Creating a Custom Name List
Hegelian:
Quote from: notveryawesome on 2007 June 16, 00:53:47
I am so naming one of my sims Lola Ballet.
Yeah, I like that one too. I already have a Lola sim I've used more than once. She began sim-life as Lola Längerfeld, but in the cc- and hack-free neighborhood I've been playing recently she is Lola Villeneuve as a result of joining with Joanie Villeneuve, another real name from my work. The original Lola was created as a potential mate for a guy named Gordon Zephyr (not a real name).
Quote from: ingeli on 2007 June 16, 09:44:00
All countries of course has names that sound funny in other languages, in Sweden we have a range of old Swedish female names of this kind: Britt, Gerd, Gun, ect.
Can you tell us the correct pronunciation of "Kajsa"?
Quote
Interesting with the female last names - so the list equivalent Petrov/Petrova, so that a daughter of Petrov gets the name Petrova? I have some Russian families in my game and this could be a nice thingie..
This common in several Slavic languages, including Czech and Bulgarian. A Czech example would be Martina Navratilova, whose step-father's name was Navrátil. There are plenty of literary examples, such as Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin/Anna Karenina. You can easily see the form in the current crop of female Russian tennis players (Sharapova, Dementieva, Kuznetsova, Myskina, and Dinara Safina, sister of Marat Safin). From the Czech Republic you have former players Hana Mandlíková and Jana Novotná.
Spanish is another interesting case, with children usually given two surnames, the father's followed by the mother's maiden name. It is common to refer to individuals by the father's surname (i.e., Gabriel García Márquez could be Gabriel García, although in formal writing he is generally referred to a García Márquez; in either case, he would not be referred to simply as Márquez). Since this is not the practice in Anglo-American culture, the names we use to refer to many famous Spanish historical figures in the Americas are incorrect. For example, the governor and explorer we know as Francisco Coronado would more correctly be called Francisco Vázquez (Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luxán); in documents of his own time, he is Vázquez or Vázquez de Coronado. It is my understanding that it is up to the individual whether the father's or mother's name is used, or both.
An example is the remarkable Cabeza de Vaca, who in 1528 set out from Tampa Bay as part of an expedition of 300 men, exploring north and west along the Gulf coast, shadowed by their ships offshore. The ships lost contact and after a year of looking, returned to New Spain (Mexico). The expedition made its way from inland down to the coast at Apalachee Bay (south of Tallahassee, Fla.) and built rafts on which to sail back to New Spain, and in the fall of 1528 two of the rafts beached on Galveston Island (about 650 straight-line miles) or possibly an island off the south Louisiana coast. Here they were captured and enslaved by the local people, and over the next few years most of the Spaniards died. In September 1534, Cabeza de Vaca and three others escaped and headed toward Mexico on foot. Using mostly worthless European medical practices, Cabeza de Vaca earned a reputation as healer among the local populations, and instead of being treated as an escapee, he and his companions were greeted warmly, being fed, clothed, sheltered, and given escorts. In July 1536 they encountered a Spanish slaving party in what is now the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa; they had an escort of several hundred Pima-speaking natives.
Anyway, his full name was Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Since his mother's family was of higher status than his father's, he chose to be known as Cabeza de Vaca. My source suggests that Hernando de Soto would have been known to his contemporaries as Soto. From this, it is not clear whether Juan Ponce de Léon would have been known as Ponce, as Léon, or as Ponce de Léon.
Any Spanish person who cares to correct any of this should feel free to do so. ;D
ingeli:
Kajsa is pronounced Kaisa (Not like Okay, looong aa, more like "I" in "I am")
I do know a lot about the slavic names, my question was, does the female name list in Sims2 (when prepared for it), make this happen automatically?
(I work as a Swedish-Russian translator, and lived in Moscow for 3 years, my husband is a Russian, so if I did change my familyname, which I didnt, I would prefer the female version.)
Hegelian:
Quote from: ingeli on 2007 June 17, 00:59:40
(I work as a Swedish-Russian translator, and lived in Moscow for 3 years, my husband is a Russian, so if I did change my familyname, which I didnt, I would prefer the female version.)
Lol! Well don't I feel stupid. But maybe other folks might find what I wrote useful (or not!). :P
Anyway, in the regional lists included in the U.S. edition of the game, the Russian, Bulgarian, Cyrillic, and Ukrainian lists use the default American names, but the Czech lists are male and female versions of real Czech or Czech-like names.
Alie:
Quote from: Hegelian on 2007 June 16, 20:05:41
Since his mother's family was of higher status than his father's, he chose to be known as Cabeza de Vaca. My source suggests that Hernando de Soto would have been known to his contemporaries as Soto. From this, it is not clear whether Juan Ponce de Léon would have been known as Ponce, as Léon, or as Ponce de Léon.
