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Help[Opinions] Xanadu
I am giggling about this because I just youtubed Xanadu and watched about 1:30 of the Olivia Newton-John / ELO song and am highly amused.
There was a story a while back on NPR about unusual nicknames. One of the people who talked about his nickname said he often went by "Kub" prn Koob. Kub was short for Kubla. That was his full name: Kubla. He said that his dad was really into the poem Kubla Khan by Coleridge and that he was named after the title character. He also said that his brother was nearly named Xanadu.
I had just memorized Kubla Khan when I heard this story, so I was like "OMG REFERENCE TO IT ON THE RADIO! COINCIDENCE OF MAGIC"
I went back and told my English teacher about it. "It is good that he was NOT named Xanadu," he said, "because to anyone my age it connotes only that terrible movie and that song - " then he began to sing a little bit
he had told us about the movie before, too.
Anyway, all of this aside,
Kubla Khan came up spontaneously a few days ago and I am remembering how much I love it and thinking about what an awesome set of syllables Xanadu is and how it would be such a better posting name than Tippins and how I have never felt comfortable with Tippins anyway. Then I started thinking "Oh hm it would be a cool name in general"
I wonder if there have been any babies named Xanadu! Probably! LOL poor kids! LOL!
I am mostly considering it as a middle name. In case, you know, any future husband of mine hates everything Catholic and hates 2 middle names and loves Coleridge and fun middle initials, I am way into Simon Xanadu right now.
BTW for all of you inthebox uberconservative namers - well I'm not too after your approval, but if it helps you swallow it any, this is a very important poem to me.
http://historyofideas.org/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / through caverns measureless to man / down to a sunless sea
Kickass!
Xanadu is not a real place, of course. Coleridge was just being kooky.
Also it is prn. ZAN-a-doo. Zannadoo.
Uh so yeah. I -
isn't Simon great? Simon Xanadu.
and Rudolf Zimri and Lucius Valentine. Wdyt. This is my "Gimmicky middle initial" themed fantasy sibset.
Also Xanadu as opposed to Tippins as a posting name. I have all these great ideas for posting names and always settle for Octavia or Tippins because they are the most recognizable. But yeah thoughts appreciated
Also I am curious about if you guys have any wordthoughtnames like Xanadu that come from important poems/songs/whatever. I think that is very interesting.
There was a story a while back on NPR about unusual nicknames. One of the people who talked about his nickname said he often went by "Kub" prn Koob. Kub was short for Kubla. That was his full name: Kubla. He said that his dad was really into the poem Kubla Khan by Coleridge and that he was named after the title character. He also said that his brother was nearly named Xanadu.
I had just memorized Kubla Khan when I heard this story, so I was like "OMG REFERENCE TO IT ON THE RADIO! COINCIDENCE OF MAGIC"
I went back and told my English teacher about it. "It is good that he was NOT named Xanadu," he said, "because to anyone my age it connotes only that terrible movie and that song - " then he began to sing a little bit
he had told us about the movie before, too.
Anyway, all of this aside,
Kubla Khan came up spontaneously a few days ago and I am remembering how much I love it and thinking about what an awesome set of syllables Xanadu is and how it would be such a better posting name than Tippins and how I have never felt comfortable with Tippins anyway. Then I started thinking "Oh hm it would be a cool name in general"
I wonder if there have been any babies named Xanadu! Probably! LOL poor kids! LOL!
I am mostly considering it as a middle name. In case, you know, any future husband of mine hates everything Catholic and hates 2 middle names and loves Coleridge and fun middle initials, I am way into Simon Xanadu right now.
BTW for all of you inthebox uberconservative namers - well I'm not too after your approval, but if it helps you swallow it any, this is a very important poem to me.
http://historyofideas.org/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / through caverns measureless to man / down to a sunless sea
Kickass!
Xanadu is not a real place, of course. Coleridge was just being kooky.
Also it is prn. ZAN-a-doo. Zannadoo.
Uh so yeah. I -
isn't Simon great? Simon Xanadu.
and Rudolf Zimri and Lucius Valentine. Wdyt. This is my "Gimmicky middle initial" themed fantasy sibset.
Also Xanadu as opposed to Tippins as a posting name. I have all these great ideas for posting names and always settle for Octavia or Tippins because they are the most recognizable. But yeah thoughts appreciated
Also I am curious about if you guys have any wordthoughtnames like Xanadu that come from important poems/songs/whatever. I think that is very interesting.
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It's really weird honestly, though I have to admit Simon Xanadu is clever. But I'd find OTT as a first name. As a posting name... it's ok, but I've gotten used to Tippins, it's very "you" plus you've changed a relatively short while ago.
