Topic: Did you notice that? (Read 134097 times)

pwhodges · « **Reply #250 on:** 02 Sep 2013, 15:50 »

Quote from: Method of Madness on 02 Sep 2013, 15:15

Some of my friends have their mother's last name as their middle name, which seems kind of insulting ("we want our kid to have both our last names, but only one of them can be his real surname, with the other one hidden for the most part")

In some cultures (Spanish, for instance), this is a normal and expected thing, which is routine rather than chosen in the way you indicate.

I have a middle name which is the Celtic name of a theologian that my father was studying at the time. My brother had got "Austin", as a form of (St) Augustine; curiously, my Godfather's first name was also Austin. My middle name is "Winfrith" (look up St Boniface), which is also the name of a village and the adjacent heath down in Dorset and thus in turn the name of the nuclear power station built there (the heath was part of what Hardy called Egdon Heath is his books). I use it on the Internet a bit because it makes it easier to get a unique login sometimes; but I'd fall over if anyone tried to call me by it!

Method of Madness · « **Reply #251 on:** 02 Sep 2013, 16:07 »

And now I know your full name! (Given your screen name, it isn't that hard

)

pwhodges · « **Reply #252 on:** 02 Sep 2013, 16:21 »

It's been publicly available for a long time, so I haven't just let any cat out of the bag.

jwhouk · « **Reply #253 on:** 02 Sep 2013, 18:25 »

Quote from: ackblom12 on 02 Sep 2013, 15:19

I will give middle names one benefit. They can make tracing your family tree a bit easier.

This times a thousand. It wasn't until this year that I realized my great grandfather HAD a middle name.

Zebediah · « **Reply #254 on:** 02 Sep 2013, 19:46 »

Sometimes middle names make tracing your family tree easier. Sometimes not. Ever tried to search for James Francis Finn who was born in Pittsburgh in 1883 or '84? There are lots and lots of them. I have no idea which one is the right one.

cesium133 · « **Reply #255 on:** 02 Sep 2013, 20:15 »

If it wasn't for middle names, it would be nearly impossible to trace my family tree. I share my first and last names with my dad, a couple uncles/great-uncles, cousins, and a couple people I know of that we're not even related to. Not to mention that my first name/last name combination is also used by several relatively well-known people, including a politician. And a guy who was killed by an icicle.

Grognard · « **Reply #256 on:** 02 Sep 2013, 21:03 »

I keep running afoul the American Justice System.
there's a occasionally nice fella, currently a Prison Lifer++, with My EXACT same name, but born 2 days prior to me.
yeah.
that has caused problems in the past.
Oddly, in a sorta happy way; the most obvious difference between us is the Melanin count.
I'm Space Shuttle White, and he's Heat Shield Black.
I send him a birthday card every year.

Carl-E · « **Reply #257 on:** 02 Sep 2013, 23:45 »

HA! My issue's not the name, but the face...

I got picked up at the age of 17 walking to school in Buffalo.

I saw the mugshots of the person they thought I was. It was spooky. Especially since he was about twice my age. Damn facial hair...

Loki · « **Reply #258 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 01:24 »

I share my first name-last name with a certain high-ranking Russian military, that I am not related to (As far as I know. Then again, my father's family tree is impossible to trace).

jwhouk · « **Reply #259 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 05:54 »

That's the problem of about 90% of Americans of German descent, actually. It's the reason why a.) I have no records of about half my family before my great-great grandparents, and b.) I don't know 100% for sure how my great-great grandfather actually spelled his name.

(That's right, my screen name should actually be "jwhouhe" for all I know...)

FuryoftheStars · « **Reply #260 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 06:42 »

My father wanted me to be a "third" in naming, but my mother wouldn't allow it. They compromised and my middle name is my father's first.

As far as I know, my first name-last name combo isn't shared with anyone in my family or otherwise "known" figure. Course, I don't think I've looked overly hard, either.

