Names

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GeorgiaXplant

Well-known Member
Location
Georgia
When I was a kid, our dentist was Dr. Gorilla. Yes. That really was his last name. He had a brother who was a doctor in our small town. We never gave their names a second thought because they were members of one of the founding families and had just always been around. It was only when I got older that it struck me that people who moved to our town or otherwise had not heard of them before would think it an odd name.

My mother went to school with a girl named Mary Piddlecow.

My friend's mother went to school with a girl named Margie Cutter. She married a guy named Buttov, pronounced "Buttoff" and became Margie Cutter Buttov.

Oh, my.

I was saddled with an unpronounceable first name and except for those who lived in our small town, an unpronounceable last name. My mother named me for a pen pal she had from France before the war (but whom she lost track of during the war years). Combined with my last name, it's a very French name, and not unusual at all in Canada or as a man's name in the South, although the masculine version is spelled just a bit differently.

I gave my children very common names that are easy to spell and pronounce.

These days? It seems that there are an awful lot of new parents who want "designer" names for their offspring and get...um...shall we say creative with their names. I could tell them what it's like to have a name that is constantly mispronounced and misspelled. It's been a long 73+ years of being addressed by whatever comes to mind of the person speaking to me!

In the cases of the Drs. Gorilla, Mary Piddlecow and Margie Cutter Buttov, at least their names were pronounceable!
 

Friend of mine married a guy with the last name of Hole. When she got preggers, I told her not to give the kid Ashley if it was a girl. They would shorten it to Ash. :playful:
 
LOL! That wouldn't have been good. A friend of mine wanted a different name for her new baby boy, one that would lend itself easily to a suitable nickname. She named him Montgomery, thinking that his nickname would be Monty. When baby was a few weeks old and the neighborhood kids wanted to see the new baby boy, she invited them in and when asked what she named him, said "Montgomery". Silence for a nanosecond, then "Gummy!" He was Gummy for as long as we lived in the neighborhood...he was five when we moved. He's probably called Gummy to this day.

With eight brothers and five sisters, you'd think that we'd all have good French names (my grandparents came here from Canada). Nope. They all, except one, have regular-people names. The one who doesn't is a sister, Michele, whose name is spelled like the masculine version instead of the feminine "Michelle". She hates it because, well, she's a SHE! We call her Shelly.
 

My obstetrician with my youngest son was Glen Miller. He wasn`t on call the day I delivered so another doctor delivered him-Steve Lawrence. My son is a music head-go figure. Best thing about Glen Miller was that he lived on Finger Ave. This guy was a crack up-I just know he bought a house on that street on purpose.....
 
I'm remembering other rather unfortunate names...a urologist named Dr. Dicky, for instance.

When we lived in Hawaii during the war, my mother went to a dentist named...not sure of the spelling...but pronounced Look See.

A man running for city council named Crook? He won but fell from grace when he was caught with his hand in the till! So what do you think would happen with a name like that, being in jail, and a call coming over the PA system instructing Prisoner Crook to report to the warden's office. Would half the prison population show up at his door?:D

kcvet, I might be a tad nervous about visiting a doctor named Killman, and Misty, Dr. Blinder as an eye doctor wouldn't exactly inspire confidence in me!
 
I was once referred to a doctor whose name was Dr Killer.
I thought it was Dr Keller until I saw the sign on his door. It did make me pause before entering. :lol:

My sister wanted to name her baby (if a boy) Stewart after our father.
We pointed out that since her married name was Mutton, this might be an unfortunate choice.
Fortunately, she only had daughters.
 
Years ago, when I first moved to California, I was recommended to go to these doctors for a general exam for the job: The partners names were Sughar and Sauer. :) Close to my home town this couple got married right out of highschool. Her last name was Winemaker and his was Casebier. :)
 
I think todays celebrity penchant for giving their offspring ridiculous names is such a stupid idea. Even nmore stupid, is the people who COPY them and call their little angels such silly names. I am probably oldfashioned and I know that the younger generation have their own ideas but, I do feel that some consideration should be given to the poor babies that are stuck with these, probably, quite inappropriate names. My granddaughter is called Portia...my mother hated it so much she insisted on calling her Poppy.!
 
My Husband had to see a Urologist with the name Dr. Weiner. I had a GYN named Dr. Bare. My friends cousin named his daughter Paige which I thought was funny because their last name was Turner. I'm so happy that the nurse that delivered me had a normal name because my parents hadn't picked a name for me before I was born. The nurse's name was Barbara. I thank God every day that she had a normal name.
 
Everybody thinks I made this up when I was in sixth grade or something. They passed on decades ago so... I had an English teacher, Mr. Bussom. ( Pronounced Boozom) And his wife was "Offie", yes it was short for Ofelia.
 
We had a psychiatrist in my home town whose name was Strange. I think I'd change it....

Many eons ago, friends of a friend named their daughter Crystal Chanda Leher (pronounced "shanda" and "leer"). Yep, crystal chandelier. Sounds like a stripper in a very fancy club.

There's a dentist here named Phuoc Huu Pham. Now I know that "ph" is pronounced "p" in Vietnamese, but it's still funny to see it on his big sign out in front of his office.
 
I work at an elementary school (TK-3rd)) and some of the names parents think up for their kids are pretty silly and/or hard to pronounce, and spellings are even stranger. Seems many want an original name for their kid at everyone's expense.

Some names confuse some of the kids, like our school cook is named Mrs. Cook, and another staff member, who happens to be a black man, is named Mr Brown. One day a kindergartner told me Mr. Brown came to his house, but what he really meant was that a black man came, very confusing for this little boy.
 
The schools I attended had Mrs. Green, Mr. White, and Mr. Purple. What everybody laughed at, though, was when two teachers were routinely assigned together to chaperone ballgames: Mr. Head and Mr. Foote.

I think all the modern inventions are awful, too, the topper being Nevaeh- took me a long time to figure out it was 'Heaven' spelled backward, and it seems quite popular.
Intentional misspellings have always bugged me, though- like Jacen (for Jason), ShyAnn (for Cheyenne), etc. etc. I think it gives a child a strike against him or her from the start.
 
I once lived in a town where the local GP was named Dr. Doctor. His surname was actually Doctor.

I recently read a theory of why people with slavery in their heritage sometimes give long, complicated, distinctive names to their children. The author thought that it was an unconscious throwback to days of slavery. Plantation slaves were always called by diminutive, shortened or nickname type names. Never given the dignity of a 'proper' name.

I think the kindest thing a parent can do for a child is to give it a routine, easily spellable name.
 
helenbacque said:
I once lived in a town where the local GP was named Dr. Doctor. His surname was actually Doctor.

I recently read a theory of why people with slavery in their heritage sometimes give long, complicated, distinctive names to their children. The author thought that it was an unconscious throwback to days of slavery. Plantation slaves were always called by diminutive, shortened or nickname type names. Never given the dignity of a 'proper' name.

I think the kindest thing a parent can do for a child is to give it a routine, easily spellable name.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. Whether parents think they're being original, defiant, or cute, it doesn't benefit a child to be given a name that's weird, difficult to spell, or difficult to pronounce.
 

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