Hey, Nava, ya wanna shack up? I’m told that my last name is pretty much a darkly muttered term in Spain, seeing as how one of my ancestors sacked large portions of Spain after sinking the Armada. . .
Sounds like a notion, but my vacation time for this year is pretty much used up. Meet here or there?
I come from a Cornish family with a thoroughly unpronounceable name but there are so few of us left, we’re loathe to see it disappear. So I kept it, even though I constantly have to spell it and tell people how to pronounce it. It’s not helped by the fact my parents gave me a difficult first name too. Sometimes I think they just had it in for me.
I once knew a girl whose last name was Harney. Only it was pronounced HORNY.
I also worked with a man whose name was Richard Head. And yes, he went by Dick. :eek:
Here’s a clue for you. Just because those names exist in a marketing database, doesn’t mean that there are real people with those names. I know lots of people who have filled out marketing surveys, questionnaires, etc. with names similar to these.
“It’s pronounces ahh-swippey…”
'Fraid it’d have to be here as i’m out of vacation time for this year. Might be able to make it to your side of the pond next year (they’re rejiggering the vacation system at work).
“Fuck” is a surname in the German Rheinland, especially in the city of Koblenz. No, really. I have an apartment in Koblenz and I’ve seen entries in the local phone book for residents named Fuck. Never met one, though. There’s a printing company in the city called Druckerei Fuck, afectionately know locally as the Fuck Druck:
http://www.f-druck.de/Vorwort.php
“Bastard” is a surname in the UK. So is “Death,” as Sayers fans know.
“Burke” and “Pratt” are mildly embarassing surnames in the British Isles. “Burke” is more or less equivalent to the US “jerk” and “Pratt” means a fool. The word “prattfall” is akin to it.
I am glad not to be named “Kunz,” even if it is pronounced “Koonts.”
I’m related to (my dad’s cousin) George Bush. His name was fine until the last two elections. He named his daughter Rose. Not exactly malicious, but I wouldn’t be happy with it.
I used to work with a guy with the last name of Wiener. And he didn’t try to pronounce it whiner (which wouldn’t have been much better, I guess).
I also know of a guy named Micheal Hoch (pronounced hock). I’m pretty sure he doesn’t go by Mike.
I did have a professor in college with the last name of Kuntz. He did pronounce it koonts, but many of the students didn’t.
I served in the Army under a Major Hook. His wife once told me that he was unhappy during the three years he spent as a captain because of the teasing and pirate jokes.
I went to school with a guy named Harry Hickey.
Not embarrassing, but still a little off-beat was my ex wife - Ivory Pearl Black
I was responsible for data quality and had to clean up incorrect or missing data and all the info was compared against postal service and phone company records so these were not the fake names. Frightening, isn’t it?
I was responsible for data quality and had to clean up incorrect or missing data and all the info was compared against postal service and phone company records so these were not the fake names. Frightening, isn’t it?
Sorry about the dupe posting folks. SDMB keeps timing me out around this time every day making posting an adventure.
In South El Monte, CA there is a Michael Hunt Drive.
I once read a newspaper article about the LA County office in charge of changing names, and there was an interview with a man who was there to change his first name from Walo to just the initial W. and a new middle name. He said that his father named him that because, a few hours before he was born, his mother found out about his father’s mistress and had a fight with her in a mud puddle - they “wallowed.” :rolleyes:
A friend of mine claims he went to school with a girl named Nita Raper. :eek:
I spent many years unhappy with my first name, because it’s not very common in the U.S., at least among women of baby-boomer age or younger, but over the years I’ve gotten used to it. I would probably change it, though, if it was Princess, Girlie or Aquanetta.
Nitpick: More precisely, the word “prat” refers to one’s buttocks. If one performs a “pratfall”, it means to fall flat on one’s glutei maximi.
My own surname is extremely common in parts of Louisiana (as in 3 pages of the phone book common), but pretty well unknown elsewhere. So having lived all over the U.S., I’m actually surprised to hear it pronounced correctly. Which is a much more common occurrance now that I’m living in Austin. Close enough to Louisiana, I suppose.
A great grandmother of mine married a gentlemen named Hess. She refused to take his name, and all of their children were given her maiden name. And this was long before the rise of the Nazis, so I have no idea what her objections were.
My name was bad enough for me to change it when I married. My parents decided it would be somehow neat if they named all four of their children with the same initials. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it’s very annoying when all of you have accounts at the same bank all under J M LastName. Also, because I was the youngest, everyone called me by my older siblings names. I’m sure other people have that problem, but it’s even worse when your names are all so damn similar.
So, I had decided at a fairly young age that if I ever married, I would take my husband’s last name. Unfortunately, my husband-to-be had the same last initial as my current name. I ended up dropping my middle name and taking my maiden name as my middle name. It worked out great because I had always hated my middle name anyway.
Unfortunately, now I have a difficult first *and *last name instead of just a difficult first name. Can I just go by my initials?
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius]
Nitpick: More precisely, the word “prat” refers to one’s buttocks. If one performs a “pratfall”, it means to fall flat on one’s glutei maximi.
Kiz, we’re both right:
prat (Noun) A fool, idiot or objectionable person. Originally meaning the buttocks.
From A Dictionary of Slang and Colloqialisms of the UK
My brother and I have the same initials (our parents claim it was accidental) – and we’re J M LastName! 
My father has no middle name but has the same first-name initial, as does his youngest brother: we’re all “J LastName.”
My brother went to school with a guy named Rusty Nail.
My son had a classmate named Dusty Boots.
There’s a whole extended family of Gruntmeirs where I grew up. I actually dated one them. I always thought the girl Gruntmeirs were the lucky ones that could marry and get a new name. The boy Gruntmeirs had to find someone to marry that would be willing to take that name.