Storel · « **Reply #261 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 15:40 »

One of my high school German teachers told us about this one seminar she took in college where one of the other students had the exact same first name and last name... only the middle initials were different. Let's call them Virginia A. Smith and Virginia B. Smith.* And both of them went by "Ginny".

So the professor referred to them as Ginny A and Ginny B all semester, and when the grades were assigned... Ginny A (my teacher) got an A, and Ginny B got a B.

My teacher said she was very glad her name wasn't Virginia F. Smith...

__________
* Last names changed to protect their privacy.

Kugai · « **Reply #262 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 20:35 »

Try three.

My first two names are actually my fathers, my third is in honor of the Catholic Priest who my parents knew and was a family friend - as well as the Priest who Baptised me. No need to explain where the Surname comes from.

And NO! My name is NOT James The Kugai!!

Nepiophage · « **Reply #263 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 20:54 »

I do a lot of OCRing of old books and was surprisd to discover that judgment was the standard British spelling in the 19th century. MS Word UK English spellcheck flags it as an error.

Grognard · « **Reply #264 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 21:01 »

I really tried to saddle my Son&Heir with a Blah Blah Blah, Junior; but the wife wouldn't let me. Pout.

Carl-E · « **Reply #265 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 21:14 »

No sons, but my eldest daughter is the 4th Laura down the maternal line. My wife, her mother and maternal grandma were all Lauras.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #266 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 21:30 »

I wonder why females don't use "Jr." or numbers. Unless her name actually is Laura the Fourth (aka Foura).

Carl-E · « **Reply #267 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 21:35 »

Because in a paternal society, the rest of the name is different. Only the Laura has remained the same.

Grognard · « **Reply #268 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 21:36 »

My daughter's middle name is a mix of My Wife's, My Mom's, Wife's Moms, 3 great grandmas', and Wife's Great Great Grandmas.

Jane, Elaine, Ellen, Janet, Eleanor and Ellen again.

My nickname for my daughter is "BOB". totally PISSES OFF the wife.

LOL.

Vurogj · « **Reply #269 on:** 03 Sep 2013, 23:31 »

I have the exact same name (first, middle and surname) as my father, and his father, and his father, and his father.

I have mixed feelings about it...

Masterpiece · « **Reply #270 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 02:06 »

Quote from: Kugai on 03 Sep 2013, 20:35

And NO! My name is NOT James The Kugai!![/size=6pt]

Just a quick note, afaik you don't use parameters with closing tags, so in your case, a [/size] would be sufficient.

bhtooefr · « **Reply #271 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 03:59 »

My middle name, and my first name for that matter, were a compromise, and have nothing to do with familial descent.

As in, my dad wanted me to be Elmer Fudd Rucker.

So, my mom picked a name that let him get the initials, but I got something that wouldn't get me laughed out of elementary school. (Instead I get to deal with the eleventy billion Erics problem sometimes. Solution: if it's a community that knows me online, I go by "toof" (shortened, easily pronounceable version of my online screen name) instead.)

KOK · « **Reply #272 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 04:43 »

Different cultures have different traditions about naming children for people. In my own, it used to be a firm rule that you can only name a child after someone who is dead. This rule is no longer followed, or even widely known.

Zebediah · « **Reply #273 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 05:06 »

Oddly enough, that's the rule in my family, imposed by my dad who was named after his dad. He really didn't want me to be the 3rd, mostly because he hated his name. So he decided "Everyone gets their own name", and you could only re-use names after someone had died. Middle names are a different story - my dad's first name is my middle name.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #274 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 05:10 »

Quote from: bhtooefr on 04 Sep 2013, 03:59

eleventy billion Erics problem

That makes three on the forum that I know of. Could be more.

ankhtahr · « **Reply #275 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 05:19 »

Apparently Eric is the English "Moritz". We had 4 of them in our year. And 5 "Julia"s. Luckily there were at most 3 "Julia"s together in one course.

