[cdn-nucl-l] Atomic age leads to nuclear name for filmmaker

["Adam McLean" <adam.mclean@utoronto.ca>]

Posted in the Bakersfield Californian by the Associated Press on
November 19, 2002 and at:
http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/entertainment/story/626331p-4803895c.h
tml
The story behind the name of a famous Canadian...

Adam

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Atomic age leads to nuclear name for filmmaker

The Associated Press 

Tuesday November 19, 2002, 03:45:00 AM 

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The dawn of the atomic age in Egypt resulted in
filmmaker Atom Egoyan's unusual first name.

Egoyan was born in 1960 in Cairo, around the time that nuclear power
plants began opening in Egypt.

"My parents had the idea that here was this new source of energy, so it
would be great to name their son after it. Sort of a vaguely hippie-ish
idea," Egoyan, 42, said in an interview with The Associated Press last
week to promote his film "Ararat."

"Atom" also was a close variant of "Adom," a classical name among
Egoyan's Armenian ancestors. Since his first name was pronounced like
"Adam," it created a running joke when Egoyan's parents named his sister
Eve.

"Ararat" explores Armenian history through the eyes of modern
descendants coping with Turkey's denial that genocide was carried out
against Armenians during World War I.

Egoyan's family immigrated to Canada when he a boy, and he found his
first name an obstacle to fitting in among Canadians.

"When I was a kid, all I wanted to be called was 'Tom,'" Egoyan said. "I
just wished my parents had not given me the burden of this unusual name.
That was the last thing I needed with my desire to assimilate."