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Do you know anyone with an unusual name?

Asked at West Junior High School on November 10, 2008

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Photo of Nicole Humphrey

“I’ve gone to school with a boy named Legend and another named Diamond.”

— Nicole Humphrey, freshman,

Photo of David Tah

“I have a friend named Rein.”

— David Tah, eighth-grader,

Photo of Molly McCord

“I have a classmate named Khadre and another one named Canaan.”

— Molly McCord, seventh-grader,

Photo of Lacee Roe

“I have a friend in the Philippines named Alkim, and I have a cousin named Arnie Marie.”

— Lacee Roe, eighth-grader,

Photo of Lee York

“There’s a girl in my civics class named Sisi.”

— Lee York, freshman,

Photo of Innocent Anavberokhai

“Me.”

— Innocent Anavberokhai, seventh-grader,

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Comments

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  1. The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…

    I know a dude named Marian.

  2. mom_of_three (anonymous) says…

    lol

  3. snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…

    Does Lemur Williams count as unusual?

  4. PapaB (anonymous) says…

    I knew a kid growing up whose name sounded like "Awesome", but I don't know how it was spelled.

  5. prospector (anonymous) says…

    From today's getting married section:"Ashton Glay-Da-Shinga Calls Him, 22, Lawrence, and Jamea Lee Mills, 20, Lawrence."They will be Mr and Mrs. Ashton and Jamea ?????????????????

  6. number3of5 (anonymous) says…

    Names that are odd sounding are not new. My greatgrandmother was named Ophelia Aurora Helstab. Some of the odd sounding names are just names from other countries. I have a son in law named May (pronounced my), and grandchildren with the middle names of Intong, Pavina, and Lockmai. While these may be strange to us they are usual in Laos. I have a sister in law named Vitoliga. So even if friends or family have names that are different, spelled in a myraid of ways, or strange, don't knock them or make fun of them, as they may be very usual for the area in which they originated.

  7. coolmarv (anonymous) says…

    'Kansas' for a boy.

  8. autie (anonymous) says…

    my sister sent me a deal with a kid's name..they had trouble at school trying to figure out how to pronounce it..spelled La-sha. I think. Come to find out the proper way to say it was La-dash-sha.

  9. sunflower_sue (anonymous) says…

    I knew a gorgeous head-banging rocker chick in college named Prudence.

  10. Poon (anonymous) says…

    My name is Poon. That is pretty common.

  11. grammaddy (anonymous) says…

    I went to junior high with a girl named Remember. She was an only child and we all thought her parents named her that because they forgot the birth control when they conceived her. My daughter named her son Barack before he ever ran for president. His middle name is Jor-el which was Superman's father's name.

  12. BrianR (anonymous) says…

    What about you? Do you find it... wisible... when I say the name... 'Biggus...

  13. alm77 (anonymous) says…

    I went to school with a Lucretia and an Artisha. They were best friends. There was also Shara and Keely. I worked with a Davina. I'm sure there were more, but after a while, you get used to saying them and they don't sound strange anymore.

  14. autie (anonymous) says…

    and I knew a guy named Nine. You guessed it, he was the ninth kid in the family.

  15. sunflower_sue (anonymous) says…

    totally serious...growing up, there was a lady named Ada Ball in my hometown.

  16. countrygirl (anonymous) says…

    My son goes to school with a boy name Mystikal.

  17. jonas_opines (anonymous) says…

    I ran across a name once. The guy's last name was Diasabeygunawardena. That's Kit Diasabeygunawardena. There was a story in Freakanomics about a man who named his two sons Winner and Loser. The funny part was that Winner wound up in prison, and Loser (who goes by Lou) ended up making something of himself.

  18. Pywacket (anonymous) says…

    In the '80s, there was a woman in Lawrence named Snow White. She was a secretary at Stephens Real Estate. We had our house on the market when she got married and I remember her saying she was keeping her maiden name because she loved it so much.Hi, Snow, if you're still in town!I've known lots of people with unusual names--too many to count!

  19. The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…

    Disobey Gun Warden.

