[net.lang] What's in a Name

minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (11/15/84)

> > --
> > En j0diske kvinde der hedder "Maria"?  Det er da noget du tror!!
> 
> Jeg kende en finske kvinde som hedder Maria. Hvorfor skulle den j0diske vaere
> umulig?
> -- 
> 	Dr Memory
> 	...{amd,ucbvax,ihnp4}!qubix!jdb

The above apparently appeared in net.jokes -- I saw it referenced in net.lang.
It is written in Norwegian (or perhaps Danish) and translates as:

   "A Jewish woman named Maria [Mary]?  There's something, believe me!

   "I knew a Finnish woman named Maria.  Why should the Jewish [name]
   be impossible."

Funny you should mention that -- two of my cousins are named Martha
and Mary; they're both Jewish.

While I would find "Christine" an unusual name for a Jewish woman,
I wonder why Mary is considered so odd.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow

dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (11/16/84)

"Mary" is not entirely unknown as a Jewish name; my late
grandmother's name was Mary (they lived in England, in
a mildly assimilated environment; they named their three
children Basil, Queenie and Esme, all very Jewish names...)

Of course, the name Mary comes from the Hebrew name Miriam,
which is a very good Jewish name.

Dave Sherman
-- 
 { allegra cornell decvax ihnp4 linus utzoo }!utcsrgv!dave

stan@clyde.UUCP (Stan King) (11/17/84)

> From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
> "Mary" is not entirely unknown as a Jewish name; my late
> grandmother's name was Mary (they lived in England, in
> a mildly assimilated environment; they named their three
> children Basil, Queenie and Esme, all very Jewish names...)
> 
> Of course, the name Mary comes from the Hebrew name Miriam,
> which is a very good Jewish name.

Golly gee, wasn't the name of Jesus's mama Mary or Maria or
whatever is in question here?  She would be considered Jewish, right?

-- 
		Stan King			phone: 201-386-7433
		Bell Labs, Whippany, NJ		Cornet:  8+232-7433
		room 2A-111			uucp:	 clyde!stan

rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (11/28/84)

> > From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
> > "Mary" is not entirely unknown as a Jewish name; my late
> > grandmother's name was Mary (they lived in England, in . . .
> . . .
> Golly gee, wasn't the name of Jesus's mama Mary or Maria or
> whatever is in question here?  She would be considered Jewish, right?

Now wait a minute!  The programming language MARY was named by Mark Rain
(according to Mark, anyway) and, as far as I can tell, has no religious
leanings of any sort.  It has some unusual operators and interesting
coercions, though...

Uh, by the way, perhaps you guys wanted net.nlang instead of net.lang?

-- 
Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
   ...Reality?  Gad, that's worse than puberty!