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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Not Baby's Name
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MSHB
Shipmate
# 9228
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Barnabas Aus:
There are two very elderly gentlemen in our small town who were classmates at school about eight decades ago. Their names - Cecil Rhodes and William Shakespeare.
There was a girl at my high school whose name was Wilma Shakespeare.
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MSHB: Member of the Shire Hobbit Brigade
Posts: 1522 | From: Dharawal Country | Registered: Mar 2005
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Kyzyl
Ship's dog
# 374
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Posted
I know an Andrew Jackson and my sister went to school with a Kelly Green.
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I need a quote.
Posts: 668 | From: Wapasha's Prairie | Registered: Jun 2001
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Kyzyl
Ship's dog
# 374
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Posted
Of course there was the great lady of Houston (Texas) society, Ima Hogg. Contrary to popular belief she did not have a sister named Ura.
Miss Ima
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I need a quote.
Posts: 668 | From: Wapasha's Prairie | Registered: Jun 2001
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A.Pilgrim
Shipmate
# 15044
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Posted
As part of my family history research I encountered the Plant family of north-east Derbyshire. There were two generations of Abraham Plant (verily, Abraham begat Abraham), and Old Testament names were much used in the family, including one Aminadab Plant who married into my family.
Maybe he didn't welcome it, but an unusual name (indeed in this case almost certainly a unique one in the history of civil registration) is very welcome to the family historian. However, a hazard is getting the registrar to record it correctly. At his birth it wasn't - presumably neither his father nor the registrar knew how to spell it, but when he got married he must have got it right.
And in the old days, when hunting through index volumes at the Family Records Centre, one could encounter numerous oddities. I wish I'd made a note of them at the time.
Angus
Posts: 434 | From: UK | Registered: Aug 2009
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Dal Segno:
And then the boy called Philips, for a first name, which is his mother's maiden name, without the parents thinking that the poor kid will go through life having to correct everyone who thinks his name is Philip. He uses his middle name.
There was a famous nineteenth century American clergyman named Phillips Brooks. He wrote the Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem".
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
The names on this thread are going from bad to worse! So it must be time to introduce my second-favorite (after Autumn Chardonnay, referenced above), a real name one of my colleagues found on a job application: Cathedral Rotunda. One hopes that isn't where she was conceived.
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Of course, it's possible for parents to choose a perfectly acceptable name, only for it to become ridiculous later, when Walt Disney created a cartoon character with the same name.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
Marriage can make for odd names as well. I can understand why Paige Davis doesn't use her married name.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Marriage can make for odd names as well. I can understand why Paige Davis doesn't use her married name.
Or if she married
this guy.
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I've never quite understood why people give their children surnames for first names. I know sometimes it can be to honour relatives, but sometimes it isn't and naming a little girl Taylor, Mackenzie or Campbell when you have the choice of many beautiful first names seems a bit depressing.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
Probably apocryphal but there was a story going the rounds a few years ago about a very young mother who had to be dissuaded from calling her little girly Chlamydia because she thought it sounded pretty.
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Kyzyl
Ship's dog
# 374
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Marriage can make for odd names as well. I can understand why Paige Davis doesn't use her married name.
Not an odd name but I had a schoolmate whose mother's maiden name was the plain & simple Mann. She exchanged it for Modrzejewski.
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I need a quote.
Posts: 668 | From: Wapasha's Prairie | Registered: Jun 2001
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Bumped into a teacher friend.
Sent a letter home to parents of new girl, referring to their child as Virginia.
They returned a nice note but with a request that he use the correct spelling of their daughter's name which is Virgina ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I once taught a little boy called Dimple.
Very sweet ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
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Posted
So, here I was going through my backlog of obits ("Hedgie" is just another word for "Fun"!), when I came across one for a British actress who died on January 24 and was named "Topsy Jane." Now, before you blow that off as some sort of funky stage name, her actual birth name was Topsy Jane Legge.
Topsy? You name a little girl Topsy? What? Were Flopsy and Mopsy already taken???
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"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
Posts: 2740 | From: Delaware, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
Topsy? You name a little girl Topsy? What? Were Flopsy and Mopsy already taken???
From Uncle Tom's Cabin, I guess.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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Mili
Shipmate
# 3254
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Posted
I know a girl called Tempest. She's actually a calm, quiet child - whether she will live up to her name in her teenage years is yet to be seen.
Meanwhile, I've taught two or three Angels who definitely weren't.
Other unusual names are Sage and Banjo, who are both boys. I guess Banjo was named for Banjo Patterson, the poet, but that was only the poet's nickname.
Posts: 1015 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Aug 2002
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The5thMary
Shipmate
# 12953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
The name Minnie used to be quite common, but you'd be pretty cruel to call a child that now. Although the youngest person I know to be called that is about 25, it's a nickname not a given name. But, for a boy, I really can't understand anyone choosing the name Miles. Why???
In high school, I had a gym teacher named Minnie Cherry! She was dating a guy named Mickey and so, of course, they were referred to as "Mickey and Minnie". Minnie Cherry, though! That's just dreadful.
