Moe

Nevertheless, I'll explain the significance and story of Moé.

Moé is Moi which is Me in French Québecois. Although in comic books, I`ve seen the usage of France French Moé. It is no doubtingly used in both spoken Québecois and France French, as well as other flavours of French (such as Creole).

How is it pronounced?
When articulating this, you are almost making the action of a ruminating cow. Moo-Ay essentially. It's simple, but including it in a cogent sentence is another story.

A little story on Moé
When I was in Secondaire 1 (which is Grade 7, but in High School), there was this hardcore punk guy. I don't mean hardcore punk as in music, but as in Vandalism/Rebellious Teenager/Anarchy/Slayer type. He was a nice and intelligent guy, but at that time in Québec, rebellious behaviour was everywhere. So he failed almost all his classes, he spent his time making switchblades, engraving anarchy signs on his desk among other things. Anyways, one day the teacher was handing back our math tests and she was naming our names so we may pick up our tests. Well after handing a couple, she finally arrived to a "Moé" and she said: "Who ist Moé?" (she was from Paris btw, so uttering the Moé was kind of awkward for her) and the guy from the back of the class said: Moé.

Everybody in the bloody class laughed. I can't even believed he did that. Unfortunately, later that year he dropped school and pursued the life of a rebel.

Moe (pronounced MO-EH) is a common female given name in Japanese. Famous Moes include Japanese model Moe Oshikiri, Japanese actress Moe Yamaguchi, Japanese model Moe Kirimura, Japanese Olympic curler Moe Meguro, Japanese pornstar Moe Kimishima, and Japanese actress Moe Arai.

The basic meaning of the name Moe is "sprout" or "bud" and the most obvious way to write this in Japanese is by using the Chinese character for "sprout" along with the Japanese phonetic character for the sound "e" (萌え).

If you can imagine naming a little girl "Sprout" in English, you can see why this name tends to have a very cutesy feel in Japanese. It's not exactly a name you'd give your daughter if you entertain hopes she'll grow up to be a doctor or supreme court justice.

Perhaps this is why, in recent times, the name Moe is often written entirely in the Japanese phonetic syllabary hiragana, without using any Chinese-derived kanji characters, as simply もえ. However, according to ENAMDICT there are 61 known ways to write the name Moe in Japanese.

The most common alternative writings substitute another character with a pleasing meaning for the phonetic "e", such as "glory" (萌英 = "glorious sprout"), "branch" (萌枝 = "budding branch"), "picture" (萌絵 = "picture of buds"), "inlet" (萌江 = "verdant inlet"), or "blessing" (萌恵 = "sprouted blessing").

Nevertheless, there do exist a few more quirky or interesting variants, including 雲燕 ("cloud swallow"), 最燃 ("the most burnt"), 望愛 ("moon love"), 藻恵 ("seaweed blessing"), 桃愛 ("peachtree love") and my personal favorite, 百笑 ("one hundred smiles").

I think I definitely would have liked to have had the option of naming my daughter "one hundred smiles."

Back to Japanese names.

Moe is a traditional English nickname; it has become so familiar that it is no longer as popular as it once was. It has strong working-class overtones, and because one of the popular Three Stooges was named Moe, it also has overtones of dopiness.

Moe is short for four unrelated names:

Elmo, which is in turn a shortened form of two unrelated names; Erasmus (from Greek elene meaning 'torch'), and Aldelmo (from Proto-Germanic helmo, meaning 'helmet').

Morris, which comes from the Latin Maurus, meaning Mauritanian. This is the same root as gave us the word Moor. Other forms of Morris include Maurice and Morey.

Moses from the Hebrew Mosheh. The origin of Moses is not known, but it is obviously a popular name due to the whole 'writing the Torah' thing.

Muhammad from the Arabic Mahum or Mahimet, meaning 'Praiseworthy'. This is another name made famous by a holy prophet, in this case the writer of the Quran.

The name Moe was somewhat popular given name (as opposed to nickname) in America around the turn of the last century, popping into the top 1000 boys names from 1890 to 1920. It has not entered the top 1000 since then, and it is not likely to do so in the foreseeable future.

Moe is also a surname originating in Norway and Sweden, where it also occurs in the forms Mo and Moen. This form comes from Old Norse mór, which came to mean ‘plain' or ‘moor’ in Norwegian and 'sandy heathland' in in Swedish.

Moe (?), n.

A wry face or mouth; a mow.

© Webster 1913.

Moe, v. i.

To make faces; to mow.

© Webster 1913.

Moe, a., adv., & n. [AS. ma See More.]

More. See Mo.

Shak.

© Webster 1913.