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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 88. Name Changers - transcript

November 2, 2018 The Allusionist
A88 Name Changers logo.jpg

I changed my name because my parents spelled it wrong.

Why did I change my name? I didn't like it!

I have legally changed my name twice now, first and last. My parents tell this cute story about choosing my name the night before I was born. But as I was growing up, it was one of the most common names for female dogs.

I found out when I was about 12 that I was actually named for an actress that my dad had had a crush on when he was a kid, so I thought that was a bit weird and I didn't really want to hang on to that.

When I was born my parents could not agree on a name for me, and on their last day in the hospital after I was born they were watching the news and there was a missing children's report on the TV with a little girl named Ashleigh, and I was named after her.

Choosing a new name allowed me to drop a lot of the old baggage with the old identity without feeling as though I were betraying it.

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, names, naming, Name Season, monikers, feelings, identity, culture, name change, changing name, gender, trans, transgender, transition, non binary, dead name, doxxing, relationships, parents, family, father, mother, childhood, children

Allusionist 87. Name v Law - transcript

October 19, 2018 The Allusionist
A87+Name+v+Law+logo.jpg

JÓN GNARR: I had a daughter in 92, and she was named Camilla after her grandmother, it was Camilla with a C, spelled with a C. And so when I got the confirmation note from the National Registry, where they tell you that your child is now named something in the registry, they had spelled her name with a K. It's confirmed that the child Kamilla Jónssdóttir, blah blah blah. And I called them, because it was spelled with a C, and I just wanted to tell them it was a misunderstanding, my daughter's name is spelled with a C and she said yeah, wait, and I waited on the line and then she came back and she said no, it's no misunderstanding: C has been banned in the Icelandic alphabet.
HZ: C has been banned??
JÓN GNARR: C was banned. Yeah.

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, names, naming, Name Season, monikers, feelings, identity, culture, Iceland, Icelandic, Scandinavia, Denmark, Nordic, immigrants, immigration, Icelandic Naming Committee, Jon Gnarr, laws, legal, law, name change, changing name, migration, Althingi, Mannanafnanefnd
Allusionist Patreon
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Allusionist 203. Flyting
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Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
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Allusionist 201: Singlish
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Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
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Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
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Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.