  20. alm77 (anonymous) says…

    Let's not forget Topeka's Chip Munk. And I went to school with a guy named Harold Caulk. I'm not making that up and to this day, I cannot believe he went by "Harry". But it just occurred to me, maybe he didn't. Maybe that was just what all the kids called him and he hated it. I didn't really know him, so I'll never know.

  21. alm77 (anonymous) says…

    Oh, and one of my friends brothers was Charlie Brown.

  22. mom_of_three (anonymous) says…

    I have an unusual first and middle name, as I was named after grandmothers. It's easy to pronounce, but people don't believe they are hearing you correctly, so they say it the way they THINK it should be. And then they are embarrassed when they figure it out. I stopped pointing it out ages ago.

  23. jaywalker (anonymous) says…

    Hope I don't get wiped out for this because it's 100% true: in junior high in Knoxville I knew two sets of brothers - Greg and Barry Fagget........... and Jimmy and Joe Kool. Jimmy Kool was our quarterback.In high school I knew a girl named Candy Cain. Might have had to hurt my folks for that one.

  24. sunflower_sue (anonymous) says…

    jonas, I was just having this conversation last week with my girls that if you give a child a name with a certain meaning (like Prudence), they seldom live up to the name. On the other hand, I had an uncle aptly named his two hound dogs "$h!t" and "Get." Dogs must be the exception to this rule.What is it with a certain age of girls that they love to think up and even "plan" baby names? Boys don't do this, do they? (I really hope my girls grow out of liking the horrible names they have picked.) I suggested Fiddy Cent.

  25. jystevens (Joyce Stevens) says…

    My ex-husband is an R.N. and worked in the newborn nursery for many years. Some of the worst baby names that he told me about were Utopia Armageddon and Sh**head (pronounced Sha-theed). An unwed teenaged girl's father made her name her baby MySin.

  26. dajudge (anonymous) says…

    I once worked with Ory Petersilieand my wife worked with a guy namedWash Tubner. That's not the funny part though.He was Wash Tubner III.(the 3rd). yeah, therewere two more before him.

  27. sunflower_sue (anonymous) says…

    I knew a Troy Glascock. We (his friends) called him Crystal Ball. He probably hated that. MO3, thanks for the tease.I never got teased for the name sunflower...it was a pretty common name in the commune where I grew up.

  28. wxbuggin (Erin Graham) says…

    I went to High School with a girl named Maraquel. I love that name, but at the time it was sort of uncharacteristic in a such a small school where "Sarah" and "Emily" sort of names prevailed.

  29. woodenfleaeater (anonymous) says…

    I have four boys: Anakin, Chewbacca, R2D2 and C3PO

  30. mike_blur (Mike Blur) says…

    Pull out a Lawrence phonebook from 20-25 years ago and the last name listed is Zzyzz Zzzzyz (or something like that.) He or she was in the book many years running, and I think was the subject of a Urinal-World article.

  31. Pywacket (anonymous) says…

    Prospector~ Did you notice, a few entries below the names you pointed out (marriage licenses, in "On the Record") the name "October Wednesday Strange"?In fact, there are a few other odd names in the "On the Record," but that one has my vote for oddest.

  32. The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…

    http://nameoftheyear.blogspot.com/That site is pretty good for weird names. Spaceman Afrika is the 2008 name of the year. He edged out Fonda Dicks in a tight race.

  33. Lillone (anonymous) says…

    Went to school with a girl name Serenity

  34. mom_of_three (anonymous) says…

    Sue,You know when you are a little kid, and the stores have pencils, pens, placemats, cups, etc, with pre-printed names on them? My name will never be on there. But my mom did order me a placemat with my name on it when I was a kid. Two of my kids won't have that problem, but I did give my oldest an unusual name, or so i thought. But there was another one in the graduating class, and I see boys with the name every so often, but with different spellings. So maybe one of these days, she will find her name on a pencil!

  35. Lillone (anonymous) says…

    I think shes got a kid at CJHS name cainen Kainen Kannen I dont something like that.......

