I once met a Frankenstein.
No, she didn’t pronounce it FrAAHk-en-steen.
I remember reading a newspaper article about a man named Harry Rape who always corrected people who called him “Mr. Rah-pay”. “It’s pronounced rape”, he’d say. On the other hand, there was a Miss Loser on the staff of the junior high school I attended, but she pronounced her surname “loe-zer”. There was also an administrator named Mr. Kraps in the system.
I don’t know if she’s the Dickensheets mentioned by Daithi Lacha, but Tara Dickensheets was a fine basketball player for Ohio’s Capital University a few years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few PA announcers or radio commentators had to stifle giggles when they mentioned her exploits.
I knew a guy whose last name was Kotek–not quite the same, but I bet he got teased a lot.
Reminds me of when I substituted for Miss Smoker.
Oh, and I’ve posted this before, but there was a Wimpy family on the main street to my house. The father had a painting service and “Chester Wimpy” was on the side of the truck in large letters.
Then there were the Greenslits. They had a script style name painted on the mailbox, and it was almost impossible to NOT mentally combine the L and the I to make HI. I had to walk up to the box to get it right.
Similarly I once worked with a man called Diaper. He insisted the name referred to diamond or a diamond weave pattern in cloth, from whence the Americans derive diaper=nappy.
My sister, also a teacher, insists all Waynes are at best wankers, so I guess she’d feel he’s he’s well named.
On a food theme, I’ve worked with a Ms Custard and read a paper by a Dr Cherry Pancake.
[QUOTE=elmwood]
Lynch?
[QUOTE]
I wouldn’t have thought of this as unusual at all - there’s David Lynch, and I’m guessing that Merill Lynch was or is a person as well as a company.
Regarding Raper - the family name crops up in England well before the use of the verb in its current form.
There is a realtor (estate agent to you brits) named Upthegrove and a local writer here with the name of Laughinghouse.
I once ran into a woman whose married name was Bolongna. Her maiden name? Malarky How.fucking.cool.is.that? I ask you.
There is a congressman whose last name is Damphouse. which is pronounced, Damphis.
I love odd names.
From one of my old threads of names I collected whilst on my German Vacation:
**Grimmsman
Heimlick
Hoinke ( hoi-na-key, I think, or possibly Honkie.)
Adolf Hoops
Kock
Lurking
Micklitz
Mock
Rydzy
Schimmel-Pfenning
Schweden
Smotrickaja
Zens
Damm
Futterer
Frauenstein
Kukla
Schadau
Schmurdy
Schoo
Schwolow **( I haven’t a clue about this pronunciation. SchVolov?)
**Wunderschutz
Wutnenow ** Sounds like What Now
**Bonko
Christ
Czudnochowski
Klan
Schlumm
Schlummbohm
Schmal
Schmeller
Schmuck
Schmurdy-Vogelfanger
Wins
Boy
Dick
Flohr
Habakuk ** Habakuk for Humanity anyone?)
Hieronymous (cool last name. First name Henry)
Knoblich Which is pronounced, I beleive, Ka-nob-leech.
Lala
Last
Maruhn
Piro
Rupprecht** The Monkey Boy!**
Schreiner
Schwanz
Schwarm
Suckel This would be perfect if the first name was Ivanna.
Wrensch
Zysk
Rammo
Schnorr
Some of the Absolutely Best Names I found were:
** Drahomira Spirius. **Is that cool or what? sounds like a spell from Harry Potter.
**Thea Knaack **A most excellent name and Band. My Sharona!
**Other Names I have found Elsewhere and have been saving for your Dining And Dancing Pleasure **
Rhys Summer-Hayes Think about the last name. Rather Amusing.
Bracegirdle **Which is also a character in Horatio Hornblower.
**Wakatutu ** A dance? A tiki bar? No! a last name somewhere in Ontario.
**Fauntleroy **I bet this person got teased alot.
**Pansy Pillow
Wilma Alldread**
And This Just In Fresh from The Obits:
Wiley Nunn
Also a tribe of Hobbits.
Whaddaya mean, “They’re not real?”
I knew a girl with the last name Schwalow. And she definitely got teased about it all through high school, but she was kind of a bitch. I don’t know if it was a cause-and-effect thing either way.
I also knew a girl with the last name Bloodgood. I thought that was pretty cool.
Actually, there was a Charles Merrill, as well as an Eduard Lynch, involved in the formation of the company whose full name is (or at least once was) Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. The confusion arises from the fact that there is no comma between Merrill and Lynch – see this old certificate for the firm’s official representation of its identifier.
The verb to lynch is an eponym (word derived from a proper name), as stated in the second entry on this page:
My colleagues in Geneva told me that in the south of France there are a lof of people with names that are downright embarassing (in French) but it doesn’t seem to bother them at all. Can any of our francophones confirm this?
In college I knew a guy with the last name of Handwerker, who was teased mercilessly about it. but then in law school I knew a girl who with the last name Handwerger and the most she ever suffered was a few chuckles.
–Cliffy
The Indiana Pacers apparently have a Slovenian-Italian player named Gregor Fucka. (Pronounced “Foochka,” of course.)
A slight bump of this thread, because I thought this was worth adding: Diaper Poultry
I now work with a guy with the last name of Littlejohn.
Your cousin isn’t Canadian, is he? I used to work with a Richard Lust, who was actually a Richard Lust, Jr. – and named his son Richard Lust. The youngest Lust opted to embrace “Dick Lust” rather than go by “Richard Lust III.”
I went to junior high with a girl whose last name was Dick. Her father’s name, I kid you not, was Harold. Harry to his friends.
I knew another girl whose last name was Rape.
A lady in my church growing up was Mrs. Notgrass.
Also knew a famlies named Stringfellow, Rainwater and Hardcastle. Actually my maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Hardcastle.
Well, he could capture a Spanish ship and promote himself to Captain as did Sabatini’s hero.
My sister worked with a guy whose name was Woody Raper.
There was a guy in my home town named Harry Rears. Nickname - Fuzzbutt.