AFAIK, everything you stated was correct up until this point. Hernando de Soto's last name was de Soto. This isn't a good example of typical Spanish name progression. He would have been known to his contemporaries as "de Soto." It's like "van Allen", two words, one last name.
I personally have never seen or come across anyone choosing the matrilineal name (i.e. Leon vs Ponce), so that may be extremely rare. It is very, very common to keep the father's name and just be, for example, Juan Ponce. So Juan Ponce de Leon MAY have been Juan Ponce to his friends, and Ponce de Leon to anyone else.
I say "may" because it's extremely, extremely, EXTREMELY rude in Spanish speaking countries to drop any part of a person's name, unless you've been invited to call them by their first name or you know which last name they prefer. Spanish surnames were formerly formed as Father's-Last-Name Mother's-Last-Name, but then some people, depending on the area, formed them Mother's-Last-Name Father's-Last-Name (i.e. in the USA, it was much more common in the 20th century to have two middle names than to have two last names, thus the Latinos trying to fit their customs to the culture gave their children the mother's maiden name as part of the middle name).
Some people are fine with just being called Sr/a. Father's-Last-Name (problem is, you can't tell by looking which last name is the father's last name), some would prefer Sr/a Father's Last Name Mother's Last Name (although this is considered very formal) and for women, it can get tricky once they're married.
For example, my mother's full legal name is now Sherry Lynn Her-Father's-Last-Name Her-Mother's-Last-Name de My-Father's-Father's-Last-Name My-Father's-Mother's-Last-Name. It's considered acceptable to abbreviate it to Sherry Lynn Her-Father's-Last-Name de My-Father's-Father's-Last-Name, and I believe that's what is on her passport. Can't be sure, may be the full formal one. My last name happens to be formed as My-Father's-Father's-Last-Name*HYPHENATED*My-Mother's-Father's-Last-Name, if you are wondering. If I chose to continue this, my surname would become My-Father's-Father's-Last-Name de Whoever-I-Married, and the kids would have surnames of Whoever-I-Married My-Father's-Father's-Last-Name.
This is, again, why everybody gets called senor or senora. If they like you, they'll invite you to call them by their first name in fifteen seconds anyway, if they don't or it's a formal occasion, you can't go wrong with senor or senora.
Khan of Wyrms:
Okay, after considerable delay (pesky responsibilities and bothersome commitments and all, you know) here is an abridged list of some surnames I have found interesting/amusing/unusual. It may not be obvious why some have been included here, but if any name does not seem to be particularly clever a Google search would probably turn up why it has been included. I am mostly omitting names that are blatantly renowned as I don't typically use those for sim-families but rather for the names of streets, parks, and certain types of community lots (libraries, museums, and similar places).
I have some general criteria how I determine which names get used in my game, though these conditions are not exclusive of other qualities. Mainly, these criteria are as follows, in order of preference:
1.The name is a 'real' name, one that is used by someone, somewhere in the 'real' world now or was in the past.
2.The name has a relationship to the world of the paranormal/supernatural/unexplained, wacky philosophies, freaky fringe religions, controversial history, or sci-fi/fantasy literature. (Special awesomeness if associated with a Close Encounter of the Fourth Kind!)
3.The name has suggestive qualities in English, typically but not limited to sexual innuendo, or it has multiple levels of meaning. Also, the name might mean something in Old English or Middle English which has been generally lost to Modern English.
4.The name means something in a language other than English that might, if translated, be funusual, embarrassing, controversial, or scandalous, etc.
5.The name has an interesting or creative sound, appearance, or cadence, or it is just 'cool' in some way.
Here are some names, including the ones I mentioned in earlier posts, in no particular order except one after another:
Greatrakes
Rosenkreutz
Lovecraft
Ravenscroft
Moorcock
Grimshawe
Witchell
Deatherage
Hotchkiss
Breedlove
Grafenberg
Maskelyne
Houchlei
Sacheverell
Lestrange
Cockburn
Waldegrave
Kilgore
Strangewayes
Maydestone
Outlawe
Sweetecok
Montrose
Cockayne
Schrivener
Warhover
Trollope
Rayphole
Cottingley
Killakee
Strahan
Bligh
Baird
Undine
Lipschitz
Killarney
Bork
McElhoney
(N.B. All of these names exist somewhere, I believe, so please don't be offended if one of them happens to be yours!)
I hope someone out there finds this list useful, and I hope someone else finds it fun. But mostly, I hope someone has a similar list with more great names I can use to further bloat my game with unplayed sim-families. Surely (perhaps?) I am not the only one with a peculiar obsession with interesting or unusual surnames.
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