Loki

strawberrytree

At the Halloween event we attended today there was a little boy named Loki. At first I thought it might be Lukey, but nope, mom and grandma both clearly called him Loki. Now, I am no authority on Norse mythology...but wasn't Loki the trickster of the gods who was often portrayed in a kind of negative light? And isn't Loki the bad guy in the Thor movies?

On the other hand, there were also little boys named Finlay, Casey, and Derek, and girls named Viola and Carys (my first IRL, non-Bump Carys!)

diamondduck13

You are right re Loki. I can't remember precisely the story of Loki, but I do associate it with the antagonist in Dogma. Great movie. Bad name IMO.

Scarlett&Gatsby

How old was he? Older than the Thor movies? While I personally wouldn't use a name with a negative mythology reference (probably?), I can kind of see the parents not considering that a dealbreaker if he was born a couple years before Thor came out. Before that movie, how many people do you know who could name even one Old Norse god, much less their attributes? If I didn't know a movie was coming out that was going to make the obscure legend connected to my son's name common knowledge, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about using the name if I liked it otherwise.

Scarlett&Gatsby

Related to that, I just googled to make sure there wasn't going to be a Tallulah Bankhead biopic any time soon. I mean, it'd be awesome and I'd see it, but the perk Bankhead being relatively obscure is that only elderly people have given us the side-eye for using her name...

evaazalea

My friend's son had a Loki in daycare with him, I may have laughed when she told me. I love it as a name for a cat though.

blu-eyedwife

I'm no expert on Norse mythology either, but I'm aware of it enough to recognize Loki!  Even before the Thor movies came out I feel the character pops up relatively frequently  in literature and has been translated to similar characters in many cultures (off the bat I can think of Coyote from Native American folklore.) 

Scarlett&Gatsby

blu-eyedwife said:

I'm no expert on Norse mythology either, but I'm aware of it enough to recognize Loki!  Even before the Thor movies came out I feel the character pops up relatively frequently  in literature and has been translated to similar characters in many cultures (off the bat I can think of Coyote from Native American folklore.) 

You're further ahead than me, then! Before the movie came out, I knew of Thor...and Freya, and those were only because I remembered learning that Thursday and Friday are derived from their names. I knew the thing about Thor's hammer, but I still have no idea what Freya's whole thing was. And I'd never heard of Loki. Maybe I spent too much time reading about Greek/Roman gods? I'm also reasonably sure I know more than the Average Joe about the Egyptian pantheon, but Norse? I know basically nothing.

ArmyWife114

MosyMama said:

My friend's son had a Loki in daycare with him, I may have laughed when she told me. I love it as a name for a cat though.

My friend has a cat named Loki! Ha ha

I know 4 or 5 people with cats named Loki.  I would be tempted to try and use it as GP mn, but the whole popular cat name thing is stopping me from even suggesting it to DH lol

blu-eyedwife

Scarlett&Gatsby said:

You're further ahead than me, then! Before the movie came out, I knew of Thor...and Freya, and those were only because I remembered learning that Thursday and Friday are derived from their names. I knew the thing about Thor's hammer, but I still have no idea what Freya's whole thing was. And I'd never heard of Loki. Maybe I spent too much time reading about Greek/Roman gods? I'm also reasonably sure I know more than the Average Joe about the Egyptian pantheon, but Norse? I know basically nothing.

We went over Norse mythology in High School along with the reading of Beowulf/Grendel (my class had a choice between the two).  And fun fact - "Odin" is Wednesday, so you can add that to your Thursday and Friday!  (Odin is like the Zeus/Jupiter of the Norse pantheon).

In "recent" literature, Loki plays a role in Michael Chabon's "Summerland" and Neil Gaiman's "American Gods."  (American Gods also features the Egyptian pantheon, if you're into that kind of thing)

Scarlett&Gatsby

blu-eyedwife said:

Scarlett&Gatsby said:

You're further ahead than me, then! Before the movie came out, I knew of Thor...and Freya, and those were only because I remembered learning that Thursday and Friday are derived from their names. I knew the thing about Thor's hammer, but I still have no idea what Freya's whole thing was. And I'd never heard of Loki. Maybe I spent too much time reading about Greek/Roman gods? I'm also reasonably sure I know more than the Average Joe about the Egyptian pantheon, but Norse? I know basically nothing.

We went over Norse mythology in High School along with the reading of Beowulf/Grendel (my class had a choice between the two).  And fun fact - "Odin" is Wednesday, so you can add that to your Thursday and Friday!  (Odin is like the Zeus/Jupiter of the Norse pantheon).

In "recent" literature, Loki plays a role in Michael Chabon's "Summerland" and Neil Gaiman's "American Gods."  (American Gods also features the Egyptian pantheon, if you're into that kind of thing)

 

Hey, thanks! I've learned so many things today!

Fluffycakes

Loki is also a girl's name in Hawaiian meaning rose

BlckRoses

TysMomPlusOne said:

My friend's son had a Loki in daycare with him, I may have laughed when she told me. I love it as a name for a cat though.

I had a cat named Loki, lived up to the name too.

Meery82

It makes me think of lochia. Yuck.

DaisyDuck40

An old friend of mine dated a guy with the middle name Thor.

apc1929

My kids love a book about a surfing-gecko and I believe the main character is Loki- but yeah, He's a Gecko!!

catahoulatte

blu-eyedwife said:

I'm no expert on Norse mythology either, but I'm aware of it enough to recognize Loki!  Even before the Thor movies came out I feel the character pops up relatively frequently  in literature and has been translated to similar characters in many cultures (off the bat I can think of Coyote from Native American folklore.) 

Ditto! I've never seen Thor but I've seen enough GIFs with him in it to know who he was. LMAO