Odd Names

[Sinlaeshel]

While creating user accounts this morning, I happened upon a new employee named He Li. I found myself typing the oddest sentence in an E-mail this morning; I thought you people may find it somewhat amusing.

"To avoid this, He’s username will be hli2."

Without proper capitalization, someone may think my grammar skills have totally disappeared on me

 

[sleipnir214]

2) Check all the close mis-spellings and rhyming words of any possible nicknames of the full name.

Aussies are notorious for handing out nicknames. While my family was living for a time in Perth, Australia, some fellow Americans spent a great deal of time finding a name for their soon-to-be-born son. They didn't want him to be assigned a nickname by their Australian co-workers, so they agonized for weeks, finally settling on "Kevin". They figured that "Kev" and such would be too boring for the Aussies to use.

There was the mom, sitting in the hospital bed, holding little Kevin and beaming as everyone was agreeing how handsome, smart, etc., the boy was. Then one of their Aussie friends asked the boy's name. When they told him "Kevin", the guy, without missing a beat, leaned over to the baby and said, "G'day, Kedder!". And as far as the Aussie contingent is concerned, he has been "Kedder" from that day to this -- 30 years later.

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TANSTAAFL!!

 

[2ffat]

My wife knew a family whose name was "Wrap." The wife was prenant with their first child. The husband said if the baby was a girl, her name would be "Saran." If the baby was a boy, his name would be "Glad." Luckily, he was a great kidder.


James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
^{I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!}

 

[elanor]

In line with sleipnir214's story, my great-grandfather Arthur was known (and greatly disliked) for his name-joke addiction. My great-grandmother Jennie agonized over a name for their first baby (my grandmother), and, when the baby was born, proudly announced that she had found a name Grandpa Arthur couldn't twist - Gladys. Grandpa Arthur, without missing a beat, laughed and said, "Gladys? Happy Bottom! Glad Ass!" and called my poor grandmother Happy Bottom for the next thirty-some-odd years.
Thanks!
Elanor

 

[tsdragon]

if the baby was a girl, her name would be "Saran." If the baby was a boy, his name would be "Glad."

Either way, once the birth was accomplished the doctor was heard to exclaim: "OK, folks! That's a Wrap!"


Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[tsdragon]

Years ago my ex-wife worked for a Colonel Rainey who named his daughter Wendy Anne.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Wow, that's a double whammy!

"Windy and rainy" & the initials, WAR, ... suitable for a colonel I suppose.

[Cheers]

 

[tsdragon]

Good catch there! We never even noticed the initials!

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[phuzzy42]

When I was a kid in the 60's, a bunch of bikers lived across the street from me and they named their little girl Honda. They probably would have named the baby Harley if it was a boy.

 

[donbott]

When I was married my wife and I used to terrorize my mother with baby names. For a while a baby boy would have the middle name Lloyd, after a fictional uncle, with no first name agreed on yet.

After a couple of weeks, we announced we had picked the first name.

Mongo


DonBott

 

[phuzzy42]

"Candygram for Mongo! Candygram for Mongo!"

"Mongo like candy!"

BOOOOOM!



Steve Harmon
Greenfield, Indiana

 

[SantaMufasa]

A couple of baby-naming stories in the vein of those above:

1) While at the grocery store, a middle-aged woman engaged a lad in conversation at the checkout counter. (The lad's 4 older brothers preceded the lad in line behind the mother.) The older woman noted, "I see your mom is going to have another baby soon."

"Yep," the boy replied, "And I know what we're gonna call it, too. My mom says, 'If it's a girl, we'll call it Rachel...if it's a boy we'll call it Quits.' "

2) While speeding to the hospital for the impending delivery of their twins, an expectant father and mother were involved in a serious auto accident on the freeway. Both were rushed, unconscious, to the hospital.

To protect the health twins babies (a little girl and a little boy), the atttending obstetrician decided that they needed to perform an emergency C-Section delivery on the unconscious mother (suffering from a concussion).

The delivery was successful.

The husband's jokester brother was waiting in the husband's hospital room when the dad roused out of his unconsciousness. The first things the dad asked were of the health of his wife, then the health of the twins. The attending brother explained about the successful C-Section delivery. The uncle went on to note that the hospital wanted to label the bassinets of the twins with their respective names. Since both parents were still unconscious at that time, the uncle agreed to take responsibilities for naming the new arrivals.

Knowing of his brother's reknown pranksterism, the new father became very concerned about his brother's possible choices for the newborns. The new dad asked, "So what is the little girl's name?"

