I highly suggest, just like everyone above, that you go with just Tali, and maybe add Zorah as the middle name. At least a weird middle name isn't going to get her as much flack as a child. Tali is a perfectly fine and normal name.
My daughter is named Tali'Zorah. I suppose I'm crazy : )
- Thread starter DrunkOnEstus
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I say go for it. You said that you're doing it because your wife really like the name so it's not that bad. Besides, it's way better than naming your kid Dovahkiin in order to get free Bethesda stuff for the rest of your child's life. And if your daughter isn't fond of the full name she can always just go as Tali or Zorah and can even ask to have her named legally changed if it bothers her that much. And as far as explaining the name goes, if you're that embarrassed by it you can always claim that it's foreign and leave it at that.
My girlfriend and I are at the point that we can have unabashedly real conversations about baby names, despite us both being in university (our conversations are purely hypothetical and dependent on us being together that long), but we settled on Winry for a girl and Garrus for a boy. So I understand perfectly where you're coming from.
Like the others though I'd probably shorten it to Tali for a first name and Zorah for a middle name.
Like the others though I'd probably shorten it to Tali for a first name and Zorah for a middle name.
I have not listened to the episode at all, because behavioural economics is one of my specialties, cognitive psychology is a big part of it, so I know my material.Augustine said:
If you give teachers schoolwork to grade from students they don't know, and randomly write "normal" kid's names on top of half of the papers, but "frowned-upon" kid's names on the other half, and the latter group gets significantly lower grades for it, then that's a pretty solid result. Evidence in social sciences rarely gets any better.
And even if the results were more ambiguous, why take any risks as parent here?
And, honestly, to all those people saying that kids are cruel and children will get picked on anyway: Yea, that's true, but you don't have to make it even easier for them - without any good reason.
Possible complaints? Here you go: What if your son is will turn out to be physically rather weak (statistically not that unlikely), then calling him Hercules will make it really easy for other kids to make fun of him, and he might have a hard time himself because he totally lacks the qualities of which his namesake was famed for. Then you proceed with a middle name with a weird spelling, so your son will have to explain to everyone that, yes, that's really how it's spelled, he'll be asked why it spelled in such a strange way, and he will have to correct other people writing his name incorrectly all the time. Now I don't know where you get such a weird name, but if it's from some anime or something, it makes it even worse. About Rockefeller, if that is your real last name, then that's another story, but if not, you should be able to realize that giving such a name to a kid that might be poor makes it an easy target for ridicule as well.balladbird said:
Just call him Sebastian if you like the name. Just like the OP could name his daughter Tally, Natalie, Talia or something and just call her Tali, that way he can still express his fandom if he must and nobody will be hurt.
Edit: Anyway, this thread is at five pages now, and the vast majority of people thinks naming your kid Tali'Zorah is a bad idea. And these people are all games - exactly the people who you would expect to be the most sympathetic towards such a name. Yet even they dislike it. Other groups will, in all likelihood, give your baby girl an even harder time.
You're wrong.DrunkOnEstus said:
First of all, Mass Effect is a fairly popular franchise, so she'll probably meet people who will be familiar with the origin of her name, and whom at best will think her name is kind of cool, or at worst they'll tease her about it.
Second of all, Tali or Zorah would perhaps make for an interesting first or middle name respectively, but Tali'Zorah as a first name really sticks out, and particularly for a kid, it's the kind of name that can alienate her from her peers, which is never a good thing.
I'm just going to repeat what other people have said. Tali is great but drop the 'Zorah.
No there is nothing wrong with naming a child after a character from a piece of fiction or after a person. I was named after an actor or a footballer, depends which parent you ask. But giving your kid a crazy name will probably have a negative impact on them, it sucks but there you go. But you can name your kid after something without it being overly weird.
Also as others pointed out you would be naming her wrong if you are naming her after Tali. You would be using a first name and surname as a first name. Zorah is Tali's surname. A Quarian name would be Tali'[Surname] vas [The ship she lives on]. It would be like wanting to name a child after "Harry Potter" so you call them "Harry Potter [Surname]" rather than just "Harry [Surname]"
No there is nothing wrong with naming a child after a character from a piece of fiction or after a person. I was named after an actor or a footballer, depends which parent you ask. But giving your kid a crazy name will probably have a negative impact on them, it sucks but there you go. But you can name your kid after something without it being overly weird.
Also as others pointed out you would be naming her wrong if you are naming her after Tali. You would be using a first name and surname as a first name. Zorah is Tali's surname. A Quarian name would be Tali'[Surname] vas [The ship she lives on]. It would be like wanting to name a child after "Harry Potter" so you call them "Harry Potter [Surname]" rather than just "Harry [Surname]"
Well, there are certainly worse names you could give your daughter based on videogames. Like Peach, Aerith, or Mordekaiser.
I say, if you're going to name her Tali'Zora vas Neema, or, even better, Tali'Zora vas Normandy. All on her first name. That would either make you the best parent ever, or the worst. I haven't decided yet.
