Re: [tlug] Child abuse :-(

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Nguyen Vu Hung writes:
 > On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 5:31 PM, SL Baur <steve@example.com> wrote:
 > >
 > > "A baby named Linux" http://www.linux.com/feature/149992

 > I agree with your subject. This is an ABUSIVE use of his name
 > who is going to have problem with the name in the future.

Yeah right.  AFAICS it's closest to being a virtue name, like "Hope"
in the US or "Chikara" in this country.  And undoubtedly if the kid
comes to Japan he'll always be greeted with "OSsss".

 > Back some years ago I heard that a mother in Japan named her child: 
 > 悪魔, whose meaning is evil.

Actually, IIRC it is "devil".  This is completely not parallel to the
case of a kid named "Linux".  "Linux" is a madeup word with no
historically powerful homonyms, let alone ideographic meaning, of that
kind in any language AFAIK.

One of my daughter Akane's teachers in the U.S. said that looking at
the preliminary memo of assignment to her class guessed she was part
African-American and that her name is a variant of Akanke (which is
apparently popular in some segments of the community).  Of course when
she found out Akane's Japanese nationality she figured out her
mistake.

I agree, I wouldn't do that; neither the kids in Japan nor the kids I
grew up with would be very tolerant of "Linux" as a name.  But the
kids my daughter went to school with in Palo Alto certainly would be,
and maybe Swedish kids too.