FANCY NAMES OPPOSED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 10

FANCY NAMES OPPOSED

Kremlin Plea To Parents (Special Correspondent NZ.P.A.) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 2. The Kremlin is urging Soviet parents to “please” stop giving their children fancy names, says the “Daily Express.” The new drive, it adds, precedes publication of a new “Dictionary of Soviet names,” the first of its kind. The authorities are particularly annoyed by names based on political, economic and Marxist words which, given in all seriousness, are the object of general ridicule. For instance, a man called “Mr Second Five-year Plan” is actually living in Russia. A 21-year-old university girl student is called “Miss Great Worker.” In Russian it is “Veliki Rabochi.” She was so unhappy about the name that she telescoped it into “Velira.” Several ordinary men have to go through life with names like “differential” and “integral.” Their parents, it appears, were keen on mathematics. But the all-Soviet record for the all-time funny name is held by a certain Mr Lorikerik. This is made up from the initial letters of nine Russian words such as Lenin, October revolution, • industrialisation, collectivisation and electrification. Equally unwelcome are names taken haphazardly from foreign novels. Thus a . certain Mr Ivanov’s first name is Milady, in honour of the heroine of the “Three Musketeers.”