This actually reminded me of my hubby’s grandma. Older people usually don’t know that certain words mean something different in ‘slang’. The first time I went with my hubby to visit his grandma, I was talking with her in her kitchen when she opened the back door to call her cat and yelled, “HERE PUSSY PUSSY!”
I had to run out of the room because I was trying SO HARD not to laff.
P.S.
kwc27, You must be thinking of “The Jerk” starring Steve Martin, in which he mistaking thought a dog’s name was “Sh*thead”
This is not particularly to do with the OP but I read an article once about a guy who could not afford personalised license plates ($500 or so) so changed his name legally to something like FXT-512 for a mere $90.
In British English it’s a nickname for … you know … ehr … the naughty bits of the male anatomy (which inspired the great singer/songwriter Ivor Biggun aka Doc Cox to write a song called John Thomas Alcock).
I used to work in a University Registrar’s office. One fine spring day I handed an ID card to one Dikshit Patel. I consider it a point of personal pride that I waited until 2 minutes until after he left the room before collapsing in laughter.
I’ve always figured that British colonists in India played some really bad practical jokes on the locals regarding suitable English names.
Here in Thailand all kids get two names–one “official” one and one short nickname, by which they will be called by most folks forever. Lost of nicknames are common plays on Thai words, like An, Nok or Noi, but lately they’ve taken to adopting Western words like Bird, Apple, Mink, Gift, or Ten. The Thais seem to find it cute.
My favorite Thai name, though, is still Porn, which I have been told translates as “a beautiful gift from God.”
A former co-worker was once helping a young person fill out a form that required her name. Asking the child her name, she heard the child to say something that sounded like “Tonya” with a “sh” sound in front of it. Turns out this child’s parents had saddled her with the name “ShiTonya.”
I went to high school with a kid named Fok-Yan Leung. Yes, it was pronounced “Fuck.”
I went to elementary school with a kid named Evan. That’s not a bad name, until you realize than his last name was Evans.
I don’t have much of a problem with Quebec’s baby name police when you consider that dozens of Quebecois, every year, try to name their daughters “Cigarette.”
Ummm… all of the people wondering about Saint Ababis… try thinking of this more along the lines of Son Af-a-bis… Remember, you don’t speak English, and you hear someone calling out this to his patron saint whenever he’s stressed…
Once again, I wish to submit my ancestor, whose name at birth was Fanny Leak.
I don’t know of any Australian laws preventing parents choosing odd names, but I’m pretty sure that you have to give a good reason to have your name changed, and a lot of silly or obscene names are refused by that department.
Mrs. CG, normally sober to the point of stuffiness, showed me a listing in the telephone book for a guy with the first name Dikshit. I’m guessing he’s Pakistani or something, but if he stays in this country long I bet he’s going to start asking people to call him Dave.
Gent, did you know the phone company will list just about any name? Some people will just make up a name in order to avoid paying for an unlisted number. There’s a “Bingbang, TTWW” listed in the Denver white pages.
On a related note, there’s supposedly a couple solilciting bids on eBay and Yahoo! Auctions for the naming rights to their newborn. See Just Plain Harris for joke names and a link to the USA Today story.
Are you sure this person wasn’t named Shad? It is a wierd name. (I think salmon sperm is called shad. Or is it the eggs?) The reason I ask is that it seems like a simple case of mishearing the name. ‘D’ and ‘T’ are essentially the same sound except for the voicing. If he was speaking fast or sloppily he might not have given it a voicing.
You aren’t going to believe this, but here goes anyway.
My father is the Director of Transportation for the city school system in our county. (There are two school systems, one for the city, one for the county. The city school system is small because the “city” only has a population of about 10,000. My senior class is bigger than their high school.)
Anyway, he was at registration for Head Start, when a parent filled out a bus registration form for a child named, you guessed it, “Sh*thead.” Pronounced “shh-thead.” The mother said that the girl was named for her father.
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