Comments on: Comments on 18892

Post number 18892

internal — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 14:46:57 -0800

What's in a name? Apparently not much. One son was named Loser, the other Winner. One became a cop and eventually was promoted to detective - shield number 2762. The other fell into the life of a small-time crook, racking up at least 31 arrests before being sent away for a two-year stretch in state prison - inmate number 00R2807 {found on OpinionJournal}

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 14:54:15 -0800

This is a bit of a silly story (but good link anyway!) but reaffirms my belief that often it's those who have some sort of disability or hardship who end up being the most determined to actually succeed. At least.. I know more poor people who became rich than middle class people who became rich.. the poor and the rich seem to jump from one to the other as they go bankrupt or make a million.. whereas the middle classes often just stay there. Perhaps I'm talking BS, so I'll shut up now ;-)

By: insomnyuk

insomnyuk — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 14:55:10 -0800

Wow. Psychological. And this wasn't on ObscureStore? I'm disappointed. whereas the middle classes often just stay there. No, it's true, we're generally content. Why try harder when you're already doing fairly well?

By: rrtek

rrtek — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 15:19:00 -0800

What's in a name? Try asking this weather expert featured in an MSNBC article the other day: "We'll definitely be consulted on how to create beautiful conditions for the Olympics," says Wang Wang, one of China's foremost experts at Beijing's Study Institute of Artificial Influence on the Weather. Just another tragic result of sadistic parents.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 15:19:56 -0800

It reads like one of those faxlore things that Ann Landers used to print once in a while. But it's real. *blink*

By: insomnyuk

insomnyuk — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 15:21:34 -0800

I wanted to post that article so badly rrtek, but it was on Drudge, so I figured, 'feh'.

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 15:27:30 -0800

Okay, I'll be the first to go on the record and say that I think this story is what my dear ol' grandpappy used to call "baloney".

By: precocious

precocious — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 15:42:15 -0800

What kind of drugs do you have to be on to name your child "Loser"? Isn't that child abuse? Having your child called Loser by everyone, everywhere, for fucking ever unless he changes his name? Ugh.

By: insomnyuk

insomnyuk — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 15:57:55 -0800

You'd probably be a little jaded after your 8th child, precocious. I don't know if they were on drugs. Is it abuse if the child doesn't mind it? Maybe it's more abusive to give your child an inflated ego by naming him Winner.

By: PrinceValium

PrinceValium — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 16:14:24 -0800

OK, there were two brothers lost in the woods, and one was named Shut Up and the other was named Trouble. They got separated and Shut Up was discovered by a policeman. "What's your name?" he said. "Shut Up" said Shut Up. The cop got angry and said "Are you looking for Trouble?" That was the extent of the new information I learned in second grade.

By: internook

internook — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 16:26:29 -0800

I wonder what their middle names are. Dumbass and Superchamp?

By: machaus

machaus — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 16:47:46 -0800

What kind of drugs do you have to be on to name your child "Loser"? The same ones taken by the parents of a girl I went to school with that named their daughter "Anita Peter."

By: dolface

dolface — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 17:09:18 -0800

i went to school with a couple of kids named crystal ice and quicksilver eagle. i'm not sure what kind of drugs the parents were on, but they must have been good, because those kids were out there. (and no, they were not native american).

By: popvulture

popvulture — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 18:07:28 -0800

I went to school with a girl whose parents had named her Chastity. Wishful thinking on their part, I suppose... I wasn't friends with her, so I'm not sure how she felt about the irony of her name when she became sexually active. Egads.

By: t r a c y

t r a c y — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 18:45:39 -0800

whoa... feeling a little less hate for my first name today. yep. i know a costume designer named Ima who married a very nice sound tech with the last name of Dick. needless to say she goes by her maiden name.

By: Iax

Iax — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 20:26:48 -0800

At the college computer help desk at the beginning of the year people have trouble logging into the computers, so they come up, tell us their name and we give them their id. One guy comes up to us and would not tell us his name, he just passed over his id card, his name was Fuk Yu. Pronounced just like you would expect.

By: mutagen

mutagen — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 20:38:36 -0800

I had a client named Tom Astle. One day I called up and asked for him and the receptionist was thrown off by my sloppy pronunciation. I had to carefully enunciate to avoid further offense. My parents named my little brother Wilbur. He went through school using his full name, got nicknamed Horse, occasionally was called Wil but had no trouble with a mildly amusing name.

