As someone said previously, sometimes we tell ourselves a story so many times that it “seems” real.
People have probably heard the Lemongello or Placenta or Female (fe-MAH-le) or or La-a whatever story so many times that I’m sure they think it’s real.
Unless you’ve actually met the person with that name, I’m not buying it. Sorry.
And yes, surnames are much different from regular names. My mom’s surname is the name of a famous beer (not in the US but elsewhere). I know people will last names that are unfortunate in English but no one thinks anything of it in the native tongue.
31 people in the US have the first name Vigina. Dong is a very popular Vietnamese name that does not carry over well.
Not all urban myths are completely fabricated. I am the proud disseminator of a story that has become known as an urban myth (known on Snopes as “The Buggering Batman”) but was absolutely based on a true event. It happened fall 1984 to a college student I won’t identify and I told everyone I met about it during Christmas and spring breaks 1985. Probably 20 other people (not counting the woman and the guy in the Batman suit) knew about it when it happened but he asked we not tell anyone.
I never identified the student, made sure not to spread it to anyone at or near his college, but it was too good a story to keep to myself.
My sister works as a customer service rep at a bank’s call center. Our business has a division where we deal with customers over the phone. We trade funny names all the time… mine are mostly last names and I venture to say that they are German origin.
We laugh at them in private like 11 year old boys
I don’t have any reason to doubt the person who told me about the name from the new baby…like I said, she has no sense of humor so she wasn’t trying to get a laugh, and she is as dry as burnt toast.
The context of her story just doesn’t make sense for her to make it up…she isn’t a friend really, just someone who is married to a friend of my husband and her son worked for us ( which is why she was at my house for a holiday party )
I don’t see her as being clever enough to make it up or tell it in a third person perspective
I was waiting in line last night and there was a woman with her two grandchildren - Carmelo and Miracle. I am sure there is a story about Miracle, but I didn’t ask.
I heard a variation of the Placenta story: abut 25 years ago, good friend who is a labor and delivery nurse told me that one night at work, a hispanic couple wanted to name their new baby Placenta and they tried to talk her out of it. I had assumed she misunderstood and that the name was really Placentia.
Can’t stop laughing at that link, CF. Did Mr. and Mrs. Wazwaz really name their child Fazwaz? Ram Amandeep, Taco B.M. Monster, how unfortunate, I’m giggling like I’m 14 again.
I actually know, or knew, a dysfunctional (IMHO) couple who named their son John Paul George Ringo . I think the name was symptomatic. Who does that to their kid? Are they trying to prove their own coolness? I am sorry to say that the poor kid committed suicide.
I’m terribly sorry about the boy’s death but I honestly don’t see anything wrong with the middle names. People name their children after admired figures in the arts all the time. And having multiple middle names is not all that burdensome. The only thing it tells me about the parents is that they admired the Beatles. Is it really worse than naming your kid “Emily Bronte [last name]” or “Jack London [Last name]” or “John Muir [Last name]”? I know multiples of those!
I haven’t commented on this topic at all because my husband and I both dislike our “common” names and our sons claim to love their less common (“made up” Gaelic) names.
Someone’s post mentioned Tacko Fall (a high school basketball player) from the “names of the year” site. I had the pleasure of meeting Tacko as he lives in my community. He is an 18 year old from Senegal who is humble, talented and grateful for the opportunities he now has while he lives in the States. We will likely hear his name again.
While taking a pregnancy exercise class, the L/D nurse shared some crazy stories, spellings etc. I used to teach and it really is amazing what people think works!
