Thursday, May 23, 2013

Khaleesi

I'm a geek. I admit it. I read lots of fantasy and sci fi. I go to conventions. I watch things like Doctor Who and get all overemotional and cry. I watch Game of Thrones, and I've read the series that it is based off of about 5 times, which is a prodigious feat (words, words everywhere). My husband and I have jokingly talked about naming out next kid Arya or Daenerys after the books (well, not so much Daenerys, not really. Arya, though, that's a possibility).

So today I learned that lots of people are naming their daughters Khaleesi. Khaleesi is not a name. Khaleesi is a title. Khaleesi is a title in a made up language called Dothraki. It translated roughly to Queen. I mean, so far as you can translate a word from a totally made up language to English.

The title is used, on the show, in place of the full name and title of Daenerys Targaryen, called Storm born, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, the First of Her Name, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Mother of Dragons, and so on and so forth and I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just stop there. It goes on. The point here is that it's not her freaking NAME. These people aren't naming their kids after Daenerys Stormborn. They're naming their kids after the fictional wives of the fictional Dothraki leaders, who themselves are famous for raping, pillaging, burning, and enslaving, who can't even fictionally make it through a fictional wedding without several people getting eviscerated and/or grabbing the nearest woman for some not exactly consensual sex. This is not a good thing to name your child after. Not even if you really, really, REALLY like to watch Game of Thrones.

You wouldn't name your kid Princess (I hope).

You wouldn't name your kid Queen (please just say no.)

You certainly wouldn't name your kid after a REAL wife of a raping, murdering warlord.

So don't name your child after the wife of a fictional one, either.