Unfortunate Names

ronnierose | 15:12 Wed 22nd Mar 2006 | People & Places

36 Answers

Do you know anyone with an unfortunate name? Maybe it's a foreign name with a different meaning in another language? Or just an old fashioned word which means something quite rude? Or an unfortunate combination of names?

How has having an unfortunate name affected them?

Hay-on-Wye

Isle of Wight

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jno

this is amazing, but among the Uumuqalat people of northern Hudson's Bay, 'ronnierose' means 'he-who-has-face-of-walrus'

maximo

jno ! thank you for the giggle here !!! Excellent !

ronnierose

Question Author

Have I offended you here or did you just take the opportunity for a gag? Real answers are extremely welcome!

maximo

Err...I thought I should maybe make a bigger contribution than that of my previous post....anyway, I used to work with a girl whose first name was Fanny. It's a french name, obviously doesn't mean the same as in English...I'm not sure she would have chosen this name had she known she would end up living in the UK !

littlemissx

my middle name is gertrude.... think thats bad enough. witnessed some trouble a few weeks ago and the police officer took all our details as potential witnesses but asked for our full names... even the officer laughed when i told it

ronnierose

Question Author

Did Fanny get mocked for having this name?

ronnierose

Question Author

Poor Gertrude - that's just harsh parenting! Not as embarrassing as some names though - I've found a Dr Manlove and a Dr Dickman!

maximo

Well, no, not to her face, that would have been mean...but we certainly had a giggle in the pub about some of the unfortunate associations with her name in conversations....I'm sure you can imagine.

jno

no, I just took the opportunity for a gag; sorry if I've offended you. Apart from the usual Pratts and Bothams, who seem to live with their names, I don't know any. But there are stories about how various brand names have gone awry in other countries. There was a French soft drink called Pschitt, as I recall, which has never made it to Britain; the Rolls Royce Silver Mist went down badly in Germany, where mist means dung; and of course the Vauxhall (I think it was) Nova in Spain, where no va means 'doesn't go'.

There aren't as many Fannys around as there used to be, but you may have heard that once when the TV cook Fanny Cradock was presenting a programme, her husband Johnnie looked at the camera and said 'I hope all your doughnuts look like Fanny's.'

arty7774

I once worked with a woman whose surname was Gotobed

ronnierose

Question Author

It would be great to find out how these people felt about their names

Cheers guys

sir.prize

Dare I mention the famous sporting occasion on which Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee was batting and got out caught? On the opposing side was English fast bowler Dillie, and spin bowler Willey (I forget their first names). The result on the scorecard had a certain inevitability about it: Lille, caught Willey, bowled Dillee. Still more famous was the time when that same English spin bowler was batting against the West Indies, with their fearsome pace attack led by Michael Holding. Some poor unfortunate radio commentator uttered the immortal words: "It's 6 for 214 as play resumes; the bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey".

andy-hughes

My wife worked in a primary school which had a child down for the next September's intake, and his surname was Carte (I think they pronounced it Cart-aye) but the poor lad was chirstened Orson.

I swear I am not making it up!

ronnierose

Question Author

Any stories on how people reacted to having these names?

vehelpfulguy

The man who invented the Lear jet (a Mr Lear) had a daughter who he called Chanda

Chanda Lear (get it). See here

http://www.slecorp.com/

vehelpfulguy

Sorry, Shanda not Chanda