The thread about Hitler made me remember something I read in "THE OLD FARMER’s ALMANAC), a few years ago. It said that in colonial times, there were family names like : Blood, murder, Moregraves, Death, Slaughter, Mummy, etc.). Obviopusly, these names must have been unpopular…so their unluky members changed their surnames.
Anyway, if your family was named "murder’ would you keep it? slaughter doesn’t sound too bad…but “death”?
How did these odd surnames originate? 
I knew a lady with the last name “Slaughter”. Nice lady. Scary name. My husband’s father’s original name (before he took his biological father’s name [long story]) was Putz. If my husband’s name would have been Putz, I don’t think I would have taken his name. Yes, I’m that shallow.
A friend of mine dated a guy whose last name is “Kill.” Granted, he’s Polish, but it’s still creepy here.
There’s a family in my town with the last name “Septic.” Ew.
Fun fact: there are two villages in Gloucestershire, UK named Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter. They look like peaceful, picturesque little places.
There’s a Blood who works here. I’ve always been vaguely disappointed that he’s a civilian, so he can never be promoted to Captain.
“Death” is one of the middle names of Dorothy L. Sayers’ detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. His full name is Peter Death Bredon Wimsey. “Death” is pronounced as if it were spelled “Deeth.”
When I worked at the phone company there was a large family in the community whose surname was Turnipseed, and they found nothing amusing about it!
There was also a Nancy Preg, who’s listed name in the phone book always gave me a grin when I saw it!
(yes, I worked as an operator back when they used paper phone books and the old cord switchboards)
Nmes I encountered when working in tax office once
Mr. Pine-Coffin
Mr. Darcy D’Eath
And Yorkshire, or thereabouts has names like
Ramsbotham (think Ramsbottom)
Winterbotham
I’ve seen the name SMELLIE on a shop - I’m told it is pronounced “smiley” 
Japan has lots of unusual names - same as any country. In among all the bog standard names you occasionally come across a gem.
I was in the same hospital room as a very shy gentle woman named Samejima (shark island) and the other day was served in a cafe by a handsome rugged man with a name badge proclaiming him to be Mr Sakuraniwa (cherry orchard).
I had a nice little laugh when I read in last month’s Sierra magazine that Al Gore had duoed up with someone whose surname was Slaughter on some environmental concern or another. A sentence actually started out “Gore and Slaughter…”.
Not a surname by my grandfather’s middle name is very German. It’s Fozdick. And he passed it on to my uncle, too!
A friend of mine in college swore she knew a family whose last name was Orifice.
They insisted it was pronounced “Ori-fickey”
My mother’s maiden name is Lust.
Her first name is Angelika.
In high school she was therefore known as “Angel Lust”.
She married young.
Although she’s not as unfortunately named as my cousin Richard Lust.
I have ancestors that went by the name of Savage.
There are “famous” people in America with the last names Slaughter and Savage.
Webster Slaughter played for the Cleveland Browns and Enos Slaughter played for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The actor Fred Savage was the star of the show “The Wonoder Years”.
Not really grisly, but unusual names where I come from:
Plush
Peacock
Clowater
Askew
Skeffington
Cunningham (“tricky pig”)
Bliss
Buckminster
Skidmore
Godolphin
Audley (“oddly”!)
Bainbridge
Shagger
Finger
Tung
Nipps
Dick -an old friend of mine had the unfortunate name “Anita” (and I wonder if she was the reason the old joke was started… but there have probably been others before her), however, it was a large family, and there was also regular, non-innuendo names such as Pamela, Katie, Jon, Amanda, Stevie, and then, a cousin, named… Richard. :rolleyes:
From people outside of my little community, I’m told the names “Hatt” and “Cook(e)” are odd. They are very common names where I’m from. A girl named Carrie Hatt was teased out west… I couldn’t figure out why until she told me they called her “Carrie-my-Hatt”. Ah. Okay.
Just saw on TV a Frenchman by the name of Dieu (God). Is it a burden or a glory to bear such a name ? I can’t imagine all the gibes he must have endured when in school. You know how nasty kids can be.
I just remembered the surname of a much beloved substitute teacher from middle school: Stoner.
My mom once worked with a Dr. Death, likewise pronounced deeth.
Some French-language names: Forget (a Quebec cabinet minister by this name is constantly being reminded in protest chants, “We will not Jérôme-Forget!”), Sansfaçon (“unpretentious”), and the inexplicable Cinq-Mars (“fifth of March”) and Vingt-Trois (“twenty-three”). There’s a cardinal in France called André Vingt-Trois… a joke I heard once is, “Ah yes, I knew his father Jean.”
Spare a thought for the New Zealand cricketer Bob Cunis and the late MP for Leominster (Herefordshire, England), where I was brought up, Sir Clive Bossom. The latter was once famously described by Winston Churchill as ‘neither one thing nor the other’.