  36. TacoBob (anonymous) says…

    Maybe not unusual, but unfortunate:Stacey Butts (guy)Mike DeCockVirgil CreechAll real, and the first two were perpetually angry people....

  37. Dejacrew423 (anonymous) says…

    My name's Deja! And I rock!

  38. password (anonymous) says…

    I once knew a girl named Teree Branch and an elderly man named Early Day.

  39. woodenfleaeater (anonymous) says…

    My name is Jeff....how weird is that? My parents were crazy giving me such an odd name

  40. UfoPilot (anonymous) says…

    I've known a: Penny NicholsCandy KaneJack DanielsAnd someone named Tippy (don't remember his last name)

  41. KSChick1 (anonymous) says…

    How about Tuesday Munkees? Don't know her but she used to live next door to a friend of mine.

  42. Pywacket (anonymous) says…

    Lillone~ You're right--Serenity's son's name is Kainen. She & I worked at the same company several years ago. She has a great sense of humor about her name--says her mom is "an old hippie." I used to tease her about what it was like to be named after a feminine hygiene product! As JYStevens points out, the neonatal ward is a great place to observe some wack names. My bro-in-law is a cardiac surgeon, but when he first graduated med school and was doing his rounds (big teaching hospital), he noted lots of bizarre names.One I remember was "LaTrina." We figured the parents just didn't realize how close to "latrine" that was or how much grief the poor child would probably have to endure from smart-a$$ kids.

  43. always4ever (anonymous) says…

    A lady named Dorcas and a man named Picifix. Can you imagine?

  44. Dejacrew423 (anonymous) says…

    I knew a girl named Dusty Blue and I used to love that name! When I was younger I always wanted to name my daughter Heaven Leigh.........it definitely wouldn't go with the last name I have now. I have a daughter named Kadence and her middle name is Chase. People call her either Kaden, Candice, and even one grandma just calls her Chase because she can't say Kadence real well. Whatever works. I usually don't correct people too much. Atleast she won't spend every first encounter answering the same question, "no actually my middle name is not Vu." I get asked that so much that I just started saying, yeah it is.

  45. kansas_o_kansas (anonymous) says…

    "Halloween Riddle" born October 31, 1930'ish I don't know if the Riddle part was married or maiden. Went to school with an April Snowflake.Ancient female cousins named Clyde & Francis; a friend had young cousins named Perrin & Rebel. My sister's middle name is Wren because we had a cousin named Robin and my mother "wanted a bird too." And my grandfather was named Olive. "Unique" names are not a new phenomena.

  46. sunflower_sue (anonymous) says…

    There is a Doctor Bonebreak in St. Joe. He's an eye doctor. (see what I mean about not living up to the name potential?)MO3, my kiddo #1 can't wait until next year. The one other kid with her name graduates so she should be the only _____ until she graduates (unless someone moves in, of course). As far as I know, there are no other kids in our school district with my kiddo #2's name. They are not "unusual" names...just not as common.

  47. mommyof1angel (anonymous) says…

    A friend of a friend just recently named her son "Sir."

  48. truman (anonymous) says…

    People do not have a clue when they are naming their children. It might be cute or clever to you when they are babies but as grown up professionals some of the names listed here are really bad. Rule of thumb-- if you think you need to be original when naming your child- choose a traditional middle name. That way when they are adults, they can use their middle name .

  49. achtung (anonymous) says…

    i remember a npr story about a guy in missouri (go figure) legally changing his name to "They"something about so people could say "you know what They say" he also invented the under car neon light things

  50. mommyof1angel (anonymous) says…

    I also knew a little girl once with the name of "Siochil." The poor child's mother didn't even know how to pronounce her name (the dad picked the name, then split), so this beautiful little girl has an unfitting nickname that she goes by because her family can't pronounce her given name.

  51. rrussell (Rex Russell) says…

    Worked with a guy named Bob Thyme. Like the spice.Named his first son Justin Thyme. Named his third kid Nicolas Oscar Thyme (Nick O. Thyme)

  52. sunflower_sue (anonymous) says…

    My brother named his sons Ryan and Aaron. Luckily, he never had a 3rd son or the poor boy might have been called Ruth!

