What's in a name

[pkt]

Happy New Year to one and all!

I have always been amazed at the incidental concurrence of people's names and their progession.

I just finished watching Seabiscuit. It was "written for the screen and directed by Gary Ross". From my little knowledge of German from 3 semesters of college German and reading the libretti of Richard Wagner's "The Ring Cycle" - no, that's NOT TLotR - I happen to know that "ross" in German is "horse".

Do you have any names and profession tie-ins like that? Let's hear about it. I've come across many others but have always neglected to catelogue them...

PK

[Lee Yue Yang]

Happy New Year.Speaking of names,have you noticed how many guys by the name of Michael always seem to be somebody?Michael Schumacher,Michael Jordan,Michael Johnson,Michael Jackson just to name a few.

[The0ne]

Miller, Smith, Mason are a couple. Many names come from professions. My last name, Usher, does too. An Usher was some sort of sheriff like figure in medieval england.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally posted by pkt
Happy New Year to one and all!

I have always been amazed at the incidental concurrence of people's names and their progession.

I just finished watching Seabiscuit. It was "written for the screen and directed by Gary Ross". From my little knowledge of German from 3 semesters of college German and reading the libretti of Richard Wagner's "The Ring Cycle" - no, that's NOT TLotR - I happen to know that "ross" in German is "horse".

Do you have any names and profession tie-ins like that? Let's hear about it. I've come across many others but have always neglected to catelogue them...

PK

First: the common name for horse in German is "pferd"

There is a list of funny doctors´ names here:

http://educ.ahsl.arizona.edu/mla/doctor.htm

How about the surgeon Dr. Hackman? The names in the ob/gyn, or urologist are enough to make at least me cringe - or crack up, depending on how I feel. I have also read about a specialist in how alcohol affects the liver - his name was Dr. Martini.

Happy New Year!

Peter Gustafsson

[Albatros]

Hey Peter,
it's true that usually the german word is Pferd but you can also say Ross. It's a very old term (Middle Ages?)

Will think about your question pkt and come back with a name.
(How good is your german? Do you like the language?)

Albatros

[Albatros]

Do you know Jhonny Depp?
Depp means in german idiot. (poor boy!)

I wish everybody a happy, healthy and successful 2004!!!

[Army Fencer]

There was a Chemistry professor at West Point whose name was Major Dick...

[deadly lefty]

hehe i know this is socialy unacceptable but I had a teacher named Mr. Capanegro

[pkt]

Originally posted by Albatros
Hey Peter,
it's true that usually the german word is Pferd but you can also say Ross. It's a very old term (Middle Ages?)

Will think about your question pkt and come back with a name.
(How good is your german? Do you like the language?)

Albatros

Ich spreche ein bischen Deutsch...
I know that's wrong, but it gets the point across.

Peter,
I looked up the word "Ross" in my German/English dictionary [Langenscheidt 'New Edition' 1973! that's how new this is! total 760 pages, so at least it is not a pocket edition. My father bought this in HK before his visit to Krupps and sold China a used steel mill.] to confirm what I remembered from first noticing that word from Richard Wagner's Das Rind die Niebelungen = The Ring Cycle. I think the word Ross was used when Bruenhilde asked for her "Ross", not "Pferd". Perhaps, Pferd didn't rhyme...and i'm not about to check the libretto to look for where the word was used. [I remember that because of of my clubmates is named Ross...]
That said, I do concede that "ross" may be an antique form of Pferd.

PK

[pkt]

Heard this tonight in a telephone interview on CBC Radio 1. The subject has been living in his boat for the last 37 years off the coast of NC and he's in the middle of a storm.

His name?

Horatio Sindbad!

No kidding.

Horatio Nelson, real person. Horatio Hornblower and Sindbad, fictional charcters.

With a name like that how can he not be a sailor?

PK

[pkt]

Originally posted by Army Fencer
There was a Chemistry professor at West Point whose name was Major Dick...

There are a lot of Dycks...

How about Major Major? Forgot where I heard that.

Then one of the fencers from Saskatoon was name Rick Softley who drank only Coke and nothing else. [Don't know what casued his early demise.] so, everytime someone cheers on his opponent, the battle cry would be, "Hit Softley!"

And in Edmonton, Alberta, there's Helmut Mach.
Everytime I beat him I'll reach at most Mach 4, but rarely did we reach Mach 5. That was in the 70s. Before DEs.

PK

[pkt]

Originally posted by deadly lefty
hehe i know this is socialy unacceptable but I had a teacher named Mr. Capanegro

I recognise the latter half of the name but not "capa". Capacity, capable, capitol, capital...

According to Babelfish that's "Chief" in Italian. Is that correct?

PK

[pkt]

Cross cultural naming is fullof pitfalls:

I sense a thread slide coming on...

The acronym for the Canadian Olympic Games Committee in French is COJO. Guess what that means in Spanish. So, when the Olympic Games was in Mexico City, the locals had a good chuckle to see "COJO" plastered on the Cdn team's cars...

Nova's a no goo dname in Spanish either.


Can we keep this to just funny person's names?

PK

[Louweasel]

...or at least on this thread, must be down to me.

My surname is Parry.

All bow in deference!!!

[deadly lefty]

oh and I had a reading teacher named Mrs.Reed....hey 100th post

[Soldier]

I know a guy who, while at the Academy, had a professor by the name/rank of Major Lee Boaring, no joke.

Also knew of a Major Minor, and a Major Payne. How'd you like to hear his wife someday say he's a major pain in the butt?

[jeff]

Originally posted by pkt
How about Major Major? Forgot where I heard that.

From Joseph Heller's Catch-22, and eventually it got up to 4 Majors, IIRC (name and title together). He got turned down for promotion because his superior officef said "I have the only Major Major Major Major in this Army and I'm not going to change it!" (or words to that affect).

[pkt]

Fictitious names do not count, OK?

Here's a real person, a registered USFA ref:

Last Name First Name F-USA F-YR F SECT/DIV
Beach Rocky 7 2001 7 PN/OR

I think I know his parents from the 70s.
What were they thinking when they named the poor kid!?

"Rocky" is not a nickname since it appears in the official USFA list of referees.

PK

[pkt]

Here are a couple of real persons:
~ Bill MEDLEY of the Righteous Brothers. I guess they did a lot of medleys of their favourites in concerts past.
~Lisa Coldwells, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, is in the news today because of the snow storm we just had in BC...it's not as bad as things are in the US Pacific NW... [Alas, the Vancovuer Sun reedited the electronic article vis a vis the printed copy. therefore, i cannot show a link for you to verify my claim. http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vanc...E-10723B36179B]

PK

[Black Jeebus]

My name is Ross. I'm named after my grandfather who's last name is Ross. I'm sure someone lives who isn't, but most Ross' (I mean the last name) are Scottish.