Names

[gwynhefar]

I've always been intrigued by the way a name makes such an important first impression. Particularly last names, which are much harder to shed. If you don't like your first name you can go by a nickname or your middle name, but you're pretty much stuck with your last name unless you go through all the legal rigamarole to change it.

iroshi mentioned in passing earlier a conversation noting the unfortunately named Dr. Looney. Imagine introducing yourself by that name day after day. Or the poor soul I went to high school with: Charlie Butkis. Yes, it was indeed pronounced "butt-kiss".

And then you have all those people with what would be perfectly normal last names that have instead become the object of immediate distrust and scorn based on an unfortunate association with some notorious personage. How many perfectly nice, respectable Hitlers out there go through life permanantly scarred because they have the misfortune of sharing their name with (in the immortal words of Eddie Izzard) a mass-murdering fuckhead? How about all those people whose name really is Mudd?

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except to be thankful that my own last name is a nice, normal name, short and easy to spell, and with no unpleasant associations of which I am aware. Except for the unfortunate fact that it also happens to be a relatively common boys' first name. But that's another issue altogether.

Comments

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

Toomajian.

shortened from toomajianian

[harkalark.livejournal.com]

Oh don't get me started...
Actually I'm okay with my last name ever since my sister pointed out that people tend to never forget it. And I've encountered plenty of worse names. There's a bridge in Augusta called the Butt Bridge. It's named after some Civil War hero (or something) named Archibald Butt. A friend of mine joked that it was called that because if you drive over the bridge fast enough, it's at this weird arch-kinda angle that makes your butt tingle for second.

About ten years ago, some locals wanted to tear the bridge down and build a more modern one, but there was a grassroots campaign to save it. The campaign was called "Save Our Butt!"

[arlani.livejournal.com]

Try pronouncing this one: Kraushaar

And to think I was extreeeeemely excited to get it back after my divorce. :)
(BTW, there are two pronunciations depending on which branch of the family you talk to... My cousins say krous-HAR, we say KROU-zer. The cousins probably say it more like the original German.)

People generally don't even make an attempt--they call me by my first name and ask how to say the last.

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

and I would have said KROU-shar :)

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

speaking of horrible German names, before my mother divorced and remarried my last name was Schoeneman. No, it's not Shoo-neman or Show-neman. It's Shay-neman. Explain that one to me.

[straif.livejournal.com]

Even a good, solid first name can't redeem an unfortunate last name. A bad first name, however, can make it far worse. I went to school with a Gaylene Fagg.

Cruelest. Name. Evar.

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

ouch! you're right, I think that's the worst one I've heard.