Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Naming the cello

Last week, I posted pictures of my cello on Facebook and asked friends to help me name it.  The thirty-some responses I got were all over the map, but there were some trends (friends who suggested are in parentheses):
  • Alliteration: People suggested names that begin with a "ch" sound.  Imagine these cute names preceding "the Cello":  Chelsea (Kim O), Chester (Stephen S), Charlie (Casey S).
  • Citrus: My alcoholic friends favored names that made my cello sound like Italian lemon liqueur: Lemon (Susan P), Lime (Sara B), Limoncello (Tompy), Liz Lemon (Lynne C).
  • Girly: I hadn't prefaced my call for names with the fact that my cello is a boy, so I got these suggestions: Kitty (Amy N), Trixie (Jim B), Peony (Mimi), Lola (Christian S), Gertrude Wang (Jennie B).
  • Old-timey:  Something about the cello seems to invoke in my friends images of suspenders and plaid: Hubert Shalaily (Annabel), Oswald (Karen M), Barnsley (Kim F), Ernest (Courtney Y).
Then there were the names I could not categorize
  • Cielo (Adrianne)
  • Cello-X (Gary L)
  • Steve (Holly)
  • Dmitri or Sasha (Leslie)
  • Sauce (my sister Lauren)
  • Tadah (Quang)
  • String Thing (Smatt)
  • Zanzibar (Alyssa C)
  • Jaws (Tim K)
  • Wang (Danielle M)
  • Moonchild (Travis)
  • Buns (Laura R)
  • Yo Yo Cello-Ma (Jin)
  • Yo-Yo-Mamma (Patrick)
Some of those have explanations, but most do not.

Feel free to leave your suggestions as comments, but as I warned my friends on Facebook, I will probably not choose any of them :).

5 comments:

  1. I second the motion for Oswald...it seems to suit your instrument well. On the other hand, Dr Katz might not be bad either considering the psychological nature of this journey. But...your cello does seem a little feminine to me...The tone is decidedly....curvy. I dunno how best to describe it, but Maude comes to mind as a suitable name. Of course there is a whole panoply of gods and goddesses to select from as well, any of them related to personal growth or healing hearts could be a good choice. Since its of Chinese Manufacture, perhaps a chinese deity or wise philosopher would do too...so many choices! Ulitmately, its your feelings that dictate the name. Good Luck!

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  3. Allright Andrew, the pressure is on...I've named mine. Beeker. Your turn!

    Mathew

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