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God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.
Posts: 3451 | From: Tacoma, WA USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I'm not sure why Miles is a problem--I went to school with one, and nobody AFAIK had any trouble with the name. Nice kid. If you mean the homonym problem with "miles", maybe it was just that we had so many easier targets in our multicultural schoool (eg. "Dung," "Phuoc").
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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The5thMary
Shipmate
# 12953
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Posted
I sometimes read the obits in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to see what horrible names I can find. Around here, that's a part-time sport. Anyway, some old lady had died and the paper listed the names of her grandchildren. One grandson's name was... am I am NOT making this up, I assure you...
ChexLexus!! Who names their child after a cereal and a luxury car?! Somewhere in Atlanta, a young man is living life and named ChexLexus. Seriously. That's child abuse, plain and simple.
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God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.
Posts: 3451 | From: Tacoma, WA USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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Stercus Tauri
Shipmate
# 16668
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
I'm not sure why Miles is a problem--I went to school with one, and nobody AFAIK had any trouble with the name. Nice kid. If you mean the homonym problem with "miles", maybe it was just that we had so many easier targets in our multicultural schoool (eg. "Dung," "Phuoc").
Some friends in New York have a little boy called Miles. They are moving to France and wondered if they should change his name to Kilometres... I am sure there is one somewhere if you look hard enough.
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Thay haif said. Quhat say thay, Lat thame say (George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal)
Posts: 905 | From: On the traditional lands of the Six Nations. | Registered: Sep 2011
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Zacchaeus
Shipmate
# 14454
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
I'm not sure why Miles is a problem--I went to school with one, and nobody AFAIK had any trouble with the name. Nice kid. If you mean the homonym problem with "miles", maybe it was just that we had so many easier targets in our multicultural schoool (eg. "Dung," "Phuoc").
I think maybe we have a pond difference here the only Miles I have ever known is 70 +
It is the sort of name, in the places of the uk that I have lived in, that would lead to teasing in the playground.
Posts: 1905 | From: the back of beyond | Registered: Jan 2009
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
There was a Miles next door when I was a girl - about two years older than me. But I've never met another and it's never been a popular name. The only Milo I know of is the Irish actor Milo O'Shea.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
Minnie Cherry would have a difficult time in school now, but a former student of mine who was christened "Holly Berry" could expect some nuisance in any age.
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It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
I know a young Miles - he's about 8. I thought it was unusual, but not tease-worthy.
There was a programme on Radio 4 years ago about a young man who had been given the name The Angel Gabriel - does anyone remember it? His father was IIRC a clergyman, and his elder siblings had names like Thomas and Sarah. His parents had planned to call their next child Edward or Elizabeth.
In the event he was born prematurely, the birth was traumatic and his father was told that the baby had little chance of surviving, indeed that both mother and baby might die. The mother, whilst very ill and delirious, told the father that their baby was to be called "The Angel Gabriel" and the distraught father had the baby baptised and registered very quickly, as he couldn't face the thought of registering the birth and death together.
Mother and baby both recovered and the mother was incredulous to find herself with a son called "The Angel Gabriel."
It all worked out, apparently. The young man being interviewed sounded delightful, and spoke affectionately of his parents. He used a different name on a day-to-day basis but quite liked having an odd name on his birth certificate.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Aggie
Ship's cat
# 4385
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by basso:
quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
Topsy? You name a little girl Topsy? What? Were Flopsy and Mopsy already taken???
From Uncle Tom's Cabin, I guess.
Or the "Topsy and Tim" series of books.
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“I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.”
(Joseph Mary Plunkett 1887-1917)
Posts: 581 | From: A crazy, crazy world | Registered: Apr 2003
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
I know a Miles who's 2. It's a name I've always quite liked and, while a bit uncommon perhaps, not that unusual or particularly odd.
I'm on the UK side of the Pond, by the way, if we are in the process of establishing a Pond difference.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
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Posted
A Torontonian colleague teaching in an elementary school was a bit perplexed when her new assistant (for working with the two challenged kids in the class) appeared, named Plaice. Thinking it was odd for someone to be named after a fish, on growing acquaintance she discovered that Plaice was the young women's preferred diminutive for her given name, Placenta. Her mother, in a difficult childbirth in a small centre in Jamaica, heard the word mentioned by the doctors and nurses and quite liked the sound of it. Her daughter, on reaching adolescence in Canada, thought otherwise-- plaice is known here as flounder, and so Plaice seemed like a neutral version which would not upset her mother.
There was a pupil name discussion at the teacher's dinner table once, when folk were mocking the name of the child of an architect friend- baptized Boris. Of a certain age, diners were thinking of Rocky and Bullwinkle and the characters Boris and Natasha. She told us bluntly that children did not know Rocky & Bullwinkle and, moreover, in a school with 3 or 4 dozen ethnicities and in a grénola part of Toronto, children came in with all sorts of names, and the other children took this in their stride. Teachers and parents might look askance at Summer, January, and Luna, or puzzle at Parminder, Vsevelod, and Fulgencia (all names of her students), but the kids are growing up in a different world and the rest of us would just have to adjust. She reminded us that they would be working to pay for our pensions, so we should make nice.
