Unusual Names

I just heard of my favorite names on the radio, Gurf Morlix. He's a guitarist producer that produced albums by Slaid Cleaves, Rod Picott, The Kennedys, and Lucinda Williams to name a few. It sounds like he should come from Mars. Slaid said that as far as he knew that is Gurf's real name.

Another fun class of names is the appropriate ones. When you go from NJ to Staten Island you can go over the Outerbridge Crossing. You might think it was named that because it is the Outer Bridge. You'd be wrong. George Outerbridge was the first director of the Port Authority, that agency that mangages the bridge.

What are some good names you've heard?

My mistake, Gurf didn't produce a Rod Picott album, he just co-wrote one song on Tiger Tom Dixon's Blues.

Harry Anus (no lie)

Heh.� I have a friend who can't stop laughing when she starts, and once she went to a funeral.� While at the cemetary (that doesn't look like it's spelled right), she came across a stone with the name "Harry Balls" written on it.� You can see where it goes from here.

heheheh! although that is not as funny if you don't pronounce Harry like "hairy."� (as is the case for me)� but i suppose if i�pretended I was�affecting an english accent . . . . .

How do you pronounce Harry? Webster's has the same pronunciation for both words...

really? . . interesting . . . . . Okay. I pronounce it with the short "a" like that in "apple," "cat," (unless you're from the midwest. then i dont know what words to use)� . . . . Instead of "hairy" . . or. . .�basically the way they pronounce it in the movie, just a little less british.

continuing on the harry thread, my cousin's ex boyfriend was Harry Butt... what kind of parents are these??

I get it. My mom, who grew up in NY pronounced it that way for me, but she really had to exaggerate it before I heard it. I still think the connection to Hairy Balls isn't much of a stretch, especially if you read it.

Two brothers at my old high school: Nam and Viet. Not twins.

Dimple.

Mohammed Islam.

Aquanetta.

The oft-rumored but never-encountered Placenta.

Zishan Zishan.

Jimmy Hendricks.

Cmdr. Richard Head (Navy. Coast Guard? I'm pretty sure that's his rank, I could be wrong.)

Oh. And these aren't strange, per se, but these names make me quite happy because the people are great and they're fun to say: Nitsa, Zilpha, Renita :)

RIMBO!��I love my (last) name.� If my band ever becomes moderately successful, I'm going to drop my first name altogether.

By the way, when watching ROTK, keep your ears open for me.� When preparing for the final battle, Aragorn actually calls out commands to "Rimbold," but it sounded close enough for me and my wife to stand up in the theatre and say, "Yes?"� We were really into the movie at that point.� We really would have done anything he told us to.

I can't swear to it but i"m guessing the name is actually Grimbold as that is a character in the book.

There ya go.� Still sounded like me, though.

I wish Aragorn gave a command to a "Tanya"

SIGH

Sit Tanya! Good girl.

"Tanya" is elvish for "stop"....

now, it would probably be in your best interest not to ask how or why I know that :D

Not to outnerd, but it means "that."

it depends,really.. are we talking Sindarin or Quenya here?... and since you know what I'm talking about... do you want to be my friend?

I am not aware of it being an Elvish word at all but if it were it would most likely be Quenya. Most Quenya words end with a vowel, most Sindarin with a consonent.

I just checked it isn't in my Elvish-English dictionary.

Sorry, I only have a Klingon dictionary... I looked it up on the net, and got a number of hits on Elvish phrases & poetry. No idea of their reference material, but here's one page that claims it's Quenya:

Click me!

OK I found my more definitive Quenya dictionary and it has

Tana: To show, indicate. Also the demonstrative "that." I really should do more research but right now I'm too lazy. Too bad my Tolkien Language Group disbanded.

You know an Aquanetta?! I thought that was just something that this guy made up... it was awful, he was saying that that was proof that black parents just pick an object and add extra vowels. :o/

Aquanetta is either caucasian, hispanic, or biracial (I can't tell) and she works in my scary supermarket.

There was a girl named Dimple in my kindergarten class. She used to beat me up.

I've knpwn a Joy and a Faith.

In a workshop I was in there was a Memory, a Faith and...some month. Maybe January? And they were all working together in a small-group activity and when they presented to the large group they introduced themselves and added, "and we're all abstract nouns, isn't that cool?"

I've known Joy, Faith, Hope, Charity, and Chastity (the last two were twins)... but I never thought of the names as odd.

My best friend in 8th grade was named Faith. That was not fun. :P

I once knew a Dawn Joy and she was constantly teased for being named after two dish detergents

HEY I also know a Dawn Joy! From Northern Canada??

:D

*hugs* thank you.

an italian guy went nutso over my name last week, how do you spell that? where is it from? what are it's roots? where did your parents get it? and so on. it was wild.

