On the other end of the scale is my name, which both first and last, is so common and bland that there are pages of me in any decent sized metropolitan area. James Williams. How common, eh?
Waaaaay back when I worked in an office, there was a lady there named “Tatiana”. She said it “tot ee AH nuh” (more or less). Everyone called her “Tot” for a while. Then “Tot” became “Tater”. I don’t know why.
Betcha can’t guess my name! 
Dug out from the snow this morning - just in time to be interviewed by channel 4. About the snow? Nope - there was a woman found murdered in one of the buildings in my complex. Gonna be jumpy about every noise when I go to sleep tonight, I am sure.
Susan
What? You’re my Father-in-Law?
I think it’s pretty cool and distinguished-souding, Homebrew. Very dignified.
Happy Birthday FCM!
Didja all miss me? That funny noise I reported last Monday was the sound of the power supply fan breaking, so I was computerless all week, and Mr. Lissar spent until 3 last night fixing it. SO i haven’t been online AT ALL for a whole week! Aagh!
I have a fascinatingly exotic-sounding name, especially because I haven’t changed my last name yet on account of the minister writing down that Mr. Lissar was marrying someone different on our wedding certificate. Did that make any sense? I didn’t think so. Unfortunately, everyone mispronounces my name. It will be exciting when I have got my last name legally changed, because it might be pronounce-able.
Right. My full name is Kyra Mariko Matsui. Isn’t that cool? Doesn’t it sound like I made it up? I didn’t. And my first name is pronounced K-ear-ra, NOT K-eye-ra. Like Keira Knightley, except I’m not a superstar.
I think my granddads got you all beat. One was named Hobart. The other was Forney Hybritt [last name]. My dad is Ernest Ray [last name] and one of his brothers is Erston James [last name]. I was almost Junior. My dad tortured mom by telling her my sister was going to be Ernestine Rayette.
Hm, in the name department I kinda got screwed. I hate my name. I’m named after one of the first Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers because my dad wanted an “American” sounding name. My mother, who is from Germany, wanted to name me Sonja if I was girl and Kirk if I had been a boy. Thank goodness I was girl! Can you imagine all the Star Trek jokes I would have had to endure if I had been a boy?
My mother’s name is Hedwig. Yes, that’s right, Hedwig. Everybody calls her Hedi (pronounced "HAY-DEE). Her first name is a name that’s passed down through the generations, usually to the eldest girl child. I am the eldest girl child, thank goodness my Mom didn’t do that to me. I did however, end up with her middle name. It isn’t too bad.
I know we’re not supposed to pull on topics from the previous week’s MMP, but I responded to some folks in there on the possible purchase of a boat and my post got eaten up. Then I couldn’t get back to the Straight Dope 'cause Mr. Taters has FUBAR’ed the computer in that we can’t get to most internet pages now, this page being one of them. He doesn’t know what he did and I’m a little peeved.
So, in response to boat questions. Yes, sailboats are nice, but you really can’t ski behind one and that’s what he wants to do. I’d be happy with a lil’ ol’ bass boat so I could just fish all the live long day, but it’ll be nice to ski and tube too. In fact, I don’t even want a stereo on the boat, I like the peace and quiet too, but hubby wants one. :rolleyes:
In response to Rue’s response on what slacks to buy: The hubby already has Dockers, tan ones, but they’re too big and he wanted something different. He ended up really liking the slacks I bought for him.
In current news, the dinner train excursion was nice. I bought a bottle of wine at the winery and hope I like it. The food on the train was pretty good and the service was stellar.
Well, yesterday we took the plunge and went back down to the boat dealership. We filled out some papers and we’ll know by Tuesday if we’re deemed worthy of financing. I’m always a pessimist when it comes to these things, although we don’t usually have problems in this dept.
HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, BIRTHDAY FCM!
Well, I should do some real work now.
I’m going to make a wild guess here - you’re Irish?
I wish I had a cool name. (Still can’t guess what it is?) I’m mayonnaise on white bread. No, not even mayonnaise - Miracle Whip on white bread. And not even a banana to liven things up.
Susan
Does she have an angry inch?
I think I got the shaft in the nickname department. My name? Douglas John Meredith. John after my grandfather and Douglas 'cause my parents thought it was pretty. However, I was unfortunately a premature baby and they felt that Douglas was far too long a name for such a tiny creature, so my parents in their infinite wisdom decided to use a shortened version around the house.
What name did they use? Doug? Noo. John? Nooo. DJ.
Yes. DJ. As in “Disc Jockey” or “Donna Jean”. I spent my entire grade school life being made fun of via the latter and I spend my times in clubs getting whiplash 'cause of the former. Needless to say, I’ve since started going by Doug to reduce my troubles.
I guess in the scheme of things I came out okay in the name department. I’ve never really been bothered by my name.
