tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79181496555279010762024-03-13T01:18:44.197+02:00JozibellePaula Grubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15100966917684972161noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7918149655527901076.post-18915625358022978402011-03-07T10:35:00.002+02:002022-05-20T21:09:13.038+02:00Tyger, tyger<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: helvetica;">I’m always interested to hear how
parents go about deciding on names for their kids. This is the story of how my husband Lee and I chose the name Goran Blake for our son.</span></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Surname: Gruben</b></span></h2><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">At the turn of the last century, one </span>Nils Pedersen Gruben migrated from Norway to South Africa and, in 1904, he had a son, Nils Odin </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">–</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"> Goran’s great-great grandfather.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">Believe it or not, in a population of now well over 50 million* people, we are still the only Gruben family in the entire country! </span><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: 0cm;">Goran is the fourth generation of South African-born Grubens, and one of just </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">four Gruben males alive in SA today </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">– </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">the other three being Lee, his brother, and their father.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXS5c0Pyc8Thp8JTtejzHIrSAKBmk__TfqZbMnMAfRqjsiItrSf5Vg6mWLTJs_bAIAezSWQj2CYz214WnfeZE15Ty4cb1aTrmBZjjSmH8xFXqKVZ8QfnQDAgw9bdz9HbPryFphi2QEvEIF/s1600/3C0BC935-566E-4492-A99B-87E15D022C60.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="635" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXS5c0Pyc8Thp8JTtejzHIrSAKBmk__TfqZbMnMAfRqjsiItrSf5Vg6mWLTJs_bAIAezSWQj2CYz214WnfeZE15Ty4cb1aTrmBZjjSmH8xFXqKVZ8QfnQDAgw9bdz9HbPryFphi2QEvEIF/s320/3C0BC935-566E-4492-A99B-87E15D022C60.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><b>First name: Goran</b></span></span></span></h2><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: 0cm;">The one </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">thing I insisted on was that our child’s first name start with the letter 'G' if it was going to be a boy because, for men, I like it when their first name and surname start with the same letter. I think it looks strong on paper, and it usually rolls nicely off the tongue.</span></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">Fairly early on in our pregnancy, we were
watching an episode of 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent'. At some point, Lee
made a comment about the fictional character </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Goren" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><b>Detective
Goren</b></a><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">, which he mistakenly pronounced, or I mistakenly heard, as
Goran. I immediately latched onto it and said that I thought it would make a
cool name for our kid, if it was going to be a boy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: 0cm;">A quick Google search showed that
Goran is a Slavic name, meaning 'highlander' or 'man from the mountains' or ‘woodsman’. Lee and I agreed then and there that we both really
liked the name, so when, on 21 October 2010, we found out ‘it’ was indeed going
to be a ‘he’, the decision had already been made!</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: 0cm;">As
far as pronunciation goes, we say Gore-ran </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">– e</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">qual emphasis on both
syllables, and no rolling of the ‘R’.</span></span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US"><b>Second name: Blake</b></span></span></h2><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">Lee doesn’t have a second name, but I do (it’s Anne, in case you were wondering), and I wanted Goran to have one too. Because we had mutually
stumbled upon and decided on a first name, and the fact Goran would, by default, carry Lee’s surname (my maiden name was van Wyk), we agreed it was only fair I get to choose the second name.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">I have always loved the name Blake, which is a derivative</span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;"> of the Old English adjective</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181a1c; text-indent: 0cm;"> blæc, pronounced ‘black’, with a change of vowel length. The colour black </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">evokes a sense of depth
and strength – attributes which I hope Goran will possess.</span></span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">William Blake also happens to be my
favourite poet. </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">The poem for which he is probably most famous is ‘The Tyger’, which kicks off with the iconic stanza:</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: helvetica;">Tyger tyger, burning bright,</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: helvetica;">In the forests of the night;</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: helvetica;">What immortal hand or eye,</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: helvetica;">Could frame thy fearful symmetry?</span></div>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US"><b>Tiger significance</b></span></span></h2><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">Little did we know that this ‘tyger’ reference would come to have a far deeper meaning in the months that followed...</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: helvetica;">Although Goran was due to be born in the Chinese Year of the Rabbit (like Lee), he arrived two months early, and was therefore born in the Year of the Tiger (like me). But that’s not the end of it...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">Every prem baby born before 32 weeks (Goran arrived at 30 weeks) is treated with Curosurf, a surfactant which quickly coats the alveoli in their under-developed lungs, stabilising them against collapse.</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"> And e</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">ach of these preemies receives a little plushie from the drug company, which is placed in their incubator in the NICU to keep them company.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">There were four different types of Curosurf animals that Lee and I counted during Goran's month-long stay in Netcare Olivedale Hospital’s NICU, and guess which one Goran just happened </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">to be given? The tiger!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">Pretty soon, my folks started referring to him as their ‘little tiger’, in reference to his fighting spirit and the miraculous progress he was making every day (he weighed just 1.78kg at birth, and tipped the scales at a hefty 2.47kg when he was discharged </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">–</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"> still a month before his due date).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">And that, dear reader, is the unabridged version of how our beloved Goran Blake got his name.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">P.S. If </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">we had had a girl, her name would've been Milla Grey. Milla </span><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">–</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"> </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">after the actress Milla Jovovich, and</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"> Grey </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">–</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"> a softer shade of black.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">* As of 2022, South Africa has a population of well over 60 million people! The </span></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">fourth generation of South African-born Grubens now includes Odin and Thorstin - Goran's two younger cousins. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: 0cm;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-indent: 0cm;">And as far as I'm aware, ours is still the <u>only</u></span> Gruben family in the entire country.</span></i></div><br style="font-family: helvetica;" />
Paula Grubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15100966917684972161noreply@blogger.com