We have a number of people in my large Italian family who are named after other members of my large Italian family, which could lead to much confusion at get-togethers were we not all so darned creative in nicknaming. :rolleyes: Thus, my great-grandfather was always known as Louis, his son was Louis but called Lou-Lou, his daughter was Louise but called Sissy, his grandson was Louis but called Lou, another grandson named Louis was called Little Lou-Lou and his great-grandson is Louis and called Louie.
Grandfather is Frank but called Chick, brother is Frank called Chick also, aunt is Francine, cousin is Francine but called Chickie, and we have an Aunt Marion, Baby Mare (her daughter) and Aunt Sissy’s daughter, who is actually called (to her face) Baby Baby Mare. And we have discovered that I can fit eleven Josephs in my swimming pool at one time. 'Course, we don’t call them all Joseph… there’s Joe, Giuseppe, Joey, Joe-Joe, Frasier, Big Joe, Little Joe, Joey Sally, Little Seppie, Josephine and Auntie Josie.
My mother has cousins named Harley, Farley, and Arley. Identical triplets, doncha know? And since their hospital bracelets originally read “Triplet A” “Triplet B” and “Triplet C,” their middle names are A, B, and C. No periods, no rest of the name, just the letters.
She also has an uncle named Pearl (called Nib) and a grandmother named Mercedes (pronounced “mer-SEE-dis”) but she was always called Das. It’s a hell of a family.
I’m quite surprised nobody has mentioned that Dallas was indeed a “real” name before the city was named after somebody’s daughter. I b’lieve it’s Irish.
I went to high school with a Kizzy Tequilah _____.
My co-worker just (this week) had a daughter. Named her Anna Magdelene after her grandmother. The father wanted to namer her Robin Anna. My co-worker said there was no way she was giving her child a name that would be pronounced “Raw Banana.”
I love my first name. I love its sound and its spelling, even though nobody ever gets it right on the first try. How many names do you know that evolved independantly both in English and in Arabic? Though AFAIK, I’m completely Irish-German, I’m glad I have the Arab version of my name because the meaning is just so much cooler.
My brother is plain old Alexander. He goes by Alex. I call him Xan, partly due to old habit and partly because I know he hates it. Sometimes I call him Rednaxela or ARF (his initials) just to irritate him. Teenagers! My sis and I share the first four letters of our names, but those last two make all the difference in the world. We call her Al.
I once knew an attorney by the name of Lake Trout. Later on, I discovered that his siblings (all attorneys, I believe) were named Brook and Rainbow.
[Sorry for the complete hijack – this is a good story]
The thing is, Lake was not a good boy. He was a thoroughly unpleasant and creepy person when I knew him. Several years after I had moved on to another law firm, I saw in the paper a photo of a man in a prison uniform and shackles, and the picture was captioned “Lake Trout as Landed by the Authorities.” Seems Lake had appropriated the briefcase and credit cards of a dead client, taken a taxi to the Mustang Ranch in Nevada, and went inside and stayed for several hours. The taxi driver, a little ticked off because he had been waiting all this time, got suspicious and went through the briefcase, which was still in the cab. The dead client’s papers identified the client as being around 80 years old; Lake was about 32 at this time. The cabbie took the case and papers to the police, and the police returned to the Ranch and fished ol’ Lake out. I cut out the article, photocopied it and mailed it to friends at my old firm. We’re still laughing about it.
You don’t have to have a weird name to have trouble with people spelling it. I’m Chris Alan Stevens. Most people get Chris right, but I have to spell Stevens to pretty much everyone. Sometimes I can get away with saying, “It’s Stevens with a V,” but that confuses some people, so I usually have to proceed to spell it out.
And I for one dig the weird spelling of common names, as long as it’s for a (or is it “an”) historical or ethnic reason like Aleksander.
I’d like to go with a Slovak name for one of my kids but I don’t think my wife will let me pull it off, even though she liked Slovakia as much as I did. It’s just as well, our daughter would probably disown us anyway if she had to live her life telling people how to spell Katka or **Danka[/a] or whatever else…
Someone asked how one would pronounce “Triinu” on page 2 and what gender it would reflect. Well the one man I knew named Trinu (one i instead of two) pronounced it Trinee (rhymes with tinny). He said it was a shorter version of Trinidad. Don’t ask me where he got the u from… obviously not a celtic source even if it is a typical of the verb suffix in welsh with the the same pronunctiation.
You don’t have to have a weird name to have trouble with people spelling it. My name? Chris Alan Stevens (yes, like the Northern Exposure guy). Most people get Chris right, but I have to spell Stevens to pretty much everyone. Sometimes I can get away with saying, “It’s Stevens with a V,” but that confuses some people, so I usually have to proceed to spell it out.
And I for one dig the weird spelling of common names, as long as it’s for a (or is it “an”) historical or ethnic reason like Aleksander.
I’d like to go with a Slovak name for one of my kids but I don’t think my wife will let me pull it off, even though she liked Slovakia as much as I did. It’s just as well, our daughter would probably disown us anyway if she had to live her life telling people how to spell Katka or **Danka[/a] or whatever else…
My sister was in a ER waiting room in Florida with strep a few years ago. She reported that an ER nurse walked out and (incorrectly) called for “Lemon Jello” and “Orange Jello”. The mother was pretty upset about the mispronunciations. I wonder if it’s the same set of jellos?
I referee kids’ wrestling, and one of the state placers in around a 9-year-old group was named Dakota Stackhouse.
Now, given, “Stackhouse” is a great, great wrestling name. But Dakota? What the hell? If my last name were “Stackhouse,” my kids would be named John, Jane and maybe Mike. Maybe.
