Funny Vietnamese names:
Bích – green
Dung – good demeanor … can be combined with Mỹ, beautiful, for My Dung
Dũng – bravery
Hùng – heroic
Lan – orchid
Liên – lotus
Long – dragon
Phát – prosperity
Phúc or Phước – happiness, good luck
Sơn – mountain
Thắng – victory
Thông – smart
Trí – intellectual
Trúc – bamboo
The hence doesn’t follow: Bundchen is a lastname found in Brazil but if it’s Portuguese in origin, those Germans have been lying to the rest of us.
There’s always Randy Bender, whose real estate ads are always showing up around the area where I grew up. It’s great because only if you have a working knowledge of British slang does this name become uproariously funny.
There’s Pat Smear, guitarist for The Germs, Nirvana, and Foo Fighters. I used to chuckle about that one years ago, but just now finished watching a Foo Fighters documentary on MTV, so it came back to me.
I worked with a girl named Jenna Tole
and a guy named Palm Tropix
and I went to school with a kid named Johnny-John Johnson
and a kid named Foday Tarawalie Del Pieve Gobi Fortier
Doina Simian.
(I can’t help reading the first name as “Doin’ a.”)
Buford Pusser
New personal favorite:
Rmanie
I can only assume it’s pronounced “Armani”
There’s a local guy named Dick Smallwood I run into occasionally. Also a gentleman with the last name Shorthose.
Then there’s a billboard with a somewhat attractive lady with her name under her picture. Last name: Tangsrud (may be a short U, but I’m pretty sure it’s a long U).
Also, and this is only amusing if you have the same opinion of chiropractics that I do, but we have a couple of local chiros, one named Dr. Kinnard (at least his name is honest about his practice) and a Dr. Piker (not as appropriate for a quack, but still a funny name).
A bus driver at my school growing up was Rusty Surface.
Internist Dr. Michael Hirt
Mike Raap–owns a local body shop.
Jim Schwartz
Doubly good because he’s a coach and every sports commentator I’ve heard pronounces it as “Jim SHORTS.”
Jacksonville, Florida City Councilwoman Glorious Johnson.
They were thinking: Do you realize that if our first born marries an Asian guy with the last name Ho, she’ll be Heidi Hidy Ho.
Oh, I hope she becomes a judge… “Presenting the Honorable Glorious Johnson..”
On the Ronald McDonald theme, my Latin teacher in High School was named Harry Potter. He wasn’t teaching there when the book series came out so I have no clue what he did.
A colleague claims to have known people named Tracy Tracy and Dick Fitzwell.
One of my sons-in-law, whose last name is Bloom, married a girl named Rose.
There is a book on animal behavior by Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox: http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Animal-Robin-Fox/dp/1560009624.
As far as Anil Dikshit mentioned above, there was an Indian diplomat (Ambassador to the US, I believe) named Dixit and I wonder if that is the same name, with a better transliteration.
My wifes best friend used to be a social worker. One of her clients (I think that’s the term) was woman named La Trina.
There is a sociologist called Dennis Wrong. I was once told he once co-authored a book with a man named Wright, but that may be apocryphal. However, I see from his Wikipedia page that “The award for the best graduate paper of the year in the sociology department at New York University is named in honor of Dennis Wrong.” The Wrong award?
Dr. Ronny Hertz, whose specialty is. . . pain management!
I remember a girl named Ava Cato, and another woman with the first name Velveeta. (What were their parents thinking?)
I really have never understand the idea of “matching” first and last names. I’ve met or have heard of:
Marty Martin
John Jonhson
Will Wilson
Luke Luckenbach
Dave Davidson
David McDavid (a used car dealership)
When one of my kids was in the hospital, I amused myself by reading off the names of the newborns in their bassinets one day. There were some ODD names in there. Cute little “Siren” and another one with a name that sounded like “scrambledeggs” when I tried to sound it out. Yay for the next generation of oddly-named people.