American Hero(tm) about to face the fury of the internet

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**Ahtman**

Don't confuse being a Brony with being a nerd. There is a bit of crossover on the ven diagram, but in the hierarchy of sub cultures Brony falls somewhere near furry and Gem and The Holograms aficionados. Being a nerd is in vogue, being a brony is still a shameful, terrible thing.

What made me think of this thread was that I accidentally stumbled across that Alicia Silverstone named her child Bear Blu. Let that wash around a bit.

That and this skit:

**Ouze**

Ahtman wrote:
There is a bit of crossover on the ven diagram, but in the hierarchy of sub cultures Brony falls somewhere near furry and Gem and The Holograms aficionados.

Fact 1: Jem's real name is Jerrica, and her Hologram costars are Aja, Shana, and Kimber, all of which which segue quite nicely into this thread.

Fact 2: Jem is truly outrageous.

Fact 3: So far today we've (organically) brought up Transformers, and Jem. I hope to see an Orko or maybe Thundercats reference soon as well. But... don't force it. Just let it come, all natural like.

**Cheesecat**

Nice vid, Ahtman.

**hotsauceman1**

Ahtman wrote:
Don't confuse being a Brony with being a nerd. There is a bit of crossover on the ven diagram, but in the hierarchy of sub cultures Brony falls somewhere near furry and Gem and The Holograms aficionados. Being a nerd is in vogue, being a brony is still a shameful, terrible thing.

I would argue, but Im done trying to defend bronies

**Ahtman**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Don't confuse being a Brony with being a nerd. There is a bit of crossover on the ven diagram, but in the hierarchy of sub cultures Brony falls somewhere near furry and Gem and The Holograms aficionados. Being a nerd is in vogue, being a brony is still a shameful, terrible thing.

I would argue, but Im done trying to defend bronies

1. Don't be so thin skinned. Just having a spot of fun.

2. There is no defense.*

I think bronyism is an outgrowth of the vacuum left behind when nerd became more mainstream. With the increase in nerd related activities and marketing something needed to fill the void of people being generally looked down on as well as being incredibly exasperating. Along came a cartoon for little girls and some grown ass man said "You know what, I'm not just going to like this, I am going to base my whole life around it. I will also be humorless about it and get upset when people don't understand why a grown man would be obsessed with fictional pre-teen ponies. Or why I am single. God mom, get off my back!" Nature, after all, abhors a vacuum.*

*Refer back to #1

**hotsauceman1**

I know, you are a nice guy Ahtman and you dont seem insult someones. I will say this though. The "Base my whole life around it" is not specfics to bronys. And no matter what fandom it is it is creepy. I have seen it alot in every sort of hobby an it just makes my skin crawl.

**sebster**

Ouze wrote:
Fact 1: Jem's real name is Jerrica, and her Hologram costars are Aja, Shana, and Kimber, all of which which segue quite nicely into this thread.

Fact 2: Jem is truly outrageous.

Fact 3: So far today we've (organically) brought up Transformers, and Jem. I hope to see an Orko or maybe Thundercats reference soon as well. But... don't force it. Just let it come, all natural like.

So Jem is responsible for all the start of this made up name nonsense? Maybe the Misfits were in the right all along.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

hotsauceman1 wrote:
I know, you are a nice guy Ahtman and you dont seem insult someones. I will say this though. The "Base my whole life around it" is not specfics to bronys.

I'm not a nice guy and I do often mean to insult people... but Ahtman's theory, even in jest, actually makes a lot of sense.

There is a trend among nerds to seperate themselves from the rest of society, and as a lot of nerd turf has been taken over by the mainstream, I've seen nerds go searching for something even more obscure. And, well, it doesn't get much more obscure than a cartoon for little girls about talking ponies.

And no matter what fandom it is it is creepy. I have seen it alot in every sort of hobby an it just makes my skin crawl.

This is true.

**Andrew1975**

So Jem is responsible for all the start of this made up name nonsense?

