My cashier today at K-Mart was named Enjoli. I wasn’t positive, and didn’t want to trust my aging memory, so I googled as soon as I got home…yep, it’s a perfume. Wonder if her boyfriend sings “It’s going to be an Enjoli night” every time they go out.
Now that damn jingle is stuck in my head…
Looking at CNN tonight, I have to ask:
What kind of name is Lady Bird Johnson?
In Italian, “Chiara” is pronounced “Kee-ah-rah.” “Ciara” would be pronounced “Chee-ah-rah.” I don’t make the rules, I just report them. Her Italian parents went with the Gaelic spelling, apparently.
Maybe your Philly co-workers were Italian. I always want to pronouce vowel-ending names that have a “ci” in them as a “ch” sound and those with a “ch” as a “k.”
She was born Claudia Alta Taylor -
My boss named one of his sons Kein, pronounced just like the biblical Cain. I hear his ultra-Catholic family had a collective stroke when they first heard it.
My son Jean-Luc is going to be a starship captain, achieving more than his father, who only reached the rank of space cadet.
Interesting. My best friend has a daughter, Ciara, and she pronounces it ‘See-ah-rah’. I guess that must technically be completely incorrect, but it sounds nicer IMO than the other two pronunciations listed here.
My son has a friend named Paris. Yes, Paris is a boy. No, Paris’s mother was not drugged. And Paris’s twin sister is named…Riley. (Y’know, I would probably have called her Brussels.)
That was Aviance. Wasn’t it?
Maybe not. Loren is a name that crops up in my husband’s family a lot, going back several generations. All the Lorens were male.
As a collector of names, this just rocks. I look forward to seeing Waylon and Willie on Smoking Gun in the future.
And his sister: Cleopatra
:smack: You’re right…so not only is the jingle stuck in my brain, it’s wrong!
Though it’s entirely possible Enjoli has a sister named Aviance. Maybe I’ll ask her next time I’m there.
I collect (or at least notice) odd patient names. Yesterday there was a guy on the schedule whose name I read as “Honest Mojo” (at second glance, “Honest” was the correct first name - the last name was spelled a little differently). But “Honest Mojo” is a terrific name.
I have toyed with the idea of changing my name to Buck Naked. Buck Naked, M.D. has a ring to it and would look nice on a plaque by my office door.
Some vintage baseball player names are fun to think about:
Fielder Jones
Urban Shocker
Germany Schaefer
Mordecai Peter Centennial “Three-Finger” Brown
Frank “Piano Mover”* Smith
*that’s what he did in the offseason. And sometimes during the season.
Perhaps he was named after this guy. Like my 30-year-old cousin.
I used to baby-sit a Jon-Luc. They used “Jon” instead of “Jean” because they didn’t want people calling him “Gene”.
I grew up around a girl named Iawanna, pronounced “Iwanna.” Unfortunately, her family name was Bone. I think she later changed her name to “Sue” or the like.
Testy
So how does one pronounce Abcde? Absidee?
A freinds dad worked in Berkeley as a firefighter, and supposedly met people named Freakus Bolikas, and his sister, Groovy-Tits, Female Pyjama (that’s fehMALay pajaMAY) Orange and Lemon Jello (orANgello and leMONgello), and, last but not least, Gonnorhea and Syphilis (gaNOReah and siFILus). Of course, firefighters have a lot of time on their hands.
Today’s contribution is more annoying than unusual, and involves the pronunciation not matching the spelling…in two cases.
First one, a woman named Camellia…ka-meal-ya…except she spells it Camilla…ka-mill-uh.
And then there is Qiania…which I wanted to pronounce Key-ahn-ya, but the customer insisted was Key-ahn-uh.
Why do people put in an “i” if they don’t intend to pronounce it, or add one when it isn’t there? If you make up a spelling, don’t expect me to figure out which rules of probunciation you are also flouting.
Apocryphal, urban legendy, and unlikely. Also, covered by Snopes.
I think Paris as a girl’s name is a relatively recent thing, before Hilton it was probably more likely to be found on boys. I knew a family that had a son named Paris and a daughter named Helen, which is pretty disturbing for siblings.
I’ve shared this before in these threads…
The eldest son of a good friend of mine is a Navy photog. He recently sent his dad some photos he’d done in a military mag of some planes and personnel working on them. In one of the photos was a young lady named “Jinxqueen Jennifer…Hispaniclastname”.
Did her mom NOT ever hear the “and now, coming to the dance stage” rule of thumb? 