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So I stumbled across "Xanadu" as a name a couple of days ago and the first thing I thought was, "omg, that's just bizarre - who would use that?"
BUT. Simon Xanadu. I like it. Especially because of its poetic connections - I'm not big into poetry, personally, but I love literature, and I think that kind of background takes what could be a completely off-the-wall name and transforms it into something useable. Names like that nearly always fall firmly into "middle name" territory for me, so now I can definitely see this as a middle name. I really like how it sounds with "Simon", too.
As for Rudolf Zimri and Lucius Valentine - oddly enough, I really like Zimri, which I've never even considered before, and I've recently really started to like Lucius a lot. I don't really like Rudolf (partly because it makes me think "reindeer!") and Valentine seems a bit girly, but I think the combos sound nice together.
BUT. Simon Xanadu. I like it. Especially because of its poetic connections - I'm not big into poetry, personally, but I love literature, and I think that kind of background takes what could be a completely off-the-wall name and transforms it into something useable. Names like that nearly always fall firmly into "middle name" territory for me, so now I can definitely see this as a middle name. I really like how it sounds with "Simon", too.
As for Rudolf Zimri and Lucius Valentine - oddly enough, I really like Zimri, which I've never even considered before, and I've recently really started to like Lucius a lot. I don't really like Rudolf (partly because it makes me think "reindeer!") and Valentine seems a bit girly, but I think the combos sound nice together.
This message was edited 6/20/2008, 1:29 AM
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That's my favorite poem, too! I understand your excitement. :D Kubla nn Kub made me laugh, the poor kid. As for your fantasy sibset:
Simon Xanadu- I love Simon, and Xanadu, frighteningly enough, I am really beginning to like.
Rudolf Zimri- Not a Rudolf fan, but it flows well with Simon and Lucius. Zimri is excellent.
Lucius Valentine- Very cool! Valentine on a boy, perfect. I like all three combos.
Xanadu as a posting name: That would be recognizeable, for sure. Go for it!
I'm stuck on non-name names from songs/poems/etcetera. I did get a lot of my favorite "real" names from those places, though. Iris is from the GGD song, and I have half a dozen Tolkien names.
PS- Xanadu was a place. Xanadu, aka Shangdu, was Kublai Khan's capital; it's in Mongolia somewhere. :)
Simon Xanadu- I love Simon, and Xanadu, frighteningly enough, I am really beginning to like.
Rudolf Zimri- Not a Rudolf fan, but it flows well with Simon and Lucius. Zimri is excellent.
Lucius Valentine- Very cool! Valentine on a boy, perfect. I like all three combos.
Xanadu as a posting name: That would be recognizeable, for sure. Go for it!
I'm stuck on non-name names from songs/poems/etcetera. I did get a lot of my favorite "real" names from those places, though. Iris is from the GGD song, and I have half a dozen Tolkien names.
PS- Xanadu was a place. Xanadu, aka Shangdu, was Kublai Khan's capital; it's in Mongolia somewhere. :)
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Xanadu is certainly ususual. I think as long as its a mn it's ok.
Nemophilë ('neh-MOH-fill-ay') is a GP mn of mine. It is the name of a flower in [an early version of] Tolkien's poem The Cottage of Lost Play. Pretty random!
I like Aelfwine and Eriol, names of a character in The Lost Road, and Beren from the Lay of Leithian.
On that subject, I also like Ancalimë (random Númenorean queen), Silmariën (another flower), Amarië (random Elf), Erendis (a Númenorean) and Míriel (another Elf). I think the diaeresis makes it look like there is a little crown over the name..
I like Väinämöinen ('VYE-nuh-MOY-nen') from the Kalevala, and the shortened form Väinö ('VYE-nuh').
I also quite like Lenore from Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven.
All but Beren (and maybe Väinö as a mn) are GP.
Nemophilë ('neh-MOH-fill-ay') is a GP mn of mine. It is the name of a flower in [an early version of] Tolkien's poem The Cottage of Lost Play. Pretty random!
I like Aelfwine and Eriol, names of a character in The Lost Road, and Beren from the Lay of Leithian.
On that subject, I also like Ancalimë (random Númenorean queen), Silmariën (another flower), Amarië (random Elf), Erendis (a Númenorean) and Míriel (another Elf). I think the diaeresis makes it look like there is a little crown over the name..
I like Väinämöinen ('VYE-nuh-MOY-nen') from the Kalevala, and the shortened form Väinö ('VYE-nuh').
I also quite like Lenore from Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven.
All but Beren (and maybe Väinö as a mn) are GP.
This message was edited 6/19/2008, 5:49 PM
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