Skaters' nicknames

fscric said:

Since it looks like both Morning Glory and sorcerer are Japanese, can I ask which other character besides 姫 has the same pronunciation as 'ki'?

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So many! 貴(noble), 樹(tree), 希(hope), 来(coming), 季(season), 紀(many meanings...).....

Olympia said:

I've noticed two typical constructions in Georgian last names, the -shvili suffix in Elena's name and the -dze in (hope I don't misspell this) Anton Sikharulidze's name. Choreographer George Balanchine's original surname was something like Balanchivadze. I wonder what the -dze signifies.

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The suffix-dze (ძე) in Georgian names means “son”, usually of an Irano-Armenian origin.

Olympia said:

I think I once heard that surnames with -enko in Russia meant that the family originated in the Ukraine. Is that accurate?

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Yes, you are absolutely right. The surname suffix -enko, -chenko or -shenko (шенко) literally “son of” is indeed characteristic of Eastern Ukrainian and Belarusian (Note: Ukrainian and Belarusian are so close to each other that many linguists consider them as one language).

Olympia said:

One name that fascinates me is Katia Gordeyeva's surname. The beginning syllable almost sounds Scottish. Does anyone know anything about its construction?

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I know what you mean. Her family name does sound like Scottish Gordie or Gordon (“great fort/hill”), but my answer to that question is: I don’t know. There are too many possibilities. People of Soviet Republics that were not originally Russian in ethnicity adopted (and in some cases were assigned) a traditional Russian surname suffix. So if their original names sounded like Gorde, they became a Gordeev (male) or Gordeeva (female). Is she Jewish? If so, her family name might have something to do with the city of Grodno. Does her father speak Spanish? If so, he was probably fat (“Gordo”). Or maybe her father was a proud (Gord) Serbian. Or maybe her ancestor came from Northeast Caucasus and was a dress (Gorde) maker. Or maybe it could trace all the way back to Roman Cleon of Gordiucome…..

You got me beat. All I know is, based on the surname suffix-eva or -yeva “born of”, she is either Russian or Bulgarian (Of course, we know she is a Russian).

sorcerer, Morning Glory, thanks for the replies. Just want to re-confirm, are all those words pronounced as "ki"?

Hanyū, Yuzuru

Hanyū (羽生, はにゅう) means “feather-born” and Yuzuru (結弦, ゆづる) “to tie a bowstring”. As a whole, it implies one that is primed for a big challenge. I would call him Ha-ne the Wing, one that flies across the ice and jumps like a bird.

Note: Hane (はね) means “feather” (from Middle Japanese fáné, Old Japanese pane); Zuru (つる) as in Yuzuru means “bowstring” (from Old Japanese turu) though nowadays it usually refers to the string of a music instrument.

fscric said:

Just want to re-confirm, are all those words pronounced as "ki"?

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Yep. But not only "ki", they have other pronunciations, too.

貴(taka), 樹(ju, and this is Tatsuki Machida's name " 町田樹". It's rare to read "樹" as "Tatsuki").........

Morning Glory said:

From the name of Miki (美姫), I imagine "beautiful princess". 姫 means "princess". Honestly, as a mother of two daughters, it takes courage for me to name my daughter "beautiful princess".

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When the word 姬 (pronounced as ki in Middle Chinese) was first borrowed into Japanese, it meant "fine lady", later "noble lady" and now "princess". I guess it is gradually out of fashion as part of one's name because, as you said, it is too good to be true.

Well back to the title topic:

Abbreviation of names aren't really nicknames.
So how many skaters really have such nicknames?

Abt=Sasha
Plushenko=Zenya
Kwan=Kween

In Japan,
Rochette has a nickname of Aniki (Elder brother, deriving from "female brother" 女(jo)兄(ani).
Some call Flatt by the nickname of Shacho (CEO/President, don't know why she's called so).
Bradley by the nickname Keieisha (The manager, from his role in a Xerox commercial clip, IIRC).

sorcerer said:

In Japan,
Rochette has a nickname of Aniki (Elder brother, deriving from "female brother" 女(jo)兄(ani).

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That is so cute and clever!!!

dorispulaski said:

I can tell you about Ross Miner's last name, because my mother was a Minor. What! Not the same name?

Nope. Not only the same name, the same family.

