PYF Interesting, Cool, and Weird Names

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Interesting, Cool, and Weird Names

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

AFewBricksShy posted:

I knew a Melody and her sister Harmony growing up. They were nice names (and nice people) but someone was certainly a music lover.

This is way late, but I once worked for a woman named Melody who named her daughter Harmony. It's a little daft as a sibling-name thing, but as a generational thing, it verges on the cruel.

On the subject of dubious generational name choices, a kid I knew in elementary school was named Johnny Johnson Jr. It's not as bad as some names people pass on, but... seriously, Johnny Johnson? You had to keep this going?

# ¿ Jan 11, 2013 12:45

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 09:30

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

GrrrlSweatshirt posted:

My parents named me Starlyn. loving Starlyn. I'd ask them why they picked such an awful name but I don't want to make them feel bad about it.

If my parents named me Starlyn, I would sure as gently caress make them feel bad about it.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2013 04:26

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

jojoinnit posted:

Was talking about this with some friends. One person had a professor named Dick Hyman who refused to go by Richard, which reminded me that the head of my course was also a Richard who insisted on going by Dick, and not just Dick but Dr Dick. Had it on his mug.

Some nicknames are too childish though. I wrote an inter-office email to a 'Dickie'. At a certain point in your career you should probably drop the '-ie/y' suffix from your childhood nickname.

To be fair, I think some people's diminutives are their legal names. I have a cousin whose legal given name is Andy, because (according to my aunt) "we were never going to call him Andrew anyway." I always wondered what would happen if he tried to actually launch a professional career, although I think he's trying to be a professional dirt biker or something, so I guess it's a moot point.

The White Dragon posted:

Well y'know flip side of Masa and Koji is that their surname, too, was super white and super common, but Masa was like "yeah dude I'm one sixteenth Japanese or something, I dunno." If you just went by my surname, you'd probably assume I'd look like and be related to major players in the Third Reich. Last names are slippery bastards.

But if the kid's parents are white as the driven snow and just squealing Japanophiles, then yeah that's pretty hilarious.

Something like this happened with my dad's family, which has a Euro surname but some fairly recent Puerto Rican ancestry. My great-great grandfather was named Enrique, and the male descendents since have all had Enrique as a middle name, even though the bloodline has been steadily whitening for generations. If I ever have a son, I'm tempted to revive the tradition, but I'm Hitler-Youth white and worry that it would come off excessively ludicrous.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2013 13:00

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

If we're talking about historical names, my favorite will probably always be Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, Hitler's Minister of Economics, whose parents were apparently interested in 19th-century American progressive politics. Irony!

# ¿ Feb 24, 2013 00:16

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Silly Hippie posted:

Today's name of the day is Greylock

He told me it was the name of a mountain.

If it helps, he's right, but it makes me wonder if his parents were Williams College alumni, in which case he was named after a mountain and a housing quad/dining hall. I hope for everyone's sake that he wasn't conceived there...

# ¿ Apr 26, 2013 05:42

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

A high-school friend of mine just had a baby named Arianna. This isn't that bad in and of itself (apparently it's a real Italian name -- not that she's Italian, but, you know, still a real name), but "Arianna" was also the name of her original fanfiction character back in the day, who was (if I recall correctly) the time-traveling daughter of two B- or C-team X-Men. In a world with thousands upon thousands of good, uncommon names, do you really have to name a kid after some random fanfic character you wrote in 10th grade? :smith:

# ¿ May 22, 2013 03:06

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Silly Hippie posted:

This reminds me of my great-uncle Tata. One of the grandkids called him Tata and it stuck. It's absolutely absurd. "Tata's coming over later." "Do you know what Tata wants for dinner?"

Family nicknames can get really bizarre. My mother teaches in rural Louisiana, and one of her former students (who had a normal name otherwise) was appparently known to his family as Twoberry. His mother's explanation was that "he only likes two berries," which needless to say did not really clear things up. This kid was a fairly rough special-ed student, so his having a goddamn Elfquest nickname at home is still sadly hilarious to me.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 09:25

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Bertrand Hustle posted:

Seriously, Mormons name their kids the strangest goddamned things. Aquanetta? Really?