Although when I was married, my last name was Anderson. Combined with my fairly common (and long) first name, I became pretty generic white American. Plus my signature was too long to fit on most credit slips and stuff. Now that I’m back to the Italiano last name, I don’t have as much trouble.
I just got back from Chicago (well, last night was when I got back to town). I trudged through snow (not uphill) both ways and am now back to enjoying the temperate climate of Southern California. 
Or does she eat small rodents and hang out at Hogwarts?
Rue, if it’s the same Treasures of the Czar tour that came through Topeka about 10 years ago, then I’ve seen it too. Was the coronation dress worn by Empress Maria Feodorovna there? I fell in love with that dress. If I ever get married, I want that dress. And yes, I would even wear the insanely small-sized corset it would require.
My dad named me after some girl a Navy buddy was dating. My mom, on the other hand, thinks Sherri Lynn was a girl he dated while in the Navy. I tease my dad about it occasionally just to see him blush. If I had been a boy, they were going to name me John Paul (whew! No Pope jokes for me!). The Elf’s name is almost as generic as a guy can get. Paul Smith. The only name worse than that would have been John. (hee) As it is he will sometimes be asked if Paul Smith is a psuedonym.
Happy Birthday FCM!
You all crack me up. 
I don’t think she has an angry inch and I don’t think she eats small rodents or hangs out at Hogwarts.
However, being German, she has quite the fiery temper. She’s mellowed throughout the years (or maybe it’s because I moved out when I was 19 or 20 years old and I don’t have to deal with it). She still flies off the handle at the silliest stuff, but I guess we all have things that do that to us.
Up here in the PNW we are “enduring” rather balmy weather for this time of year. It got above 60 degrees last Friday and temps have been running in the 50s during the days the rest of this last weekend. In fact, because we had a large amount of rain and extreme warming, they had to close the ski areas around here.
Back to work…
Happy birthday! throws things in air
My name is so boring and mundane and pointless it makes me ashamed to be in this thread. Ashamed, I tell you. woe
Happy B-Day, FCM!
I lucked out in the name department too - I got Dan. Good, simple name. Rather common, but it was nice having two or three other Dans in class to blame for stuff. My mom’s name is Enid, which is kind of odd, and her middle name is Mary. Her maiden name initials spell out EMP, but I don’t think that stood for anything else back when she was growing up. Interestingly, her nickname is Tykee (Tye-key). No one’s really sure where that came from.
After I got out of the Army I spent a year in the Reserves. I was the company clerk, and had a whole mess of records to clear up, as the previous clerk was a lazy jerk.
Anyway, I ran across the name of one gal in our company. She told me her parents had wanted, and expected a boy, but got a girl instead. She still was named after her father, with a “feminine” sounding ending to the names.
Floydene Earlean, anyone?
In the neighborhood where I grew up, there was a group of streets called the “Old Ladies,” named for the daughters of the man who developed the area in 1910. Edith, Phyllis, Millicent, Martha, Kay, Gail, Alice and Janet. Only Janet would pass as a contemporary name; Martha, Gail and Alice could identify baby boomers and older Generation Xers, but Edith, Millicent, Phyllis and Kay sound like members of the blue-haired quilting guild at a Lutheran church.
When I lived in New Mexico, many young, hot Hispanic women had surprisingly dated “old church lady” names like Gertrude, Hortense, Agnes and Bertha.
There are tens and thousands of women in Buffalo named “Joanne.” The name itself isn’t so bad, even though it’s ubiquitous. It’s the pronunciation in a Buffalo accent that makes it ear-shattering; “Jo-HEEE-EAH-un”. Hurts my ears just to type it.
There’s the makins of a hit country song in that name.
Floydene Earlean.
The purtiest girl I ever seen.
When she drank beer she got real mean
and had the filthiest mouth in Abilene.
She was my Texas beauty queen.
Floydene Earlean.
YEHAA!!! Nashville here I come!
ahem
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR FAIRYCHATMOM!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF THE NICEST PEOPLES WE KNOOOOOOOW, YOU!!!
I’m still older than you.
I have a sorta unusual first name, Barry. My Father said I was named after a Saint Bernard.
They, (my parents), also named my brothers Gary and Terry, so I suspect some mendacity there. Of course, for many, many years I’ve been know to family and friends as ‘Bear’, or ‘Papa Bear’ to the Grandchildren. This sometimes leads to a certain amount of confusion amongst certain people who have relatively recently misappropriated my nickname for their own nefarious purposes. (not naming any names here, Laay-mon.) But I’ve gotten used to it, which is good, 'cause my middle name is my Dad’s name, so I couldn’t use that. I could now, though, 'cause he’s gone. He died the way all Merikan men want to die, in his easy chair in front of the TV with the remote in his hand.