Deer

Deer are an idea of an animal that English speakers have. The animals that look like deer are found throughout the world. English-speaking communities most often conceptualize deer in a more generic lens but are usually based off of the deer that live around them: i.e in the United States it's often white-tailed deer or for the west, mule deer; while in the U.K roe deer and/or red deer set the standard. Animals that are related to those deer but look different, such as elks, moose, and muntjacs, might be regarded as similar (and admittedly related) but different animals. Deer are hunted by humans in many cultures and have been since before the Ice Age.

## In countries

**United States:** In the United States deer are often represented with the eastern species, White Tailed Deer. There are some deer that aren't really considered deer but are considered to be a sort-of-kind-of deer, such as moose and elk. Reindeer are incredibly important for Christmas celebration, however historically aren't accurately portrayed with their rightful species, rather looking like white-tailed deer. There have been attempts to fix this. Black-tailed deer and mule deer aren't represented too well at all, with the white-tailed deer's tail being the preferential look of deer. There may be occasions in which you see a white-tail's tail with a black-tail's or mule's facial or bodily features (including antlers).

Deer in this culture represent quiet, peace, and the forest. The are both mystical and the norm of forest wildlife. They are graceful and delicate. Males have a reputation of power, representing nature's creations and aggression, due to their large antlers and rut. However while you may find depictions of deer battling predators, there are much more portrayals of bucks being attacked and killed, both by humans and animals. Bucks, despite and because of their antlers, are still considered prey for the wildlife of the forest and man. In fictional settings, deer, including bucks, can be consumed by more fearsome monsters. No matter the noble power they represent, bucks are still easy prey.

Buck antlers grow bigger each year as they age. Human hunters enjoy catching older bucks due to their larger antlers. However their is some respect given for their perceived beauty, wisdom, and age. There is a point where the antlers have too many tines, which makes it illegal to hunt them. Some hunters don't care and will hunt them anyways, but there is some moral issues with hunting an old buck. Additionally some farmed deer are bred with a mutation that causes them to have bigger antlers with more tines on them.

Does represent the forest, and there is some inclusion of motherhood and gentleness and speed. But mostly they represent the grace and gentleness and prey-ness.

"Dear" is a term used to express affection for a loved one or in the right context and accent a demeaning way to refer to a woman. Many people notice the similarities and this pun is embraced.

## Television

Bambi is a major motion picture by Disney. It has impacted tons of families. At least for late millenials like me, it has been considered a harsh reality check for children due to his mother being shot to death in the film, with some people even claiming that they learned about death through this film.

An anthropomorphic deer features as a major character in the Netflix original Beastars. He plays into the predator/prey dynamics of the show, whose main character is a wolf, and whose town runs a black market for meat.

## Books

Spoilers*This article is about a specific form of media, such as a movie or a video game. Therefore it may contain heavy spoilers so as to best discuss it. You have been warned!*
The book Bambi was famous, and Disney movies have been made based off of it. Ever since the name Bambi has become synonymous with deer. The original book featured a roe deer, but the Disney movie based off of it takes place in North America instead and he was changed into a white deer. In the book it features his life starting from birth 'til he meets his young. The Disney movie starts out this way, but ends during the mating season. The film was incredibly influential and became known in people's thoughts as THE deer film and one of the saddest animated films, the latter especially in recent times. The film may have caused more controversies with hunting deer. Many deer, real and not (such as toys) have been named Bambi as a result of this book and film. Bambi has also changed gender, becoming a bit of a unisex name. It was notably a normal girl name back then.

## Name

**100,000 Babies by Bruce Lansky** In 100,000 Babies by Bruce Lansky many names relating to deer are given, however the verifiability of those are dubious. This is a common problem with baby name books originating in the English language. Here is a full list (to my knowledge) of those names:

The name Niabi and its variants is stated to be a name meaning "fawn" in Osage. However this is false. That would be 𐓈𐒰𐓓𐒻͘. However this does mean that some babies have been given this name. In my opinion the intention was to name them fawn and thus that's what there name actually means, but it is certainly a mistranslation.

