ChatterBank2 mins ago
Unfortunate Names
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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?
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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 !
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.'
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".
