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Weird Personal Names

Actually at university I slightly knew a girl named Jez short for Jezebel. Her parents were occultists.
 
As for unusual, funny and really quite marvelous place names, Australia has it covered. Just look at this map (unfortunately sold out). With names such as Lovely Bottom (Tas) to Bullshit Hill (SA), from Pisspot Creek (Tas) to Titwobble Lane (Vic), via Pimple (Qld), Pensioners Bush (Tas) and Peculiar Knob (SA) it would be a must have for any wall with an empty space needing filling.
Be sure to click on the thumbnails to view the full sized images:

https://marvellousmaps.com/shop/stgs-marvellous-map-of-actual-australian-place-names
 
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including this fellow who changed his name in 2014 to *takes deep breath* Kim-Jong Sexy Glorious Beast Divine Dick Father Lovely Iron Man Even Unique Poh Un Winn Charlie Ghora Khaos Mehan Hansa Kimmy Humbero Uno Master Over Dance Shake Bouti Bepop Rocksteady Shredder Kung Ulf Road House Gilgamesh Flap Guy Theo Arse Hole Im Yoda Funky Boy Slam Duck Chuck Jorma Jukka Pekka Ryan Super Air Ooy Rusell Salvador Alfons Molgan Akta Papa Long Nameh Ek.

This bizarrely reminds me of when I was about 12. I convinced a school friend that my full name was Michael Dennis Charles William Frederick George Henry Sebastian Peter Jock Hamish Smith McTurtle Wilkinson.

I don't know how I came up with the name (except for the bits that are my real name) but for some reason I was able to repeat what I had said the first time, and it stuck.

That I remember this over 40 years later but can remember so little about the subjects we were taught is bewildering.

Apparently my mother wanted to give me the first name, St John, pronounced "sinjun". My father vetoed this, insisting on Michael so he could call me Mick or Mike most of the time and only use my full name when I was in trouble. He then spent most of my childhood calling me Mishale.

My real second name is spelled Denis but pronounced Dennis. This was after my grandfather. It was only when he died about 14 years later and the family saw his birth certificate that they discovered that he had been spelling it wrong all his life. His name had been Dennis all along.

Someone upthread referred to a Dr Badcock. When I worked in the insurance office dealing with personal injury claims, we regularly had to instruct a specialist called Dr Hugh Koch. Hours of fun!

There was also a solicitor in Nottingham called Rupert Bear. I don't know if his middle name was The, but everyone sang his name...
 
Regarding Asian people taking strange Western names as an additional designation, I used to work with international students and many of them did this, the best one was "Shampoo", she kept this for most of the year then suddenly changed it to an actual name. Quite a few of the girls would choose old-fashioned names like "Doris", this seems to slightly predate the recent trend of middle class people giving their children names you'd associate with the parent's grandparent's generation. A friend has Chinese colleagues whom who corresponds with via email, they include Milk, Eagle and Zombie.

I knew of a child named Oana Bumb, pronounced "Wanna Bum", I can't imagine she had a great time at secondary school.
 
Regarding Asian people taking strange Western names as an additional designation, I used to work with international students and many of them did this, the best one was "Shampoo", she kept this for most of the year then suddenly changed it to an actual name. Quite a few of the girls would choose old-fashioned names like "Doris", this seems to slightly predate the recent trend of middle class people giving their children names you'd associate with the parent's grandparent's generation. A friend has Chinese colleagues whom who corresponds with via email, they include Milk, Eagle and Zombie.

I knew of a child named Oana Bumb, pronounced "Wanna Bum", I can't imagine she had a great time at secondary school.

Regarding this, I was on a Philippines Airlines flight once and three of the female cabin crew had the names Cricket, Domino and Sin.
 
Many years ago, in a universty in NE England I shared an undergrad's pigeonhole with several other students for paper internal communications in the days before email - namely a Mr James Bond, and a Mr Randi Barstad. Sadly I never met either of them!
Regarding this, I was on a Philippines Airlines flight once and three of the female cabin crew had the names Cricket, Domino and Sin.
Is it just me, or do Cricket, Domino and Sin sound like the names of women who hang out with Mr. James Bond?
 
This bizarrely reminds me of when I was about 12. I convinced a school friend that my full name was Michael Dennis Charles William Frederick George Henry Sebastian Peter Jock Hamish Smith McTurtle Wilkinson.
....

I have an uncle who actually has 8 names, they start with fairly common first names for boys in the 1930s, progress into family names, and then family surnames. He only uses the first two for regular purposes, but his passport particulars page is a bit crowded!

Apparently he was the only son, and definitely the last child, after 3 daughters so had to be given all the names his parents had wanted for son(s) at once.

