[HN Gopher] The Tale of Daniel
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       The Tale of Daniel
        
       Author : hwayne
       Score  : 137 points
       Date   : 2024-04-01 15:17 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.hillelwayne.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.hillelwayne.com)
        
       | breckognize wrote:
       | Graph of Daniel vs time:
       | https://rowzero.io/workbook/CA82F353F7060CA9411A12EB
        
         | pvg wrote:
         | And, for those who enjoy historical primary sources, _Damn,
         | Daniel_ , 2016 CE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfFcyTuopbI
        
           | em-bee wrote:
           | because of the date, i'm gonna let this pass
        
         | aidenn0 wrote:
         | Might be nice to adjust per-capita if that information is
         | available.
        
       | kwhitefoot wrote:
       | That was fun and very much in the spirit of Hacker News.
        
       | JohnMakin wrote:
       | Word of caution on giving children "interesting" or cute names -
       | my father's legal first name was a variation on "daniel" (a
       | common nickname) and since his passing and becoming the executor
       | of what little was left of his estate, I was astounded at how
       | many stupid issues he had with credit reports and even dumb
       | things like utility bills incorrectly "correcting" his name to
       | Daniel.
        
         | ginko wrote:
         | I never understood why people do that in the first place. Sure,
         | call your son Billy but putting William in the documents
         | doesn't hurt.
        
           | vundercind wrote:
           | Those, and even worse the "cute" spelling variations on
           | normal names, are baffling to me. You've just condemned your
           | kid to a lifetime of minor (and sometimes more-than-minor)
           | hassles, with very little justification.
           | 
           | [edit] I actually think a lot of "bad" celebrity kid names
           | are a ton better than that crap. At least with "Apple" and
           | "Rocket" folks can guess the correct spelling nearly 100% of
           | the time.
        
             | bee_rider wrote:
             | I dunno, I have a pretty weird name from before it became a
             | fad. I've enjoyed the benefit of things like instructors
             | remembering my name. It is small but a nice perk. Not sure
             | if it would apply now that everyone has a weird name.
             | 
             | Also if your name gets autocorrected maybe it'll throw the
             | data aggregators off your scent.
        
       | losvedir wrote:
       | As the father of a son named Daniel, I found this fascinating.
       | Thanks!
       | 
       | I think I agree with the comment in the conclusion that Torah
       | names are used by non-Jews when a Christian comes across the
       | name. But I don't think in this case it's because of the supposed
       | prophecies about Jesus but because the stories about Daniel in
       | the Book of Daniel are memorable. I remember hearing about
       | "Daniel in the Lion's Den" and Daniel sitting in flames in church
       | and in my Children's Bible stories.
       | 
       | But I chose the name for my son not (directly) because of its
       | religious significance but because it's a normal, known name, in
       | both English and Spanish. That is, neither a WASP American or a
       | Mexican will really bat an eye at it. As a Hispanic American,
       | that's something I've appreciated about my own name, Gabriel (and
       | would love a historical deep dive on that name!). I couldn't
       | really find any other names like that.
        
         | 082349872349872 wrote:
         | David, Leonardo, Sebastian? (just going off baby name sites;
         | wonder what ads I'll be seeing for the next few weeks?)
         | 
         | There was a line in _To Kill a Mockingbird_ about being named
         | for a Confederate general leading to slow, steady, drinking,
         | but when I looked at
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_gen...
         | they have the WASP standards: British kings, Other kings,
         | Biblical.
         | 
         | (they also don't [from looking at A-C] seem to have the
         | <ancestral name> <everyday name> <family name> triad that was
         | common in certain parts of the US during my youth)
        
         | madcaptenor wrote:
         | As a father of a daughter named Claudia, it has that property
         | as well, although that doesn't help you since you have a son.
        
         | aidenn0 wrote:
         | Gabriel also appears in both the Hebrew scriptures (in the
         | Ketuvim, which only names two angels) and the Gospels, being
         | both the angel who explains Daniel's visions to him, and
         | involved in the revelations for the births of both Jesus and
         | John the Baptist.
         | 
         | Is Michael (or it s cognate) at all common as a name in Mexico?
         | That's a figure that is at least as prominent as Gabriel across
         | the Abrahamic religions (in particular the prominent inclusion
         | in the Leonine Prayers keep it a popular name in many Roman
         | Catholic regions).
        
           | klipt wrote:
           | > Michael (or it s cognate) at all common as a name in Mexico
           | 
           | That would be Miguel.
        
         | justusthane wrote:
         | You might like this site, which gives name overlaps between two
         | languages:
         | https://mixedname.com/english_spanish_masculine_names
        
           | limaoscarjuliet wrote:
           | That Venn diagram showing a child coming out from center of
           | two round overlapping circles might be not the best choice,
           | especially when pink color circles are at play when looking
           | for feminine names :-)
           | 
           | P.S. A bit of noise in the data too, some names in
           | Polish/English pairs are not really good.
        
         | Hayvok wrote:
         | > I remember hearing about "Daniel in the Lion's Den" and
         | Daniel sitting in flames in church and in my Children's Bible
         | stories.
         | 
         | Minor nitpick, but it was Daniel's three friends who were
         | thrown into the furnace, not Daniel himself.
         | 
         | They are both indeed memorable stories.
        
