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Comment by ibrow | Hacker News Reader

When my wife was heavily pregnant we were stuck thinking up girls names. (No idea at this point if a boy or a girl). She suggested Ruby and I said we couldn't as this is a name for a programming language and everyone would think we named her after that (me being a programmer). So I jokingly started to list as many programming languages as I could: Perl, Haskell, Fortran, Lua, Brain Fuck, etc. She stopped me at that point because "that's a beautiful name" (no, not that one). But, because we live in Germany we must conform to naming your child a proper name, so we gave her a "normal" middle name.

We were confident the baby would be a boy, but were wrong, and in the summer of 2011 our baby daughter was born.

Most people are happy with the explanation that it's Portuguese for Moon. But I have had a couple of knowing looks from colleagues. Luckily, the German authorities were fine with her double-barrelled "normal" name.

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I agree that Lua's a nice name. Congratulations.

Were you really required to give her a middle name or did you do it 'to be safe'?

If you were asked to: Are you upset about that decision? Do you care? I'm not sure if this anecdote is arguing that a restriction in naming is bad or if it is a data point showing that you can name your child in a special way, rules be damned?

We added the middle name to be safe really. We had heard some horror stores about parents being denied kinder-geld due to an "incorrect" name.

We're both English, so middle names are common there (not sure about the US) and the middle name we chose rally suits the whole name, sort of finishes it of nicely.

I guess the point of the anecdote is really that in Germany, this sort of thing must be considered, but more of a light hearted Friday story!

I said we couldn't as this is a name for a programming language and everyone would think we named her after that (me being a programmer)

I don't get why that is an issue. I actually named my daughter after Ruby, a beautiful female name AND a beautiful programming language. Every time when asked if the Ruby being the one as in "Max and Ruby", I often need to emphasize that it's actually the one as in "Ruby on Rails", :) A bit much geeky? Probably. Being a programmer, I am proud of what I am doing.

BTW: I named my son after Ken Thompson, the guy who invented UNIX, the greatest programmer IMHO.

It's not really an issue, but I have had a number of people know me, know I'm a bit of a dweeb and clock it, normally with an eye-roll. (I personally actually like her being called Lua, I think it is really individual. She is about 20 months now and the name is really suiting her)

I agree that Ruby is a lovely name, but the only reason it wasn't included in the list is that my parents have a dog with the same name, so imagine the hilarity at Christmas and other family gatherings!

Congratulations on your son. I would have appreciated it far more if my parents named me after someone who really had a big influence on their life, not just, as in my case, my dad! I'm still convinced it was for sneaky tax purposes or something ;)

Thanks for clarification. Lua is a lovely name, I'm sure she will appreciate that when she grows bigger, :)

So, how is Fortran-Haskell Sandra Müller doing? ;)

Which part of the post made it not obvious that they named her Lua?

I think I missed this tip, Lua would be a cool name too.

Probably the part that did not include the translation of "moon" into Portuguese :P

It's a subtle pun on the German practise of double-barrelled names that was popular a while ago. Especially amongst the more educated, when both partners wanted to keep their last name but also wanted a common name.

Haskell sounds to me a good name for a boy.

Actually it IS a name for a boy. Haskell Brooks Curry he was.

Actually, we are possibly expecting another (it's a bit too early to officially announce) and my wife has suggested Haskell if it was a boy! (as guard-of-terra says below, it is the name of a boy).

It is rather worryingly beginning to grow on me.

I guess I can always say he was named after the England Rugby player[1] to hide my true geek creds, and portray a more rugged image of myself.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Haskell

I have group of girl friends named Ada, Perla and Rubi. The sad part is that they don't find it amusing.

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