Quicksand Fans

Hi all,

lately I have been writing quicksand stories about a (somewhat stereotypical) jungle girl. She is a tall, athletic, blonde-haired, strong-willed survivor.

Classic background story: her parents were explorers and died in a plane crash somewhere in the Congo. Only the girl survived. With a little help from the local apes. Not so classic: she decided to make her home in a swampy area of that jungle. And she may have a thing for sinking, too.

Anyway, I had already picked a name for her, but I am not too happy with the choice because it is too similar to another jungle girl character. Also, it was a made-up name that had no origin in either Western nor African languages, and somehow that makes little sense to me. She should either keep the name her parents gave her, or be given a name by one of the local tribes. (Whoever gave Tarzan his name anyway? The word has no prior meaning in any language as far as I know)

So, at this point I can't publish her adventures here, because obviously she needs a name first. I am open to ideas and suggestions.

According to Wikipedia (which is always correct (lol) the "real" name of "Tarzan" was John Clayton. The name "Tarzan" supposedly means "White-skin" in some sort of ape language. [Given the general characteristics of apes it occurs to me that "no fur" would be a more likely translation.

The only thing I would use from this, if it were my decision, would be to make your character's name something rather ordinary. What is more ordinary than "John"? You have not said anything abut your character's nationality, race, or the like, nor when she was born other than the detail that airplanes existed. Assuming that your stories take place more or less in the present, one could assume that she was born in the 1990s. Therefore, I would go with a fairly common name from the 1990s. I would also probably give it an unusual spelling, as that sort of thing was popular then.

According to one website I checked, the five most popular names for female babies in 1995 were Jessica, Ashley, Emily, Samantha, and Sarah. The same five names were the top in 1996, though in a different order. The site I checked was for most popular "American" baby names.

I have no idea why but my top choice would be Jyl. Its a single syllable and isn't "Jane." My second choice would be Stefani but I know why that is and it might be seen as just a tad biased.

As for a name given by the apes, I would suggest something like Mudari. That brings in the mud connection and it could translate from ape to "Girl not sink" or "Girl who stomps in mud" depending on the inflection.

She was born sometime in the mid 1950s. Her nationality and the exact date and place of her birth remain unknown for now, but I can tell you that her parents spoke English. I like the idea of giving her a common English name from that time period. It definitely won't be an Ape-language name. I have been looking through various East-African name lists though (a name that a local tribe might have given her), but I have not found one that I really like so far.

Aiko wrote:She was born sometime in the mid 1950s. Her nationality and the exact date and place of her birth remain unknown for now, but I can tell you that her parents spoke English. I like the idea of giving her a common English name from that time period. It definitely won't be an Ape-language name. I have been looking through various East-African name lists though (a name that a local tribe might have given her), but I have not found one that I really like so far.

The same site I mentioned earlier lists Mary, Deborah, Linda, Debra, and Susan as the five most common for 1955.

I was always kind of big on "tribute" names. Names that were taken from someone famous or tied to my background. Former girlfriends and pinups usually come to mind first. "Betty" for Betty Page might be a good one here. She did a lot of "jungle girl" themed photos.

So I finally decided on her name. Say hello to....