When Thomas Minor/Miner got older, it bothered him what he should have engraved on his tombstone, so he wrote back to relatives in Chew Magna, near Bristol, in England and asked how the name should be spelled. The relatives answered that it couldn't possibly be Miner, which would have indicated that their common ancestor worked in the mines; it must be Minor, Latin for either smaller or younger. Thomas changed his name to Minor, and his youngest son, Manasseh, who was still living at home, changed his last name, too. The older sons, who were already married and had children, kept the spelling Miner.

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What a nice story to share! Spelling was probably a big deal since education was not so available at that time, I guess.

Education was part of it, but spelling was not standardized yet among English speakers, even of their own names.

The beginning of any standardized education in the US was perhaps with the New England primer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_England_Primer



1653 is so long ago that the dates in the diary are whacked because Thomas Minor was using the old calendar, and the first of the year was the first of March. Samuel Johnson's dictionary was not written until 1755. Sugar did not become available till about 10 years into the settlement, and what they got was barrels of molasses to make rum. They drank a lot more back then.

skatinginbc said:

Hanyū, Yuzuru

Hanyū (羽生, はにゅう) means “feather-born” and Yuzuru (結弦, ゆづる) “to tie a bowstring”. As a whole, it implies one that is primed for a big challenge. I would call him Ha-ne the Wing, one that flies across the ice and jumps like a bird.

Note: Hane (はね) means “feather” (from Middle Japanese fáné, Old Japanese pane); Zuru (つる) as in Yuzuru means “bowstring” (from Old Japanese turu) though nowadays it usually refers to the string of a music instrument.

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Just want to say I adore Hanyu's name, it sounds very old fashioned, literal and classy and poetic, like someone from an old prominent family. Do you know what Hanyu's family do? Unlike some others, I actually think his name reflect this style and strength in skating.

From the literal meaning of the word, I would interpret his name this way

羽 Feather - Feather, lightness who capable of take flight, take shelter, keep warm.
It represent dreams, wishes, complexity combining beauty and function, evolutionary transcendence connect the earth to the sky.
生 Birth - Birth/Born of, or create. A begin to something, creation of something, catalyst for change.
結 Ties - gathering, cultivate and finish up something
弦 String be it a musical or bow string, breed musicality that capable being weaponry, characterized by precision, flexibility, tension, power, dexterity (skill, grace, cleverness/smartness), suppleness, strength and weakness at the same time, but powerful when unleashed with precision, intention, smart ideas and thoughts.

I though actually reflect the style of skating perfectly. I wonder if his parents sought advice from the monks at the temple that many Japanese parents often do.

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Daisuke

I actually love how people picked Dai and uses as his nick, self-prophetic almost?

The character for Dai = 大 = Big. Greatness, Importance. It usually proceed words like, King, Lord, President, VIP. Also used to describe someone important close to you like a relative or friend. A common everyday word used for things like Big New, Big Event etc... all captures Daisuke and who he is perfectly.

He is such an important and brilliant skater/artists, big on everything without the snobbishness like a Big Friendly King who reigns over his figure skating kingdom

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Miki's Ki 姫

Isn't it the same word character used for Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime)
I wonder who's her big angry white wolve ...

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Gordeyeva, Just from the name and the look of her appearance when she was young, I wonder and do agree she might be from the North Caucas region.

The girls there tends to be quite proper, dark featured, somewhat old fashioned, family oriented, religious, hospitable and tends to marry young.
Fit the description no?

How interesting that the element in Japanese that meant "bowstring" now often means the string of a musical instrument. I remember reading somewhere that the first stringed instruments were adapted from bowstrings. It makes sense; people would have invented bows to help them hunt more efficiently, and they would have noticed the noise a tightened bowstring makes when it vibrates.

I once learned that there are four main types of surnames, in European names at least. Of course there are variations and mixtures of these four categories.

One is patronymic. This tells who the person's father, ancestor, or clan is. Johnson (son of John) Ivanovich (son of Ivan), MacGregor (literally "the son of Gregory") and Georgian names with -shvili are examples.
One is locality. This can name a geographical feature. For instance, Atwood means literally "near or at the woods." It can name an area, country, or town. For instance, Peggy Fleming's last name probably shows that someone in her family was Flemish, from Flanders (the Flemish-speaking area of Belgium).
One is occupation. The American actor John Ritter's surname is German for "rider," so some ancestor was a horseman or a knight. Someone named Cartwright had an ancestor who was a maker of carts.
One is "nicknames." This can include physical descriptions, mental attributes, or qualities that the person hopes to take on. I think that animal names may fall into this group, because someone named Lyons, for example, might have been associated with the strength or fierceness of lions. (Or the name may show that the person's ancestor came from the city of Lyon in France!) The name Fairfax meant "blonde-haired."

