Banana-fana-fo-foel

This morning I was chatting with friends about their middle names. My middle name is Newman, which is my mother’s maiden name. It was also ruined forever by the character by the same name on Seinfeld. Now whenever anyone learns it, they immediately exclaim “Newman!” à la Jerry Seinfeld, thinking they are oh so clever.

Then people always begin singing The First Noel with my name in place of “noel,” also finding this entirely original.

As for my last name, all you have to do is cross the first “l” and you have “Hitler.” Or you can find a more obscure connection, as Korean people did for some reason, and call me “Hillary.”

How has your name been made fun of?

Comments

)en said…
Ah yes.

Brooke and I were in 9th grade journalism and co-writing an article. When we ran the spellcheck, the closest word to my last name was: Scrubby. What?

People thought it was hilarious & pretty soon random people were calling me that in the halls. It lasted through 10th grade, maybe even 11th, at least by one person.

Also, in 3rd grade, a boy i liked called me Scoresbucket. I like to think it was a term of endearment from him. Sure sounds like one.
January 7, 2009 at 9:56 AM
ATH79 said…
I never really had anyone make fun of my name until I got married and took my husbands last name - Hastings. One day a boy in the primary class we were teaching called us the "hand stinks". I told my family and my brother still calls us that to this day.
January 7, 2009 at 10:19 AM
A Bunch of Roaches said…
Angie is so funny! Hand stinks...ha ha. Hello, how many ways can you make fun of the last name "Slack?" You are such a slacker...Look, it's a pair of slacks. Don't slack off... I was pretty excited for the day when I would get married and gain a different last name...until I realized I was destined to marry someone with the last name of Roach...
January 7, 2009 at 10:55 AM
)en said…
ha ha. that's funny. A family up the street was the Badger family. We used to say "... one of those little Badgers.." referring to their 8 trillion kids.

The worst last name i've heard of, and pray this person doesn't find this comment, is:

Fails.

So harsh.
January 7, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Unknown said…
I was forever cursed by the episode of Full House where Stephanie was nicknamed Step-on-me. From then on, that was me:
Step-on-me Has-a-lamb (my maiden name was Haslam).
January 8, 2009 at 4:50 PM
Anonymous said…
In elementary school there was this strange fad of being able to spell your name backwards. Since I went by Melissa at that time it didn't take long for everyone to know that my name backwards was swearing. I was glad when that fad ended.
Then in Jr. High School there was this one (annoying) guy that thought it was so funny that my last name was Rugg that he first started calling me carpet, then when he decided that wasn't clever enough linoleum. He and his group called me that till he was taken away for drug rehab.
In High School one of my guy friends refused to ever yell out my name to get my attention because he thought it sounded like lesi and people would think he was calling me a lesbian.
Then in college (as really throughout my life) there was always the phrase 'snug as a bug in a rug.' However that became a dirty joke while in the theatre department any time I had Professor Bugg.
Now people just find it funny that if I had hyphenated my last name it would be Rugg-Gray. They find it even funnier when they find out my mom is a Black-Rugg.
January 8, 2009 at 10:29 PM
Jer said…
I always get one of two responses when people learn my name, and sometimes both:

"Jeremiah Jackson... wasn't that the mountain man? Have you seen that movie?"


or they start singing "JEREMIAH WAS A BULLFROG!..."

wow.. you're all so original.
January 12, 2009 at 11:34 AM
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