The actor was the second place I came across the nickname. (I think the first time was in one of the Chinese novels I'd read -- it was a doubling long-i sound, at least.) The shelter named the poor guy "Rusty," and if there's a worse name for a cat, I can't think of one -- not to mention, rust = bad, after my time as a mechanic!
Since we already have two Japanese-named critters (Kiku and Sachiko), one Hispanic-named (Baltazar), and one Italian (Baccano), I figured we needed a change... but Tianmi sounded too... off, somehow. And I didn't want to use a similar first consonant, because poor Balto is already confused enough when I call for Baccano. (For Balto, anything that starts with "buh" or ends with "ohhh" is him.) Thing is, I don't know enough about the cadence of name-picking, so I knew I'd need to go with an existing name, which meant I spent an afternoon flipping back and forth between actor/character names in d-wiki and my dictionary, trying to find something with a good meaning that would also not drive our local vet bonkers. In the end, I gave up and went with a doubling. Just plain easier, and I liked the double implication.
(I learned my lesson about not making it hard on vets, after having a beagle named Saimhain. She came to us only a few days before Halloween, so we gave her the gaelic word for the holiday... and then spent twelve years explaining to every new vet, "it's sah-ven, like seven but with an 'ah' sound." Nearly all her records had her name, followed by a how-to-say-it notation. Sheesh.)
Honestly, I don't know why I didn't stick to known, if old-fashioned names, like Odetta. Simple, straightforward, and never mispronounced. A'course, at 100lbs, ain't no one was gonna mispronounce her name. Something about impressive-sized dogs makes people pay attention.
no subject
Date: 3 Feb 2011 05:57 am (UTC)Since we already have two Japanese-named critters (Kiku and Sachiko), one Hispanic-named (Baltazar), and one Italian (Baccano), I figured we needed a change... but Tianmi sounded too... off, somehow. And I didn't want to use a similar first consonant, because poor Balto is already confused enough when I call for Baccano. (For Balto, anything that starts with "buh" or ends with "ohhh" is him.) Thing is, I don't know enough about the cadence of name-picking, so I knew I'd need to go with an existing name, which meant I spent an afternoon flipping back and forth between actor/character names in d-wiki and my dictionary, trying to find something with a good meaning that would also not drive our local vet bonkers. In the end, I gave up and went with a doubling. Just plain easier, and I liked the double implication.
(I learned my lesson about not making it hard on vets, after having a beagle named Saimhain. She came to us only a few days before Halloween, so we gave her the gaelic word for the holiday... and then spent twelve years explaining to every new vet, "it's sah-ven, like seven but with an 'ah' sound." Nearly all her records had her name, followed by a how-to-say-it notation. Sheesh.)
Honestly, I don't know why I didn't stick to known, if old-fashioned names, like Odetta. Simple, straightforward, and never mispronounced. A'course, at 100lbs, ain't no one was gonna mispronounce her name. Something about impressive-sized dogs makes people pay attention.