Naming is hard

[cornerofmadness]

THANK YOU to everyone who answered my monster question yesterday. You know what even though there were a lot of differences there were more sameness AND a lot of it was very close to my monster from the original story so I think I was on to something people would have wanted to.

I do like the idea of sound being key. I had already planned for that, like their music had the ability to banish it. (someone suggested music could summon it too. Hmmmm)

I have another question for you after the Snowflake challenge.


today has been conflicting because I'm angry (politically so and a bunch of conservatives having a go at me) but I want to LAUGH.

Here's the weird thing I'm reading a manga Cells at Work and it is so accurate with red/white blood cells I would love for my class to read it. Last night it claimed laughing activated natural killer cells which fight cancer and virally infected cells. I'm like really? I know laughing can be healing but really? It activates NK?!?

SO I looked it up. Son of bitch, yes it does. In fact they're learning laughing changes gene expression and not only activates NKs it also stabilizes blood sugar.... so how to I be less angry when I can't even bring up a browser without seeing a half dozen depressing AF news headlines?


What has been making my laugh B. Dylan Hollis. This one is for spikesgirl58

Watch on YouTube

Challenge #13

In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I always love this one.


Henry Standing Bear Pinup by Ponderosa for me. (Longmire fandom) Also by Ponds is The Ruin Brightwell art from Prodigal Son, sexually suggestive but nothing more than bare chest and underpants waistband

Tom Payne multiple artworks by Kanarek 13 of Tom Payne, mostly as Malcolm Bright of Prodigal Son


20 Minutes Prodigal Son by Procrastinating Sab (Whump so mind the tags)

Red Sky at Morning Prodigal Son by Literati, steampunk AU

Triton Prodigal Son by Fandom Happy merman au

Unnatural Causes FAKE (manga/anime) by badly knitted


Okay so I need more help for a story. I am getting that novel ready for submission. As it is now, Josh's surname is Zimmerman. I had planned for me Dr. Z and Zman nicknames than actually got use. I do still want to keep the few I have. Like many Ohioans Josh is of German lineage (and vaguely Lutheran) I saw the name Zehnder on a tombstone and thought that was a good one too. I looked up a few German surnames with a Z and came up with this list. Pick one, suggestion another. That do you think? (Oh and his doctorate is a phd. He's a wildlife professor, fox researcher)

Poll #28315 Name Him

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

View Respondents

What's your pick for a surname

View Answers

Zimmerman
3 (21.4%)

Ziegler
4 (28.6%)

Zellweger
2 (14.3%)

Zehnder
4 (28.6%)

other
1 (7.1%)

Comments

[muccamukk]

Thanks for the link to that fanartist. I hadn't seen their stuff before, and they're fantastic!

[cornerofmadness]

thanks. Both Ponds and Kanarek are very good

[ysilme]

Oh, that's very interesting about laughing! *chooses approrpiate icon* I seriously need to get myself to laugh regularly, I really could do with such benefits!

So, to your naming question: *rubs hands* *grins*

First, "Zimmerman" isn't the German spelling, but an anglicised one. I confess one of my major pet peeves is that English language authors, and mainly U.S. ones, so frequently butcher German family names when used for German characters in a contect where the name should really be properly German and not anglicised. To my knowledge one of the reasons is that researching German names brings U.S. authors usually to sources/collections where no distinction is made between original and anglicised names, or the source isn't aware that all those names they list as German are really anglicised versions or with butchered spellings.

Zimmermann is a good one, but it needs to be spelled with the double n at the end - in most cases "man" with one n in a name is the anglicised version as the man here stands for man, person - Zimmermann is a carpenter, but with a focus on "the person who is a carpenter".
A variety of that name would be Zimmerer.

Ziegler (brick-maker) is a very good, solid German name.
Zellweger is a German name but not very common, so any German reader will automatically think of the actress - of course you're not aiming for a German audience so that point is moot, but I'd still avoid it for that reason.
Zehnder likewise isn't that common; I'm not sure what it means but it sounds like a version of "a tenner" as in a banknote with the value ten.
If you want an uncommon German family name starting with Z I have three suggestions although I don't know if they're better: *g*
Zipf - abbreviated version of Zipfel which means tip, cusp, not very common but relatively neutral - as a child, the owner would likely have suffered teasing as "Zipfel" is also an old-fashioned nickname for penis. My mother's nemesis math teacher had that name, so no teasing there. *g*
Speaking of math teachers, I had one called Zitterbart which is a very quaint name which sounds even a bit ridiculous, but it is a regular name and means "shivering beard".
Zippse (local wineyard and traditional restaurant) - I'm afraid I don't know what the name means, but we assume it's a dialect version of Zipf. The owner or their family should also come from the south-west of the country as it's a somewhat regional name.

More common enough names with Z are in no particular order: Zahn (tooth), Zander (a fish), Zabel, Zeidler, Zeisig, Zettl, Zettler, Ziemann, Zimmerhofer, Zink, Zobel, Zorn, Zott, Zuber, Zwack, Zweipfennig (twopenny), Zwirner, Zöllner, Zoller, Zündler, Zedwitz or Zettwitz, Zähringer, Zandt, Zeidler, Zedlitz, Zeppelin.

Also, I found this resource: 100 most common German family names - Zimmermann and Ziegler are the only ones with Z on that list.

For a wildlife professor an animal name could be funny, of course; the following ones from my list would apply: Zander (fish, zander/pikeperch), Zeisig (a bird, common siskin), or Zobel (sable).

Edit: here's a bonus collection: my late father-in-law was an avid hobby genealogist and published a book about the genealogy of his hometown, a small town-turned-suburb close to Heidelberg in the south-west of Germany. The names listed there are:
still common enough today:
Zimmermann, Zobelei or Zobeley (variation of Zobel), Zoller, Zweig (branch), Zwickel (crotch/gusset), Zuber

not so common but wouldn't surprise:
Zieher, Ziemer, Zigler (variation of Ziegler), Zindel, Zinn (tin as in the metal)

uncommon but possibly working well for somebody emigrating to the U.S. before the 19th century:
Zizmann, Zöbeli (this is a Swiss name, so most likely the origin of the lager germanised Zobelei/Zobeley above), Zwyfel (weird spelling of doubt)

[cornerofmadness]

That's for all your help. Ha, Ah America with our one N Mann names and lopping off all the ovich's from our eastern european names (oh my granddads)

So I guess I'm going back and adding in one N to his name...I prefer Zimmermann to Ziegler (my dyslexia makes that a hard name is it Ziegler or Zeigler and I'd be wondering and misspelling it everywhere)

Yeah Zellweger is meh for the reason you named.

I'm laughing because I've never hear Zehnder until that gravestone and Zipf is just kind of awful (and a little funny)

I do think Zitterbart is a neat translation, sort of cute.

Zander has become a popular first name here (a corruption of Xander)

Zobel is kinda cool but I guess after all this (again thank you) I'll probably stick with Zimmermann as it's a name I see here with some regularity

[shipperslist]

Dylan B Hollis is SUCH a delight. Never fails to crack me up. (Also, he's my fancast for modern pre-serum Steve Rogers.) If you have instagram, I recommend checking out thatmidwesternmom. She's dedicated most of her account to these atrocious "salads."

[cornerofmadness]

Yes Dylan is. (I can absolutely see him as a pre-serum Steve Rogers)

Oh Mom is fun. She definitely sounds upper wisconsin/minnesotan.