I have a freind who was getting hit on by an Italian guy, and when he asked her her name, she said "Bertha." He called her "Berta" and said that he'd never heard such beautiful name. Yeah right.

:)

this guy wasn't trying to hit on me. he's a friend of my sister's godparents. plus his wife was there ;)

I forgot to mention that my friend in the story above is named Denise.

Ping Zhang

Sounds like sound effects. :D

heh...I know a Jian Ping Zhang that worked with me at my old job. :)

I had a friend who was teaching preschool in inner-city Detroit. Parents come with their kids for the first day at this school.

She was reading off attendance, and saw the following:

Lemonjello Wilson
Orangejello Wilson

"Uh, Lemon Jell-O and Orange Jell-O Wilson?"

Their mother -- they were twins -- got rather upset. "Excuse you! That's leMON'jeLO" and orAN'jeLO"!"

Like I said, more of an audible thing. "orANjeLO" cracks me up every time.

HA!� This is weird -- I've heard of that . . . I'm from the Detroit area, . . . but I can't say where I've heard that before . . . maybe from you . . . arrgh.

*cracks up*

that's like the yo-kid version of hyacinth bucket, i think.

Pardon me, but it's pronounced Bucket.

(I guess it *is* more of an audible thing...)

Are you sure that's not just a joke? Paul's been telling me the same story for a coupla years now. :) (I think he tried to tell it at FRFF one year, too)

only not...

Well, shoot. Thanks for pointing that out; now I'm going to have to go confront a friend who I haven't talked to since a wedding last year, and won't see again until another wedding this year.

D'oh. Not the first time I've been snookered by a good story.

D'oh. Not the first time I've been snookered by a good story.

well, those are the best ones, aren't they? if they weren't believable, they probably wouldn't be as entertaining. :)

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.htm

Sorry, Sheryl.� A little late, there.� *points to Lawrence's post*

Oh that is so weird!

I'm not sure how we heard of that, but last year that same story, about people named lemonjello and orangejello (pronounced le-MON-jelo and or-RANGE-jelo), found its way to me and my roommates. We all ended up with jello names, I had completely forgotten about this until just now. I was limejello (la-Mig-elo), my roommate was strawberryjello, and my other two roomates were lemonjello and orangejello.

weird.

There is an astronomer named Starfield. That had to affect his career choice.

There was an english teacher in my HS named "Miss English."

Apparently, that's not that uncommon, for someone to have their name be their profession later in life.

To prove my point, I also had a health/gym teacher named Dick Butts, and he was an arsehole. ;o)

The staff shrink at my college was "Dr. Sane."

There was , might still be, Cardinal Sin in the Phillipines.

I've always loved the name of the Karen Horney Clinic.

My clarinet teacher's name is Melodey.

Not so much a strange name, but my band teacher was named Mr. Hollander.� When "Mr. Holland's Opus" came out, some kids did a mock-up of the movie poster as �"Mr. Hollander's Faux Pas."� It was quite funny.

Who needs a pen name when you have my name! It totally rocks! I even have my own web site, http://www.jandrewworld.com how cool is that?

My daughter has�that awsome name, too, Maddie World, and my wife also seem to have that same last name!�

It's�a Maddie Maddie Maddie Maddie World.

.oO and I'm far away from home...Oo.

I think you're a rare person who will earn both a *groan* AND andreapoints for that. :)

i watched shrek 2 last night, & one of the animation techs was named Sunny Park. how can you ever be sad with a name like that.

also, there is a doctor's office i drive past all the time, the doctor of which is listed as D. Lovely. i hear ella fitzgerald every time.

There's a funeral home in Amsterdam, NY (on my route between home and school) run by a family named (this is my best attempt to remember the spelling) Jendrzejczak.

I do a double-take every time I pass their sign.

Dirk Niblet a character from PBS childrens show about math
Slappy Squirrel from Animaniacs

yay Square One and Animaniacs!

I still watch animaniacs with my kids my wife just shakes her head in disbelief

I once knew someone in high school named Skye Blue Davis.

I can't remember he was a captain or a lieutenent but my father served in WWII under Clark Battle Fitzgerald. How's that for a martial name?

Blonde and Little Insurance Ltd.

Dassssirght!

Kristal Ireland

we all did porn star names but her real name works just fine. She says that herself. Also good for when meeting people,
"Hey, do you know Kristal...?"etc
if you know her you do not forget her name in a hurry.

K. Eric Niedermeyer. And his trusty band of transvoicetites.

yes!! k. eric niedermeyer is still the best name ever.

In my first grade class there was a kid named Aristotle. This would have been fine except this was French-speaking Quebec, so his name was actually "Aristote"... Stop signs in Quebec say "Arr�t-Stop". Which is what he was called. Probably for his whole life.