Nebrido is Greek for fawn...skin. Nah, I'm just kidding you. That's just what some people who reported the origins of the scientific name of the Tawny Nurse Shark thought. They should know better than me, but I can't find the -idos suffix. So it does mean fawn, with a fake suffix that makes it sound Spanish in my opinion. Also, nebros is also a synonym for coward, so the Greeks did not think highly of our cute, baby fawns.

Feena and variants are said to be of Irish origin. I suppose it could be an accent respelling. Oisin, however, is likely to be correct as it is Gaelic for a small, young deer. What they didn't point out was that it's the name of a demigod in Irish mythology. So named because he is the son of a human mother who had been transformed into a deer by a sorcerer. She became human again when his father hunted her, and didn't kill her, but instead brought her back to human shape and married her. Oisín himself was renowned as a great poet who wrote the myths himself.

Ofer is correct being Hebrew for young deer, but Tzvi is Hebrew for gazelle.

Dyani is listed under Dyami which is apparently Native American for "soaring eagle" for boys, but is Native American's "deer" for girls. Noticeably the variations under the girl's section resemble "Diana", such as Dianie, Dianee, and Diany. This would make the name based off of the Roman Goddess of the hunt, who is associated with deer. However there is a famous artists who is named Dyani. She is from the Burnt Thighs division of the Lakota. As for if deer is actually that in Lakota...it is related to Osage, and I think it may be "t'a", but while that could be replaced by D the rest would also have to be a jumbled indiscernable mess. I can't tell if it's actually a Lakota word, and it's entirely possible for a Native American to give their child a Native American based name that's not from their language, especially in the older days. If Dyani is listed in an older baby name book which the author got it from, it could be that she was named after that. It's listed on a bunch of baby name sites, but it doesn't go further than that. They could have picked it up from this book, too. I can't verify that without looking into hundreds of dictionaries or digging it up much harder.

Kaliska, Pakuna, and Tumu are listed as Moquelumnan. I'm not entirely sure that is, and I'm really intimidated by the length and letter arrangement of this specific word, but it seems to be a family or a subdivision of the Miwoks. I count myself lucky when I manage to find an indigenous dictionary, but finding specific dialects of one is even luckier. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I did or not. But it seems like any part of those sounds as deer and fawn
 and coyote isn't in either of them. Funnily enough I got an example of a deer hooking a coyote- attacking a coyote for chasing them which is suspiciously in the K letter zone.

Some foreign names come close, but aren't quite right. Shika is Japanese for deer, but they list is as "gentle deer". This is amusing considering that the deer of the city of Nara are known for headbutting people when they don't get cracker snacks. Ahdik is "Native American" for caribou, and wiktionary considers "akitw" Atikamekw for caribou. Rawleigh is from ra and leigh, which is Middle/Old English for "Roe Clearing" or "Roe Meadow". It is a deer meadow, but specifically not for red deer, but roe deer instead. Not both species either. Rayburn is this as well, Scottish for roebuck stream, but it's English for deer brook in the book.

The English originating names aren't well thought out either. Fawn itself is listed as French in origin, despite it being an English word. Now the word itself does come from Old French, but the spellings different. This is definitely an English word. I'm an English speaker, I should know. This guy is thinking way too hard.

Roscoe is from Old Norse and is an English modification of the words, which did in fact mean "Roe Forest". It was a real forest name in Lancanshire and transferred into a person name.

Darton is a town in South Yorkshire, England. Its name may come from the close by river Dearne. The meaning of that is not something I can find. Other people believe that it is supposed to mean "deer town".

Darby, which is another English fix of Old Norse. This one is supposed to mean "deer farm" or "deer village". However it seems there's a few ancient words that have influenced its name from time to time, and it may have originally been the village of oaks.

Dearborn was originally Daubernon, which originates from Old Northern French. It meant "of Arbornon". Arbornon was the first Albanian state, created in 1190 AD. The area of which is now a country called Albania, bordering north Greece. It seems the name has transformed its meaning to meaning "those who are dear and born to us". It's a very affectionate surname.