Weird semi-confession: when I was a kid, my mother had a coworker/friend named Aquanetta, and I heard her name enough that it still sounds more or less "normal" to me. :shobon:

(Not that I'd ever use it for a kid, but it doesn't make my WOOP WOOP BULLSHIT NAME! sensors go off, if that makes any sense?) I believe the Aquanetta in question was actually black and not Mormon, and she'd be in her 60's now, which if Google is to believed would make her older than Aqua Net hairspray. Still, talk about a name that's aged poorly...

# ¿ Oct 24, 2013 09:29

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

El_Phantasmo_loco posted:

This elderly gentleman comes into my work everyday. His name is Perfecto Florantes... Yeah

If this man isn't the protagonist of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, a great tragedy has happened in the world.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 11:25

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

The other day at work I encountered the name Jandilyn, who unsurprisingly is from Utah. I don't hate it, but man, it has that weird Mormon "not quite a real name" quality all over it.

# ¿ May 24, 2014 05:16

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Franken Fran posted:

Went to elementary school with a girl named Breece (who was lovely), and a boy named Johnny Johnson (complete douche who got suspended for sniffing rubber cement & singing Christmas carols in class one day).

I think I already posted about him in this thread, but I went to elementary school with a Johnny Johnson Jr., which I always thought was a cold goddamn move from his dad. Then again, I guess spending your life as Johnny Johnson makes you desperate to inflict that suffering on others.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2014 23:03

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

GIANT OUIJA BOARD posted:

In some parts of the world, Attila is actually still a rather common name

Back during a summer art program in high school, I knew a dude named Attilio. He went by "At" and frequently signed his name with an @, which I'm still rather fond of, as adolescent affectations go.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 02:50

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

stubblyhead posted:

Yoinked from the funny pics thread:

Dick Butt, legend of massage

# ¿ Sep 5, 2014 03:32

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Pompous Rhombus posted:

Kermit E. Trout Jr.

It's the Jrs. in this thread that always get me. Guys, it's okay! You can break the streak! You're not oathbound to bring another Kermit E. Trout into the world!

# ¿ Feb 4, 2015 20:56

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Istari posted:

Yasp

Someone please tell me this is a normal name in a language I don't speak, because right now it's doing me in. Yasp?

# ¿ Apr 8, 2015 05:08

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

princecoo posted:

We had a Japanese exchange student stay with us when I was a kid, he was pretty cool. His name was Yu, which isn't unusual but it did result in multiple unintentional comedy routines.

When I was in fourth grade, my class had a visiting teaching student from Japan named Mami (not a weird name), which is pronounced close enough to "mommy" for us to get a lengthy lecture before she arrived about how we shouldn't make any jokes about her name. To our credit, I don't think any jokes actually were made, but it was still memorable.

Seen in passing as a nametag on a cubby in a community-college classroom: Kearnsley. For someone who's presumably an adult. Okay?

# ¿ May 4, 2015 03:49

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Baronjutter posted:

We had 2 Aarons but they were spelled the same, one wasn't loving "Eyrohn".

Back when I was in elementary school, we had an Erin and an Aron. Amusingly, we did not have an Aaron, so it took me a number of years to really process that Aron's parents were either big Elvis fans (his middle name was Aron spelled the same way, if I recall correctly) or just illiterate.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2015 08:22

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

cyberia posted:

I was at a cafe yesterday and there was a very white, suburban lady yelling at her kid who was apparently named 'Aurelio'.

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aurelio Jones was to remember that distant afternoon when his mother took him to discover Starbucks."

# ¿ Sep 5, 2015 06:39

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Dogfish posted:

Last name first names are a really big thing right now. Grayson, Harrison, Hamilton, Jackson and endless spelling variants thereof.

My boss has two sons who follow this pattern: Hudson and Harrison. I'm not sure they deserve to be in this thread, but I'm still not sure how I feel about their being kind of... matchy. (At least they're not twins?)

# ¿ Nov 14, 2015 06:09

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Bertrand Hustle posted:

The 2016 NOTY bracket is up, and there are some real doozies.

Taco Pope, Dr. Shark Bird, and Billie-Jo Skeleton have to be the best names I have ever seen.

I gotta admit, I want to write a pulp novel about characters named Rusty Justice and Billie-Jo Skeleton. I just have to figure out whether they'd be rivals, lovers, or both.

I'm also pretty fond of Burm Snart for basically being a real-world version of those Wayne Gretzky shitposts in this thread.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2016 05:52

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

MorgaineDax posted:

By far the funniest thing about this is that the newly-minted DAWGFATHER PHD is 54 years old.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2016 20:05

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

fullroundaction posted:

Highlights from my daughter's yearbook that just came in:

DixieAnna, Kateleigh, Greleigh, Bladen, Ti'arra, Za’ondre.

