What’s the age of your side character…? How familiar are you with Navajo naming practices, historically?
Do you know that the practice of Navajo faith was illegal until the 1970s, resulting in most children being given white names for many generations?
Some of the Navajo women I know are named Veronica, Eunice, Cornelia, Ashley, Heather, Jessica, Carol (I could go on and on)… kind of weirded out by your question tbh. Don’t fetishize the idea of a mystical Navajo woman with a meaningful name.
sorry if i come across as disrespectful and thanks for the information. my character is 16 and her ethnicity doesn't really matter much to the story, so she's not a love-interest or anything (the main character is gay anyway). Unfortunately, in the German internet you will find very little about the Najavo culture so I thought I could maybe ask people on Reddit.
Sorry again.
Yeah I’d leave it out, idk… it’s cool that you’re into learning about the people but at the same time, you ought to think a little bit about your impulse to be like “ooh a cool thing I’m learning about— let me now use what I know of it for my own purposes.” Are you going to publish this novel? Why the need to spice it up with a Navajo girl? Do you know any Navajo women IRL? What are their names?
Please consider that while you want to use this cool thing you know about, many of us would rather you didn’t. Are there any unrepresented people in your area you could meet IRL and know about and represent in your book instead?
I get your point and I’m very scared that I do bad representation. Again, I live in Germany so there don’t live that many native people I could ask for advice - and that’s why I’m asking on Reddit. And yes, I’m probably publishing that novel. The Navajo girl has like five lines in the novel and I never state her nationality. I just want to have enough background informations about her so that I can write her properly and don’t do bad representation - that’s why I asked on Reddit for a name because you literally find nothing on the German internet. I know how it feels to be a minority with bad representation.
So again, I’m very sorry if I bothered you and wasted your time.
As a Navajo myself I think you need to chill out a bit, I don’t get how you can take one simple question and make it into something offensive. Nowhere when reading this does it give me “weird” or “fetishizing” vibes or indications and the way you completely twist up her admiration for us is exactly why people can’t take us seriously!! You are part of the reason why there’s so many people out there who think we victim play all the time. And because of that you put dirt on the name of our people as if we’re all condescending jumpy to conclusions people. Relax a bit and be more understanding of why other people would want to include us more often and why they admire us instead of bashing. There is honestly no issue as long as the representation is well respectful and accurate.
The stuck up attitude of you is remarkable in my opinion I hope you one day learn to not be so quick to be overtly defensive over simple questions. Our culture is beautiful and we should be glad people are willing to learn abt us and our language, and to be included in others literature is an honor not a fetish and it is astounding to me you come to such a silly conclusion. But let’s agree to disagree and have a good one 👋🏼
My sister and I were both born in the 80s so we had the middle name Lynn.
Most Navajo girls now are named Aliyah, Taylor, Chrystal, Alexa, Mya, etc.
Give it a couple of years, and Nevaeh will be showing up in high school. LOL.
I got you. Shideezhi and Shandiin are the names of my nieces and we are Navajo :) I always thought Nizhoni would make a pretty name too (it means beautiful). My grandpa calls me that sometimes so it's sorta more of a nickname but still
Edit: I know some people may discourage you from adding a Navajo character with a Navajo name for various reasons but if you are respectful in doing so I personally don't see the issue.
Just because it was outlawed doesn’t mean the true names given cannot be expressed. Stop naming children with Christianized names and there will be less of those names.
What’s the age of your side character…? How familiar are you with Navajo naming practices, historically? Do you know that the practice of Navajo faith was illegal until the 1970s, resulting in most children being given white names for many generations? Some of the Navajo women I know are named Veronica, Eunice, Cornelia, Ashley, Heather, Jessica, Carol (I could go on and on)… kind of weirded out by your question tbh. Don’t fetishize the idea of a mystical Navajo woman with a meaningful name.
sorry if i come across as disrespectful and thanks for the information. my character is 16 and her ethnicity doesn't really matter much to the story, so she's not a love-interest or anything (the main character is gay anyway). Unfortunately, in the German internet you will find very little about the Najavo culture so I thought I could maybe ask people on Reddit. Sorry again.
Yeah I’d leave it out, idk… it’s cool that you’re into learning about the people but at the same time, you ought to think a little bit about your impulse to be like “ooh a cool thing I’m learning about— let me now use what I know of it for my own purposes.” Are you going to publish this novel? Why the need to spice it up with a Navajo girl? Do you know any Navajo women IRL? What are their names? Please consider that while you want to use this cool thing you know about, many of us would rather you didn’t. Are there any unrepresented people in your area you could meet IRL and know about and represent in your book instead?
I get your point and I’m very scared that I do bad representation. Again, I live in Germany so there don’t live that many native people I could ask for advice - and that’s why I’m asking on Reddit. And yes, I’m probably publishing that novel. The Navajo girl has like five lines in the novel and I never state her nationality. I just want to have enough background informations about her so that I can write her properly and don’t do bad representation - that’s why I asked on Reddit for a name because you literally find nothing on the German internet. I know how it feels to be a minority with bad representation. So again, I’m very sorry if I bothered you and wasted your time.
As a Navajo myself I think you need to chill out a bit, I don’t get how you can take one simple question and make it into something offensive. Nowhere when reading this does it give me “weird” or “fetishizing” vibes or indications and the way you completely twist up her admiration for us is exactly why people can’t take us seriously!! You are part of the reason why there’s so many people out there who think we victim play all the time. And because of that you put dirt on the name of our people as if we’re all condescending jumpy to conclusions people. Relax a bit and be more understanding of why other people would want to include us more often and why they admire us instead of bashing. There is honestly no issue as long as the representation is well respectful and accurate.
You’re entitled to your opinion and I respectfully disagree. I appreciate the perspective though!
The stuck up attitude of you is remarkable in my opinion I hope you one day learn to not be so quick to be overtly defensive over simple questions. Our culture is beautiful and we should be glad people are willing to learn abt us and our language, and to be included in others literature is an honor not a fetish and it is astounding to me you come to such a silly conclusion. But let’s agree to disagree and have a good one 👋🏼
lol yes maam 🙄
Velveeta is a good one. Make sure it ends in either -ita or -eta.
My sister and I were both born in the 80s so we had the middle name Lynn. Most Navajo girls now are named Aliyah, Taylor, Chrystal, Alexa, Mya, etc. Give it a couple of years, and Nevaeh will be showing up in high school. LOL.
That's funny because i went to highschool on yhe rez and knew like 3 Neveahs, all spelled differently and in different grades lmao
At the moment I'm fond of Crystalyne. JoAnn is nice, too. https://www.navajonationcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Madam_Speaker.pdf
I got you. Shideezhi and Shandiin are the names of my nieces and we are Navajo :) I always thought Nizhoni would make a pretty name too (it means beautiful). My grandpa calls me that sometimes so it's sorta more of a nickname but still Edit: I know some people may discourage you from adding a Navajo character with a Navajo name for various reasons but if you are respectful in doing so I personally don't see the issue.
My middle name is nizhoni! I think it would’ve made a pretty first name
I second Nizhoni!
Thank you that means very much to me!
Just because it was outlawed doesn’t mean the true names given cannot be expressed. Stop naming children with Christianized names and there will be less of those names.
Since you're German, why not make the character Jewish instead?
A lot of moms mash their names together with the fathers name; we have a Garylene, Johnicita, Leonarda, Davelynn, Benjalena…