Nicky, Nikos, Maria, and Nicholas
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
35
148
Trip End
Dec 09, 2008
Piraeus,
Greece
Saturday, September 27, 2008
As we walked, she explained about Greek names. A couple's first baby would be named after the groom's father or mother. The second baby would be named after the bride's father or mother. If you don't follow this tradition, the grandparent's feelings might be hurt. This explains the scene in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding when Voula's father Gus introduces the extended family to Ian's WASP parents, and it seems like all the cousins have the same three names. To deal with the confusion of so many related people having the same name, the Greek ID cards list your name, then "of [father's name]."
Greek people usually don't have middle names, unless you are born on a special saint's day, and then you might be given the saint's name as a second name that you never really use
Beautiful ROYAL Basil
. Married women usually take the husband's name, although it was recently made legal for her to keep her birth name. Basil could think of no instances of a husband taking the wife's name, it's just unheard of in a Greek Orthodox culture.Basil also surprised me by saying that what I thought was her real first name is actually a nickname, short for a longer name. She also told me patiently that her name is not the Greek word for basil, it actually means "royal." But I'm still going to call her Beautiful Basil here on the blog.
I got to return the favor of the language lesson by answering Basil's questions about American slang. She has been studying English since age 7 (the American educational system that doesn't start second-language instruction until high school when our brains have already lost most of the capacity for native-fluency language acquisition we had in childhood is robbing us of global competitiveness) so she speaks impeccably, but it's our lazy slang mouths that flummox international communication. We talked about the difference between opening a can of worms and opening a can of whup ass, what it means to be no spring chicken, and why one wanted to be a party animal but not a party girl.