Regarding place names, in south Asia the suffix 'chit' or 'shit' is not uncommon. Still thinking I'll be giving this Delhi B&B a miss though:

KTM F (228).JPG
 
Today I learned that there are, in Sweden :
Four people called Spiderman or Spider-man (as primary or middle name),
One Superman,
Ten Batmans,
Three Wolverines and
Three Ironman/Iron-Man, including this fellow who changed his name in 2014 to *takes deep breath* Kim-Jong Sexy Glorious Beast Divine Dick Father Lovely Iron Man Even Unique Poh Un Winn Charlie Ghora Khaos Mehan Hansa Kimmy Humbero Uno Master Over Dance Shake Bouti Bepop Rocksteady Shredder Kung Ulf Road House Gilgamesh Flap Guy Theo Arse Hole Im Yoda Funky Boy Slam Duck Chuck Jorma Jukka Pekka Ryan Super Air Ooy Rusell Salvador Alfons Molgan Akta Papa Long Nameh Ek.

No Deadpools, Aquaman or Cyclops.

I though the Swedes had (sensible, IMO) laws against this sort of thing?
 
The opposite of weird names, from China's surname-poor languages: today I had to work with miss Wong. Her usual classroom partner, miss Wong, wasn't there so I asked after her. Turns out she'd gone to work with another miss Wong for the day while a fourth miss Wong was coming to help the first one.
 
The opposite of weird names, from China's surname-poor languages: today I had to work with miss Wong. Her usual classroom partner, miss Wong, wasn't there so I asked after her. Turns out she'd gone to work with another miss Wong for the day while a fourth miss Wong was coming to help the first one.

That's Wong on so many levels.
 

This went viral in 2016 but there's a reference to the name from 2014. You can legally change your name at 18 in Oz so a little while to go...

(That's assuming it's not a prank by someone who wrote to the magazine in jest, hoping that something so strange would get published)
 
A full list of the names given to the 47,785 babies born across the country in 2018 has been revealed by the National Records of Scotland(NRS).

Unique boy names included Arrow, Awesome, Buzz, Echo, Lucifer, Harlem-Ace, Valentine, Merlin, Winter and Wit. One baby boy on the list was simply called A.
Girl names on the list included Alba-Crystal, Birdie, Bluebell, Favour, Luna-Marvella, Missy, Pepper, Nun and Ocean. Other baby girls were called Persephone, Princess, Prudence, Rainbow, Rarity, Royalty and Snow.

Many parents opted to name their children after famous figures and celebrities with boys called Bowie, Cobain, Dre, Elton and Elvis.


https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman....sh-baby-names-as-full-list-released-1-4891751
 
Geri Spice Girl called her daughter Bluebell, I don't find it that unusual. Prudence is a name popular in the past. Missy I think is a fairly well-known American name. But calling your kid Cobain isn't exactly optimistic.
 
I also knew someone who'd had his name legally changed to Ebenezer Scrooge.
 
I have seen Lucifer used for babies. I feel that it's one thing to change your name to ones like these, but why saddle a baby with it?

Parents can be so nasty while they think (I assume) that they are being quite clever.
 
I have seen Lucifer used for babies. I feel that it's one thing to change your name to ones like these, but why saddle a baby with it?

Parents can be so nasty while they think (I assume) that they are being quite clever.

Plus do you call the boy Lucy for short? It's a lot like dodgy couples calling their baby Adolf Hitler.
 
He should form a double act with Stevland Judkins.
 
Anaïs Nin's full name? Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell. Presumably she shortened it because it wouldn't fit on a book cover otherwise.
 
A full list of the names given to the 47,785 babies born across the country in 2018 has been revealed by the National Records of Scotland(NRS).

Unique boy names included Arrow, Awesome, Buzz, Echo, Lucifer, Harlem-Ace, Valentine, Merlin, Winter and Wit. One baby boy on the list was simply called A.
Girl names on the list included Alba-Crystal, Birdie, Bluebell, Favour, Luna-Marvella, Missy, Pepper, Nun and Ocean. Other baby girls were called Persephone, Princess, Prudence, Rainbow, Rarity, Royalty and Snow.


Many parents opted to name their children after famous figures and celebrities with boys called Bowie, Cobain, Dre, Elton and Elvis.

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman....sh-baby-names-as-full-list-released-1-4891751

I don't know whether it's a failure in modern education, but there seems to be a bit of a trend with people ridiculing Classic names, such as Persephone, Eugenia, Hestia, that kind of thing, in a 'what a stupid name' way (rather than in a 'nobody is EVER going to know how to spell it way). In line with that is the tendency to ridicule names from other cultures (that are perfectly normal in that culture), even if the culture is fairly 'local', like Welsh or Scots.

It's as if people are so parochial that they can't accept that any name other than Emily or Stephen could possibly be suitable.
 
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