That’s as may be but her grandfather was well-known mathematician Fritz John. He was German born.
I have noticed that Haitians often have family names as first names and frequently common first name as family name. For example, my wife had a colleague named Asselin Charles. When I was in HS I had a classmate named Coleman Paul and boy didn’t have a hard time getting it straight with other people. Not that he was Haitian.
Yes, we wandered off topic pretty quickly.
So to get back on track, here are the ten most common surnames in America and eight people who have them as their first name:
Smith Cho
Johnson Beharry
Williams - couldn’t find anyone with the first name Williams
Brown Holmes
Jones Leandro
Miller Huggins
Davis Webb
García Íñiguez
Rodriguez - couldn’t find anyone with the first name Rodriguez
Wilson Pickett
Williams Pérez (because I knew there **had **to be a Venezuelan guy named that).
I know it’s a stretch, but Rodriguez.
Some of these given names seem odd. “St.John,” “St.George,” etc. weren’t too uncommon as a given name (often but not always they were mother’s maiden surname); for example St.George Ussher, a distant cousin of the famous Bishop Ussher. When St.George was elevated to the Irish House of Lords and given his maternal grandfather’s title, he became known as
St George St George, 1st Baron Saint George. :eek:
At least two great-grandsons of Henry Wriothesley were given the name “Wriothesley,” not as bad as it seems perhaps, since it is pronounced “Risley”. (Henry Wriotheslsy was the ‘Fair Youth’ made famous in the poems written by his prospective father-in-law.)
Meriwether Lewis (the Lewis of Lewis and Clark) had his mother’s maiden name as a first name.
And speaking of Clark’s, there’s that infamous space alien who goes by the pseudonym Clark Kent.
Those of you of a certain age may remember McGeorge Bundy, who was National Security Advisor under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
He got his unusual name from his grandfather, who was also named McGeorge Bundy. And he got the name from his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth McGeorge.
Speaking of US Presidents, how about Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Gamaliel Harding, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
There’s the former President of Nigeria with one of the coolest names ever, Goodluck Jonathan!
There’s a musician in North Carolina named Jones Smith (current band) and his brother used to be in a band with a drummer that had “two first names” and they’d introduce the drummer as such. I forget that dude’s name tho…
Broderick Crawford
My brother did the “last name for a first name” thing with three of his kids; he has a Beck, a Jackson, and a Bailey. Beck is actually named for guitarist Jeff Beck, so it was definitely a last name before it was a first name.
My first and last names can be either first or last names. However when I was named NO ONE had my last name as a first name; also no one in our area had my first name as a last name. I am 66 and STILL I get smarmy comments from people. “Oh! You have two first names.” or “Oh! you have two last names.”
I would legally change my last name; but I can not think of one that can not also BE a first name.
Another one: Jackson Browne. Looking him up on Wikipedia, it turns out that Jackson is actually his middle name; his first name is Clyde.
Morgan Freeman is one.
My BILs first name is Wilson. He went by his middle name.
There’s a actress named Heather Tom.
My last name couldn’t be a first name unless you were seriously strange.
Come to think of it my maiden name couldn’t be a first name, either.
Cross referencing lists of the 100 most common first names and 100 most common last names:
Alexander - #47 first name, #96 last name
James - #1 first name, #71 last name
Russell - #93 first name, #97 last name
Scott - #39 first name, #34 last name
Thomas - #9 first name, #12 last name
Hunter Stockton Thompson always seemed like a perfectly normal guy. 
(First name from maternal grandmother last name, middle name from maternal grandfather’s middle name.)
I had a friend whose first and last names were both common as both first and last names. Say, Douglas James. He had his phone number listed as James Douglas, so it was in the phone book under D, as Douglas James. He didn’t need to pay the fine for having an unlisted number, he just told his friends that his name was in the phone book, but reversed.
Surely that’s a village in Bedfordshire.
I got stopped by a cop named Brian Bryan.
I commented on his name and as my surname is strange he commented on it. I didnt get a ticket, either.