# Weirdest names you've ever heard **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 19, 2020, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747 "2020-07-19T12:05:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/201 "2020-08-24T02:01:51Z")
I knew a Doctor. He wasn’t one. But he did have cancer; I didn’t have the nerve to ask if there had ever been any confusion during treatment. And a friend of my daughter’s is named K. Just K. (She does have a last name.) She doesn’t have a corporate job, which is probably good, as I can see IT refusing to set up her access “because we need her full name”. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/202 "2020-08-29T12:48:00Z")
This is nothing much by the standards of the thread, but there’s a moderately well known Victorian era book called Flatland, written by one Edwin A. Abbott. I just now discovered that the A stands for … Abbott! [Edwin Abbott Abbott](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Abbott_Abbott) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/203 "2020-08-29T18:19:05Z")
I saw an invoice yesterday from a consultant whose last name is Swindler. I wonder if he uses the phrase “With a name like Swindler, he has to be good!” ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2020, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/204 "2020-08-30T03:29:53Z")
Once knew a guy named Tom Harry. Guess what his middle name was. Couple of actors. Marjoe Gortner. With a name like that you figure Ernest Borgnine, but he played rock stars and such. Scoey Mitchlll was another good one. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/205 "2020-09-02T16:40:36Z")
I once met a Nigerian woman named Mylove. This is not a traditional African name; rather her parents were enamored of the English phrase “My love” so that’s what they named her. She was quite nice, so it fit. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/206 "2020-09-02T17:03:15Z")
Saw a lot of names when working a checkstand at Safeway (we were required to thank everyone by name whenever possible), but the one that I always remember is a check from a couple named “Courtney Beaver” and “Matt Wood.” ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/207 "2020-09-02T17:31:52Z")
I know a man named Tommy Thomas. I’ve long wondered, but never actually asked, if his name is in fact Thomas Thomas. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/208 "2020-09-02T17:48:00Z")
I thought I’d posted this one already in this thread, but I don’t see it, so… A couple of years ago, a college friend of mine, who lives in Iowa, posted an article about a prostitution ring in Iowa City, which had been broken up by the police. One of the women charged with prostitution was named Amanda Guzzle. Either that’s a _nom de hooker_, or she was predestined for her career. > **[Three of Twelve Arrested in Iowa Prostitution Ring from the Quad Cities](https://b100quadcities.com/three-of-twelve-arrested-in-iowa-prostitution-ring-from-the-quad-cities/)** > > A prostitution ring was just busted in Iowa City and QC residents were involved. According to WQAD.com, an on-going investigation with more than 40 ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/209 "2020-09-05T14:10:43Z")
From another SD thread: A surviving former Alcatraz inmate is named “Virgil Crymes”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/210 "2020-09-05T23:47:52Z")
My niece was telling me about her friends having a baby boy. They named him Lightning. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/211 "2020-09-06T00:10:18Z")
Sorry, couldn’t resist. ETA: maybe they are mods. ETA2: mods as in modernists (see Quadrophenia), not something like SDMB mods. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/koxQnIEgvGU/hqdefault.jpg "Call Me Lightning, The Who") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koxQnIEgvGU) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/212 "2020-09-06T00:30:50Z")
No, I specifically asked if they’re blues fans. I was told they just thought the name sounded cool. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/213 "2020-09-06T02:22:12Z")
Was watching an old movie on TCM with Nina Foch, and they said the original Dutch spelling of her name was Fock. The studio made her change it. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/214 "2020-09-06T15:55:43Z")
