Topics related to given names, surnames, and linguistic aspects of naming in English.
2
votes
1answer
371 views
Could I address someone by first name in business emails if he/she addresses me by first name?
I am really not sure about when it is appropriate to use someone's first name in business emails. If someone addresses me by my first name, but signs his email officially — full name, plus title, ...
2
votes
1answer
198 views
Boundaries for a person's name - danah boyd
How could the name danah boyd come to pass? Why isn't it Danah Boyd? Would it be inappropriate or incorrect to refer to this person as Danah Boyd?
2
votes
0answers
259 views
Why and since when does William = Bill and Richard = Dick? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Changes in English names of people
For example Bill Gates and Bill Clinton are actually Williams.
I guess if you first make it short for Will then you can go from there ...
1
vote
3answers
355 views
Usage of the definite articles with personal names
Could you tell me if the following sentence is correct or not? It seems to me that it is not correct because as I know, definite articles are never used with personal names. The only thing that I ...
1
vote
2answers
126 views
“Al” as a reduction of “Alexander” [closed]
Can I use Al as a reduction of the name Alexander?
Is this reduction clear to native English speakers?
1
vote
3answers
134 views
Special name for royal titles?
Is there a name for the title/nickname that some members of royalty get? Example: King Larry the Kind
1
vote
2answers
4k views
What is the rule for shortening people's names? (E.g. Michael → Mike) [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Changes in English names of people
How do we shorten names in general? For example, Almond → Al, Michael → Mike.
I remember seeing a Wikipedia page on which frequently ...
1
vote
1answer
435 views
Why is Tesco often pronounced Tesco's? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Store names & possessive
“Ear doctor's” vs “Ear doctor”
I have often heard members of the British public pronounce the name of the ...
1
vote
2answers
1k views
How to pronounce English names quickly and correctly [closed]
How can you pronounce a name quickly and correctly? They may or may not conform to regular patterns. Currently I'm using "online website" to do the speaking each time.
Are there any shortcuts that I ...
1
vote
3answers
385 views
How much can we trust text-to-speech pronunciation of names? [closed]
Text-to-speech software are applications which try to generate a sound based on a textual input by following linguistic rules of a language (mainly phonetics and phonology). They make a sound for ...
1
vote
1answer
671 views
Does the “@” symbol have a name? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to pronounce @ symbol?
In Spanish, @ is called arroba.
I saw this question, and it says it's called "commercial at" according to Wikipedia. A lot of languages have ...
1
vote
3answers
189 views
Should my child's name contain “Inn”? [closed]
I have a simple but important question about naming my first child.
I named her, as Jae-in Kim. (pronunciation is , of course, same as Jane in English name) but it is so common that hundreds, maybe ...
1
vote
2answers
3k views
When to call first name or last name? [closed]
For example, a man's name is Jeff Smith.
My question is:
When should I call him "Jeff"?
When should I call him "Smith"?
When should I call him "Jeff Smith"?
in western.
1
vote
3answers
556 views
Possessive Form of a Proper Noun Ending in a Plural Noun Ending in “s”?
I don't think this has yet been covered in any of the other questions on similar topics. There was one other very similar question, however, it was not specifically talking about the case where the ...
1
vote
1answer
71 views
Express a phrase as compound [closed]
I need to express this phrase as a short compound to be used as programming variable name (this phrase is in the context of a software user interface):
the block showing current chatters
I have ...
1
vote
2answers
76 views
Is it acceptable to drop the Jr. suffix in a citation?
I want to cite a book written by John P. Smith, Jr. Should I write
see Smith [2009] for details.
or
see Smith, Jr. [2009] for details.
I think my question boils down to: is his surname ...
1
vote
0answers
41 views
How to interpret polyhedron name “Rhombic Hexecontahedron”? [closed]
How to interpret polyhedron name "Rhombic Hexecontahedron"? What prefixes and suffixes that are generic and reusable? What're some examples to "make up" polyhedron names following the same style?
1
vote
1answer
84 views
use of articles with personal names modified by adjectives
Suddenly, to everybody's surprise, the silent Mr.Smith swung around and addressed Barbara.
The dinner was served by a silent Mrs. Keats.
I saw an infuriated Jennifer, who started shouting at ...
1
vote
0answers
90 views
Region-specific game names [closed]
I grew up in a small town in Eastern Kentucky, and we played a game called sookie (soak e). This game is very similar to dodge ball except that it is every man for himself. Adults taught us this game ...
1
vote
2answers
616 views
What is the possessive form of a singular noun ending with a plural s?
I would tend to treat a company name as singular and would therefore write the possessive form with 's. Now, my company refers to its international operations by placing the country name behind the ...
0
votes
2answers
185 views
Do any UK place names have non-ASCII characters? [closed]
Are they any place names in the UK that have non-ASCII characters?
I’m looking for any cities, towns, villages, etc. in the UK that use characters that aren’t in the basic ASCII range (code points ...
0
votes
2answers
1k views
What is another name for Dick?
Coming from "Changes in English names of people" telling:
Richard → Dick
Can I substitute Dick by Richard?
I need it to know because my Emails with the use of name Dick are being returned by ...
