What's in a name?

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 8:14 pm

blackhawk wrote:
Wombat wrote:Could have been worse, Jim. Frank Zappa named his kids Dweezil and Moon Unit. How perverse can you get? Faced with a choice between those two, which would you choose? He called the boy Dweezil and the girl Moon Unit but I know of no convention that dictated that one was for girls and the other boys.
I feel sorry for Dweezil.

Yours truly,

Darvis (my real name...sorry)

There was a former coworker who gave each of his three children (2 boys and a girl) first names that were totally random collections of syllables - his rationale was that they would NEVER be confused with anyone else. He did give them each a more-ordinary middle name so they would have something to fall back on.

But he wasn't too sympathetic to the "odd name" argument - his parents had immigrated from the Netherlands when he was in his early teens, and nobody he met in the US was ever able to pronounce his own name (Maarten) to his complete satisfaction. Though I doubt he took too much teasing - he rather resembled (in body, not face) a silverback gorilla wearing a suit.

Of course, he had many other somewhat unusual ideas. I used to think that he never changed clothes; turned out he owned about half a dozen blue pinstripe suits (same material and cut) and all his shirts were white. He claimed it saved him a great deal of time in the morning - he always took the suit and shirt from the left side of the closet, and never had spend any time worrying if they went together.

A great guy, really - I should look him up. I'm curious whether the kids are still using the names he gave them, since by now they're probably in their late 20s. (I know how *I'd* bet, though. He's lucky if he didn't live out the last part of "A Boy Named Sue")

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 8:52 pm

I've always been grateful that I had an older brother, because he's the one who got stuck with "Clymer Lewis Wright, Jr." He swore he'd never do such a thing to his kid, but guess who's named "Clymer Lewis Wright, III"--and goes by "Buddy". (An elderly aunt once sent us a Christmas card addressed to "Climber Wright and Family".)

My father's family came to Texas from Tennessee and Missouri, which must account for my grandmother and her sister being named "Mary Johnny" and "Jessie Mae", respectively. My mother's youngest brother was several years old before they decided on a name for him, so he was always known as "Son" to everyone in the family. His nieces and nephews even called him "Uncle Son".

On the other hand, the vast majority of my cousins were named Robert (3), Thomas (2), or Jeff (two)--and one David. (Oddly enough, I don't seem to have any female cousins.)

My father's father was "Riley Wright", but his stepfather was "Alpha Meyer Cohen", which is a pretty heavy monicker for someone from East Texas.

Lots of folks have odd middle names. My favorite was a college roommate with "Swope" in the middle. I used to try to convince people that it was the past tense of "swoop" (as in swoop, swope, swopen).

I was given a simple "Michael Lee", but when I joined the Army, one of the recruiters looked at my birth certificate and discovered that it had been entered as "Michal Lee". The Army insisted that that was my legal name, and I figured it would at least be less common (and one less letter to write), so I've stuck with that spelling. "Michael L. Wright" is a surprisingly common name, so having an uncommon spelling has turned out to be useful on a couple of occassions. The only problem is that people can't figure out how to pronounce it--and I've had a couple of people "correct" it on forms that I filled out.

Steven · Post by **Steven** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 9:34 am

I had a friend in college whose father was from South Africa. His name was Peter deKok. The irony just didn't exist in Africaans.

Steven

janice · Post by **janice** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 9:56 am

Prior to my divorce, I was Janice Crewe (ex's name)...my line used to be "It's not just anyone who can be a catalogue!" Not only that, I ordered most of my clothes from J.Crew (still do),and I always thought that they should have given me some kind of a discount, but they never saw it that way!

Two other unrelated name items-A couple who were friends of my parents were named "Tony and Dawn Orlando." They always sign their Christmas cards (you guessed it!) Tony Orlando and Dawn.

And I'll never forget this from fourth grade Sunday School-my teacher's name was Mrs. _ucker (I'm not kidding...all the little boys used to snicker, the rest of us were clueless). In retrospect, I've always wondered two things: 1) why she didn't change her name, and 2) what her ancestors did for a living.

amar · Post by **amar** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 10:19 am

janice wrote:
And I'll never forget this from fourth grade Sunday School-my teacher's name was Mrs. _ucker (I'm not kidding...all the little boys used to snicker, the rest of us were clueless). In retrospect, I've always wondered two things: 1) why she didn't change her name, and 2) what her ancestors did for a living.

hahahaha...my god...that can't be...and even SUNDAY SCHOOL...holy cow...

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 10:24 am

janice wrote:
And I'll never forget this from fourth grade Sunday School-my teacher's name was Mrs. _ucker (I'm not kidding...all the little boys used to snicker, the rest of us were clueless). In retrospect, I've always wondered two things: 1) why she didn't change her name, and 2) what her ancestors did for a living.

I have two theories on this. First, it might be one of many variants on Fulcher. There are about a dozen common ones including Fucher and Foker. It means 'people's army.'

The other is that it is an Anglicisation of some foreign name pronounced the same way, surely done in complete innocence of what it meant in English. Well, you would hope so, wouldn't you?

jenaceae · Post by **jenaceae** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:28 pm

My Ex wanted to name our son Socrates...well, it probably would have ended in Sock for short( and socrates in Berkeley just wouldn't have been nice!). We went with Alexander to keep the strong name, however "alexandeeeeer" brings about 5 boys running every time.