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Stercus Tauri:
... Some friends in New York have a little boy called Miles. They are moving to France and wondered if they should change his name to Kilometres ...
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
No no no! Tell them to be brave and rebellious! ![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
I once heard of a family in Caithness who had a daughter called Polyester. Now that's cruel.
[ 11. March 2014, 14:14: Message edited by: piglet ]
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by Stercus Tauri:
... Some friends in New York have a little boy called Miles. They are moving to France and wondered if they should change his name to Kilometres ...
No no no! Tell them to be brave and rebellious!
Anyway, he'd have to shrink to about .621 of the size, which is anatomically dubious.
Perhaps they could call him Franc.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
At risk of seeming obsessed (I'm male, it goes with the territory, OK?) while doing some local history research recently I discovered the marriage of one Fanny Sneesum...
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Many years ago when my aunt was working in the reception of a hospital overseas, she tried not to look too startled as one mother proudly introduced her twin girls as "Phyllis and Siphyllis".
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
I'm distantly related to two young brothers called Max and Milo.
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I've remembered that my mother had some twin cousins called Rex and Roy. I wasn't impressed by the choice.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
I have twin cousins named Paul and Paulette. Glad it was them and not me. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
I have twin cousins named Paul and Paulette. Glad it was them and not me.
They weren't mice were they??
(On hearing these names I was immediately transported back to the Anatole books of my childhood... ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) )
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
The first child born on Pitcairn Island was named Thursday October Christian. Allegedly his father, Fletcher, chose this by the date. It may not be as bad as some other names mentioned.
On the other hand, I have heard of Wednesday Addams, Tuesday Weld, Billy Sunday, Joe Friday, Fredric March, June Allison, Dan August and January Jones. (Some of those are fictional characters.)
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
A previous vicar was descended from one of the Pitcairn settlers. All the males in his family, including him, had "Pitcairn" as a middle name.
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
The Rt. Rev. John Elbridge Hines, 22nd Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, had five children -- four were boys, all named John, with different middle names.
(Three of the four became Episcopal priests.)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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cosmic dance
Shipmate
# 14025
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Posted
One of my sons, now 26, is called Miles and in answer to the question "Why?' it was because we thought it was a strong masculine name, unusual without being weird and we felt that it would suit him, for some inexplicable, intuitive reason.
He didn't like it much as a child, but recently told me he really loves his name and feels that it gets him noticed in a positive way.
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"No method, no teacher, no guru..." Van Morrison.
Posts: 233 | From: godzone | Registered: Aug 2008
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
A recent radio programme on health issues reminded me that I hadn't noticed Candida mentioned on this thread.
There were a few around in the late sixties/early seventies, as I remember
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Talk about books -any books- on our rejuvenatedforum http://www.bookgrouponline.com/index.php?
Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by HCH:
On the other hand, I have heard of Wednesday Addams, Tuesday Weld, Billy Sunday, Joe Friday, Fredric March, June Allison, Dan August and January Jones. (Some of those are fictional characters.)
When I was a child I read a series of books where the children's family name was Callendar. The father was Augustus, the girl was February and the boy was Friday.
At the Catholic school down the road there was a girl called Pagan. Actually when I looked at the school roll there wasn't a single Mary, John, Mark, Peter, David, Michael, Chris or Paul all of which would have been popular when I was growing up.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
I came across a "Cherokee" today. Not exactly a Welsh name...
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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aunt jane
Shipmate
# 10139
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
A recent radio programme on health issues reminded me that I hadn't noticed Candida mentioned on this thread.
There were a few around in the late sixties/early seventies, as I remember
Remember the TV series "The Man from UNCLE"? Where the villainous organisation THRUSH spread its evil tentacles everywhere
Posts: 97 | From: South East of England | Registered: Aug 2005
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
The husband of a distant cousin is named Andrew January Grundy. Don't know what he is called familiarly, though, probably Andy. (or maybe Jan?)
IIRC, the January part has some family history, but I don't know what it is.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
The husband of a distant cousin is named Andrew January Grundy. Don't know what he is called familiarly, though, probably Andy. (or maybe Jan?)
IIRC, the January part has some family history, but I don't know what it is.
Was he born in October?
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by aunt jane:
quote:
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
A recent radio programme on health issues reminded me that I hadn't noticed Candida mentioned on this thread.
There were a few around in the late sixties/early seventies, as I remember
Remember the TV series "The Man from UNCLE"? Where the villainous organisation THRUSH spread its evil tentacles everywhere
ROFLMAO!!!
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by HCH:
On the other hand, I have heard of Wednesday Addams, ...
One of those bits of trivia floating in my head: Wednesday's middle name is Friday. Wednesday Friday Addams.
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"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
Posts: 2740 | From: Delaware, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
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