# Wanna live forever? Become a Noun! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 28, 2011, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877 "2011-09-28T13:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/1 "2011-09-28T13:55:38Z")
I heard a great little song on NPR this morning about people whose names became nouns (eponyms). I’m sure 95% of us here listen to NPR everyday, but on the off chance you haven’t heard it yet, [here you are](http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/09/28/140467781/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun)! For the sake of discussion, if a word was going to be named after you, what would you want (or hope) it to mean? I actually had this discussion with a friend once, when he was making fun of the fact that I can take great pleasure in doing the same thing over and over without getting bored or annoyed (listening to the same song, watching the same episode, etc). So my last name would mean “someone who enjoys doing repetitious things” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/2 "2011-09-28T14:41:24Z")
Don’t ask me, ask Rick Santorum. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/3 "2011-09-28T14:45:34Z")
But Buckminster Fuller said that he wasn’t a noun, but seemed to be a Verb. > [@](#): > > I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process — an integral function of Universe. - R. Buckminster Fuller > **[StockExaminer - AI-Powered Stock Chatbot](https://examiner.com)** > > Discover Stock Examiner, the AI-powered chatbot delivering instant, interactive stock charts, real-time financials, breaking news, stock screeners, and more—all in one seamless experience. Of course, he also ended up as a Noun. > **[Buckminsterfullerene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminsterfullerene)** > > Buckminsterfullerene is a type of fullerene with the formula C60. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure (truncated icosahedron) made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, and resembles a football. Each of its 60 carbon atoms is bonded to its three neighbors. > Buckminsterfullerene is a black solid that dissolves in hydrocarbon solvents to produce a purple solution. The substance was discovered in 1985 and has received intense study, although few real world applications have been found. > Mole... ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/4 "2011-09-28T14:56:07Z")
In my early days in the IT field, to “pull a [Bayard]” in my office meant to log into a workstation with adminsitrator credentials, then walk away without logging off. Honest, I only did it like twice. Maybe three times. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/5 "2011-09-28T15:10:35Z")
I would hope that a \*\*bup \*\*would fill that word we need for the father in a blended family, who loves all his children equally. It would be more intimate than ‘stepdad’ or ‘stepfather,’ and could be a word all the children, biological and otherwise, could use for him. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/6 "2011-09-28T16:05:56Z")
My gaming group always refers to [Foolscap] plans. These are plans which: [ul][li]Are overly complicated[/li][li]Require a lot of luck[/li][li]Avoid one problem we’re facing while bringing up a host of other ones[/ul][/li] Some would claim that failure is an integral part as well, but I maintain they always succeed, just not necessarily in the way we expected. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/7 "2011-09-28T16:14:29Z")
I’d like Billfish to mean something was done R I G H T. But perhaps not with Monk level OCDness. However, I suspect it will come to mean things were fucked up a hundred ways to Sunday and the reprecusions of that mongolian cluster fuck echo down through the ages. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/8 "2011-09-28T16:44:18Z")
Earl of Sandwich ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/9 "2011-09-28T17:06:28Z")
My real surname already has a law named for it. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/10 "2011-09-28T17:13:40Z")
You know _who else_ had a law named for him? …Well, Godwin, actually. That was kind of disappointing, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/11 "2011-09-28T17:50:24Z")
I could invent a fat-free chocolate that cures cancer and stops global warming and Marley would still be a synonym for marijuana. I’m fine with that. It’s better than, for example, having your name by synonymous with banning the internet from a message board. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/12 "2011-09-28T20:46:49Z")
My username on one wiki is linked with creating extra pages for testing purposes, rather than using the sandbox. My actual last name is too common for me to become immortal, I’m afraid. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/13 "2011-09-28T20:57:00Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I would hope that a \*\*bup \*\*would fill that word we need for the father in a blended family, who loves all his children equally. It would be more intimate than ‘stepdad’ or ‘stepfather,’ and could be a word all the children, biological and otherwise, could use for him. Awwwwwwwww. I came in here to say something, but I totally forgot it in the sweetness of your post. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/14 "2011-09-28T22:33:27Z")
Among my friends I am already a noun. It is used as a synonym for geek or nerd. You sentences like: I don’t know how I would get along without a Joel. Everybody needs a Joel. At first it was just computer questions, then any sort of question of technical question, then any sort of question at all. Joel, how do I get to San Jose? Joel, what temperature is it outside? Joel, what’s my mother’s phone number? Joel, where do I buy a walker? Joel, what’s the blue book on my car? Joel, how do I get an arrest expunged? Joel, does it snow on Mars? I have friends that have moved to Hawaii and Japan and I’m still their Joel. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun/597877/15 "2011-09-29T19:45:29Z")
A friend of mine, now dead, once told me his son “took a Brody.” He explained it meant a bad fall. He then told me Brody was the first guy to jump off the (some famous bridge.) I never heard it again, and I couldn’t find any reference to it. In the other direction, Buster Keaton got his first name from taking comic falls in his parents’ stage act, as a boy. If you’re a college student, you might hope to be a Rhodes scholar, get a Pell grant, a Letterman scholarship, or a Fulbright.