And my favorite sibling pair, Ja’wuon’tae and Carl'Tae.

Bladen has got to be the worst though. Christ.

Bladen is terrible, but I think Greleigh is worse. How would you even pronounce that? Graily? Grelly?

# ¿ May 4, 2016 19:03

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

jojoinnit posted:

Content:

"Why, yes, I do rank them. I rank them all. Would you like to see my rubric?"

# ¿ Jun 11, 2016 06:59

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

I read a paper yesterday where one of the acknowledgments was for Dr. Uwe Neue. That's not a particularly unusual German name, and rationally I even know the intended pronunciation (Oovay Noia, broadly), but in my head I just kept saying it as "Dr. Ooh Nuu."

# ¿ Jul 26, 2016 15:29

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

subpar anachronism posted:

I encountered a similar one today

I don't even want to know why posting a video of your baby/small child(?) going to Walmart for the first time is a thing. Is it a thing?

# ¿ Jul 30, 2016 18:14

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Istari posted:

Zenith

This kid needs a sibling named Nadir, just to make it really clear which one Mom loves best.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2016 05:10

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

bringmyfishback posted:

Momo (Although, to be fair, she said she wanted her English name to be "Peach" but knew it would sound weird in English, so she chose the Japanese word/name [?])

If it helps, Momo is a real, common-ish Japanese given name/name element? Kind of weird to use a Japanese name as an "English" name, but could be a lot worse.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2016 00:32

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

LITERALLY A BIRD posted:

Has anybody said Chad yet?

I believe I've mentioned my childhood acquaintances, two brothers named Chet and Chad, in this thread before. If I haven't, I have now, and I'm freshly appreciating the rear end in a top hat level it takes to name your kids Chet and Chad.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2016 03:39

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

I would love to see preschool classes full of Alvins, Hirams, and Otises.

Edit: On-topic -- a cousin of mine is having a kid, and she plans to name him August Harold, after our grandfather. I think this is kind of badass but expect the cognitive dissonance of a rowdy toddler named "August" will be amazing.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2016 07:02

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Blex is a Wayne Gretzky special. I can only assume that's Shtoney's kid.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2017 08:50

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Say Nothing posted:

"Yes, we've decided. Tiny Strawberry for a girl and Racecar Potato for a boy."

# ¿ Jan 28, 2017 23:44

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

I know it's only a 15 seed, but Dredrick Snelson, Jr. is killing me.

Also, "Boats Botes?"

Also also, I'm stealing Mythzard Thelima for a D&D character

# ¿ Mar 16, 2017 11:10

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Fleta Mcgurn posted:

I just got a spam email telling me "Shawnee Finkenbinder NEEDS SOME LOVE!"

Is Judy Blume still working? Because Shawnee Finkenbinder Needs Some Love needs to be a Judy Blume book ASAP.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 09:05

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

get that OUT of my face posted:

Kessel, named by a couple of Pittsburgh Penguins fans for the player on that team named Phil Kessel. I hope he grows up to be a Flyers fan.

I don't think it's unreasonable to want to name kids after your celebrity heroes, but I always kind of judge people who choose the most obtuse part of the namesake's name. Just name the kid Phil!

# ¿ May 19, 2017 06:54

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

AA is for Quitters posted:

Fagner

I suspect Fagner has had a difficult journey through life, even more than just being in prison would imply.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 08:31

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Tony Snark posted:

A case of Soylent sent out to a Rich Dong.

Technically, every case of Soylent gets sent to a rich dong

# ¿ Jun 29, 2017 21:05

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

jojoinnit posted:

It's a shame they're not a military couple.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2017 11:36

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Bertrand Hustle posted:

The Meathouse-Meatyard wedding announcement would b magnificent.

They'll buy a nice meathouse with a big meatyard, perfect for their meatkids and meatdog

# ¿ Oct 11, 2017 08:33

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:

I sat next to someone at work today whose first name is Kirby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T_KKiQiolk

# ¿ Oct 12, 2017 06:06

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 09:30

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Labes for days posted:

So uh, when did Kirby become a weird or terrible name, because I've known several people with the name and it never struck me as anything but normal.

I agree, but I just wanted an excuse to link that Aesop Rock video

# ¿ Oct 13, 2017 01:31

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