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Wednesday, 13 May 2009

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"I love weird names" says somebody called "Michael Johnston". ;-)

--Marc (at least it's a little weird)

Ah, I see you've become a Louis C.K. fan too, Mike. I spent over an hour last week stringing YouTube clips together and laughing with my wife. We decided we never wanted kids--I'm sure you understand why :-)

Sadly our society has come to accept coarse language and pronunciations of our language in entirely negative (to this person) methods.

Our society as a whole is becoming too casual and too loose around the fringes.

Maybe we are preparing for the fall of The Empire as we know it, down the road.

Prude, rude and undesirable are many of these terms; at least the way I was raised.

Maybe I am too much of an old fuddy duddy!

So be it!

I love the people who come up with the weird names. Like my own parents. "John" What a couple of maniacs.

Frank Zappa had it right too.

That's great. Profanity makes everything funnier.

Felipe Cayetano Gonzales y Rodriguez y Martinez y Consalvo y Morales y Rosales y Ramirez y Hernandez y Espinosa...

His friends call him Chico.

Well that's not as bad as Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe schlegelstein hausenberger dorffvoraltern waren­gewissenhaft schaferswessen schafewaren wohlgepflege und sorgfaltigkeit beschutzen von angreifen durch ihrraubgierigfeinde welche voraltern zwolftausend jahres vorandieerscheinen wander ersteer dem enschderraumschiff gebrauchlicht als sein ursprung von kraftgestart sein­lange fahrt hinzwischen sternartigraum auf der suchenach diestern welche gehabt bewohnbar planeten kreise drehen sich und wohin der neurasse von verstandigmen schlichkeit konnte fortplanzen und sicher freuen anlebens langlich freude und ruhe mit nicht ein furcht vor angreifen von­anderer intelligent geschopfs von hinzwischen sternartigraum, Senior

or

Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, Sr. for short

I on the other hand had no legal first or middle name until I was 16. I found out when I applied for a passport and found that the name on my birth certificate had never been filled out.

The fact that a sizable portion of the population can't hear or in some cases pronounce the the difference between Hugh, you, who, or "hey you" has lead to some real life comedy as well.

And speaking of choosing ones own name, there is the example of the reporter at the N.Y.T., Jennifer 8 Lee, whose employer insists on abbreviating her middle name to 8., making the abbreviation twice as long at the original.

"the reporter at the N.Y.T., Jennifer 8 Lee, whose employer insists on abbreviating her middle name to 8., making the abbreviation twice as long at the original"

Hugh,
Ah, yes, publication style...I remember at one magazine I worked for, I wrote a photo caption that went something like, "The evening freight rolls into Laredo against a blood-red sky," and the magazine's style nazi insisted on changing it to, "The evening freight rolls into Laredo, Tex., against a blood-red sky." No amount of protest could sway her; the publication's style was to always follow a city name with the old-fashioned state abbreviation, and that was that. I changed it to "rolls into town" or something like that, to avoid using "Laredo."

Mike

Well everybody laments the fall of civilized communication whenever there's a perceived failure to communicate "properly" by someone who "ain't doin' it right". The truth is that standardized communication is a relatively new concept. Webster's dictionary is from the 1800s if I'm not mistaken.

Let's also remember that English was not always English. It's a bastardized form of old German colliding with with some French that some Vikings spoke when they got sick of living in Normandy. And French, well... that's basically how some old German tribes decided to speak Latin, in essence.

Lastly, for those of you who think someone saying "nucular" or "aks" is an idiot, I ask you this: how do you pronounce "Wednesday"?

Your Germanic great-times-300 grandfathers would have told you to stop speaking like an idiot and pronounce it correctly: Wodinsdag....

Language is a virus, said William S. Burroughs.

I don't know what you pansies ae whining about!

There is nothing wrong with long names, they have a meaning and convey a family sense.

Signed:
Nuno Manueal de Leão Guerra Pinto do Souto
aka
Noons

I'm still trying to convince my wife that Thelonious Sphere is a good name for a son - should we have one.

Chad,
My old studio partner wanted to name his kid Zamboni. I think if they had had a son, he would have won. But they had a daughter, and his wife put her foot down.

Mike


Hi Mike,

I thought you might enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYMRjnM6j6w

Best regards,
Chris

I'm still trying to convince my wife that Thelonious Sphere is a good name for a son - should we have one.

if that last bit was a question, then no!!

My wife and I came this close to giving our daughter Emma a middle name of 'Nems', but instead opted for 'Passfield' after one of her Grandmothers.

She's twenty-four now, despises 'Passfield' and often threatens to change it to 'Nems'! :D

I joked around with my wife about naming our son "Milwaukee" for several months during her pregnancy until the Crazy Hormones started in and she threatened a sensitive portion of my anatomy with obliteration.

I still think it would have been funny.

Has anyone checked the URL that this post created? Now that's crime. By the way, great comments. I thought I was bad for wanting to name my son either Tecumseh, or Atticus. ch

http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager

BTW, I think it is high time that Agnes and Hortense worked their way back in to the name pool.

While not long, Ricky Skaggs, the Bluegrass musician, wanted to name his daughter "Amanda Lynne" (Think about it) - they settled for Amanda Jewel.

"I joked around with my wife about naming our son "Milwaukee" for several months"

Then when your son, "Milwaukee," had a son, he could also name him, "Milwaukee," so then your son would be known as "Old Milwaukee."

Rob

'Then when your son, "Milwaukee," had a son, he could also name him, "Milwaukee," so then your son would be known as "Old Milwaukee."'

See? Generations of humor. What could possibly be wrong with that?

In the disappointing "Freakonomics" there's a chapter on kid naming. Levitt wants to know why parents give their kids weird names knowing it might affect their futures negatively. The worst example he gives is of a child whose name is pronounced shuh-teed but spelled "sh-thead".

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