The worst thing is that most teachers are used to calling pupils who share names with the first name and the initial of the last name. Two of the "Moritz"s' last names started with the same letter… We had one teacher who constantly forgot about it. That resulted in the following situation occurring in almost every lesson of this teacher:

Teacher: "Moritz!"
A Moritz: "Which one?"
Teacher: "Moritz L."
A Moritz L.: "Which one?"
Teacher: *sigh* *points at the one he meant*

Grognard · « **Reply #276 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 05:48 »

I worked in a 10 person Security office. 8 of us had Steve/Steven/Stephen in our names.
Thus the sign on the door:

"Den of Steves"

jmucchiello · « **Reply #277 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 13:15 »

Quote from: Grognard on 03 Sep 2013, 21:01

I really tried to saddle my Son&Heir with a Blah Blah Blah, Junior; but the wife wouldn't let me. Pout.

You are better off with him not being your junior. My records were constantly being mixed with my father's (I'm a junior) until we both started asserting our suffixes (Jr and Sr). I still have a credit card on my credit report that was my father's. He closed the account when I was 3. And yet somehow, I have it on my report that I had a credit card active from 2 years before my birth till I was 3 years old. Can't get anyone to remove the damn thing. Not that it impacts my credit in any way. It's just silly that it's there.

Sidhekin · « **Reply #278 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 13:25 »

Quote from: jmucchiello on 04 Sep 2013, 13:15

It's just silly that it's there.

Silliness is highly underrated.

Quote from: Grognard on 04 Sep 2013, 05:48

"Den of Steves"

Consider it appreciated.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #279 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 13:31 »

Was the highest ranking person called the Prince of Steves?

Kugai · « **Reply #280 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 15:05 »

Quote from: Masterpiece on 04 Sep 2013, 02:06

Quote from: Kugai on 03 Sep 2013, 20:35
And NO! My name is NOT James The Kugai!![/size=6pt]

Just a quick note, afaik you don't use parameters with closing tags, so in your case, a [/size] would be sufficient.

Yeah, knew that - just forgot to fix the frakup when I Posted that.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #281 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 15:38 »

Quote from: ankhtahr on 04 Sep 2013, 05:19

Apparently Eric is the English "Moritz".

As far as I know, Eric's got nothing on Mike or John.

bhtooefr · « **Reply #282 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 16:35 »

Or Joseph (two of those in my office), or Thomas, or quite a few others. Still, I find name collisions quite frequent.

And, if I were assigned female at birth, I would've been named after my paternal grandmother, I've been told.

celticgeek · « **Reply #283 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 18:32 »

My first name is Fletcher. When I was in grade school, there were two separate families (both of whom had children in my classes) whose last (family) name was Fletcher. It usually took the new teachers a few weeks to figure all of that out.

Zebediah · « **Reply #284 on:** 04 Sep 2013, 18:46 »

How's this: My fourth grade class had twenty boys. Five were named David.

And that wasn't the biggest statistical anomaly in that class. Twenty boys... and ten girls. The other fourth grade class at my school had the same gender imbalance. For some reason I can't explain, in my particular year (and no other) my elementary school had twice as many boys as girls.

Carl-E · « **Reply #285 on:** 05 Sep 2013, 07:01 »

I was named for my paternal line great-grandfather who passed away 5 years before I was born, at the age of 93. There are several uncles and cousins named Carl, though, and so I use my middle initial as well. It was his, but none of the relatives wound up using the same middle name, so I lucked out. Google searches on my full name still bring up photos of the old man.

My first post-Ph.D. teaching position had a Carl there already, a few years from retirement. So of course he was Old Carl, and i was New Carl. Then we hired a Karl. He became Young Karl (he was, and quite babyfaced as well). Then there was Carleton in the administration who went by Carl.

