# Thurl **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 8, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568 "2011-12-08T23:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/1 "2011-12-08T23:52:14Z")
Have you known anybody (besides [Thurl Ravenscroft](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurl_Ravenscroft)) named Thurl? What’s another equally uncommon given name? How about [Bide Turley](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0084450/)? That would make Thurl Turley rather rare, right? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/2 "2011-12-09T00:00:02Z")
There’s Thurl Bailey, the NBA player, who comes up 7th on my Google search. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/3 "2011-12-09T08:42:03Z")
Wow! Thurl Quigley gets oodles of hits on Yahoo! Search. ---
**Author:** ![RalfCoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@RalfCoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RalfCoder)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/4 "2011-12-09T13:18:00Z")
I used to work with a guy who’s given name was Hiawatha. That’s probably not as rare as Thurl or Bide, but you still don’t trip across it much. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/5 "2011-12-09T13:22:51Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Have you known anybody (besides [Thurl Ravenscroft](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurl_Ravenscroft)) named Thurl? Well, there’s [Thurlow Weed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurlow_Weed). I’ve never known anybody else named “Thudlow,” though. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/6 "2011-12-09T14:40:10Z")
> [@RalfCoder](#): > > I used to work with a guy who’s given name was Hiawatha. That’s probably not as rare as Thurl or Bide, but you still don’t trip across it much. I’ll give you that! For whatever reason, though, it does remind me of a name that a guy I used to work with said he knew as a kid: T. Holygotham. If you can see the connection, maybe you can explain how that happened to me. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Well, there’s [Thurlow Weed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurlow_Weed). > > I’ve never known anybody else named “Thudlow,” though. There’s quite a similar mood to all three of those names. I swear I wasn’t thinking of your name (or anyone else’s for that matter) when I started the thread. But for whatever reason the name Thurl just hit me as unusual, and I didn’t even go beyond Mr. Ravenscroft’s link in my original search. Now that I think a little more about the topic, it might be easier to name the “common” names than the “unusual” ones. Thanks to both of you, and **Smeghead** for the input! ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/7 "2011-12-09T14:44:14Z")
Thurl. It thounds like thumpthing you would do after a bad accident and you lost your teeth, and you were so injured and scared you just THURLED right there in the grass nexth to thor smathed-up Lexthus. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/8 "2011-12-09T15:23:04Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Thurl. It thounds like thumpthing you would do after a bad accident and you lost your teeth, and you were so injured and scared you just THURLED right there in the grass nexth to thor smathed-up Lexthus. Funny, but I keep wanting to replace “Earl” with “Thurl” in many of the places where Earl works: Thurl Snake-Hips Tucker My Name is Thurl The Duke of Thurl Or how about Pthurl Bailey ---
**Author:** ![RalfCoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@RalfCoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RalfCoder)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/9 "2011-12-09T21:11:19Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Thurl. It thounds like thumpthing you would do after a bad accident and you lost your teeth, and you were so injured and scared you just THURLED right there in the grass nexth to thor smathed-up Lexthus. Thurly you jetht, madam… ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/10 "2011-12-09T22:21:53Z")
Well, there’s the sport of “thurling,” which is the ice-sport of curling, only overhand (the name comes from “throw” + “curling”), but it’s incredibly dangerous… There’s a safer version that uses long sticks to control/ward off the stones, but it’s even less popular. Apparently folks now just find “Rod Thurling” incredibly creepy and macabre. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/11 "2011-12-10T01:09:19Z")
Doctor, pressing stethoscope to teen girl’s sternum: Mmm-hmm… Teen girl, blinking and flirting: Mmm…hmm! Doctor, moving stethoscope to girl’s back: Big Breaths Teen girl, either misinterpreting or flirting more: Yeth. An I’m only thixteen!😃 —G! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/12 "2012-04-15T09:59:00Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > Doctor, pressing stethoscope to teen girl’s sternum: Mmm-hmm… > Teen girl, blinking and flirting: Mmm…hmm! > Doctor, moving stethoscope to girl’s back: Big Breaths > Teen girl, either misinterpreting or flirting more: Yeth. An I’m only thixteen!😃 > > —G! :smack: Here it is over four months later and I finally get it! Duh! (I came here to see what I had said about T. Holygotham!) ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/13 "2012-04-15T15:20:48Z")
Vannevar Bush is the only Vannevar in history. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/14 "2012-04-15T15:25:50Z")
I’ve only ever heard of one Kenesaw. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thurl/605568/15 "2012-04-15T15:38:51Z")
I knew a guy in high school named Tutek. He claimed it was so rare, he’d beat up anyone who dared to change his name to it