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Baby names for linguists or celebrities

Natalie Portman has named her firstborn child after a letter.

Natalie Portman and her fiance Benjamin Millepied welcomed a baby boy last month and have finally revealed the name of the baby to be Aleph.

Aleph, also spelled “Alef” and pronounced “All-Eff,” is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Much like how “alpha” is the first letter in the Greek alphabet. In Judaic Kabbalah, its esoteric meaning in the theological treaty Sefer-ha-Bahir, relates to the origin of the universe, the “primordial one that contains all numbers.”

Why the fuss? People name girls ‘Beth‘ all the time, and no one says anything. And if we’re talking about Roman letters, ‘Bea’ or ‘Jay’. In fact, a letter is a great idea for a baby name.

So for the more adventurous parents, here are some characters from the world’s writing systems that might make good baby names, along with their likely consequences.

Character: Zel
Writing system: Ottoman Turkish alphabet
Sounds like: [z]
Expect the child to be: Extroverted
Future Career: Real estate agent, or MLM scammer

Character: Fita
Writing system: Early Cyrillic
Language that uses it: Russian
Sounds like: [f]
Expect the child to be: Colicky
Future Career: Yoga instructor

Character: Kaunan
Writing system: Runic alphabet
Language that uses it: Norse
Sounds like: [k]
Expect the child to be: Needing a search and rescue team at least once
Future Career: Artist, cheesemaker, or bikey

Character: Delt
Writing system: Phonecian
Sounds like: [d]
Expect the child to be: Albino
Future Career: Personal trainer, or assassin

Character: Yat
Writing system: Glagolitic alphabet
Languages that use it: Slavic
Sounds like: [æ] as in ‘cat’
Expect the child to be: A little slow
Future Career: Colour consultant, or unsuccessful real estate agent

Character: Lo Ling
Writing system: Thai
Sounds like: [l] (initial), [n] (final)
Expect the child to be: Mysterious
Future Career: Personal assistant to evil genius, or successful call girl

3 Comments

  1. Back in my radical college days, I seriously thought I might name my first child Theta. Instead went for Persephone.

    And if you use any of these letters, your child can just write the symbol, a la Prince-who-used-to-be-Prince-and-is-Prince-once-again.

  2. 'Theta' has a nice ring to it.

    Hey, how about 'ē' (e macron)?

    As in: E. Macron Jones.

  3. I seriously thought I might name my first child Theta. Instead went for Persephone.
    Nice site you have here! Keep up the excellent work!

    Tamil Baby Names

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