Rumplestiltskin
Or, based on the alternative names for such a publication, Blood.
I picked the third option in the poll, but the reference is also “proto-comic-book” geeky.
Oh, what if you’re both right? I can easily see this happening, and her playing it off like it’s no big deal when they learn her non-stage name.
Buffet and the boys will all speculate if she is related to Warren.
Maybe her last name is “Wheaton”? Like in “Evil Wil”?
Again, Leonard certainly knows her last name. So nothing that surprising.
The idea of Penny having a stage name and whether that name appears on the mail and packages that Leonard has picked up for her puts a little bit of a twist on things. But for someone who basically hasn’t really worked as an actress, it would be unusual for her everyday mail to be under her stage name.
I’m still leaning towards alliteration plus a mild or obscure geek reference.
Why would there be a geek reference?
None of the other characters’ names are geek references. (With the possible exception of Leonard, who I always thought might be named in honour Douglas Hofstadter - who has a PH.D in physics, although he arguably owes his fame to his entertaining, imaginative, and enlightening popular writing on the nature of cognition.)
Or have I just missed a buttload of obscure geeky references in the characters’ names?
How about Cuoco?
Leonard and Sheldon are a triple reference when taken together, though only their last names are science-geeky…their forenames are TV-geeky.
From Wiki (the page for Leonard):
(Unfortunately, the cite for the latter two is in Spanish…maybe Portuguese…either way, a language I don’t speak.)
Spanish, FTR.
Ah, nice. Up there with the SS Minnow.
Stamps (when I was a kid, I knew a girl named Penny Stamps).
Stocks.
Saver.
Loafer.
Pincher.
Foryourthoughts.
People don’t know about the “Sheldon Leonard” thing or the “Hofstadter” thing? Oh.
(“Cooper” is just too common to link to any one person without a hint.)
Another one is Sheldon’s rival “Kripke”. (I’ve written a paper that’s cited Kripke. Perhaps a leg up there. I also gave Douglas Hofstadter a ride to the airport once. But that’s not really a plus for me.)
(The actor who plays Kripke was recently on Bones. He didn’t speak in such an annoying voice, but it was still “off” in a way.)
I read in TV Guide that the three characters were initially named “Lenny, Kenny, & Penny.” That was too cutesy (ya think?), so someone suggested chaning “Lenny” to “Leonard,” and someone else said “and Sheldon.”
Somehow, Sheldon Cooper seems to fit the character so well.
I would guess Overton, the Cheesecake Factory founder.
Drops?
Didn’t one of the Carradine brothers (Robert?) play Penny’s Dad? So Leonard would certainly have been introduced to him. It’s not reasonable to buy that Leonard does not know Penny and her Dad’s last name.
On Page 1 we all pretty much agreed that the guys know Penny’s last name but the audience does not.
I was going to say that Robert wasn’t one of the Carradine brothers, he was the guy from Revenge of the Nerds (so probably would be appropriate for Leonard’s Dad). But it turns out he is one of the Carradine brothers, so there you go.
Anyway, it was Keith Carradine who played Penny’s Dad.