"Deneice," was the uncle's reply.

...So far so good, thought the dad. "And what is my son's name?"

"Denephew."

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
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Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.

 

[2ffat]

My wife works at the local high school. There is a family who has a daughter and two sons. The boys' names are pronounced "La MON Jullo" and "O RANG Jullo" and the girl's name is pronounced "Shi THE ud." The names are spelled:
Lemonjello,
Orangejello, and
Shithead.

My wife crys everytime she thinks about these kids names and how embarrased they get when someone sees their names for the first time.

James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
^{I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!}

 

[SantaMufasa]

James,

When my son attended junior high school (Lehi Jr. High), one of the teachers, Mrs. Tee, had her two twins also attending there. Their names: Warren and Garren...Why do parents do such things to their children?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[

http://www.dasages.com:

Providing low-cost remote Database Admin services]
Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.

 

[AnotherHiggins]

James 2ffat,

Funny, but I gotta call BS.

I first heard about twins named Lemonjello and Orangejello about 15 years ago. A close friend of my then girlfriend told me that she worked with someone who had met these children while counseling at summer camp here in NC. A bit sketchy.

Also, all three of the names in your last post, (Lemonjello,
Orangejello and Shithead) just appeared in the popular book Freakonomics[red]*[/red] by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. All three are cited on page 190. From the book:

…. Then there are the invented names. Roland G. Fryer, Jr., while discussing his names research on a radio show, took a call from a black woman who was upset with the name just given to her baby niece. It was pronounced shuh-TEED but was in fact spelled “shithead.” Or consider the twin boys Orangejello and Lemonjello, also black, whose parents further dignified their choice by instituting the pronunciations a-RON-zhello and le-MON-zhello.

According to an end note in the book,

Orangejello and Lemonjello: Although these names have the whiff of urban legend about them--they are, in fact, discussed on a variety of web sites that dispel (or pass along) urban legends--the authors learned of the existence of Orangejello and Lemonjello from Doug McAdam, a sociologist at Stanford University, who swears than he met the twin boys in a grocery store.

Despite the authors’ confidence in Mr. McAdam, I have a hard time buying it. Also, when searching online I cannot find anything more than anecdotal evidence of these twins existence.

In any case, I’ve never heard of all three being siblings in the same family.

[red]*[/red]Great book, by the way. I read it last week.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]

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[chiph]

My sister had a college roommate who student-taught at a VERY rural school in the South Carolina low-country, and she swears it's a true story. No "shi-thead", but the jello siblings were students there.

Chip H.


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[2ffat]

My wife says these boys weren't twins. She knows the family and worked with the daughter. We are in a very rural part of Virgina. Must be something about picking boys names in Winn-Dixie.


James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
^{I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!}

 

[AngelB]

I've come across some coincidental namings as well. One of our local police officers' surnames was 'Lawless'. My cousin is currently studying for her PhD, when she graduates she will be Dr. Ward. Even better than that, her supervisor is Dr. Pepper! I also have a friend called James Thorne whose mother is called Rose.

Finally, my own name has always been a source of problems during introductions, anyhwhere outside of Wales at least. People seem to be tone deaf to it, and it doesn't matter how often or how slowly I say it, people cannot repeat it.

It's 'Geraint'. Any guesses?

Gez



Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

It's very difficult to convey the sound of a word with text. Especially when regional accents/dialects are involved.

A simple word like 'aunt' I pronounce as 'arnt' (as in aren't), but is often pronounced as 'ant' in some places.

For your name I would guess at something like 'Sjer-int' (maybe with a silent 't') or 'Sjer-aint' (as in slang for 'is not') or even 'Go-rant'.

Anywhere close??

[Cheers]

 

[AngelB]

'fraid not. It's a Welsh name, probably quite unfair of me to expect guesses when it's seen written down, as you say. Two syllables, the emphasis is on the first. It starts like the word 'get' and the second syllable rhymes with 'pint' not 'paint'. So the 'ai' is sounded as 'eye' and the 'n' and 't' are both pronounced. I suppose it is difficult to work it out from the written text, what irks me is that some people can't even repeat it back to me when I've been through it in detail. I probably should be used to it by now but it still irritates me when people can't put two simple syllables together, and I've ended up with a huge list of stupid nicknames because of it. Sorry, this seems to have turned into a rant, hopping off soapbox now

Geraint



Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all

 

[Stella740pl]

Geraint,

So it is easy! It sounds exactly as I would have read it before I knew English (my first language is Russian); and to me, it is read exactly as it is written. Doesn't happen often in English, though.