Here, I just filled up another diary page with odd names. **Larry Householder** former speaker of the Ohio house **Ted Yohg** Congressman from Florida **Quinton Lucas** City manager of Kansas City **Zealous Bates Tower** First in his class USMA 1841 **Brigadier General Charles F Tank** of the US Army Quartermaster Corps in WWII **Colonel Thomas Swords** of the US Army Quartermaster Corps in the Civil War **Persifor Frazer Smith** Military governor of California. His cousin in Philadelphia had the same name **Raphael Ravenscroft** played the sax solo on _Baker Street_ **Emancipation Proclamation Busby** died in 1913 **Ivan Ivanovich Shitts** (1874-1942) nothing else in my notes. **Reverdy Johnson** US senator from Maryland in 1863 **Anastasia Palaszczuk** current leader of Queensland **Wayne Modest** works in a museum in Leiden, Germany **Brigadier General Sooy Smith** One of Sherman’s cavalry commanders **Cedric Richmond** was a congressman from Louisiana **Barbara Virginia Fatt** was a food writer **Monsignor Kevin Quirk** **General Marshall-Cornwall** was a linguist **Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough** was Governor-General of Canada **Zavion Davenport** died recently **Ronald Tree** was a personal friend of Winston Churchill **Willifeda Yuill** also was a family friend **Joseph Allen Schreibvogel** a.k.a “Joe Exotic” his brother was Garold **Harry Roast** was killed o 11 January 1941 by a German bomb at Bank Station, London **Robert Meiklejohn** of the US Embassy in London during the war **Vice Admiral Ronald Smoot** USN in WWII **Uzal G Ent** of the USAAC in WWII **William Leonard Laurence** was born **Lieb Wolf Siew** **Dirk Mudge** Indonesian independence leader **John Goodluck** recently passed away. He was of the Water-flows-together-people clan of the Navajo nation and a codetalker **Lady Judge** recently died. She was born Barbara Singer Thomas **Lovely Warren** is the mayor of Rochester, New York ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/215 "2020-09-06T18:55:17Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > **Vice Admiral Ronald Smoot** USN in WWII Not the only amusing use of the name **Smoot**. Worth reading the Wiki squib. The smoot is a nonstandard, humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, a fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha, who in October 1958 lay down … [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot) Imperial/US units: 5 ft 7 in SI units: 1.702 m 1 smoot in: is equal to Named after: [Oliver R. Smoot](https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS856US869&hl=en-US&sxsrf=ALeKk01A2sevvugQMrs9cGuLC_fN7Dq0_w:1599418345559&q=Oliver+R.+Smoot&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLUz9U3MDKrSMtdxMrvn5NZllqkEKSnEJybn18CALNx8cUfAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP29XSmdXrAhXEGM0KHaEDBdMQmxMoADASegQIAxAC) The **smoot** [/ˈsmuːt/](https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Help:IPA/English) is a nonstandard, [humorous unit of length](https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/List_of_humorous_units_of_measurement) created as part of an [MIT](https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology) fraternity prank. It is named after [Oliver R. Smoot](https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Oliver_R._Smoot), a [fraternity pledge](https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Fraternities_and_sororities#Joining) to [Lambda Chi Alpha](https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Lambda_Chi_Alpha), who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the [Harvard Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Harvard_Bridge) (between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts) so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/216 "2020-09-06T19:06:53Z")
@BippityBoppityBoo: To have your quotes correctly appear in a quote box (to make it clear what is a quote and what isn’t) > [@](#): > > Like this At the beginning of the quote, _on its own line_, type “[quote]” (without the quote marks) At the end of the quote, _on its own line_, type “[/quote]” (without the quote marks) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/217 "2020-09-06T20:13:12Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > At the beginning of the quote, _on its own line_ , type > “[quote]” (without the quote marks) > At the end of the quote, _on its own line_ , type > “[/quote]” (without the quote marks) I’ll certainly try. Thanks for the helpful tip. I’m hopelessly ancient and tech daft, this is my message board toe-in-the-water, but bear with me and I‘ll keep working on it. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/218 "2020-09-06T20:19:52Z")
^^You do a great job here. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/219 "2020-09-06T21:37:25Z")
Is that weird because “MacKenzie” is a surname, so it sounds silly if this actress, MacKenzie Phillips has been given it as a first name? Sort of like there being some celebrity named Cameron Diaz? ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747/220 "2020-09-07T13:05:43Z")
Saw a blurb on TV last night about some backwoods Alaska show and there were two young people shown. One was named “Snowflake” and the other “Rain”. Perhaps one born in winter and the other in spring? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-names-youve-ever-heard/915747.md?page=12)