I knew someone with the last name of Outhouse…OUTHOUSE!!!
You and me both. I have a “Jean-” name, which of course got pronounced like the English girl’s name, or changed to “John”. When I went to college, though, suddenly everyone around me could pronounce it perfectly (thank you, Star Trek). When I moved to Japan, once again it became impossible to pronounce (that ‘zh’ sound just doesn’t exist), and since I didn’t want to go back to being “John,” I dropped the first half altogether. It’s still on all my legal forms, but all my friends, co-workers and business contacts just know me by the last half.
You know, I have been feeling sorry for all the nice women out there named Monica. Monica is a perfectly lovely name, but it’s been kind of tarnished in the last decade or so. I’d think it would be unfortunate to suddenly find yourself saddled with a first name that makes people think of blow jobs and presidential spooge-stains.
But I met a woman today who’s name reminded me that you could have worse names than Monica. Her name was…
Lorena!
:eek:
(Yeah, if it were me, I think I’d go by Lori or something.)
Ran across someone in a database with the name Dikshit Bahl. That one comfortably exceeds my ability to smile & wave. I would change it posthaste.
For entirely different reasons, I feel the parents of Lovie Dinkins have much to answer for–good for them they aren’t MY parents.
My maiden name was Cockburn.
Pronounce it however the heck you want to. I never got around to changing it until I got married, of course, I waited until I was 32.
Just try to picture a shy, delicate, little lotus blossum of femininity saddled with that.
Yes, I kept my middle name. Funny thing though, I never, ever got asked once if I planned on keeping my maiden name.
Btw, What do I win? 
I used to work for a direct marketing company and we had a database of 160 million US names. For fun we would sometimes try to find the goofiest names. I found these people really do exist and, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they would keep these names:
Mickey Mouse
Santa Clause
Donald Duck
June Sunday
I’ve met a Candy Kane, Mary Christmas and Pete Moss (biology teacher). My wife worked with a Harold Balls and Angus Black. In Chicago we’ve had a TV reporter named Dick Johnson and a weatherman named Pete Sack.
The worst name I ever found was a girl at a hobby store. Her nametag read “A. Goodlay”. I just had to ask. Her first name was Anita. :eek:
Precious
Princess
or anything even remotely similar.
Hey, I think I ran into that guy once! 
My paternal grandpa’s Russian branch of the family had a name that sounds not too different from Lipshitz. No guessing, please, even jokingly. Anyway, I’m really glad the British naturalization service changed it.
I’ve known a Shirley Temple and a Susan Davis (same name as a local politician not thought too fondly of by the reigning Republican constituency). I’ve known worse, too, but I can’t think of any.
I’d sometimes love to change the name I have NOW, since it can be misspelled or mispronounced to be either Hispanic (which I don’t care except that I’m not)or a disease. No fun!
Azzwipe would be one I’d have to ditch.
Bizarre first names I’ve heard of are:
Vagina (pronounced Vageeena)
Abcdef (pronounced Abseday)
Shithead (pronounced Shi theyah)
There was a guy on TV this morning, the Today show I think, who just recently named his newborn “Espn Montana”. Apparently he isn’t the first to use “ESPN”, there are 3 or 4 others.
I think that’s taking an interest in sports a bit too far.
Yeah. “Espen” is an okay name, why not use that?
I would change my name if it were embarrassing, like Lipshitz or Mycock or DeAth, or if it suggested a rhyming couplet like Ray Hay or Bill Gill. If it were grotesquely corrupted, like O’Brodovich or Youngclaus, I would merely tune up the spelling.
I would pronounce it AB uh kuh def, as in the old Sesame Street song.
AB uh kuh def guh HIDGE kul muh nop quer STUVE wix izz…
it’s the zaniest craziest word I’ve ever seen
I’m not crazy about my last name: it’s very unusual, and is probably the most difficult-to-pronounce four-letter last name there is, but on the other hand people tend to remember it (and therefore, remember me). I don’t particularly care for that side of the family, however, and there was a time in college when I wasn’t speaking to my father that I would have been willing to legally change it. He and I are ok now, and growing up a little has helped me separate my name from my family, but the opportunity to change it legally (and without hurting anyone’s feelings) is one of the few reasons I can think of to ever get married.
On the Irish side of my family, a few generations back there were several “Hoares.” Not as bad but somewhat amusing, my grandmother’s maiden name was “Furey.”
I work with a Nicewanger. It took me months not to secretly giggle.
Her husband’s e-mails are signed “sometimes a name says it all . . .”
At least they have a sense of humor about it . . .
I heard someone once yell out, “C’mere Montana. Over here Montana,” to his poor daughter in a New Jersey mall. If I were that daughter I’d change my name in a heartbeat.
After I married I thought about changing my name to the root form. The 70’s nickname as formal name that I’ve been given sounds very sing songy with my married name. But it was too much trouble so I decided against it.
Oh, thanks a lot! Now that damn song is going to be in my head for days. Shirley, Shirley, bo birley, banana fana fo firley, fe fi mo mirley, Shirley! AAAARRRRRGGH!
My lastname is of the structure
Commonlastname de Townname
Which is relatively common in this part of Spain but extremely uncommon outside,
drives foreigners crazy,
makes people think I’m married to Mr Townname,
and that I have the same two lastnames as my cousins,
and even cost me repeating a year in college (I kid you not, the fucker of a teacher thought I was rich bc of the lastname and left me within 2% of pass bc of that; when he found out I was the granddaughter that my gramps had been asking him about when they ran into each other at football games he was so flustered that he told me!)
So of course we’re not surprised when we run into people whose lastnames are either Commonlastname or Townname and who tell us they’ve found out one of their foreparents simply dropped out half the long-ass monster name.
There’s been times when the only reason I haven’t started going simply by Commonlastname is that being part of my family puts me in ETA’s targets list. Anything that pisses the Good Old Boys off is worth keeping, in my book.