Well she is truly outrageous!

Jem is her name, no one else has the same!

Maybe the Misfits were in the right all along.

Of course the were, they even used a name that had a history of success.

I wonder how they got away with it. I guess maybe because the real band Misfits never really used the the. as in the were Misfits, not The Misfits.

**sebster**

Andrew1975 wrote:
I wonder how they got away with it. I guess maybe because the real band Misfits never really used the the. as in the were Misfits, not The Misfits.

Verve renamed themselves The Verve when they found out there was already a band called Verve, so I guess 'The' is enough of a difference.

Then again, The Killers named themselves after the band that played in the film clip of a New Order film clip... which got to be a problem because the band in that film clip were a real band and were really known as The Killers, and they were none too happy that some other act had taken their name and made it big, which meant they would have to change their name... but nothing came of it that I'm aware of, so maybe there's no real protection for band names?

**MrMoustaffa**

sebster wrote:
Andrew1975 wrote:
I wonder how they got away with it. I guess maybe because the real band Misfits never really used the the. as in the were Misfits, not The Misfits.

Verve renamed themselves The Verve when they found out there was already a band called Verve, so I guess 'The' is enough of a difference.

Then again, The Killers named themselves after the band that played in the film clip of a New Order film clip... which got to be a problem because the band in that film clip were a real band and were really known as The Killers, and they were none too happy that some other act had taken their name and made it big, which meant they would have to change their name... but nothing came of it that I'm aware of, so maybe there's no real protection for band names?

I believe most bands copyright their names or something like that. Skid Row (the hair metal band) had to buy their name from a blues rock guy who's name escapes me at the moment.

**cadbren**

Cheesecat wrote:

I maybe wrong but I think quite a few white people names aren't even European like I heard somewhere that the name "Ryan" is Arabic in origin.

Ryan is Irish.
A lot of European names are semitic in origin because they were taken from the bible. Names like John, Sam, Rachel, Sarah, Bethany, Elizabeth, Mathew, David etc.

Rupert is a variation of Robert, both of which come from the ancient German name Hrodebert which means bright fame. Robin is also from this name as is Bob.

I think the real problem with those made up African American names is that they are seen as ghetto names and are therfore associated with ghetto values. Many (most?) black americans continue to use the names that the early settlers from the British Isles brought with them.

They're also made up from random syllables, names are important and should have meaning beyond being a label for someone. Those people who call their kids Apple, Blanket, River etc do get criticized, but they also have money to ensure that their kids do well regardless of what doors are closed because of their names.

**Ahtman**

Are Black Names Wierd or are you just Racist?

Reddit isn’t just a clearinghouse for interviews, animal pictures, and crazy stories. It’s also a place where people ask questions and have discussions. Yesterday, one user wondered about “black” names, posing a question to the “Black American parents of Reddit,” as he put it. “Before racism is called out, I have plenty of black friends,” he noted, raising the question of why he didn’t ask these alleged friends. “[I’m] just curious why you name your kids names like D’brickishaw, Barkevious D’quell and so on?”

Setting aside the many problems with this question—for one, “Black American parents” aren’t a monolith–there’s an actual answer here. In a 2003 paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, economist Roland Fryer found two things. First, that names like Reginald and Kiara are far more likely among black children than names like Jake and Molly, and second, that this is a recent development. In the 1960s, Anglo-American names were common among African American children. It wasn’t until the 1970s and the rise of the Black Power movement that this shifted in the other direction. ”The underlying philosophy of the Black Power movement,“ writes Fryer, ”was to encourage Blacks to accentuate and affirm black culture and fight the claims of black inferiority.” The adoption of “black” names is consistent with other cultural changes—like “natural hair"—prompted by the movement. African Americans wanted to distinguish themselves from whites, and naming was an easy means to the end.

Of course, there are plenty of African Americans who give their kids Anglo names. The idea that they don’t—that all black parents use the same naming convention—is ridiculous. And popular culture notwithstanding, these distinctive names aren’t especially common. The most popular African American baby names—Aaliyah, Gabrielle, Kiara, Cameron, Jordan, and Nathan—are perfectly ordinary.

