Sad Names

[Slava]

Every once in a while someone will write one of these columns. Here's the latest I've come across:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7909561.stm

One of my favorite name coincidences was Cardinal Sin, the Archbishop of Manila.

There's also the NASCAR driver: Dick Trickle.

[sluggo]

This is always loads of pun

I made up a couple of names for radio colleagues- Myra Flection was one, although the last name is a stretch. And this was the basis of my stage name Jerry Grette in the Basin Street Sheiks.

But a colleague made up her own radio name that I've always envied: Jenny Saykwa. I think she used it for doing news.

[saparris]

There is a child in my home town whose first name is Abcde, which is pronounced Absuhdee.

Gaye Hooker, Robin Hood, and Pete (short for Peter) Smellie live here, too. Blue Eye Jones used to (RIP).

We also have an orthodontist named Smiley, a plastic surgeon named Stretcher, and a minister named Hank Williams.

[Slava]

There is also that poor, poor girl from NZ whose parents named her "Talula Does The Hula from Hawaii." Sick, sick, sick. Heck, they can't even spell the name right.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7522952.stm

[saparris]

My wife has been a kindergarten teacher for 30 years. Through the years, she has taught "Lady" (her real name), Man (also real), and Dookie Wannamaker (a nickname, but the child didn't answer to his real name because he didn't know it).

[saparris]

Of course, we have Cotton Mather and his son, Increase Mather, both of whom were well known and well educated.

[LukeJavan8]

And there was the girl somewhere south
named D-shan, the mother insisting the "hyphen"
be pronounced, thus, Dashan, or Dash-shan.

[saparris]

And there was the girl somewhere south named D-shan, the mother insisting the "hyphen" be pronounced, thus, Dashan, or Dash-shan.

You might be thinking of a recent story about a child named Le-a, pronounced Ledasha. That was in Kansas City, although we have our share of strange names and spellings here.

I find many African-American children's names unusual, but I also think it is a cultural phenomenon that other people just don't get. The phenomenon is simply too widespread to be anything else.

[LukeJavan8]

I had many African-American youths in school and
many had names that were far from the Ordinary
European one a person might expect. I think it is
creating a cultural identity, and I applaud it. And it
is spreading to surnames as well.

And of course there is the "rappers" and their names:
Ice T, LL Cool J, etc.

[saparris]

Is there a name sadder than Dolores, which means sorrows or pains in Latin and Spanish?

[LukeJavan8]

Dolorosa?
Dolorita?
Variations of pain. When one is hurting, it hurts.

[Stargzer]

Several years ago someone called and asked to speak to Sarah Brady. I gave the phone to my wife, then heard her say, "You never sent me any money!"

Some little old lady in Idaho or one of the Dakotas, I can't remember which now, had been sending money to Sarah Brady, wife of James Brady, President Reagan's Press Secretary who was shot and disabled when John Hinkley tried to assassinate President Reagan on March 30, 1981.

That Sarah Brady, of course, is better known for her role in Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. This person had been calling around looking for that Sarah Brady. Now, I do have a brother named James, but my wife is Sarah.

After she hung up, I thought that maybe she should have told the woman that her address and changed, and to send the checks to us ...


[This Brady would prefer to prevent handgun violence from a distance, using a rifle of suitable caliber.]

[skinem]

Is there a name sadder than Dolores, which means sorrows or pains in Latin and Spanish?

Yes, my grandmother's name...Elsie Odeline. Really.

Then, she married Lerman, my grandpa.

Both beautiful names, huh?

The funniest real names of people I've personally known were Forrest Wood. The third. Yup, the third.

Guy N. Woods.

Penny Tenpenny.

Mary Derryberry (married name).

I, too, used to teach and we used to joke that it seemed many kids were named after cars...Camino, Chevelle, Impala, Belair, among others. Usually Chevys for some reason.

[saparris]

Yes, my grandmother's name...Elsie Odeline. Really.

My father's first and middle names were "Ralph Hazzle." We chose not to name a child after him. We also chose not to use a few other family names, including Dugar, Lamar, Julene, Hazel, or Romero.

[LukeJavan8]

Chevy?
I too had a number of students named Chevy.
Probably after the comedian Chevy Chase.
I really get stares and "no ways" when I tell
people there is a suburb of WashDC named
Chevy Chase. It is in Maryland. The actor
must have some connection to the city.

I had a student (and this name is not sad)
named Thomas Reynolds Lastname the Eighth (VIII).
Ancestor got off the Mayflower. Not so sad and
something to be proud of. Hope he keeps the
name going.