Random Fandom Rants

9 PJ/RL Names 17-9

So, any PJ person knows, the names from any kind of mythology, are weird.
I mean, can you imagine some kid going to school and being like, "Hi. My name's Ariadne"? Or Hephaestus? Or Persephone? Or Jason? Oh, wait. Nevermind with Jason.

So many times I've read PJ, or HoO, then tried to pronounce some of those weird names that I'd never heard before, or forgotten about. Key word being "tried".
(I've known a lot of the Greek myths since I was a kid, but Rick brings up a lot that I didn't know, or ones that I'd forgotten.)
There are so many weird spellings. It's difficult even trying to pronounce some of these names.
I get that they had a different alphabet back in those days, and that they were used to these weird-ass names, but still.
How did people come up with them? Was it some kind of status symbol to have a fifty-letter-long name? Or six middle names?
And as an English-speaker, the names themselves look so weird. Why are there extra Es in that name, or fifteen Ts in a row? (I'm exaggerating, but not by much.)
It's a wonder these Greek kids even learnt how to say their own names by the time the were ten, let alone spell them!

As a person who's first name is actually from Greek mythology, I can say, with absolute real life truth...
Greek names get pronounced so fucking weirdly.
Almost every person I meet has said and/or spelt my name wrong.
I have to say to nearly every single person I meet, "No, actually my name's said -----."
This was a common occurance every first day of the school year. 7, sometimes 8, teachers that day. At least 3 would say my name wrong. And that's a low number only because at least 3 of the teachers knew me from years before.
I think it was year eight when I decided to correct the teachers for the first few weeks, then just forget it and answer to anything that sounds like my name. Which was annoying, because there was actually a lot of names that kinda sound similar to my name and it also made 'Yes?' one of the most popular words in my vocabulary, because my name, or names sounding like it, were said regularly.

I remember one teacher so vividly.
He was South African and he had a strong accent, so that made my name sound stranger than it already was, then he said it wrong in the accent, and that made it doubly strange. So, following my routine, I corrected him for about three weeks, but he never seemed to be able to say it correctly, so then I just left it, and answered to his weird pronunciation.
I had that teacher for 2 and a half years. He never got my name right.

I tell people I was named after the Greek myth when I want to be proud of who I am, but the truth is a lot less grand.
My mother trained horses when she was younger. One of the best horses she had trained was named after a Greek myth.
Because it was one of her best horses, and the myth wasn't so bad, either, little me was born, and I got the name of a great Greek mythic woman-Strong, independent, needs-no-man! ... And a horse.

So, after a while, when I got tired of explaining how I am not Greek, but yes, my name is Greek, I came up with the simplist solution. "I was named after a horse that my Mum trained." Ends any conversation anyone tries to start about Greece.

One of the funny things about my myth-
$*] Wait, stop. You need to tell them you sometimes thing of the myth in first person, BD. Otherwise, they'd be confused. (}¥
Okay, fair point. When I talk about the Greek myth and what my namesake did in it, I regularly use 'I' instead of 'she'. It's like when you're cosplaying a character, the line between you and the character blurs, so you start to speak in first person when talking about the new episode or book with your friends. That's what it is with me and my namesake/Mythic Me.
Anyway, one of the funny things is that I was the love interest of the hero of the myth.
When I was younger, I always used to think that when I'd grow up, I would magically find the perfect guy and he would... wait for it... wait... Be named after my myth's hero! How cool would that be? That we would literally be --- and ----, straight from the mythos! Would that be Fate or what?!
*Sigh* I really worry for my young self.
Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that I will not get my happily ever after by searching up all of the ----s on the internet, hoping to find someone close by, and who likes reading.
But maybe someday, I will find my hero. Just not a Greek one.