0
votes
2answers
244 views
Term for partially abbreviating names
Is there a name for the tabloid media practice of part-initializing, part-abbreviating people's names?
E.g. Jennifer Lopez -> J-Lo, Robert Pattinson -> R-Patz and so on.
0
votes
2answers
173 views
First name Constantin or Constantine? [closed]
Which is correct: "Constantin" or "Constantine"? I also encountered in texts "Konstantin" and "Kostantine". Or else is another spelling preferred?
0
votes
2answers
126 views
Which sounds better: “What’s in ――” or “What’s on――”?
I’m making the title of a web page with classifieds, and I’d like to name it either “What’s in (town name)” or “What’s on (town name)”.
Which one sounds better for a town classified web page?
Right ...
0
votes
1answer
117 views
J.A. Gagarin's flight vs J.A. Gagarin flight
1) Is it Ok to leave the initials or would you drop them? Writing his name in full seems odd since it isn't Gagarin who is the point of discussion.
2) Is it Gagarin's or Gagarin? Is there any ...
0
votes
2answers
96 views
How to refer to people and how they're related?
I'm trying to document an issue with an application, and I'd like to refer to the people using different words regardless of the relationship (father, son, etc.) being used.
To better explain the ...
0
votes
1answer
209 views
Is there a rule to what ending you use when you construct the nationality adjective? Or where did the various endings come from? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Are there any rules governing what we call people from different countries?
In the English language, you have several endings used when you construct an adjective out of ...
0
votes
0answers
25 views
Doubts on relation - Father and Son [closed]
If I have a statement of the form George is the father of James, who is in fact the father of Thomas. Then how do I expand it ?
Is it that
James is the father of Thomas
Or
George is the father ...
0
votes
0answers
60 views
What does “I” really mean? [closed]
When we refer to a human being by "I"/"you"/"he"/"she"/"Mary", what do we really mean? The more I think about it, the more confused I get. Do we mean living body or emotional/psychological world or ...
0
votes
0answers
73 views
Names: Julio vs Julia [closed]
Why are the names Julio and Julia pronounced differently (Hoo-lee-oh vs Jew-lee-ah)? What is their relation to each other - masculine and feminine forms of the same base name, or something else?
0
votes
0answers
87 views
Meaning and usage of 'one John Doe' [closed]
In some recent reading, I have once again come across the language construct 'one John Doe', as in:
A notice was sent to one John Doe...
Of course I have seen and heard this before, but it never ...
0
votes
0answers
34 views
Foreign names: Transcription or literal spelling? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How should foreign words (with foreign characters) be written in English text?
Sometimes, you want to use the names of foreign people in English texts. This presents no ...
-1
votes
2answers
106 views
Reversing name order [closed]
My current task is to create a (programming) algorithm which reverts a name's order. This since my country's formal name-listing order is different from international ones. The standard is often:
...
-1
votes
2answers
82 views
How to pronounce “Zoubin Ghahramani”? [closed]
Zoubin Ghahramani is a computer scientist and statistician. I tried Google translate but it sound a little weird. Does anyone know the pronunciation of his name? Is it from another language other than ...
-1
votes
1answer
110 views
Search for a new “name” [closed]
My last name in Chinese spelling is Fang, but I find that it has a bad meaning as an English word. I tried to change it to Feng, but since they are not quite distinguishable on the pronunciation, it ...
-1
votes
2answers
202 views
I work in a hospital. I want to know what we should call the proof of appointment
I work in a hospital. I want to know what we should call the proof of appointment.
And I want to know the name of the place where we pay the bill after treatment.
-1
votes
1answer
107 views
What is the meaning of the name Zacharias Mulletstein? [closed]
I saw the name Zacharias Mulletstein in a newsgroup and thought "what a peculiar yet interesting name." When I mentioned this name to a friend (because the post by this fella was amusing) they said ...
-1
votes
0answers
27 views
Could “polygonate” be a neologism? [closed]
In math (geometry) and programming polygon triangulation is the decomposition of a polygonal area into a set of triangles (wikipedia), and the verb is triangulate.
I'm writing a function (in a ...
-1
votes
1answer
252 views
Naming a function, or synonyms for compare/contrast [closed]
I'm writing a file sync application, and I'm having trouble naming a function that compares two files that exist (or existed) in the same location on two computers. It uses the modification dates and ...
-2
votes
1answer
78 views
Use of “of ” to separate the last name [closed]
Sometimes I enconter people with names in which the last part is separated with of. I wonder in which cases such usage like George of Bush, John of Doe, or Bill of Clinton is possible.
-2
votes
3answers
288 views
Pronunciation of the name “Kyrylo”
Can someone provide a transcription for the name "Kyrylo" - how it will actually sound?
-2
votes
1answer
201 views
An Ozibox user OR a Ozibox user is correct? [duplicate]
Which one is better and why?
1) Are you an Ozibox user?
2) Are you a Ozibox user?
Ozibox is the name of a web application
-3
votes
1answer
432 views
Balthazar, 'Caspar' and Melchior [closed]
The names traditionally given to the three Wise Men are Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior. But a friend of mine told me that in Australian English Caspar is not used. They use, instead, Gasper. Can ...
