Barnacle

[extern76]

Has there been anybody famous or infamous with the surname Barnacle ? Except Nellie of the James Joyce fame

[Jansy]

There's a Ferdinand Barnacle and a Mrs. Phoebe Barnacle in Little Dorrit. (And I believe it's Nora of the James Joyce fame, not Nellie.)

[henrymullen]

BARNACLE (bill) the sailor.

[jenstar]

How about famed session saxophonist Gary?

[Sludge]

All English Barnacles spring from a Norse who was infamous in his day. Late in the 8th century AD, strange ships began appearing along the coasts of Europe. They were strongly built of oak, and from 40 to 60 oarsmen sat on the rowers' benches. Each ship had a single mast with a square sail that was often striped in brilliant colours. Bright shields overlapped along the gunwale. The ships were pointed at each end and had tall curved prows carved in the shapes of dragons. Dragon ships usually appeared in a bay at dawn.  Armed with swords and battle-axes, the oarsmen attacked  villagers and loaded and sailed away with all the loot that their ships could carry. These marauders, or pirates, came from Scandinavia, now Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. whose people were Norsemen, or Northmen. Those Norsemen who took part in these raids along the coast were called Vikings. Their name was given to the era that dated from about AD 740 to about 1050 -- the Viking Age. Norsemen loved games. They played ball games on the ground and on ice. Wrestling and fencing were popular sports. Norsemen used skates made of the bones of animals. According to a Norwegian historian, an unusual sport involved walking on oar blades while a boat was being rowed. When raiding European villages they extended their sports to include arson, pillage, burning, looting, murder, kidnapping, raping women and killing children. At one such event near Whitby a Viking stepped in between his colleagues and the locals and said "don't kill the children". This was a most astonishing thing to do and was commemorated by them changing his name to Bar Ni Kval or Bar Ni Kal or Bar Ni Kel - Norse for "bairn no kill" or  "don't kill the children". Later this became Anglicised as Barnacle.