Albertine Koko-Mpaka - this girl at my high school whose name always made me smile. "Albertine" sounds so fresh and then the last name evokes so many colours. It's crazy.

My sister had a friend in high school named Starfinder Stanley. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley were hippies, it seems, and named their kid Starfinder. Everyone called him "Starf" for short - except substitute teachers, who always looked for "Stan."

Starf sounds kinda like a vomity word.

my friend diana collects these - she works at a bank and sees some great names on accounts:

http://www.dianacook.net/the.details/names.htm

Oh yeah - and when i worked at the Coast Guard Recruiting Office in Detroit, we had a recruit whose last name was Samples.

now, coming out of boot camp, much like the navy, you are either a Seaman or a Fireman.

..he didn't make Fireman.

...poor Seaman Samples.

he'll get paged to the deck for fun. "Seaman Samples to the deck please."

I had a friend named C.J. Cupps who went into the army. He was looking forward to being called "Private Cupps."

Luckily, he was definitely the type of guy who could take it.

My friend's name is Dennis Seamen. His mother's name? Sharen.

You do the math, my friends.

Jessica Stillborn. She has one of those school sweaters with her name on the back of it... its really funny if you don't know its her name.
Autumn Noname.

... people here have really funny names. I'll see if I can remember it next time I see one.

The other day, early in the morning, I was watching the 1999 Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee. They were rerunning it on cable for some reason. Anyway, the girl who won was named Nupur Lala. I'd never heard a name like that before.

ok this is only fiction but it *so* belongs here. Taken from Neil Simon's movie "Murder by Death". The best detective/crime parody. Evah.

BENSONMUM:..... Not many people come to the manor these days. It's nice to hear guests again.
DORA: ......... Oh, thank you, er...
BENSONMUM: .... Bensonmum.
DORA: ......... Thank you, Benson.
BENSONMUM: .... No, that's Bensonmum. Jamessir Bensonmum.
DICK: ......... Jamessir?
BENSONMUM: .... Yes sir.
DICK: ......... How odd.
BENSONMUM: .... My father's name, sir.
DICK: ......... What was your father's name?
BENSONMUM: .... How-ard. Howard Bensonmum.

LOVE THAT MOVIE!!!

So do I! It's just gorgeous... And I purchased the DVD lately so it's still in my head...
Everytime I watch it�a number of �new "goodies"�come to�my attention. Oh.� I really love Truman Capote's grammar lessons. And Charlie Chan's Wang's aphorisms:

''Where are we going anyway, pop?''
''Questions like athlete's foot. After while, very irritating.''

Agreed. I will stop liek now ;)

omg, i love that movie, too. eeeee.

It's on DVD? Yay! Any good extras?

not that much. But you get an interesting interview with Neil Simon with his comments on key scenes and a filmography of the actors.

This applies to the European version of the DVD though...

That movie, although very un-PC, is hilarious!

we had to talk to someone at our headquarters in NY named "high-mee".

Little did we know it was spelled "Hymen" until we had to start sending reports to him.

Hyman used to be a fairly common Jewish first name (with the nickname hymie). And I know a few people who have it as a last name. I knew a Sharon Hyman who says her father's college nickname was "Buster."

My dad's name is Rex Morgan... so his friends called him Sex Organ.

::groans even though she's heard it before::

wait, wait, like rex morgan, md?

Actually, the comic strip character was named after my grandfather, Rex Morgan Sr. He was a officer in the army and did some famous stuff (mortician for the Nuremburg trials, was a kid's show host), and apparently the guy who created Rex Morgan M.D. heard his name somewhere and asked my grampa if he could use it for a comic strip. And it thus is history.

Vegas Strumsky.
He played Guitar.
I got to write a bass line for him once in the Theory Lab.
Uhm, yeah.

It is very true because I am him and he is I.� Crazy what you come up with when you google your own name.

Peace out my hommies

A certain crewmember on "Hey, Arnold!" has the name Tuck Tucker. I find that absolutely fabulous.
Also my good friend used to date this guy named Rich Mitchell and I always got into the habit of calling him Mitch Mitchell, because I thought that he should change his name to that.

i worked with a john johns.

and when i worked doign data entry we had some good ones in the system.

phuc huu ho.
and lots more doubles.
stephen stephens, richard richards... etc. i think parents who do that are evil and mean and should have their parenting licenses revoked. yo.

My great-grandfater was named Morgan Morgan. Whatcha gonna do about that, punk? ;o)

My friend's father came to the US with only one name, his family name, Nirmalan. When asked for his first name, he quickly came up with one: Nirm!

Nirm Nirmalan.

