Mak Intan Menceceh

Spelling Dilemma

02:37, 2007-Dec-26 .. 8 comments .. Link

We have finally registered the birth of my son. The delay was due to some red tapes that required us to produce the original marriage certificate, which we have left behind for safekeeping in Dubai. Bah! A bit of kow tim-ing with the officials did the trick, but not before having to run around all over Singapore trying to get proof that Mr Boss and I are legally married. Bah!

Finding a name for my son was no mean feat.

We had a long list of boys' names that we naturally could not agree upon, plainly because we had little else to argue about (rindu nak bertekak), and the fact that the both of us would not settle for anything generic, we scoured high and low for good Muslim names or at least prominent Muslims to take after.

I went through a database of Muslim scholars from the Middle Ages (?) and found one that really sounded cool and in line with our pipe dreams and aspirations.

Inspired by the achievements of Al-Zarqali, a Spanish Arab astronomer/mathematician who invented the astrolabe( tak reti-reti nak Google? *winks at Lollies*), corrected Ptolemy among other amazing things, I thought it would be cool to adopt the Latin spelling of the name.

Arzachel.

Plus, to the world of science, Arzachel is a better known name than Al-Zarqali(which is actually a family name for Abu Ishaq al-Zarqali , God knows what his real name is, as the name plainly means, father of Ishaq the Engraver).

Mr Boss had some qualms about spelling Arzachel with "-chel" as it might confuse the Malay tongue.

So we considered Arzakiel...but then that would be to similar to Ezekiel, a
J3wish prophet. We decided against that because our son may have to answer to some ethnocentric individuals where we would be dwelling in a couple of weeks.

And then we thought perhaps Arzakel would help people pronounce the name properly without confusing /tjel/ with /kel/.But the the /k/ sound is more a "q" than a "k". For about a week his name was Arzaqel. I kinda like this spelling....Alas, biasalah ficklemindedness took the better of me.

Eventually, I insisted that we stuck to to the original Latin spelling as we had initially intended to name him. Who knows one day he might want to look up the crater on the moon that shares his name (google or wiki Arzachel's Crater please)

So we dubbed our gebu son, Arzachel Anwar, omitting the "bin" or "son of" for practical purposes. Mainly for speedier form filling and immigration clearance. Just like the kakak, Safiyya Aishah Anwar. Nyesal tarok nama pepanjang sey...

UPDATE: Arzachel Anwar will be circumcized at 2 pm today, so help me God.
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comel sungguh

01:31, 2007-Dec-27 .. Posted by lazydaisy
ya Allah rasa nak picit picit pipi gebu nya ituuu...
jelingan matanya caiirr la,
dah besar ni mustii hensem..

i like the name
terer you pilih
eh ada idea for twins girls names hehehe

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05:12, 2007-Dec-27 .. Posted by mosh
sungguhlah banyak nya research to put the name in. but nice name indeed.

helleww arzachel ..

06:40, 2007-Dec-27 .. Posted by gartblue
gorgeous, gorgoeus name .. and and I agree with you on the -chel .. ppl are a lot more exposed these days .. so in 7 years time when he goes to school, -chel is not gonna be so unknown.

And pipinya .. gebu and aduhai jeling mak intan oiii .. heartbreaker's in the making eh ?

nice name!

06:40, 2007-Dec-27 .. Posted by Anonymous
arzachel is sooo gebu!
fuyoooo dah pandai jeling-jeling daaaaahhhh...

-OO-

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06:43, 2007-Dec-27 .. Posted by zan
comel comel..and nice name too :)

Aduh

08:06, 2007-Dec-27 .. Posted by lollies
tertusuk hati melihat si kacak ini.

And the name is so you. Memang amat tidak terperanjat dengan segala menggoogle. Best betul namanya. Hope he lives up to his name.

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01:06, 2007-Dec-29 .. Posted by oflionandbear
mata sama mcm mak dia la, kan?

menusuk qalbu gitu.
beauuutiful baby, and gorges name.

he is so adorable

12:42, 2008-Jan-22 .. Posted by famygirl
and what a beautiful name.

eh the baby picture is so very the iras your user pic :)

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Mak Intan Menceceh

Spelling Dilemma

comel sungguh

Untitled Comment

helleww arzachel ..

nice name!

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Aduh

Untitled Comment

he is so adorable

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