People with funny names

[Waddley]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned good ol' Mike Hunt. That's an unfortunate name. Or lucky, depending on who's calling it out, I suppose.

[Auleliel]

There was a family of kids in my high school who were all named after geographical regions. The parents just pointed randomly at an atlas before the kids were born and if it sounded okay that became the name. The two who went there when I went there were Sahara (girl) and Denmark (boy). At least they matched girl-sounding names with girls and boy-sounding names with boys. Unfortunately I don't remember the names of any of their siblings.

[Prebe]

The two who went there when I went there were Sahara (girl) and Denmark (boy).

Pontius Pilate: "What's so funny about... Denmark?"

A nameless centurion: "Well, it's a joke name sir. Like Sillious Soddus or Biggus Dickus."

Wow! A new one:

Hugh Johnson

(I assume that you have all heard of the venerable scottish cattle breeder Wille Stroker?)

[aliantha]

I hadn't, Prebe, but I have now!

I just remembered another one -- we have an attorney here at the firm whose last name is Crook.

[Prebe]

Heh! Now that opens a new category: people with names that allude to their profession. Alas, I know only Danish examples of that (unless you count the french bicyclist Laurent Roux).

[Cail]

I had a neighbor named Andrew McAndrew.

[wayfriend]

There's Dick Swett, a former congressman from New Hampshire. (true)

During the primaries, McCain criticized Romney for contributing money to Democratic campaigns, including Mr. Swett's. (true).

The Headline? "McCain smears Romney with Dick Swett".

[Cameraman Jenn]

My friend Heatherly's last name is Stankey. It's sadly true. When she and Julie and I were roomies the land line was in her name and so when I would call people from the landline their caller id would read "Stankey, Heat" We have also had great fun imagining her hyphenating her name, for example, if she was to marry Brad Pitt she would become Heatherly Stankey-Pitt. Or if she married a chinese guy who's last name was Ho she would be Stankey-Ho. I could go on forever.

[stonemaybe]

Some of my fave names, that I've come across at work.... Jane Payne, Cyril Shuck, there's a kid called (one word) Jimihendrix, more will come....

[DukkhaWaynhim]

In the Indianapolis area, for years, there was a personal injury attorney whose TV ads were "Stanley Kahn - sometimes a name says it all". Now, *I* know that Kahn can mean Ruler, Leader, Priest - but in the great unrefined Midwest, I'm sure most people are thinking "Stanley Con?!"

dw

[Prebe]

"McCain smears Romney with Dick Swett".

Priceless!!

[Nav]

I used to work with a nurse called Cherry Pye, we used to make "mighty fine" jokes all the time but she never got it.

[lurch]

well the great pitcher for the DiamondBacks...Randy Johnson..his local media nickname is..The Big Unit,,,,honest to god!

[dlbpharmd]

There's Dick Swett, a former congressman from New Hampshire. (true)

During the primaries, McCain criticized Romney for contributing money to Democratic campaigns, including Mr. Swett's. (true).

The Headline? "McCain smears Romney with Dick Swett".

Oh, that's great!

My best friend's last name is Madewell. We call her Made-very-well.

[Prebe]

I used to work with a nurse called Cherry Pye, we used to make "mighty fine" jokes all the time but she never got it.

You're kidding???

Once again, a Monty Python sketch springs to mind:

A: Ah Hello, Im Bounder of Adventure.
C: Hello, my names Smoketoomuch.
A: What?
C: My names Smoketoomuch, Mr. Smoketoomuch.
A: Well <humouredly> youd better cut down a little then.
<pause>
C: Im sorry?
A: Youd better cut down a little then.
<pause>
C: Oh I see! Smoketoomuch so Id better cut down a little then.
A: Yes <laughing> I expect you get people making jokes about
your name all the time.
C: No actually. It never struck me before. Smoketoomuch. Tahaha
heh heh.

Randy Johnson

[Reave the Unjust]

A friend of mine has the surname of Hiscock.

Her husband's name is Paul.

[Nav]

I can only guess she'd never seen Twin Peaks, the thing we couldn't get over was that it wasn't her married name; Mr and Mrs Pye actually chose to call their daughter Cherry.

They have a law in France that allows the state to sue parents who choose an inappropriate name for their child and a couple were actually fined a few years ago for naming their daughter Cerise.

Perhaps the US should adopt similar legislation to prevent this kind of thing.
I'm not sure what's uglier, the name or the baby.

[stonemaybe]

^ that's just wrong!

A work colleague of mine, Ann, told me yesterday that her maiden name was Nutter.

Where I work is quite close to Gloucester, and every now and then we see prescriptions from Dr. Foster, from Gloucester. Honest.

But my fave local doc name is Dr. Healy.

[Nav]

I used to work with a Dr Healy, sadly she's better known by her married name of Dr Kate McCann.

[onewyteduck]

I grew up with one of those "funny names" so I do try to not poke fun about them......sometimes I fail.

I looked up the name Dick Head (used exact match search) in the 1930 US Federal Census (last one publically available. 1940 will be available in 2012) There were three of them. One living in Kentucky, one in Montana and one in Oklahoma. It wasn't a common name then, either!