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[Opinions] Philadelphia
What do you think of Philadelphia? Is it usable?
Can you think of any combos you'd like it in?

This message was edited 6/26/2023, 12:03 PM

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I don't think it's usable - it mostly makes me think of cream cheese. But I'll think of some combos.Philadelphia Doris
Philadelphia Janet
Philadelphia Maud
Philadelphia Sibyl
Philadelphia Vashti
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Usable? I guess so. Would I use it? Heck no.
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Yikes.I'm not inherently opposed to place-based names - Georgia, Savannah, etc. But this one doesn't seem to have any external affiliations not related to the city name. I also just don't think it sounds... good? As a name?Maybe as a middle name, assuming it isn't the only middle name in play.
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I like how grand it is, but I can't dismiss the meaning ("brotherly love") from my mind, and the prospect of naming a girl "brotherly love" makes me uneasy.
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considering how incestous the Ptolemaic line was, as were all pharaohs, you're not far off.
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It might be usable as a middle name, but not a first name. The first association I have is the brand of cream cheese, not the city. It has a nice meaning though. For a similar meaning I’d go with Agape.
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I love it but I think it is best used as a middle name because I don't think most people will realize it is a personal name going back to ancient times.Interesting fact, Jane Austen had an aunt named Philadelphia.
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There are better ways of achieving a daughter known as Phil. And I don't think that Brotherly Love is the sort of meaning I'd like my own name to have, not to mention that it's a city and I'm really not at all keen on urban names, or any geographical names really. No combos, then!
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If we can use "Forever Amber" as a guide, the name was not considered especially unusual in Restoration England (that's around the 1660s.)
But obviously, its didn't last long.
I don't think it's usable. It's super-long, in terms of letter-count, as names go. And unless you're really attached to the city, it's liable to call cheesteaks, notoriously badly-behaved sports fans, or general dirtness to mind. (Many older guys around here who spent time in the city call it Filthadelphia. I can't say I've noticed that it's any dirtier than any other big city, but the tap water is famous for tasting bad.)
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Oh dear, one can definitely NOT use "Forever Amber" as a guide to names in Restoration England! The title character herself has a name which was probably completely nonexistent back then -- and even the explanation given in the book, that she was named Amber "because of the color of her eyes", is anachronistic, because "amber" was not used as a color term in English until 1735, while the character was supposedly born in 1644. Withycombe's "Dictionary of English Christian Names" does say that C. W. Bardsley claimed he had found 100 examples of woman named Philadelphia in the reign of James I, but that is of course a couple of generations before the Restoration, his reign being 1603-1625.

This message was edited 6/26/2023, 1:36 PM

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