I went to high school with Harry Butts III. His brother was named Harold. I saw his name in the newspaper about 10 years ago, he is a deputy sheriff in a neighboring county. He was one of the cool guys in school, drove a nice car and the girls thought he was cute.
[QUOTE=DKW]
Maybe it’s just me…is it just me? Oh, c’mon, it can’t be just me.
I’ve thought it before, and I still believe it now…
“Kyrzyzewski” is an absolute balls-out 110% bizarre name. And it’s a miracle that the most he ever had to suffer for it was a corny Bud Light-sponsored promo. (That he was in!)
Sheesh, I’m as open-minded as the next I-don’t-care-I’m-from-freakin’-Hawaii sports fan, but that name is just plain wrong. Look, if it were kinda unphonetic, or even mostly unphonetic, that’d be something. I’d be fine with Zhachofski, Chijievski, or even Shuiestupski…even that looks at least VAGUELY like how you’re supposed to pronounce it.
It’s pretty impressive that he was able to ice a lifetime contract with one of the most elite college basketball programs at the country. I mean, think of the sport’s other coaching greats. Smith. Wooden. Knight. Pitino. Valvano. Brown. Rupp. Summit. Not exactly a hotbed of quirky ethnicity.
[/QUOTE]
Pronounced Ker chef ski
Another Polish one - the spokesman for an earlier phase of the rack war, seen in several press conferences-
Jerkowsky (pronounced jerk off ski)
A friend showed be a HS yearbook of his once that had an exchange student named Phoc Ngo.
I went to high school with a girl named Charity Muff. Swear to God.
My dad went to HS with Peter Rabbit. Pete still lives around here.
[QUOTE=RickJay]
It would be hard to top baseball player Rusty Kuntz.
He claimed it was pronounced “Koontz.” But you know that ain’t how it reads.
[/QUOTE]
Dan Uggla never fails to get a giggle out of me. Pretty good looking guy tho.
[QUOTE=beowulff]
One day, my boss introduced me to a guest. He said, this is Mr. Turnipseed. It took everything I had to keep a straight face.
[/QUOTE]
I had a customer at the credit union I used to work at who was named Turnipseed. And my sister went to school with a girl named Leah Dorko. It never occurred to me until reading this thread that it should be funny…honest! Now I don’t know about the kids in her own class…they may have teased her. But I never realized it until now…how strange.
[QUOTE=Dosipede]
I came across a kid in my work with the last name Jizmejian. I think it’s Armenian, but I’m not sure. I can only imagine what the poor kid’s friends call him.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t get it. 
[QUOTE=DKW]
Maybe it’s just me…is it just me? Oh, c’mon, it can’t be just me.
I’ve thought it before, and I still believe it now…
“Kyrzyzewski” is an absolute balls-out 110% bizarre name. And it’s a miracle that the most he ever had to suffer for it was a corny Bud Light-sponsored promo. (That he was in!)
Sheesh, I’m as open-minded as the next I-don’t-care-I’m-from-freakin’-Hawaii sports fan, but that name is just plain wrong. Look, if it were kinda unphonetic, or even mostly unphonetic, that’d be something. I’d be fine with Zhachofski, Chijievski, or even Shuiestupski…even that looks at least VAGUELY like how you’re supposed to pronounce it.
It’s pretty impressive that he was able to ice a lifetime contract with one of the most elite college basketball programs at the country. I mean, think of the sport’s other coaching greats. Smith. Wooden. Knight. Pitino. Valvano. Brown. Rupp. Summit. Not exactly a hotbed of quirky ethnicity.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t get it.
[QUOTE=Ignatz]
Pronounced Ker chef ski
[/QUOTE]
Lordy, don’t say that around Duke fans. It’s Shuh-SHEV-ski.
I saw a wedding in the paper yesterday where the bride’s maiden name was Freak. I bet she couldn’t wait to change her name…
I also worked with a Mike Hunt (the third!) and a girl with the surname “van Ramsdonk” - nice girl, terrible surname. I believe it was Dutch.
[QUOTE=DKW]
Maybe it’s just me…is it just me? Oh, c’mon, it can’t be just me.
I’ve thought it before, and I still believe it now…
“Kyrzyzewski” is an absolute balls-out 110% bizarre name. And it’s a miracle that the most he ever had to suffer for it was a corny Bud Light-sponsored promo. (That he was in!)
Sheesh, I’m as open-minded as the next I-don’t-care-I’m-from-freakin’-Hawaii sports fan, but that name is just plain wrong. Look, if it were kinda unphonetic, or even mostly unphonetic, that’d be something. I’d be fine with Zhachofski, Chijievski, or even Shuiestupski…even that looks at least VAGUELY like how you’re supposed to pronounce it.
[/QUOTE]
The name is phonetic, if you pronounce it in Polish. In Polish, it would basically be something like:
“kshih-SHEV-skee”
K = k
rz = “zh” or “sh”
y = short “i”
rz = “zh” or “sh”
e = short e
w = “v”
-ski = “skee”
The “rz” sound is normally voiced (“zh”), but since it follows an unvoiced consonant, it gets unvoiced. Otherwise, it’s absolutely phoenetic.
[QUOTE=Leaffan]
Oh, and Mike Hunt lived just around the corner from us!
[/QUOTE]
That’s a strange place to keep it.
I knew a Chinese guy named “Long Wang”
We always joked it would be funny if it turned out “Long” was just a nickname, his real first name being Steve or something.
I went to school with a couple fellows named Seeman.
Also a Bates, whose real name I can never remember, but we just called him ‘Master’.
One of the counselors at a camp I went to was Ron Chi.
The Dean of Boys in my HS was Mr. Sauer and he was. He once tried to kick me in the shins, missed and hit his own shin on a chair, that made him even madder and he was screaming at me to get out of his office.
I did business w/ a woman named Pigg. We became friends and I asked her why she didn’t change it when she got divorced, she said it was because of her kids. Poor kids!
Then there’s this guy. Despite Wiki’s art. I believe he pronounces it “bay-ner”:
I went to school with an obese midget named Pigg.
I had a doctor named Fucks.
A friend of mine used to get the giggles every time she mentioned one of her old schoolmates. The girl’s family name was Whiteleg, which she hated. Apparently she was very pleased when she got married and took her husband’s name. Sidebottom.
[QUOTE=SpazCat]
The wife of one of my former classmates works for the neonatal unit at the local hospital. Once she attended the birth of Luscious Cox. I wish I was making that up.
[/QUOTE]
He should hook up with this guy.
Years ago there was a series of Pepsi ads featuring “real” people. One of them was named Toppie Smellie. I served with a guy named Maynard Lipp; he swore he had changed his name from Richard. I also new a Dick Tate.