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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What's in a name?
by Robin Torres 
Jan 13th 2009 at 8:00AM
Then one day I Googled it. It's the name of a village that some people consider to have been ethnically cleansed [Edited to be more neutral--I had such a kneejerk reaction that I didn't even research it]. I immediately paid to change the name without even spending the time to come up with a good substitute. Robiness is a fun name for an It came from the Blog character, but do I really want it for my new main?
If I had slept on it, rather than changing my name instantly, I may not have changed it. After all, it wasn't my intention to commemorate anything like that. And you can't change it again for 30 days. So now what? Do I keep the name Robiness or do I change it again in a week or so when I am able? Have any of you gone through something similar?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 11)
pietrex Jan 13th 2009 8:15AM
It takes me forever to come up with a name for a new character, but when I finally choose it, I never change it. Name is important, but not important enough to pay for a change option. I'd rather make a new char.
Neil T. Jan 13th 2009 8:17AM
My girlfriend decided to rename one of her characters when several people told her that it was Greek for 'prostitute'.
I'm quite pleased with my main's name, but I called my alt 'Faelya' in an attempt to create a mythical name. Unfortunately it's also very similar to 'failure'.
Antistes Jan 13th 2009 2:12PM
I agree with some of the above posters that one shouldn't be too bothered by words different meanings in different languages. Your prostitute example got me thinking of the NPC Runk Windtamer, "Runk" translating as "Masturbation" in Swedish :)
Craig Jan 13th 2009 10:52AM
I just googled my name.. "Smartel" and just found out it means "to waste away"...definitely describes what WoW can do to ones life. I wish i could get my old spelling back "Smartle"
dublj Jan 13th 2009 8:19AM
Coming up with a good name is the hardest thing for me to do, when making a new character. I usually do not change names after I make them.
monne Jan 13th 2009 9:12AM
"I immediately paid to change the name without even spending the time to come up with a good substitute"
Really? Doesn't that seem a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to a word that 95% of the WoW population wouldn't even know.
Zali Jan 13th 2009 8:20AM
I'm going to say that there was no reason to change the name at all. Have we reached the level of PC in the world now that anything and everything is off limits? Next thing you know people will be telling us we can't wear cotton because slaves used to be forced to pick cotton, and you can't use boats because slaves used to be put on boats, and cartoons are bad because there was once some cartoons of Muhamad. Changing your name from Qira because there was once a village named Qira where some bad people did some bad things... well, thats just hyper-sensativity silliness.
Halokon Jan 13th 2009 8:30AM
As much as my hatred of PC-ness wants to agree, I think I have to bring up a counter-point. Most people don't know about Qira, and so it's more acceptable, but by your logic, the name Auschwitz should also be fine. I don't mean to flame, I think it's just interesting how the less known something is, the more acceptable it is to use the name.
Personally, I say Qira is a fine name, but if you wouldn't feel comfortable, knowing what you now know, then it's your call.
Fimbri Jan 13th 2009 8:33AM
I would agree with you if she liked it and was forced to change it by some authority. But I myself would change it as well, just because I wouldn't like my characted, aka something I like to relate to, to remind me of a massacre of innocents. Put short, it'd be "hyper-sensativity silliness" for me if a GM forced her to rename it. It's perfectly understandable like this.
Zali Jan 13th 2009 9:16AM
Halokon,
OK... first of all, Auschwitz saw about a million Jews put to death, and another 200,000 dead from other groups, (Poles, Soviets, and Romanians mostly.) Qira wu Quaman was a village with about 140 farmers and their families, about 700 people. They were removed from their village in the Pre-Isreali State period in preparation for the internationally accepted process creating Isreal as a nation. They were not murdered, and were infact compensated for their homes and crops. Not good times for the families, but definitly not the same as Auschwitz. Very much an Apples and Oranges comparison. So, just my 2 coppers.
