Nope, this isn’t a post about bad tattoos of baby names. (Though that’s a tempting post to write!) This post is about a bad tattoo that belongs to a specific person, and what that tat can teach us about baby names.
The tattoo in question belongs to starlet Hayden Panettiere. I’m not quite sure who she is, but I spotted a picture of her tattoo while looking through photos of celebrity tattoos yesterday. Here’s the caption:
Hayden Panettiere’s tattoo reads “Vivere senza rimipianti,” which means “Live without regrets” in Italian. Unfortunately, the word “rimipianti” is incorrect; it’s spelled “rimpianti.”
Yup, a tattoo typo. She took a phrase, tried to translate it into a language she obviously does not know, and wound up with a mess. A permanent mess.
And she’s not the only one with a tattoo like this. Many people waltz into tattoo parlors, see pretty characters up on the walls, and decide to get those characters written into their skin. They don’t know Chinese, or Japanese, or Khmer, or Tamil, or Hebrew, or Greek, or whatever other language the characters happen to represent. They don’t know if the characters are written properly. They don’t know if the characters mean what the tattoo artist says they mean. They just know that the characters are cool and exotic, so they go for it.
Some parents choose baby names the same way. They gravitate toward names from other cultures because these names are so different from the names they encounter every day.
Now, it’s fine to be attracted to unfamiliar things. But it’s not fine to simply take these things at face value and make them a permanent part of your life–or, worse, someone else’s life–without learning more about them first.
If Hayden had bothered to double-check her translation with an Italian dictionary or an Italian speaker, she could have caught that spelling mistake before it was etched into her skin. But she didn’t do any double-checking, her tattoo backfired in a big way, and now she looks foolish because of it.
Likewise, if a parent-to-be who is enamored of a certain exotic name bothers to do some research, she might be surprised to find out that she’s been spelling or pronouncing it incorrectly all along. She could catch her mistake before turning a bad name into her child’s name and making her child look foolish because of it.
(Or, better yet, she could come to the realization that if a name is bizarre enough to require special research, it is probably too bizarre to be passed along to a child.)
Namestorm #2 – Baby Names for Shoe Lovers
Love shoes as much as Imelda Marcos? If so, this post is for you.
C in DC suggested last week that I brainstorm for names associated with shoes, and I thought that was a great idea. So here’s my stab at it.
Luther
In 1938, American archaeologist Luther Cressman discovered a 10,000-year-old pair of sandals–the oldest pair of shoes ever found in North America (and maybe the world).
Louis and Nicolas
French shoemaker Nicolas Lestage designed elaborate high heeled shoes — the “Louis heel” — for Louis XIV around 1660.
Arthur
Anglo-Irish soldier/politician Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, created (with the help of his shoemaker) the Wellington boot in the early 1800s.
Charles
Mary Jane
Mary Janes got their name from the Buster Brown comic strip character Mary Jane in the early 1900s.
Salvatore and Judy (and Dorothy)
Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo created the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Klaus
German army doctor Klaus Märtens started making boots in the late 1940s.
Roger
French fashion designer Roger Vivier created his iconic Pilgrim pumps in the 1960s.
Chelsea
Chelsea boots were fashionable during the 1960s.
Nancy
Nancy Sinatra helped popularize go-go boots with her song “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” (1966).
Christian
French footwear designer Christian Louboutin first introduced his red-lacquered soles in 1992.
And now, just like last time, two questions:
Sources: History of Footwear, Wikipedia