minoanmiss | Renaming

https://snopes-feed.dreamwidth.org/7597056.html

What does one do when renaming something whose name contains a slur?

(see also Makrut lime and how one of the reasons I stopped reading Saveur was that they insistently stuck to the old name)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kayre

Audubon Society's position is that one changes the name to something biologically descriptive. They are changing names of many birds named after individual people, including Audubon himself.

From:

lilysea

Oh, I hadn't heard the phrase Makrut lime before! That's really useful

In Australia 95% of the time people just say "limes"

and 5% of the time "K***** limes"

I had been uncomfortable with people calling them K- limes because I knew K- was a slur

but I didn't know there was any alternative other than just "limes"

From:

china_shop

+1

♥

From:

dine

I think it's great that they're looking at making the change

not anywhere as significant, but when I was wee, the farm was on Poor Farm Road, and in fact we drove past the poor farm on the way. at some point (late 60s/early 70s) it was renamed after a very small community miles further down the road. it was far too early for political correctness to have been much of a thing, so I'm not entirely sure what prompted it - except the poor farm had been disbanded years before, so it wasn't descriptive any longer. maybe people just didn't want to live along a rural road with that name?

From:

bikergeek

There's a road not far from where I used to live in Delaware called "Purgatory Swamp Road." Of course, it runs near what is known as "Purgatory Swamp". It's been officially renamed "Sunset Lake Road" and as far as I know that's strictly for marketing purposes. When I lived in Delaware in the '80s and '90s I didn't know anybody who used either name, though; it was just called "Route 72", its state route number.

From:

cmcmck

Having Romani blood as I do you know what I think of the continued use of the 'g' word!

From:

cjsmith

oh, nifty that they're doing it!

From:

sovay

(see also Makrut lime and how one of the reasons I stopped reading Saveur was that they insistently stuck to the old name)

I can see that. The new name has become common enough that I had to stop and think for a moment what it used to be called.

Regarding the moth, my personal vote for a new common name is Imported by Dumbasses.

From:

brooksmoses

Unfortunately, that common name would suggest quite a few different and unrelated species.

From:

peoriapeoriawhereart

It would make an excellent title though for a guide chapter. With a subsection for the Shakespeare referenced animals imported for that reason.

From:

brooksmoses

Yes, absolutely! And with sections like "Why can't we have the tent caterpillars eat up the kudzu?" too.

From:

gingicat

When I saw those moths for the first time, my thought was "why is that their name? death's head moth would be far more fitting."

From:

cmcmck

There is a death''s head hawk moth already, of course so that might be why.

From:

petra

I'm glad the moths are getting a rename!

From:

lemonsharks

I'm on team, "don't name your child, your pet, or your biological discovery a racial slur"

Sometimes the name is etymologically separate and distinct from the slur (like with the lime), but even then it's a matter of, "out of respect for the global society we live in, we are going to call {the lime} something else."

Nobody needs to describe thriftiness gone off the rails with the word that sounds like the n-word when we have other words, such as "scroogelike" and "penny-pinching", that do the same job.

From:

bikergeek

Geographic features, too. I was dismayed to find, when looking at old maps of the area in New Jersey where I grew up, that a nearby pond had at one point been named with an ethnic slur. It was given its present, nonoffensive name in the 1930s some time.

From:

lemonsharks

No rocks, stones, lakes, crags, etc may be named racial slurs. >_<<

From:

bikergeek

I'm in favor.

From:

we_are_spc

And miser, too. But Miserly (EWhich was the word I thought of until my brain went where it was supposed to) was the only word I coulds think of at the top. Shows how often I've heard the term. Which is a good thing.

-T~

From:

dewline

I can think of one DC superhero in need of rebranding for the same reason. Cynthia "Cindy" Reynolds, co-created by Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton for the Justice League in the 1980's...

From:

minoanmiss

A prime opportunity to reboot a character! Complete with rename!

From:

julian

Seriously! She was fun, and yet derided, so it's a *very good* opportunity.

From:

sabotabby

I was wondering about that when I saw some article about them. I've just been avoiding them calling anything. Like a student sent me a video of some cute caterpillars he found and I had to say, "Ohh, those are tent caterpillars. Um. I hate to break it to you. They don't turn into anything good."

From:

stranger

Maybe "Wandering Moth" would be appropriate?

From:

clevermanka

That makes me SO HAPPY. I'm petty enough to send the articles to the local (only) theater company that refuses to stop using the word despite my repeated requests.

From:

lilysea

That makes me SO HAPPY. I'm petty enough to send the articles to the local (only) theater company that refuses to stop using the word despite my repeated requests.

:(

I don't think its petty!

"Actors’ Equity Association renamed the "G- Robe" ceremony, one of the theatre’s great opening night traditions honoring the work of chorus members in Broadway musicals.

As of the July 26 opening night of the new Broadway musical Head Over Heels, the pre-show ritual will be known as the “Legacy Robe” ceremony, a name selected by AEA members in an online survey."

https://www.playbill.com/article/new-name-revealed-for-broadway-gypsy-robe-ceremony

From:

clevermanka

Yes, I sent them that exact article AND YET.

From:

kshandra

I hadn't heard about that and it makes me SO DAMN HAPPY.

From:

hitchhiker

that's pretty awesome!

From:

swingandswirl

I did not know that Makrut limes had a new name, thank you for telling me!

And ugh, Saveur.

From:

julian

The limes had always made me curious-yet-confused, and I didn't know the name had been changed, so thank you!

From:

annonynous

It has been several years, but I once read a newspaper story about a woman who named her daughter Chlamydia, not realizing it was the name of a venereal disease. She said she just liked the sound of the word.

Ann O.

From:

tibicina

Depends on what it is.

Also, one of my close friends was just named to the state commission on place names, soooo.... I foresee lots of naming discussions, since I believe they have an agenda based on renaming some of our geographical features which are named after people whose memory has, shall we say, not aged well.