I don't know how names from other areas of the world were formed. I'd guess that some of the same categories would hold true pretty much everywhere, though.

I don't know of any skater of Malay origin but the Malay people take their fathers' first names as their last names, preceded by Bin or Binti, meaning son or daughter of. E.g. Mohamed Bin Ali means Mohamed son of Ali, and Fatimah binti Mohamed would be Fatimah daughter of Mohamed. Thus, there are no family names that pass down through the generations. This is a Patronym system.

Here is a LOL government policy with unintended consequences: In the 60s, in Indonesia, the Malays controled the governments which often passed discrimitory laws and policies against the minority Chinese who were more into commerce. They even erected a law to forbid Chinese names and the Chinese had to take up Malay names instead. Several years later they retracted this law because it became difficult to discriminate without the distinctive names to indicate the race of a person.

there is now an Icelandic skater on the JGP now, Heidbjort Arney HOSKULDSDOTTIR. Icelandic surnames are formed from a parent's name. What's interesting is that sometimes, rather than having the father's name, they have their mother's name. In either case, -son or -dottir is added to the parent's name

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name:

One well-known Icelander with a matronymic name is football player Heiðar Helguson, another is novelist Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir. One medieval example is the poet Eilífr Goðrúnarson.

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Ehm, I take it that none of the Russian speakers here have read the first posts... Suka is not exactly a beautiful word in Russian, so even if the nickname is for a Japanese person, it might not be the nicest when meeting a Russian. Just like the Finnish name Aho seems to be hilarious for the Japanese.

skatinginbc said:

The suffix-dze (ძე) in Georgian names means “son”, usually of an Irano-Armenian origin.



Yes, you are absolutely right. The surname suffix -enko, -chenko or -shenko (шенко) literally “son of” is indeed characteristic of Eastern Ukrainian and Belarusian (Note: Ukrainian and Belarusian are so close to each other that many linguists consider them as one language).


I know what you mean. Her family name does sound like Scottish Gordie or Gordon (“great fort/hill”), but my answer to that question is: I don’t know. There are too many possibilities. People of Soviet Republics that were not originally Russian in ethnicity adopted (and in some cases were assigned) a traditional Russian surname suffix. So if their original names sounded like Gorde, they became a Gordeev (male) or Gordeeva (female). Is she Jewish? If so, her family name might have something to do with the city of Grodno. Does her father speak Spanish? If so, he was probably fat (“Gordo”). Or maybe her father was a proud (Gord) Serbian. Or maybe her ancestor came from Northeast Caucasus and was a dress (Gorde) maker. Or maybe it could trace all the way back to Roman Cleon of Gordiucome…..

You got me beat. All I know is, based on the surname suffix-eva or -yeva “born of”, she is either Russian or Bulgarian (Of course, we know she is a Russian).

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Thanks so much, skatinginbc!

SkateFiguring, I had a laugh (rather a bittersweet one) at your story about the enforced change of surnames and how they ended up making ethnic discrimination more difficult. Something similar happened to my Bulgarian friend during the Communist regime. At one time, they enforced a name change (first name as well as last name) for all ethnic Turks in Bulgaria. My friend was married to an ethnic Turk, and they had two young sons. Imagine telling your children that they can't use their own names anymore. The idiocy of some human beings is exceeded only by the idiocy of human beings with power.

ankka said:

Ehm, I take it that none of the Russian speakers here have read the first posts... Suka is not exactly a beautiful word in Russian, so even if the nickname is for a Japanese person, it might not be the nicest when meeting a Russian. Just like the Finnish name Aho seems to be hilarious for the Japanese.

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Yes, "suka" is a curse word in Russian.

So, when someone came up to me yesterday and said, "You aho suka!" that wasn't a compliment?

Math, you crack me up.

Speaking of actual nicknames, wasn't Joannie Rochette's nickname "Rocket" at one point, as a play on her last name?

Mathman said:

So, when someone came up to me yesterday and said, "You aho suka!" that wasn't a compliment?

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That depends on who it was and what "aho" meant to them. Suka is "like" or "love" in Malay.