If there is a question worth asking about race and naming, it’s not “why do black people use these names?” it’s “why do we only focus on black people in these conversations?” Indeed, there’s a whole universe of (hacky) jokes premised on the assumed absurdity of so-called “ghetto” names. Derision for these names—and often, the people who have them—is culturally acceptable.

But black children aren’t the only ones with unusual names. It’s not hard to find white kids with names like Braelyn and Declyn. And while it’s tempting to chalk this up to poverty—in the Reddit thread, there was wide agreement that this was a phenomenon of poor blacks and poor whites—the wealthy are no strangers to unique names. The popular Netflix show Orange is the New Black, written by a Jenji Kohan (a white woman), was based on the experiences of a Piper Kerman (also a white woman). And in last year’s presidential election, nearly 61 million people voted for a Willard Mitt Romney, at the same time that the current head of the Republican National Committee was (and is) a Reince Priebus.

**sebster**

MrMoustaffa wrote:
I believe most bands copyright their names or something like that. Skid Row (the hair metal band) had to buy their name from a blues rock guy who's name escapes me at the moment.

Interesting. I wonder if its a nationality thing, then, so that a band in the UK might copyright its name there, but that has no practical enforcement in the US (maybe it might have some legal enforcement, but in practice a small band trying to establish itself is unlikely to have the resources to enforce its copyright in another country).

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ahtman wrote:
Are Black Names Wierd or are you just Racist?

**Ahtman**

sebster wrote:
Can't both things be true?

Probably, but that is the name of the article.

I thought Reince Priebus was a type of genital fungus all this time. Who knew?

**whembly**

Ahtman wrote:
sebster wrote:
Can't both things be true?

Probably, but that is the name of the article.

I thought Reince Priebus was a type of genital fungus all this time. Who knew?

*snort*

Has a horrible lisp too...

**feeder**

sebster wrote:
MrMoustaffa wrote:
I believe most bands copyright their names or something like that. Skid Row (the hair metal band) had to buy their name from a blues rock guy who's name escapes me at the moment.

Interesting. I wonder if its a nationality thing, then, so that a band in the UK might copyright its name there, but that has no practical enforcement in the US (maybe it might have some legal enforcement, but in practice a small band trying to establish itself is unlikely to have the resources to enforce its copyright in another country).

Yeah, when Bush made it big up here with Glycerine, they had to be called Bush X because we already had a band called Bush. But the UK act were still Bush everywhere else.

**Easy E**

I actually watched an episode of Jem recently and then an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

My Little Pony was much, much better. It reminded me a bit of the Powerpuff Girls.

What was this thread about again?

**hotsauceman1**

Hero is in the title, maybe it is about super heroes?

**Mathieu Raymond**

I wonder how, and if it happens, people will react when, say, our new Chinese overlords decline to interview potential employees because their names sound too "Anglo-Saxon."

**Ensis Ferrae**

sebster wrote:

But black children aren’t the only ones with unusual names. It’s not hard to find white kids with names like Braelyn and Declyn. And while it’s tempting to chalk this up to poverty—in the Reddit thread, there was wide agreement that this was a phenomenon of poor blacks and poor whites—the wealthy are no strangers to unique names. The popular Netflix show Orange is the New Black, written by a Jenji Kohan (a white woman), was based on the experiences of a Piper Kerman (also a white woman). And in last year’s presidential election, nearly 61 million people voted for a Willard Mitt Romney, at the same time that the current head of the Republican National Committee was (and is) a Reince Priebus.[/b]

Yeah, there's a lot of really stupid names in American politics. That seems the other side of the coin, the very rich give their children stupid names just like the very poor do.

Thing is though, Willard (as in Romney) isn't that weird of a name... It's just like Gertrude, or Helga... Old Fashioned, and not very popular any more.