August 26, 2002
Yet Another Unfortunate Name

The second-to-last post before this one just reminded me of a story a friend told me about a middle school girl named Jean. She objected to being addressed with "Hi, Jean" because of the unfortunate aural associations. Apparently her habit of glaring at people who said that and replying "It's Hello, Jean" was entirely counterproductive.

Posted by Dr. Weevil at August 26, 2002 08:51 PM
Comments

I don't know: it probably got her greeted less often. And shouldn't that be was entirely counterproductive?

Posted by: Aaron Haspel on August 26, 2002 10:25 PM

a. No, it got her jolly choruses of "Hi, Jean!" from just about everyone she met. This is junior high we're talking about here.

b. Thanks, I've fixed it. That'll teach me to indulge in hasty last-minute rewrites.

Posted by: Dr. Weevil on August 26, 2002 11:14 PM

I got to deal with years of classmates saying, "Can I ask you a question, Marc?" That was always fun.

Posted by: Marc on August 26, 2002 11:37 PM

I mentioned this a few months ago, but it's worth repeating:

If your last name begins with a Z, do not name your daughter Elizabeth or Emily or Emma or any other name that begins with E: it will make her junior high years a living Hell.

Posted by: Dr. Weevil on August 27, 2002 12:23 AM

Like the main character in Heinlein's "Glory Road" whose father named him after two ancestors he was proud of: Evelyn Cyril. For him Easy as a nickname is positivly welcome. He decides in the book that Oscar is much nicer.

Posted by: Michael Lonie on August 27, 2002 12:39 AM

In Junior High I knew a girl named Amanda Blow.

She went by Mandy.

(I also knew a Crystal Chanda Lier)

Posted by: Dan on August 27, 2002 09:23 AM

Probably not a good idea to yell "Hi, Jack!" in an airport these days, either.

Posted by: clay waters on August 27, 2002 12:59 PM

Way back in high school, I had a classmate named Candice O'Kane. Much later, in "prospective parent" class, we met a Candice Kane--that was her married name, so she couldn't blame her parents.

Bro' Steve

Posted by: steevil on August 27, 2002 05:06 PM

My grandmother had a shirttail cousin who was burdoned with "family" names by parents who developed the "Boy Named Sue" theory a hundred years before Johnny Cash did: Smedley Darlington Butler. He ran away and joined the Marines, won the Medal of Honor twice, and was their Commandant for many years.

Posted by: JDH on August 27, 2002 05:53 PM

hey, just replying to the thing about enetation. Yup we had some problems, but all is sorted now and super fast weblog commenting is back to 100%

Got a new 1800 Athlon server with 1 gig ram to support the service going in at the weekend which will make things even better.

Cheers. Rob.

Posted by: Rob on August 27, 2002 05:55 PM

JDH,
Just so I can be a pedantic pest, Smedley Butler did not make Commandant, although he did make Major General, then the highest Marine rank. He did become Commissioner of Police for Philadelphia.

Posted by: Michael Lonie on August 27, 2002 09:35 PM

I'm a little late to the party, but I knew a woman in high school named "Connie Hunt." Had to say her name c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y.

Posted by: Solly Ezekiel on August 28, 2002 02:10 PM

To this day,I can still hardly believe this, but my wife was in highschool with three of these sorts of people.

Justin Case
Justin Time...and
Ben Dover

...some people's parents...=)

Posted by: Thomas on August 28, 2002 04:22 PM

Well, I've gone through life to a song (Oh, Susanna!), or just people saying, "Don't you cry for me!" Better, I suppose, than the couple who's names were Minnie and Pearl (Pearl was the man - I knew several men named Pearl when I was a child).

Posted by: susanna on August 28, 2002 09:11 PM

I have a way of annoying my Aunt Nanette.
Her sisters call her, "Nee". So they
always say,"Hi Nee". I love it. I waited
about 20 years before I used it.

Posted by: veeshir on August 30, 2002 05:01 PM

Ah yes. My father, when I was growing up, worked with a Michael Hunt. Always call him Michael, if you're using his last name. Never call him Mike...

Posted by: John Thacker on September 2, 2002 06:52 PM