I have the jennifer name which when in my youthful prime was the name of every other blonde debutant. I suppose I could have passed for one, but promptly cut my hair short and dyed it black. Never could think of a new name to change it to.

Jenn

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 1:15 pm

Try being an "Audrey" born in 1961. Despite Audrey Hepburn's acting success, no one ever seemed to "get" that "Audrey" is a real name...I got used to answering to "Andrea." Things got a little better when "The Big Valley" came out...people started calling me "Audra."

My friends, alas, called me "Oddball." Worse than that, they always tacked the year onto it..."Oddball '72," for example.

What I hated most, however, was having my name abbreviated to "Aud" (which, of course, comes out sounding like "Odd"). It may be true, but who want people shouting it out across a crowded mall?

My middle name is "Ella," and that came in for its share of problems too. Most people assumed it was supposed to be "Ellen," so I got used to seeing "Andrea Ellen Wilkerson" on my junk mail. (Actually, the "Wilkinson" variation of my surname was better known in those days, thanks to "Wilkinson bonded razor blades," so often my junk mail came to "Andrea Ellen Wilkinson.") Those of my peers who knew it was "Ella" took to calling me "Ella gorilla."

I wish I could say I'd done better by my daughter, but she's stuck with a tough one too. We wanted to name her "Joanna" or "Johanna" but got stuck on which. When I went into labor, I just decided to call her "Joanna" and leave it at that. Unfortunately, what I wrote on the hospital form was "Johanna." So now she's a "Johanna" whose name is pronounced "Joanna." We just call her "Jo."

Redwolf

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 1:43 pm

Would this be a good time to point out there was (maybe still is - I don't know) a Cardinal in the Phillipines named: Jaime Sin.

That's right - "Cardinal Sin"

Ouch!

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 1:54 pm

My last name is Deese. You'd think this would be easy, there's only 3 letters. It's the repeating that's a problem.
I once got a pizza delivered, and on the box was typed "Name: Decsv" Try pronouncing that one! :roll:

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 2:20 pm

I don't know how I omitted my friend Bernice Aikens. Bernice is a pretty horrible name to stick on a little girl, but it's even worse when it's little boy. I'm pretty sure it was a big factor in his ending up as an NCO in the 82d Airborne Division. Of course, he went by "Bernie".

Bernie was a Bluegrass fiddle player, and we eventually ended up with a band (with me on banjo). Our guitar player, Chic (pronounced "Chick"--which was a nickname, not a given name) Manus, told about how soon after he and Bernie first met, they decided to go to a Bluegrass festival together. For some reason, these macho airborne troopers decided to stay in a motel, instead of camping out.

Now, Chic's wife, Connie, hadn't met Bernie yet. When she called the motel and asked for Chic Manus, the desk clerk says, "Manus...Manus...Oh, yes. He's sharing a room with Bernice Aiken..."

Needless to say, Connie freaked out. She started yelling at Chic as soon as he came on the phone. He had to get Bernie to talk to her to convince her that he really was a guy--and had to introduce him and get him to show her his Army ID card as soon as they got back to Ft. Bragg.

I had a male friend in high school who was called "Connie". I think it was short for "Conrad". (There was also a male character named "Connie" in The Grapes of Wrath.)

Oh, and there was a girl in college whose last name was "Titsworth".

Why is it that women can have a traditionally male name and wear traditionally male clothing without anyone blinking, but reverse the sexes and everyone thinks it's strange?

Forrest Aguirre · Post by **Forrest Aguirre** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 4:07 pm

I suppose I have a penchant for unusual names. My children's names are:

Issaka Leigh Aguirre (Girl)
Kaiser Waring Aguirre (Boy)
Hayden Neil Aguirre (Boy)
Oakleigh Dellin Aguirre (Boy)

They all seem very comfortable with their names. We don't really use nicknames around our house, though "Kaiser" occasionally becomes "Kai".

Forrest

PS: In case you're wondering, my last name is pronounced "Uh-Gary", as if you are trying to get the attention of a person named Gary, just without the doubtful intonations.

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 4:53 pm

I have a good friend whose last name is Over. When she was having her first child, we use to join in on the fun of helping her pick out names for her child. One fellow worker had a couple names that gave us a good laugh...for a girl--Annie, and Menachum, for a boy...named after Menachem Began, the ex Prime Minister of Isreal.

So annie over vs. knock'm over.

Back to Jim's Stone's name...where did James Stoner come from, you know the author...is the R for a pen name? I kinda like those books by Stoner and Freeman!

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:34 pm

Many of my friends pronounced my name colly. It's that good old Maryland accent. Of course this led to me being called Dogs. I was Dogs from about 4 years old until I was 16 and moved away. It isn't as bad as it could be I guess. My friends by the way were named Bull, Pinhead, Bobo, etc.

Ron

Post by **Dale** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 6:30 pm

Hm. Wisely. Good luck finding much interesting. Due to the fact that my great grandfather Dan Wisely was a drifter (a loner, the kind of guy you don't want to get mixed up with, Baby), it's hard to trace back very far and I haven't tried much. I know there are Wiselys in England. I know there are a lot in Singapore and I have no idea what that's all about. I think some in Australia. But, I don't even know the nationality, or if there is one.

I have lots of relatives who spell it Wisley.