At my last job, there was a phlebotomist named Herhighness Wells. We would always see her signature on the phlebotomy paperwork that would come up to the lab. When we first saw the name, we thought for sure that someone down in phlebotomy had a good sense of humor.... nope, it was a real name!

my grandfather had a patient�with the given name of Queen Esther.

I knew a girl in MS by the name of Princess Snowden.

I knew a Lady. And my mother-in-law met a Herhighness. Wonder if it was the same one...

My friend told me about a couple she knows. Richard Love married a woman named Gay. The thing is Richard was known as Dick to his friends. So that's right, the couple is now Dick Love and Gay Love.

Wait....was her name Gay or game?

i'm guessing game but as a nickname it was shortened to gay.

*shrug*

Heee....if so, there was a step missing in the explanation. :) I'm easily confused.

Her name was Gay and I corrected it in the original post. Sorry, sometimes there is a delay between my typing and the letters coming up on the screen which leads to even more ridiculous typos than I usually make.

I always thought Jian Ghomeshi was a funny name.. god.. who would name their kid Jee-ahn?

*is entirely jesting*

My cousin Rita married Mort Creeda, making her Rita Creeda.
And Jack LaLanne's wife is Elaine LaLanne.

The former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island is Vincent "Buddy" Cianci (pronounced See-ann-see).� His ex-wife is named Nancy Ann.� Nancy Ann Cianci.�

Oranjello and Lemonjello. Only, since their mother was trying to be cool, they are pronounced "Oh-ron-ja-lo" and "La-mon-ja-lo." I shit you not.

Hey.

Psst.

Over here

...you'd be surprised at the number of Jean Thibault's in the phone book. Looking at the name like that really isn't that funny, but phonetically, it sounds like "gentil beau", which basically translates to "nice beautiful" ... yeah.

allrighty!!

In high school, my best friend's neighbours' daughters had um, religious names. one was:
(no word of a lie) "God's Love and Kindness" which could be an interesting acronym (glak)
Other names from various places:
America (for a girl - pronounced like the country)
Jamaykha (also for a girl - sounds like "Jamaica")
Noah Vale (say it fast - "no avail")

I guess because they're officially from another culture they're not that funny, but during my time in Africa, I met a lot of people who were named after English (and poor English) "-ness" words, such as "Goodness" or "Thankfulness" or "Loveliness."� And then of course was the guy named Michael Jackson.� No lie.� No coincidence, either.� Just named their kid after Michael Jackson.� I love African people.

last week in the birth announcments in the paper was one "Heaven Ablessin' Tyme"...i can't remember his/her last name but is was somthing common...like Perry or the like....that poor child is going to have one hell of a time in school

Perhaps s/he will go with his/her initials. HAT Perry has something of a ring to it, no?

Ok, in high school my sister had a friend named May. One day in gym May brought two friends over to my sister to introduce them:

"Adina, these are my friends April and June."

Adina started laughing. May was confused.

Before I was born my parents wanted to name me Gella Leah. One day Lenny, a friend at the synagogue asked what they were going to name the baby and my mother said "We were thinking of Gella Leah." He started to laugh and said oh, you can't name her that! "Why not?" my mom asked. "Gella Leah... GellaLeah... Galileo?" "Oh dear..."

So that's why I'm Gella Rachel.

Oh, also there's a guy at my synagogue named Phil Phillips.

And growing up I had a rabbi named Deborah Cantor. Rabbi Cantor is funny enough... but even better was that we got to call her Rebbe Debbie

Oh, and one more... there's a married couple at my synagogue... the Rabbi's brother Simkha is married to a lovely woman... also named Simkha. We call them boy-Simkha and girl-Simkha.

when my mother's mother remarried, she married a man who also already had children.

they ended up with claire the girl and clare the boy.

My Rabbi's name is Rabbi Kenter.� Not as bad as "Cantor", but keep in mind that for a bunch of years, we had Rabbi Kenter and Cantor Giventer.

Oh, and one more... there's a married couple at my synagogue... the Rabbi's brother Simkha is married to a lovely woman... also named Simkha. We call them boy-Simkha and girl-Simkha.

I knew a couple with a similar situation, except it was Tracey/Tracy.

In high school, there was a guy in my English class named Franklin Benjamin.

In addition to "God's Love And Kindness", there is a family that has a child with the name "Hosannah"

"God's Love and Kindness" is a bit more memorable as far as Odd names go.

I came *this* close to being "Moonbeam"... that's my pennance for being raised by hippies, I suppose..

My middle name is Eden..like the garden..

my boyfriend's middle name is "Kidwell".. named after his dad's friends family...

My sister's name was going to mean "Laughing Bumblebee" in hebrew

Well, I came *this* close to being named Clover. ;o)

Them damn dirty hippies. (Like I should� talk... :oD)

Theres a girl at my school named Freedom Bright. thats cool :)