I say, if you're going to name her Tali'Zora vas Neema, or, even better, Tali'Zora vas Normandy. All on her first name. That would either make you the best parent ever, or the worst. I haven't decided yet.
But do you also understand where all those people who voiced their concerns are coming from? And that they/we would, arguably, apply to your own choices, Garrus and Winry, just as well. I mean, Tali is at least a real name...mitchell271 said:
I just don't get all of this, I really don't. Parents should choose a name for their kid that is in the kids best interest, it's not the right place to express one's fandom for something.
Gavmando said:
Like I said, it wasn't my idea. The game is technically the inspiration, but not the reason. There seems to be some understanding that I went "lol Mass Effect is awesome, let's name a human being after it". My wife fell in love with the name for its own sake, she's never even played the game with her own hands.SecondPrize said:
My name is Adam. I was teased for that. "So hey, where's Eve?", "You don't look very old for being the first person". No those aren't brutal statements or anything but kids will pick on each other and find any reason to do so. And you guessed right, in 99% of situations she has already been referred to as just "Tali" at the doctor's and speaking to her stomach.Thomas Barnsley said:
Thanks for the support. If anyone was wondering the purpose of this thread, it wasn't a "look at me and this nutty thing I'm doing!" but rather a test run to see how receptive the general public is. So far, I've learned that people on the Internet are far more brutal and less likely to mince words than in person, and I'm not sure why I'm surprised. Out of hundreds of combined people comprised of doctors, nurses, friends, and both sides of the family, the absolute worst statement I heard was "is that really her actual name? Oh okay". 98% of people love the name and thinks it sounds pretty, which I must stress is the real reason for the name.Multi-Hobbyist said:
It's because of the name and not the game, but out of curiosity, why does that make so much of a difference? Would it really be that much worse if it was as simple as "man I love that game therefore the name's gotta come from there"?rokkolpo said:
I've gotta say, even just hearing the congratulations and good wishes along with a disagreement makes it much more easy to take. I mean, if someone was going to lock me up or take my daughter away (which seems to be the general prediction), wouldn't the Doctors, OB/GYN, nurses, home nurse, hospital staff, or a family member made this attempt already? They all know the name, and have known it for months. Most of them are in love with it. I actually wanted to make this thread to check with actual nerds since I was amazed that the general public was liking it so much. Turns out they don't like it nearly as much.Blitsie said:
To everyone else I couldn't quote right now - Holy balls this thread got insane quickly. The name is not and cannot change, my wife was deadset on it years ago and it's already on official papers and what not, not that I even want to change it. Now I'm unsure why I even asked, considering that I can't do anything about it and I'm apparently a bad person who's ruining a life. It's alright though, I've got bigger things to worry about right now. Thanks everyone.
No, it would would be Tali'Smith nar New York (or something), and since this peculiar placement of the family name probably won't go down with the authorities, you'd have to settle for Tali'Smith nar New York Smith, I guess. What a great start in a new life that would make for.WWWLUCIFERCOM said:
Like others have said, I think the name Tali is perfectly fine, and you will probably be calling her that 99% of the time, anyway. Zorah should be left as a middle name. Perhaps even used as a nickname.
Hell, my mom named me after her favorite actor at the time, why can't you name your daughter after a game character? Others name their kids after plants, right?
Also, I wonder how many of her teachers will see the name and realize the reference.
Hell, my mom named me after her favorite actor at the time, why can't you name your daughter after a game character? Others name their kids after plants, right?
Also, I wonder how many of her teachers will see the name and realize the reference.
Massive "don't do it" from me.
Tali would be fine though probably
EDIT:
This pretty sums up my feelings on the matter.
Tali would be fine though probably
EDIT:
This pretty sums up my feelings on the matter.
DANGER- MUST SILENCE said:
It sounds like you took me juuuuust a tad too seriously.CloudAtlas said:
"Hercules Rockefeller" Was one of the "super names" Homer Simpson came up with when he was trying to think of a new name to go by after his own became associated with an idiot tv character. The other names he came up with were "Einstein Q. Rembrandt, and "Max Power," but I went with the foremost because it was the catchiest. XD
As for "Sebastion", I picked it because it sounded pretentious and fancy, and spelled it wrong because I had just woke up and couldn't be bothered to notice the spellchecker.
Basically, it was just a joke name I set up to sound as complex as possible.
Not always. But it's the difference between: ''Wow I really like this name a character has, let's name our kid that''DrunkOnEstus said:
to ''Wow I really like this game, let's name our kid a character from this and have that be the only reason.''
This is so that when people ask you can honestly answer ''We like the name Tali'zorah'' instead of the selfish ''We like Mass Effect.''
The point I'm trying to make is that the focus should be on the name, and not on the game.
But that's just my opinion.
Either Tali or Tali'Zorah seem fine to me. Either way, everyone is going to call her Tali, but Tali'Zorah gives her the option of asking people to call he Zorah if she prefers. I'm just happy it's spelled in a sane manner. There have been studies showing that people with oddly spelled names tend to struggle with spelling. The theory behind why is that they get paranoid about their spelling when everyone asks them to spell their name and then gets confused when it Krystell or something.