Apropos of this*, there's this.
I can't stop chuckling over Talula. I love weird names....
And in case you're wondering, "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116" is pronounced "Albin."
*Warning: profanity
Featured Comment by Robin Parmer: "My absolute favourite, from The Guardian: 'After being charged £20 for a £10 overdraft, 30 year old Michael Howard of Leeds changed his name by deed poll to Yorkshire Bank PLC Are Fascist Bastards. The bank has now asked him to close his account, and Mr. Bastards has asked them to repay the 69p balance, by cheque, made out in his new name.'"
"I love weird names" says somebody called "Michael Johnston". ;-)
--Marc (at least it's a little weird)
Posted by: Marc Rochkind | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 01:30 PM
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 :-)
Posted by: Miserere | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 02:07 PM
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!
Posted by: Bryce Lee in Burlington, Ontario Canada | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 02:26 PM
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.
Posted by: John Frendreiss | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 02:41 PM
That's great. Profanity makes everything funnier.
Posted by: mike | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 02:51 PM
Felipe Cayetano Gonzales y Rodriguez y Martinez y Consalvo y Morales y Rosales y Ramirez y Hernandez y Espinosa...
His friends call him Chico.
Posted by: erlik | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 04:29 PM
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.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 04:34 PM
"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
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 05:01 PM
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.
Posted by: Jeff | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 05:07 PM
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
Posted by: Noons | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 09:07 PM
I'm still trying to convince my wife that Thelonious Sphere is a good name for a son - should we have one.
Posted by: Chad Thompson | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 09:17 PM
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
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 09:41 PM
Hi Mike,
I thought you might enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYMRjnM6j6w
Best regards,
Chris
Posted by: Chris | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 02:38 AM
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!!
Posted by: Steve Smith | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 03:49 AM
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
Posted by: Gingerbaker | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 08:40 AM
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.
Posted by: Doug Brewer | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 08:56 AM
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
Posted by: Charlie H | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 09:00 AM
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.
Posted by: Tom | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 10:09 AM
While not long, Ricky Skaggs, the Bluegrass musician, wanted to name his daughter "Amanda Lynne" (Think about it) - they settled for Amanda Jewel.
Posted by: KeithB | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 11:10 AM
"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
Posted by: Rob Griffin | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 11:30 AM
'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?
Posted by: Doug Brewer | Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 02:00 PM
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".
Posted by: Adam Isler | Sunday, 17 May 2009 at 05:54 PM