I knew of a girl whose name was pronounced shuh-mare-uh. Whoever named her spelled it Chimera. I wonder if she ever looked it up in a dictionary.
I once met a lady named Astrida Penis (pronounced exactly like “astride a penis”).
I knew a Jerl, which I thought odd. Why not just go whole hog and name him Gerald? I’ve met a Gurgley, legal first name, not surname. Did not ask him the story behind that.
Sounds like a stage name to me.
Posting many names I encountered would be a HIPAA violation, but I have heard of a little boy who was named Ozzy. Not John Michael, but Ozzy.
When I was in college in the early 1990s, a woman who was a year or two ahead of me got married, and considered keeping her maiden name because her married name would be Cindy Crawford. She went ahead and changed it anyway. Last I heard, she’s still married, and the famous Cindy Crawford has somewhat faded into obscurity, although some of it has been by choice.
“Abcde” is supposed to be pronounced “ab-ca-dee.”
Has anyone encountered the Lemonjello and Orangejello twins? I never did, and if there were really as many as people seem to say there are, there would be a set in every classroom in this country, and there aren’t that many twins to begin with.
I had a HS classmate named Kelly Green. Someone did tell me that this was not her birth name - that her father died or left, and her mother remarried and she was adopted by her stepfather.
And don’t forget Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck, Ph.D. That last part is not a typo.
Speaking of Frank Zappa, there used to be a podiatrist in the Chicago area with that name. Also, I once filled a prescription for Caverject (DO NOT Google that on a public or work computer) written by a urologist named Dr. Wiener, and also a prescription from a dermatologist in Athens, GA named Dr. William Barry.
I’ve known two unrelated (AFAIK) families, last name Kane. Both families had daughters named Candace, both went by Candy. Coincidentally both Candy Kane’s were gorgeous.
Dr. William Barry, what’s funny and/or strange about that one?
This was at the height of R.E.M.'s career.
A med student told me there was a guy named Dr. Superdoc at her hospital
I had as friend with the last name “Fuck”. Granted, it’s pronounced differently in German (like “book”) but that didn’t make it any better… .
When I met him he worked for a company that had their emails in the format “LastNameFirstTwoLettersOfFirstNsme” which for him was “fuckju”.
The name of the company was “Recticel”… .
When he got married he took his wife’s name and I can’t blame him one bit!
I heard an interview with her on NPR. She’s an interesting lady, with an interesting perspective on unusual names.
In a San Diego obituary at least 40 years ago:
Algy Lilicrap
I worked with a girl named Edie Denzel who married Mike Peters. She then became Edie Peters. She started going by her middle name after a week of laughs and strange looks.
Ogee was the name of the little girl who wanted to buy Magilla Gorilla.
I had an uncle whose name was Bus. I’ve never seen it written, so it may have been spelled differently.
Used to work with a woman whose brothers were named – not nicknamed – Woody and Stoney.
I…don’t get it.
I’ve come across a child named Calvin Hobbs.
mmm
I had to really think to figure out what might be funny about this one. Is it because Edie sounds like “E.D,” as in “erectile disfunction” and Peters=penis? I’d never make that connection just by hearing the name on its own.
We’ve done these weird name threads a few times before.
Another variation is the unusual name that you’ve known two of (unrelated to each other). When I lived in Hawaii, I knew two unrelated people named Mordecai Barzelai. (Or maybe Barzalai.) It’s a Jewish/Israeli name (although not of Hebrew origin), and I’ve been told it’s common. But two of them in Honolulu???
A few years ago we had a thread – several, actually – about the Everybodytalksabout family. There were several of them in the news for one nefarious thing or another. It appears to be a Blackfoot name. I found a genealogy of Blackfoot names, many of them interesting descriptive phrases. See thread here: