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Comment by maaku | Hacker News Reader

Just FYI since most people don't know this: "Sherpa" is not a obscure word for "porter" in Tibetan or Nepali as many people seem to think. It's the name of a very small group of once Nomadic people (an large extended family, almost) living on the Nepal/Tibet border.

When you hear a climber say "I hired two Sherpas to help me port supplies up the North Col" it's almost akin to saying "I hired two chinamen to help me lug these boxes around." How well do you think that would go off in civilized society? It only almost-kinda-sortof makes sense in the highest regions of the Himalayas as Sherpas apparently have genetic adaptations that make them superhuman climbers at that altitude so you might want to clarify "The climbers I hired were Sherpa, specifically."

I'm not really sure at all why you chose "Health Sherpa" as a name (what's the connection?). Just FYI, you're productizing the name of a people.

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Hm, the connotation I have for "Sherpa" is as much "guide" as it is "porter." Of course, I'm not a mountain climber nor do I follow it, so perhaps there's a difference in usage between that community and non-climbers.

"Chinaman" has a more negative connotation. I think "Sherpa" is more comparable to saying "I hired two Aussies to help me lug these boxes around."

It's closer to "I hired two Koori to help me lug these boxes around."

Has the word "sherpa" ever been used in a negative context?

Everyone I know looks upon the sherpas with a sense of awe and respect.

My thought exactly, but maybe it has a negative conotation in some cultures? It was an honest question.

I'd agree with that. I've racked my brain to see if I can ever remember a negative context, and I can't. See also Gurkha.

Racially grouped awe is a sort of racism ("black people are such good dancers!" <- racist).

Depends on your definition of "Sherpa".

I am pretty sure a very VERY large percentage of people[1] consider the "Sherpas" to be "The badass people who guide tourists up everest" with little consideration (or knowledge) of the group as a distinct ethnicity.

Personally that is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word "Sherpa"

[1] yea yea, citation needed, I have none, anecdotal evidence..

No, but that wasn't my implication. Read it again.

I'm from Kathmandu, Nepal. My first thought after seeing the HealthSherpa name was this must be a website of a health foundation somewhere which provides health services and facilities to Sherpa families in Himalayan Region. For 30M Nepalese + NRNs worldwide the word Sherpa reflects the respected guides in Mountain Expeditions.

NRNs: Non Resident Nepalese.

Is it a derogatory term for those people? If not, what's the problem?

The point is it is not nice to appropriate someone else's name for use in your product. Sherpa isn't just the name of the people, it's their family name, as in John Q. Sherpa. I would find it offensive if someone did that to me, although whether it is offensive is only something Sherpas have the right to decide. But that's kinda the point - did the OP ask permission to use their name?

Sherpa's are famous for being guides on high-altitude mountaineering expeditions. They also have unique physcial capabilities up to ~8000 meters. This means they can typically "punch above their weight" on many challenging tasks. They need not be confused with PORTER, which is actually a job title. Porters and sherpa's also have distinct reputations, even by ethnicity. See, for example: Pakistani HAPs (high altitude porters) used on K2 and the Karakoram.[0,1] Colloquially, to 'sherpa' something means to carry a burden one would consider more than reasonable. It has its own meaning in English speaking countries, because the british (& english speaking commenwealth countries) have a history of mountaineering in the region, dating back to the early 20th century.

[0] eg The Sherpas and Pakistani high-altitude porters (HAPs) started to prepare fixed lines upwards before midnight.

[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sherpa [not pejorative]

Verb. sherpa (third-person singular simple present sherpas, present participle sherpaing, simple past and past participle sherpaed)

    (rare) To serve as a guide or porter for another.

It's not really a family name, it's more like what you would call a clan (actually a step above that, but not quite an ethnic group). It's also a point of pride to have that name (over the past couple generations Tenzin Norgay made it famous), which is probably why it became so popular among Nepalis (well, that combined with the lack of literacy and government record-keeping). Edit: Oh yeah, Nepali Sherpas would probably get a kick out of it, but that's about it.

There's a CI tool called Jenkins. I'm not sure if they surveyed everyone with that surname before naming the tool. Are you saying they should have?

Let's not forget Jeeves!

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