The Hairy Truth- true story, cross my heart

[toughknot]

My father and his wife are both retired school teachers.Teenage pregnancy was on the rise again during their last few years of teaching and they would often tell me of unusual names the young mothers had chosen.Two that I remember are Lasagna ( It was young moms favourite food) and one chosen, as young mom explained,because it sounded exotic ,romantic and mysterious.......Latrina

[DCrom]

One of the women my wife used to work with was a young, attractive, Vietnamese lady whose English skills were still a little weak. She couldn't quite understand why her given name caused so many pained looks; after all, if you're Vietnamese, Dung is a perfectly ordinary name.

My wife went to school in Hong Kong - in her day, it was usual for every student to pick an English-language name to use since much of the instruction was in English. Though there were a few odd-sounding choices, the thing that native English speakers tend to notice is that most of the kids didn't know the customary nicknames - to them, Jim-Jimmy-James, Tony-Anthony, William-Bill-Billy, Liz-Beth-Elizabeth, etc, were completely unrelated.

I recall a conversation my wife had once with a woman from mainland China - the other woman asked if she was ashamed of her Chinese name, since she normally used an English-language name at work. My wife's reply was that she was VERY proud of her Chinese name - and didn't want the hear it mispronounced all the time. Quick quiz for non-Cantonese speakers: how would you pronounce "Seung"? I have NEVER heard a non-Chinese person get it right from the spelling alone, and most English-speakers can't quite do it even after hearing it pronounced correctly.

Getting back to non-standard names: my mother loved them. Of three brothers, only the youngest got a more-or-less standard given name. But she got him with the middle name. We are, oldest to youngest:

Dana Lee (Not too bad, but there was a period I went by "Lee")

Cameron Charles (He didn't mind unti he was told Cameron means "Gourd Nose" in Gaelic. True or not, that one hurt - he's always been a bit sensitive about his schoz)

Eric Kindel (Not bad except he's a flaming redhead - imagine all the times he's been called "Eric the Red" or been asked to kindle a fire with his hair)

I love my mother dearly. But what was she thinking? Was she trying to get even for labor pains?

[Nanohedron]

I have a couple of favorites...

I knew a guy in college named Martin Filardi, but naturally, everyone called him Marty Filardi

I personally knew an old man in a nursing home named Harry Cox...

And my favorite "almost"-- my aunt tells the story from her nursing school days of an undereducated woman who had just given birth to a little girl. She had heard the doctors and nurses talking and liked the sound of a word they used so much that she wanted to name her new baby Meconium.... they talked her out of it (Google if necessary!). Oh, by the way, the family name was Brown !!!

What about that one basketball player, Thalamus McGhee? His folks apparently must've thought it sounded Classical or something, enough so that it led them to name their son after a gland.

[BrassBlower]

There is an insurance agent in my town by the name of Richard Organ.

There is also a woman named Suzanne Tripp who operates, naturally, a travel agency!

[anniemcu]

I met a young man in AZ years ago who had the not altogether inapproriate name of Hugh Fox... he was quite handsome, very sharp and actually quite grounded... I remember he noted that I was certainly not the last of those and commented, "You have no sense of mortality."... I denied it at the time, but it was a strong lesson once I finally got a grip on it. I'll never forget that.

[Wanderer]

One of the women my wife used to work with was a young, attractive, Vietnamese lady whose English skills were still a little weak. She couldn't quite understand why her given name caused so many pained looks; after all, if you're Vietnamese, Dung is a perfectly ordinary name.

I used to work with a Vietnamese lady named Phuc.

Also went to high school with a guy named Michael Hunt (Mike Hunt).

[BillChin]

Here are a couple of almosts:
Last name Glynn, dad wanted to name the son Huckleberry, and called him that despite mom's protest. Last name Wood, mom wanted to name daughter Holly, who knows what that might have brought.

I remember calling information to get a friend's phone number, last name Fuchs, rhymes with books, but when I spelled it out to the operator she hung up after F-u-c.

I also know a Long Dong.
+ Bill

[Wombat]

There's also Miles Long, Randy Bull and Rock Hard.

Well, Ok, I'll admit I just made them up off the top of the head.

[Roger O'Keeffe]

I wouldn't believe this if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. The phone directory of the organisation in which I work used to have a Mr Penis and a Mme Vagina.

Working in a multicultural environment can be fun.

[brewerpaul]

I had a patient whose first name was Rhodeen. I asked him about the source of the name and he said "There was an artist by that name)-- I didn't have the heart to tell him it should be Rodin...

Years ago in Gloucester MA, there was a lawyer named, I promise, Morris D Katz.

[dubhlinn]

For many years there was a Chinese Take-away in Dublin called "Phoo Kyu".
Local legend had it that there was a misunderstanding between the owner and the signwriter.

I once had a flat nearby and when asked what was for dinner my standard reply was...Phoo Kyu.

Slan,
D.