hunter"? Is that an occupation, or is it something that came about another way?

Some names seem to be based on a personal description: e.g., Tallman, Strong, Stout, Moody (though that last one meant something different in Old English).
Some come from a place: e.g., Romney, Birmingham, Romagnolo.
Some are just arbitrary, like the season names (Winter), ornamental names (Sjogren, Goldfarb), & possibly some of the color names (Blue, Brown, White).

A name like "Forrest" could be a place-name, or it could be from an occupation like "Forester," or it could be completely arbitrary. "Hunter," similarly, could be a personality trait, a job of some kind, or completely arbitrary.

And as I thought about it, I realized that family names inherited from the father are actually really weird, and it's actually deeply strange that they ever became the custom. We only think they're normal because we're in that culture.

I kind of already knew it didn't make sense. If your name is Thompson, and you don't know who Thom (or Thomp) was, isn't it nonsensical?

But it's really strange that it happened this way at all, particularly with names that seem like personal nicknames. I guess enough sons were the images of their fathers to get those to stick.

But stepping back and looking at it, it's really odd, actually.