Abcde: What's in a name?

[Eric]

One boy in school was named Richard Franklin Head.
Parents were old for having a child, Mid to late 40's, and seamed nice, if not nieve.
So I don't even think they had any idea of what they had done till it was too late.

[Loren]

Wife had trouble mixing up names of three guys up the street living in adjoining houses. Finally I got her straight, just remember as you go up the street, C,D,E. Craig, Dan, Erik in that order. As it happens. If the next ones are Frank, George and Harold I don't know about it.

A co-worker once noted the names of females in his neighborhood all sounded like they could be on shampoo bottles. He actually knew an Aquanetta.

At my first job a salesman sometimes spoken of was named Harry Bush.

The most experienced off-roader we know is Dick. Sometimes in a group he'll be the last vehicle, and help keep things together. He's said it's always good to have a Dick in the rear.

A friend of ours with American Indian heritage named a girl something very unusual that had a positive cultural heritage meaning for her but contained what is essentially a slur in English. Groan. Why would you do that to a kid.

My parents named their kids James, Sharon, Timothy and Loren. Then gave them the nicknames Jimmy, Timmy, Shari and Larry. Groan again but they claimed it was unintentional. Only my sister still uses hers.

Parents who play games with their kid's names by using trick spellings or pronunciations are asking other people to help make/let them feel offended when it's inevitably gotten wrong. Such things are getting pretty prevalent these days. And stupid. Don't ask me for my respect when you do something stupid.

[pdub]

Does anybody remember waterbeds? I had one, full floatation, a giant baggie full of heated water with sheets on it. There was a big waterbed outlet in Charlotte, their radio spokesperson was named Helen Bedd. "Hi, I'm Helen Bedd."

[Deaf Bob]

Funny watching Steve Harvey on Family Feud trying to say some of the black names and butcher it and call them something silly.

[RockJustRock]

Does anybody remember waterbeds? I had one, full floatation, a giant baggie full of heated water with sheets on it. There was a big waterbed outlet in Charlotte, their radio spokesperson was named Helen Bedd. "Hi, I'm Helen Bedd."

I love the Sofa King. His deals on couches are Sofa King Great!

[68scott385]

Not sure what gets into parents heads, trying to be funny with their kids names .. had a girl in High School named Candy Barr.

When I was a senior in high school the was a freshman named Dreama Cox.....and I'll make no more comments on that, thank you.

Some years ago I worked with a guy named Richard Tingle. He's 25 years older that I am but the implication should have been obvious. He was also somewhere near the end of a line of 13 so maybe his parents were running out of options.

[68scott385]

Does anybody remember waterbeds? I had one, full floatation, a giant baggie full of heated water with sheets on it. There was a big waterbed outlet in Charlotte, their radio spokesperson was named Helen Bedd. "Hi, I'm Helen Bedd."

That's done as an advertising gimmick, similar to the radio DJ whose name is Craven Morehead.

[BBR]

In class, my wife had a Shi-thead (unhyphenated and pronounced "Sheh-theed") and my sister (also a teacher here in town) had Orangejello and Lemonjello. (O-rahn-jelo, Leh-mon-jelo)

We had a Misty Harbor in middle school, but really, it went over most of our heads. Haha

[68scott385]

..... Orangejello and Lemonjello. (O-rahn-jelo, Leh-mon-jelo)......

The first time I heard that one was 1991. I thinks it's urban legend now.

[Tubbed Pacecar]

Going only slightly off topic, this thread reminds me of a stand-up comic who did a "bit" about fictitious Porn star names which sounded like famous people, the only one of the many they cited that I still remember is S'horney Weaver......and while sitting there laughing at the names the comic was coming up with, came up with one myself.......Whipme Houston

[Markmx6]

The first time I heard that one was 1991. I thinks it's urban legend now.

It isn't just a legend, My wife had two brothers for students with those names. It may have started out as one and then someone thought it was a good idea...

[Gateclyve Photographic]

At my first job a salesman sometimes spoken of was named Harry Bush.

I heard of a preacher once with the name Harry Ball . . . Too bad the clerk filling out his birth certificate didn't say "Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent."

[Matt Cramer]

In class, my wife had a Shi-thead (unhyphenated and pronounced "Sheh-theed") and my sister (also a teacher here in town) had Orangejello and Lemonjello. (O-rahn-jelo, Leh-mon-jelo)

The latter two are real names in Italian and Spanish. The other one seems to be a similar case of a foreign name that seems to have meant something reasonable in its native language.

There's a name that's been used a couple times in my family where it's a common name and a fairly common spelling - but it was spelled like it's Swedish, and native English speakers would always mispronounce it. They eventually gave up trying to correct everyone and went with the English pronunciation. My wife and I tried to make our kids' names as misspelling-proof and mispronunciation-proof as possible. We did take a risk in giving our daughter a name that's shared with a major character in a well-known horror movie, but we figure there won't be that much overlap between kids her age who are allowed to watch R-rated movies and kids her age who are into movies that came out decades before they were born.

[Monster]

We did take a risk in giving our daughter a name that's shared with a major character in a well-known horror movie.

Carrie ?

[BBR]

That's hilarious. Never knew they were 'real' names. These kids were neither Italian nor Spanish though. lol