         | AlotOfReading wrote:
         | Gabriel is a conjunction of gabri- (heroic man), and -el (god),
         | roughly translating to "man of God". -el is just a generic
         | proto-semitic word for god that long predates any sort of
         | written language. gabri- is likely _related_ to a well known
         | Aramean king named Gabbar, documented in the Kilamuwa stela
         | alongside his (honorable) god Ba 'al SMD. It's entirely
         | possible that there's some recursive etymology here though, as
         | is common with dynastic names.
        
       | danielvf wrote:
       | A fun article!
       | 
       | I think a more probable understanding of the "Daniel" reference
       | in Ezekiel is that it is same Daniel from the book of Daniel.
       | 
       | Even if you assume that the prophecies in the book of Daniel were
       | written retroactively 600 years later (given the accuracy of
       | described events) it does not preclude an actual powerful person
       | of that name being alive at same time as Ezekiel, and being the
       | basis for later attribution.
       | 
       | Both Ezekiel and Daniel are written covering a similar set of
       | years. Both refer to a person named Daniel widely famous for his
       | "righteousness". It would seem improbable that they were talking
       | about entirely different people.
       | 
       | Again, had a lot of fun reading that.
        
         | cess11 wrote:
         | On what grounds do you consider it more likely that an
         | historical person rather than the book of Ezekiel inspired the
         | author of the book of Daniel to use the name? How do you
         | explain the lack of other texts about this person if he was
         | that popular and important?
        
           | margalabargala wrote:
           | > How do you explain the lack of other texts about this
           | person if he was that popular and important?
           | 
           | On the contrary, based on the linked article, it seems that
           | there are several works of literature from the time
           | referencing Daniel. In fact, for some languages, it appears
           | that close to 100% of known writing samples reference Daniel
           | (because there are only one or two examples).
        
       | MrGilbert wrote:
       | Oh, this is really cool. As a "Daniel" myself, I really
       | appreciate the background story of my name.
       | 
       | Sometimes, it's also interesting to get to know the story of how
       | someone got their name. When my mum was younger, there was a
       | really cute little boy my mum really liked when she was on
       | vacation with my grandparents. Not in a romantic way, as he was,
       | like, still a small kid. And she then decided that, when I was
       | born in '86, I should receive his name. I found this super cute,
       | and It's one of those stories that will always remind me of my
       | mum.
        
         | dkh wrote:
         | My wife's grandparents on her father's side were Swedish
         | immigrants to the USA, but her father has never known much at
         | all about the Swedish background. A few years ago my wife got
         | really into the ancestry.com thing, and after doing some
         | digging, discovered that her father's first name is what his
         | family's last name was in Sweden, up until migrating to
         | America. While they took on a different, common last name as
         | many did back then, they passed the old name on in their son. I
         | thought this was fascinating, and so did he, as he never knew
         | any of this, either!
         | 
         | Just another Daniel born in '86 sharing an interesting name
         | origin story. (My own isn't as wild -- my mother loved the
         | Elton John song.)
        
       | Archelaos wrote:
       | For relatively detailed information on the Ugaritic "Danel" and
       | his relation to the Book of Ezekiel, see his Wikipedia article at
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danel
        
         | 082349872349872 wrote:
         | Anyone know of any theories regarding the naming of the robot
         | Daneel?
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Daneel_Olivaw
        
       | vundercind wrote:
       | Oh wow, don't encounter Lichtheim too often on most parts of the
       | Web!
       | 
       | There's a third volume, too. Nb they were released far enough
       | apart that later volumes contain errata for earlier ones (like
       | calling out fraudulent or mistaken dates on some of the works,
       | which errors weren't discovered until after the volume was
       | printed)
       | 
       | I've read them cover to cover. Tried that with single-volume
       | collections of Akkadian and Sumerian literature, but they were
       | way harder to follow--too fragmentary, too little context. Didn't
       | finish either.
       | 
       | Gilgamesh is amazing though, and easily the best pre-Homeric work
       | I've read, zero competitors are even close.
        
       | DanielHB wrote:
       | As someone named Daniel it is really nice that it is a common
       | name in most European languages and never deviates in spelling.
       | Please people give your children the most boring name possible.
        
         | nuxi wrote:
         | > ...never deviates in spelling.
         | 
         | In South Slavic languages it's spelled Danijel as well (same
         | pronunciation).
        
         | SoftTalker wrote:
         | Also, and not claiming there is any cause/effect but there is a
         | correlation, at least for men, between short, common names and
         | career success. C-level individuals tend to have short, one-
         | syllable names (or nicknames) like Jack, Fred, Tim, Don, etc.
        
       | danielodievich wrote:
       | Apparently my parents didn't know what to name me for about a
       | week and eventually settled on Daniel, in this spelling it was a
       | very unusual name in Soviet Union at the time. I think they liked
       | some famous polish actor
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Olbrychski.
       | 
       | A more slavic spelling of this is Danilo but it was even less
       | popular than Daniel.
       | 
       | I knew only one other Daniel and he was a son of family's friends
       | and apparently named after me. I didn't much care for him, but
       | that's beside the point.
       | 
       | Coming to USA and it was a bit sad to no longer have a very
       | unique name. It's okay though, my last name is very unique...
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-01 23:00 UTC)