By: Chief Typist

Chief Typist — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 22:25:59 -0800

I once worked with a woman named Candy Kane. Her sister was named Sugar. Her brother was Coe. She described her parents as "a couple of comedians."

By: sacre_bleu

sacre_bleu — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 23:09:13 -0800

Knew a guy in college named Dick Little. Thought then that kids should be able to sue parents for their names. Then in New Hampshire, my congressman was named: Dick Swett. Yep. That was on his letterhead and everything.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 23:51:04 -0800

In Christchurch, New Zealand, Gavin Tickle's wife Tess is well-known. I have also seen a birth notice for a Teresa Green. Prominent NZ athlete Dick Quax was also the punchline for a puerile joke or three.

By: Fofer

Fofer — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 00:03:22 -0800

What about the parents who wanted a unique spin on the name "Ashley" (or perhaps they were really bad spellers) and named their daughter "Ashole"? At my school a Vietnamese student lived down the hall from me, his name was Phock Yu. (Iax, I wonder if he was related to Fuk?) I also got a kick out of the kid named Michael Jackson. I mean, give the kid a break! Last week I met a tall, lanky white guy named Chris Rock. Dude must be hating life. My mom, a teacher, will always remember a student she had named Vaselina.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 01:21:05 -0800

Here in Korea, better than 95% of folks have names with three syllables. Some have two syllables, and a very few have four. Surnames are always one syllable : Kim, Ee (romanized as 'Lee' or 'Yee'), Yoo, Oh, and so on. Amongst the common particles that go to make up the 'first' or given names of both boys and girls are the syllables 'Bum' and 'Suk' and 'In'. I have actually had students in the past with the (romanized) names Yoo Suk Bum and Ee In Bum, for example. This continues to amuse me when it happens, which proves what a moron I am.

By: timyang

timyang — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 02:44:08 -0800

And let's not forget River Phoenix and Leaf Phoenix. Products of 60s parents. Only Joaquin seemed to have a normal name. Seemed...

By: internook

internook — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 06:00:40 -0800

Oh, I just remembered. My wife went to college with a gal named Urethra.

By: wells

wells — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 06:34:21 -0800

There was a man running for office in my university town named Richard Schmack.

By: Danelope

Danelope — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 07:33:31 -0800

I went to high school with a Richard Hedde and Michael Hunt, and both of my sisters and I had classes with one or more members of the Ho family (my classmate was Duong, who pronounced his name 'Young'.)

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 07:58:16 -0800

And I went to school with Jenny Taylor (maybe it needs a certain accent).

By: Lord Chancellor

Lord Chancellor — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 09:39:03 -0800

The Apple family which I knew back in school had their kids named Candy and Adam.

By: jragon

jragon — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 11:12:02 -0800

I knew someone named Boom Boom Kaboom. (not sure how it was spelled, but that's how it was pronounced.)

By: Fofer

Fofer — Sun, 04 Aug 2002 06:27:48 -0800

andrew cooke: I get it; touché.

By: taz

taz — Sun, 04 Aug 2002 07:08:00 -0800

joe's_spleen: I have also seen a birth notice for a Teresa Green. I don't get it. Spill.

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Sun, 04 Aug 2002 11:00:38 -0800

Maybe it's more abusive to give your child an inflated ego by naming him Winner. Interesting point, insomnyuk. Who can tell why Loser turns out a winner, and Winner becomes a loser? I was at a minor league baseball game in PA where one of the outfielders was named Wonderful Terrific Monds. (He eventually went up to the Atlanta Braves, but I don't think for long.) Actually, he was named Wonderful Terrific Monds III.

By: kayjay

kayjay — Sun, 04 Aug 2002 12:36:34 -0800

timyang, unless I'm mistaken Joaquin is Leaf Phoenix. My parents knew a Candace Bar (daughter of a dentist) and a Barbara Doll. They were friends with a couple named Lochs who considered naming there daughter Goldie. And in the school my father taught in he had a Orangejello and a Lemonjello. (Pronounced Or-ONZJ-elo and Lah-MON-zjelo.)

By: somethingotherthan

somethingotherthan — Tue, 06 Aug 2002 19:32:58 -0800

Speaking of natural nameses . . . Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has a brother, Leaves, who is a professor in Seattle (I believe).

By: somethingotherthan

somethingotherthan — Tue, 06 Aug 2002 19:33:25 -0800

*names, of course