Wednesday, May 30, 2007

What's In A Name?

Running June 1 - September 15
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Up til 1a last nite. Unless you're entirely new to this site, your used to my sleepless ramblings.

I got an email from Girl On The Rocks last week or so. When I was cleaning out my email, I saw a name that seemed oddly familiar. I mean, I knew it was GirlOnTheRocks, but the name seemed more familiar then that. Then I realized it was the name of a character on a TV show I watch. I emailed her this morning telling her about it and following up with, "I'm sure you get that all the time." She said, yes and that people ask her if she was named after the character even though the show is about ten years old and she's around 30!

My name is Ruth and I, also, get stuff like that All. The. Time. Baby Ruth, Ruth Buzzie, Dr. Ruth. I always smile (sweetly) and say (sarcastically), "That's the first time I ever heard that one again." There was even one guy who asked me if I was related to Martin Riggs (Riggs is my maiden name). I looked at him blankly, waiting for him to laugh and let me know he was kidding. He wasn't. I sighed and said, "You mean that fictional character from the movie Lethal Weapon?" People are stupid.

Even more stupid are the people who give their kid F'ed up names. I went to high school with a girl named Candy Barr. When I was in the Army, in the medical field (kinda), I had to go through a lot of medical records. Seriously F'ed up names. Rhett Butler, Anita Freemann, and (my favorite) Krista Shanda Leer (seriously, crystal chandelier??). I swear, Candy and Krista's parents wanted them to be strippers.

Also, in the Army, your rank can play havoc with your name. I've met a Private Parts, a Major Player and a Captain Dick (imagine when he gets promoted to Major!). Then there was the Navy kid, Seaman Smiley (ewww). With a name like Smiley, I don't think I'd even join the military.

I forgot the worst name I'd ever heard. Ellipsisknits' comment reminded me. I used to work on our pediatrician (as a massage therapist) and we were talking about bad names. The worst she ever saw was a little girl who's name was pronounced femahlay. The dr. asked the mom how she'd come up with that name. The woman said the nurses named the baby before she (the mom) had a chance to. The woman, bless her ignorant heart, was reading the card they put on every girl baby's bassinett in the hospital.... Female. That poor baby. Yeah, I know. I begged the good dr. to tell me she was kidding, that it was a bad joke, that no one could really be that stupid. And what the hell, how could the nurses let her leave the hospital thinking that? The good dr. assured me it was all true. Sad, but true.

Whenever I can't sleep, I go to the Yarn Harlot's site and work my way through her archives. She's always good for a laugh. Then I go to Steve at The Sneeze. He is the funniest F'er on the 'net. He makes me snort laugh every time! I have to be careful reading him late at night. I have a really loud laugh. Here's a video that Steve has a link to....



After I saw that, I put misheard lyrics into the search window at YouTube. There's over 2,000! Some very creative people out there! Of course, as knitters, we know this. The only really misheard lyric I can remember doing was this....
Friend and I are in car and this song from Live comes on the radio. I'm singing along and I look at my friend and ask, "Who is Walter?" Friend says, "It's our love is like water, not Walter."

Going to take a nap, Ruth!

9 comments:

ellipsisknits said...

I wish I could remember which blog this was on, but someone who worked in a maternity ward had an entry about all the crazy names people gave their children. The best (worst?) was 'placenta'. I can't remember whether she successfully explained and talked them out of that one or not.
-C

sophanne said...

I have a friend who swears she knows a pair of twins named LeMonjelo and OrAnjelo. Only it's really Lemon and Orange Jello.

Anonymous said...

When I was a medical transcriptionist, the doctors would always start their dictation by giving a patient's last name first, then the first name. My favorite dictation ever was a patient named Wong, Wai (pronounced "way") who was being seen for minor injuries resulting from a car accident :-)

Unknown said...

My husband used to sit near a woman named Latrina who sat very close to the bathroom. Poor woman!

And there's definitely high hopes at school for weirdest case or coolest case. I'm sure the stories will be priceless. It's not just Army people. It's med people in general. We're all nuts, right?

Olga said...

My husband comes across very ,ah, unusual names like, Nic Twaddle and a new years baby named Holidae Hamn. no kidding.

Faith said...

If I had a dollar for every time someone made a pun on my name... I'd have a bajillion dollars. I'd say it happens about three times a week. It makes me feel sorry for people, to be honest.

Throws Like A Girl said...

I love the video. I immediately had to link it to everyone I know.

knitnzu said...

Oh yeah there are some bad names out there, and you sure put some of the best of the worst! I knew a kid named Forest Branch. Then there's all the odd occupation names, like Dr. Brain the neurosurgeon. When I was a kid, I thought the song 'it's magic, you know-ow-ow, never believe it's not so' was saying 'it's my dick...'. hmmm...

Dorothy said...

Oh lord! What a laugh some of those names are. You should come up north though. The first names are fairly normal but when the English settlers were translating some of the Ojibway family names, yeesh. Mosquito, Nothing, Bear, Blow, Wind and well you get the idea. There are normal ones too, but I once met a guy named Joe Blow.