What's in a name?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20228060

[ummmm]

No, it's not compulsory but the majority still do.

[ummmm]

If you told him what drink it resembles...

[tonyav]

Strawberry ?

[erin-x]

Well it is a kind of alcoholic drink... Hence nicknames like McVodka, McGin... It gets tiresome lol!

[erin-x]

Anyway... You're all gonna guess my name now! I'll make a swift exit before someone posts it in it's entirety! Lol!

[tonyav]

What erin, your name is McStrawberry ? lol.

[ummmm]

I get a lot of 'Any relation to the professor' to which I say 'Errrr, is it possible to be related to a fictional character?'

[cazzz1975]

I found it by a process of elimination ;)

my name is fairly uncommon but when I was at school there were several kids with the same name

[ummmm]

I know a few people with your name, Cazzzzz.

[tonyav]

ummmm, why am I thinking of Sherlock Holmes ?

[Prudie]

I absolutely detest my surname and yes I know I should have changed it when I got divorced.

[ummmm]

Because I have the same name as the professor.

[hippyhoppy]

I have a bog standard first name (think Royalty!) but people still get it wrong.. however, surnames.. I've been cursed from birth and marriage was like jumping out of the frying pan into the fryer!!! Why can't I just be Jones or Smith... however, knowing my luck that would get spelt wrong. My brother has the right idea.. when booking tables/ordering takeaway he uses mums maiden name 'Wood'.. NO-ONE can get that wrong.. can they..?!!

[tonyav]

Thought so, ummmm.

[owdhamer]

I used to work with a West Indian who answered to Tommy Black,the office girl accidently give me his wage slip one day he was called Eustace January,and miserable bastards paid him a pittance.

[Graham-W]

We have a Nigerian friend who's surnames are Oketete Odada Toplis.
Oketete is her father's name, Odada is her mother's maiden name and Toplis is her married name.
The only one she has problems with is her married name, being called Topless most of the time.

[FredPuli43]

Makes sense. People with names that are readily pronounced in their own ancestors country may find that it's unpronounceable, or simply odd, to anglophones. Immigrants to the United States were always offered the opportunity to change their own name at any time, as of right, and that name was their legal name thereafter. That was a very sensible rule which, I believe, still applies.

[craft1948]

My Christian name has been around for ages, I've found an ancestor in the 1800's with the same name, but nowadays it's quite rare..................

[jno]

I think a lot of immigrants to the USA a century or so ago had their names changed by immigration officers on the spot, like it or not. I believe that happened to the Agnopoulos family who gave birth to former Vice President Spiro Agnew.

[ummmm]

I believe that many of the immigrants that went through Ellis Island couldn't read or write. Their name then depended on how the immigration officer spelt it.