Fimbri and Halokon,
Secondly, Robin said she liked the name Qira. She changed the name as a knee-jerk reaction to reading that the city was ethically cleansed. I'd almost bet that she didn't get any farther in her research than the first tag on Google saying that the village was the site of ethnic cleansing. If she had done further research she probably would have found that at the time there were several dozen settlements and villages where the JNF (Jewish National Fund) bought up land in preparation for the Nation of Isreal in 1948. Qira wasn't listed as a site of ethnic cleansing until 1997, mostly because it sounds more more horrid to say the Jews ethnically cleansed the Palestinians in Qira than to say that the Jews bought 1000 square km for about 11,000,000 British pounds, including the land where Qira is located.
Of course, if Robin had stumbled across the tidbit about Qira being a town in China that has never been ethnically cleansed then she might have kept the name, since Tolkein reportedly based his concept of the elfs after the Chinese.... but I digress.
Political Correctness is a refuge for the ignorant.
My point has more to do with the knee-jerk reaction.
Clint Jan 13th 2009 9:18AM
@Halokon: The name Auschwitz is really technically different from Qira in that Auschwitz was a concentration camp, not a village that was cleansed. Quite different.
Norrel Jan 13th 2009 11:04AM
I don't think PCness was really the point. If it were me I would have changed my name so as not to have to think about a town that was ethnically cleansed every time I logged into the game.
Keyra Jan 13th 2009 11:10AM
I don't think it has anything at all to do with "knee-jerk reactions" here so much as it does having to do with something that you were once ignorant of, but now have knowledge of.
You see, she thought "Qira" was a cool name, so she named her character that. All was fine and well, until she found out that it was a village that was ethnically cleansed.
So now, she has a character that she KNOWS has a name that is the SAME name as this village...
So it made her uncomfortable having that knowledge, and so she changed the name.
Knee-jerk reaction? No, merely removing a source of constant reminder of what she discovered.
Robin Torres Jan 13th 2009 11:30AM
The other commenters are correct -- I didn't change it to be politically correct but because of the imagery the name now evoked.
However, you are right, I was being hypersensitive and should have slept on it before changing the name.
Wyred Jan 13th 2009 11:36AM
"the internationally accepted process creating Isreal as a nation"
Pretty bold statement in my opinion. The creation of Israel and a separate Palestine was approved by the League of Nations, but that's pretty far from universal approval and could very easily be considered imperialistic. The following wars and land grabs by Israel went far beyond what was originally drawn up. I realise that what you wrote doesn't contradict what I just said, but it was a fairly glaring omission if you're going to talk about the birth of Israel
Zali Jan 13th 2009 12:03PM
Robin,
Which speaks to the root of my post. Hypersensitivity to an image created by the verbage used. If your googling had brought up a post that said, "Qira, was a Palestinian village in the district of Haifa. During the 1948 settlement of Isreal the Jewish Monitary Fund purchased the land from the Palestinians who were living there. Most of the 711 Palestinians from Qira resettled in an area that under the British Mandate of Palestine was called Transjordan, and is now known as The West Bank." Would you have immediately changed your name, with or without a good nights sleep?
The PC crowd now likes to call this ethnic cleansing, right along with Milosovic killing the Muslims, and Hitler killing the Jews.
"What is in a name," indeed.
ßÆl Jan 13th 2009 8:24AM
I'm a Duke and first and principal King in Hell, ruling over the East, with sixty-six legions of demons under my command. BE afraid pathetic pet slave !
ßÆl Jan 13th 2009 8:27AM
lock of course :)
ScytheNoire Jan 13th 2009 8:29AM
Changed your name due to something that happened somewhere else that 99.99999% of WoW players will never of heard of?
I think you should just leave it Robiness. Your name is Robin, it's a female character, it fits.
Personally, I'm ScytheNoire everywhere, including my character.
Chri Jan 15th 2009 8:49AM
Although I understand that Robiness just doesn't seem like a proper name to match the awesomeness of your character (Qira did sound exotic, mystical etc) it has 1 HUGE advantage:
it will be shortened to Robin, a perfectly nice, easy to pronounce name.
Personally I wouldn't have changed it.
I imagine almost any name you pick that sounds like an actual name will have some kind of meaning to someone out there.
I think it's more important that Qira was meaningful to you and your server population as that mage in such and such guild who I pugged a heroic with.