Abcd is the diminutive form of Abcde. Didn’t you get the memo?
The absolute strangest ( or maybe not) name I heard was a kid called ‘Boy’, yes he was a boy. I thought, “really? You are so anti-something you couldn’t give your kid a real name?” Turns out it was a nick-name for ‘Boyette’, apparently a family name.
Becky Bickhead from Biggers Arkansas … is that you?!?
My wife had a student named Lord William Butters Singleton III. He is now a police officer here, and I wonder what he is called, Officer Butters? Lord Officer the Third? Now mind you, he is neither a Lord nor the Third.
Not this Boy, then?
j
Doesn’t always turn out the way you think. I’ll change the names for obvious reasons, but we chose a trad, family one (let’s say Mary) and an unusual one (let’s say Siobhan - it was unusual enough that it drew responses like Really?? Oh, ah…).
By the time school rolls around, Mary sounds like a name from the last century but one; and there are 3 other Siobhans in the same class.
It’s a funny thing, the zeitgeist.
j
Bill Lear, the founder of the Lear Jet Corporation, named his daughter Shanda Lear.
My sister was a government worker and tells of one application she processed:
Name: 1142 South First Street
(Ok, she’s thinking; just get the form lines mixed.)
Address: Same as Name.
I heard of some people called Shine who named their daughter Raina.
There are people who collect lists of these things, and books devoted to them:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1587100.Remarkable_Names_of_Real_People
Bildo?
Really? Risking possible long term estrangement over the choice of a name for her child? Do they think their ridicule will make her change her mind?
One of my high school classmates’ fathers was named “Squire.” He must be 70-80 years old now. He seemed pretty normal.
The man we bought our house from was named Swepson. I’m assuming it was a family name, since he was a Jr, but it’s right up there with unique names. His wife’s name was Mary, so her common balanced his rarity, I guess…
Hunt?
“Mohammad” is, by most accounts, the most common given name in the world. And while “Jesus” isn’t a very common name in English-speaking cultures (although it’s very common among Spanish speakers), its cognate “Joshua” is not unusual at all.
Besides, how can he tell if his Mom’s getting annoyed?
“Bobby… Bobby… Robert!.. Robert William Conagher!!”
“Gotta go, guys.”
“Boy Mulcaster” is the name of a character in Brideshead Revisited. But it’s not clear if that’s his given name or a nickname.
If the story’s true at all, it sounds like we’ve come in at stage 2 or 3 of the argument. ‘Squire’ by itself isn’t too odd. From reading the link, it looks like family were automatically shortening it to that because the full thing is clearly really impractical. Unfortunately, crazy-lady wants everyone to use a 3 part first name every time, and was then getting angry at people calling the baby ‘Squire’. It’s someone getting angry at friends and family calling baby Rebecca ‘Becky’, dialled upto 11.
People probably weren’t bothered so much by the words themselves- as a first and two middle names it’d be pretty low in the weird name stakes- but the mother’s reaction to anyone shortening it to something usable. No one wants to spend time with someone being so angry and controlling.
At least she didn’t insist on her first choice which would have forced them to always use “Squire Sebastian Senator of Ulm”.
Hey!