We called him "fuck Carl", for reasons that would be obvious if you ever heard him open his mouth. He was the one who tried to argue with aa group of mathematicians that a 3% merit pay raise, when distributed, wouldn't average to 3%.

"Sure it would - some will get more, some less."

"No, no, 3% is the ceiling."

"But you got 3% of the salary pool to distribute?"

"Yes."

"Then where's the rest going?"

"There is no "rest". we're distributing it by merit".

Fuck, Carl! Meetings with him were like "Who's on first".

DSL · « **Reply #286 on:** 05 Sep 2013, 17:15 »

Quote from: Carl-E on 05 Sep 2013, 07:01

... Meetings with him were like "Who's on first".

You rang?

Kugai · « **Reply #287 on:** 05 Sep 2013, 18:39 »

I didn't know Lurch was a member of this Forum!!

Cool!

FuryoftheStars · « **Reply #288 on:** 05 Sep 2013, 18:57 »

*puts head down into hands*

I can't tell you how many times I've had people ask me to do that line....

Kugai · « **Reply #289 on:** 05 Sep 2013, 19:30 »

uuuuUUUUUUuuuuuu

Carl-E · « **Reply #290 on:** 05 Sep 2013, 19:50 »

I could do Lurch in high school. Nowadays I sound more like Uncle Fester.

Look more like him, too...

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #291 on:** 05 Sep 2013, 21:05 »

Now you've got me thinking of an Addams Family/QC crossover.

Sam would really like Uncle Fester.

Carl-E · « **Reply #292 on:** 05 Sep 2013, 21:08 »

Dora as Morticia.

For some reason I see Angus as Gomez...

Oh, and guest starring Clinton's hand as "Thing"!

Mr_Rose · « **Reply #293 on:** 06 Sep 2013, 01:24 »

Nonono, Dora just is not Morticia. Veronica now… and that leaves Dora free to play Gomez.
Faye can be uncle Fester while Sven plays Lurch. Momo can portray Wednesday, leaving Pugsley to Pintsize. Obviously, Clinton gets to play Thing and I reckon Claire would make a good cousin It.

Toe · « **Reply #294 on:** 06 Sep 2013, 03:07 »

Gabby could be Cousin It, given sufficient humidity of course.

jwhouk · « **Reply #295 on:** 06 Sep 2013, 04:23 »

And Marten, the MAIN CHARACTER OF THE COMIC STRIP, THANK YOU, doesn't get even a passing mention?

Method of Madness · « **Reply #296 on:** 06 Sep 2013, 05:03 »

Nope.

DSL · « **Reply #297 on:** 06 Sep 2013, 05:23 »

... about par for the course for Marten, don'cha think?

Pilchard123 · « **Reply #298 on:** 06 Sep 2013, 14:32 »

Here seems the best place for this: The last five words of panel 4 in 168 remind me of There Must Be An Angel

Mlle Germain · « **Reply #299 on:** 09 Sep 2013, 14:53 »

The discussion seems to have changed topic a bit, but I really feel like saying something about my name, too:
In addition to my first and middle name, I have two last names linked by a hyphen (this is because my parents both kept their names when they married. This was possible for some time in Germany). Since my first name is quite long, my "everyday name" without my hardly used middle name has 23 letters and 7 syllables. I often have to squeeze it into much too short spaces when filling out forms. Additionally, the first last name has several spellings in German which means that I always have to specify which it is. Then I have to spell my second last name, which is very rare. Then I have to say that there's a hyphen in between. And then I have to repeat my first name, which people have forgotten by now.

And this is just in Germany. When I lived in Australia, I just spelled my whole name immediately if anyone asked (some of it is not really pronouncable by English-speaking people).
Also, my name is unique. When you google me (without middle name), there are only hits about me - I don't like that much.
But I also wouldn't want to change my name (e.g. by marriage) or drop one of the last names. Then it wouldn't seem completely like me anymore .

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Did you notice that? (Read 134097 times)