N00B NAME CHALLENGE: the reveal!

[qatarperegrine]

Before we reveal the answer to all these riddles, Justin and I thought we'd share some of the name hints that didn't quite make the cut (most of which were rejected when we decided to allow Googling):

• The first historically notable bearer of this name was an empress.
  
• Were proper names allowed, playing it would be worth 12 points in Scrabble.
  
• It is paired with Logos to form one of the emanations of God in Valentinian Gnosticism.
  
• It only has one more letter than syllable.
  
• According to Wikipedia, a small tribe of this name lives in the Amazon; one of its unusual cultural practices is that men celebrate the birth of their offspring by cutting their legs with rodent teeth. Justin does not intend to follow this tradition.
  
• It has been in the top 1000 girls' names in the US 71 of the last 100 years -- though not in either of the years we were born.
  
• The top Google hit of this name is of an actress. (However, making universal statements about top Google hits seems dangerous in this age of personalized search results!)
  
• It is the name of this cat.
  
• It is the name of one of President Bartlet's daughters.

The n00b's name is actually Zoë. :-)

Comments

[chrisamaphone]

i love that name.

what's the significance of the diaeresis? a nod to the now-somewhat-archaic but still adorable tradition of hiatus? something about original greek?

i have to wonder what kind of logistical problems people with diacritics on their names have in english-keyboard-land.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

It's definitely because of the hiatus; in Greek, there's no ambiguity because both vowels HAVE to be pronounced, whereas English that letter combination would more logically be thought to rhyme with "Joe."

However, I'm pretty sure that anyone who thinks that Zoe rhymes with Joe probably also doesn't know what a diaeresis is. They'd just think it rhymes with Joe AND is the name of a heavy metal band. :-)

We're not going to use the diaeresis officially, for the logistical reasons you have in mind, but I think it looks kind of nifty so I have been using it inconsistently in less formal contexts. Somehow it's hard to feel consistency is terribly important when you live somewhere where a single name might get transliterated into English three dozen different ways.

[jcreed.livejournal.com]

Oh Zoe-as-rhymes-with-Joe makes a lot more sense. I was kind of imagining it diaresislessly as "Zoi".

[chrisamaphone]

yeah, i like the way it looks too. it's kind of interesting how resistant english seems to be to diacritics, given all the ambiguities. it's kind of like historically we introduced them as training wheels for funny words like cooperation, but now that everyone knows how to pronounce it, we don't really use them anymore.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

It also happens in Portuguese, and in French.

In a couple of years, the trema will be abolished in Portuguese words, except those marked as imports.

Many (most?) French people don't write accents in Internet chats, or when capitalizing.

[(Anonymous)]

There's a High School in Eureka that's called "Zoe (as in rhymes-with-Joe) Barnum. Presumably named after someone who pronounced her name that way.I love the name, pronounced correctly. LeChaim ( or some other possible transliteration)

[jcreed.livejournal.com]

I'd wager as (American?) English speakers we don't really believe the diacritics are really necessary, that Zoe is the "same word as" Zoë. Unlike (amirite, bhudson?) Benoit being a terrible misspelling of Benoît?

[chrisamaphone]

i find it amusing that Pine erased all the diacritics in the email notification version of this comment.

[ikeepaleopard]

When I was learning latin, I could never see the long marks, because my brain refused to believe they mattered.

[jcreed.livejournal.com]

SO TRUE

[stepleton.livejournal.com]

Some august bastions of American English do believe in diacritics and marked diaeresis and would appreciate your coöperation in your rôle as a blogger.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

AHEM, I believe you mean diæresis. ;-)

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

I was just really glad it was "Zoe" and not "Zooey". My niece is nothing like a zoo.

Diacritics aren't completely uncommon in the UK - a fairly common name of Welsh origin is Siân (pronounced "shaan"), although as mentioned here my brain doesn't want to pay attention and I always have to check which vowel wears the hat.

I didn't realise Zoe was also the name of a Neil Gaiman pet. At least you're not calling her Cabal.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh... I have a new coworker named Sian and have been pronouncing it pretty much like Sean. Is it a different vowel sound? I'll go consult with my Welsh colleague tomorrow.

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

In my accent they're different vowels. I'd pronounce "Sean" with a long backwards-c vowel (same vowel as in "caught") while Siân is a round-a vowel (same vowel as "car"). Wait, I'd pronounce "Sean" the same as "shorn". Thus Shawn the Sheep. Yeah. Siân's vowel is much further forward and unrounded.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

I also pronounce those vowels differently. The Americans from whom I learned the new coworker's name don't, which I guess is how I got it wrong.

Do you remember when I was in preschool and started working out that I should insert an r into anything Mum pronounced with a long ahh sound? For a while I said "mother and farther." Overfitting!

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

I remember that! That was cute! You could always call her "Sharn"! Well, to be honest, that's what I do. Charles also has the same trouble, he refers to the Doctor's nemeses as "Darleks".

[canyonwren.livejournal.com]

I pronounce the "a" in caught and car identically. Well, in car, it's drawn out a tiny bit more.

I love listening to the BBC and hearing all the strangely-placed (to me) r's. "Obamer" and "Americerr" are my two favorites. Of course, mid-Western US folks, like my mom, put r's in odd places, too. Mom "warshes" the "squarsh."

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most American accents won't distinguish the two. I remember coming back from England to California and finding out that the woman in Baywatch *wasn't* named "Pamela Randerson".

[kit-ping.livejournal.com]

An excellent name! The last Zöe I had as a student was a really neat, really creative girl. May the trend continue. :)

[marialuminous.livejournal.com]

I love the name! And although I didn't submit any guesses, I did enjoy the pondering over the clues. Thank you! This is such a fun way to tell us her name.

[dubaiwalla.livejournal.com]

I love the name. But I hope you realize she's going to get called on last in class for everything!

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

Zoe Carlson would probably get called sooner in class than Marjorie Tillinghast ever was! :-) (The schools we went to, they went alphabetically by surname.)

[n00bettenana.livejournal.com]

I am so glad you decided to keep up the tradition of having us solve the name-that-n00b riddle/puzzle. Since I'm so into language, I found it fascinating how the different ones of us chose to approach the "pasta spears" clue. It was terribly logical how Derek did it, and Steve was on the same track, just using a bit more complicated approach. He used "lancia" for spears which apparently is Italian for spears and Lancia is also a company that makes pasta. That's why he was SO sure he had it with Rosalia. I, on the other hand, was focussing first on pastas shaped like spears and when that didn't work, I carefully researched words for pasta that might translate into something like spears. My plan was to find said word or words and then focus on ways to prepare said pasta that had enough of the CARLSON letters in it. I was so far down the wrong track, I might have been lost there until doomsday. ;] Anyway, we are going to adore calling our little granddaughter Zoe, even if she was named after a robot!

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

How are you doing with the idea of a girl, Lorraine? I've already told Marjorie that I don't know girls - she's on her own in that department and I'm absolutely not changing her nappies... So much for hand-me-down clothes, too... on the other hand, you'll be the envy of all the other Carlsons, having a granddaughter! :-)