Derward is said to be deer ward, which sounds right. Keeper of the deer. But it's probably a variation of Scottish Dorward, which is door ward, doorkeeper, amongst other linguistical interventions.

Buckley is buck + clearing, and in origin may have actually meant male goat meadow, or at least that's what wiktionary thinks. But I think it's apparent that it's a clearing male deer frequent. Probably bachelor herds. But he whimsically calls it deer meadow even though its pretty obvious to British speakers. It's correct enough, but not really. Why not just call it buck meadow? Is it not cute enough? Buck is an English word. How far down do you have to break the word? Hartley has the same thing going on with it.

Buck is given the right term- male deer. But it's considered both English and German. In German it's Bock, so I don't see why he added in the extra nationality.

Hartwell- I'm pretty sure wells aren't springs, but I could be wrong. Hartwood is a deer forest, but again, I would call it a hart woods. Partial mistranslation when its already an English word.

Renton- my guess best is "strip of land town". The surname came before the village, with an old Scottish place being named after a lady's surname. However, it could be reindeer town, which seems to be where this author is going with. Reindeer were wiped out of Scotland 100,000 ago, though in modern times some people own herds of them free-range.

A couple are actually correct.Mazatl is actually recorded as Nahuatl for deer. Olen is Russian for deer.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2012/08/bambi-moment-when-pop-culture-taught-us-about-death/324507/
2. ↑ https://bambi.fandom.com/wiki/Bambi\_(Character)
3. ↑ https://bambi.fandom.com/wiki/Bambi:\_A\_Life\_in\_the\_Woods
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120524153721/http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/tawnynurse/tawnynurse.html
5. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%B2%CF%81%CF%8C%CF%82#Ancient\_Greek
6. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=ois%C3%ADn&oldid=60101709
7. ↑ https://glosbe.com/ga/en/ois%C3%ADn
8. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ois%C3%ADn&oldid=1070179640
9. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%D7%A6%D7%91%D7%99&oldid=67157420
10. ↑ https://he.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%D7%A6%D7%91%D7%99&oldid=34026268
11. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dyani\_White\_Hawk&oldid=1087962137
12. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/English\_Lakota\_Dictionary/6SxTAQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=deer
13. ↑ https://www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/dyani/
14. ↑ https://nameberry.com/babyname/dyani
15. ↑ https://www.babycenter.com/baby-names/details/dyani-1469527
16. ↑ https://www.ourbabynamer.com/meaning-of-Dyani.html
17. ↑ https://babynames.com/name/Dyani
18. ↑ https://useful\_english.en-academic.com/87354/Moquelumnan
19. ↑ http://mail.nanations.com/linguistic/moquelumnan\_family.htm
20. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miwok\_languages&oldid=1091176319
21. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Plains\_Miwok\_Dictionary/yFC9KKSS1-YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=deer&pg=PA220
22. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Plains\_Miwok\_Dictionary/yFC9KKSS1-YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=fawn&pg=PA125
23. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Northern\_Sierra\_Miwok\_Dictionary/l6d9NG5u7wEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=deer&pg=PA129
24. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Northern\_Sierra\_Miwok\_Dictionary/l6d9NG5u7wEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=coyote&pg=PA186
25. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Plains\_Miwok\_Dictionary/yFC9KKSS1-YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=coyote&pg=PA72
26. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=caribou&oldid=67230091
27. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Rayburn&oldid=63856101
28. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Roscoe&oldid=67294304
29. ↑ https://www.houseofnames.com/dearborn-family-crest#:~:text=The%20surname%20Dearborn%20was%20first%20found%20in%20Surrey,in%20Surrey%2C%20giving%20name%20to%20Stoke%20Daubernon.%20
30. ↑ https://www.houseofnames.com/Dorward-family-crest
31. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/An\_Analytical\_Dictionary\_of\_Nahuatl/s4LURGT0h2AC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=deer&pg=PA142
32. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C&oldid=61787229
33. ↑ https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B5