  53. jaywalker (anonymous) says…

    Oh, and I forgot that I encouraged a buddy who was granted absolute naming rights by his wife to dub his son's middle name 'Danger', and he did! I love it! "Danger is my middle name"!? Kid won't have to buy his own beer in college, I gar-own-tee!

  54. Dejacrew423 (anonymous) says…

    I saw a True Life show on MTV about 3 girls with clowns as parents. Their last name was Graham and the girls names were Holly, Candi, and shoot, what was the other......oh I have no clue. Nevermind!

  55. betti81 (anonymous) says…

    knew a girl named "jinx jewell". her sister's name was jessica and a brother named travis. i have no idea where jinx came from. Deja...do you have a sister named devin?

  56. classclown (Class Clown) says…

    Well Dolph seems a bit unusual.I went to boot camp with a guy named Bud Weiser.I also worked with a guy named Lucky Gunn.

  57. classclown (Class Clown) says…

    ***typo***Should be Bud Wieser. Frankly, I'm not sure about the spelling, but it was pronounced just like the beer.

  58. mom_of_three (anonymous) says…

    Sue,One of my kids has a common middle name, but I chose a rarely used spelling of it. Another kid has a name which is not common, but not unheard of, and the eldest name was unusual, but now, it's just a little uncommon, because people, again, don't believe the pronounciation we say, so they add letters. I had never heard of it before I gave it to the kid (because I thought I had made it up, from names of relatives). And now, I hear it more often. The kids each have something a little unique about one of their names, but I also gave them a common name to go with it. Unlike what my mom did to me. but I have learned to appreciate it, since I was named after my grandmothers. But I didn't name them after a bird, a season or a month. Just names I liked.

  59. Dejacrew423 (anonymous) says…

    betti, yes I do!

  60. Ms_P_Lane (anonymous) says…

    I had a kid in a class named YeMajesty. Imagine, as a teacher, calling on "YeMajesty," a bit ridiculous if you ask me. I've also heard of twins named Lemonjelo and Oranjelo, (lemon jello and orange jello). Another teacher told me about a Sh!thead (yes, there is an 'i' there, but apparently I can't put that on ljworld.com and the 'thead' is pronounced 'theed'). I am a fan of unusual names as long as they are tasteful!

  61. gl0ck0wn3r (anonymous) says…

    Dick Heckler.

  62. The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…

    "I've also heard of twins named Lemonjelo and Oranjelo, (lemon jello and orange jello). "Ms P Lane - Are you from Atchison? I've heard about Lemonjelo and Oranjelo. I don't know if they are from there, but the dude that told me the story is.

  63. JhawkGirl (anonymous) says…

    I have a cousin whose last name is Bentz, so they gave their daughter the middle name of Mercedes. I guess I should give them credit for not making that her first name. But then again, her first name is Kyrie (pronounced Keer- ee- ay) - like the song by "Mister Mister" from the 80's.

  64. Ms_P_Lane (anonymous) says…

    No, Bob, I'm not from Atchison. I heard about the twins from a teacher I worked with on a military base.

  65. mom_of_three (anonymous) says…

    I don't think I ever went to school with someone with an unusual name. Course I thought it was odd then a guy was named Leslie. But he was 6 foot 7 in 9th grade, went by les, and no one ever bothered him about it.

  66. bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…

    so, was leslie's lastname "Ismore?"***my father had a parolee actually had the first name "tweetiebird" should jail the parents. ***in salinas california, classmate was "Candi Apple" she went on to be Officer Apple with Salinas PD, might still be there.another classmate was "John Crowder." ***And, to answer the OTS question, I know myself. my last name is so unusual that someone with the same spelling is almost certainly a distant relative.

  67. bolshavik_vw (anonymous) says…

    yes I know a lot of people. I had an uncle name Claude Hopper, another one name R.C. Like the Cola. I have a cousin name T. I also grew up with several people. We had a guy in our school name Caulder Bell. And a girl name Shasta that went to school with my sister. I used to work with a girl about 10 years ago name Raffie Cooley.

  68. wacipimo (anonymous) says…

    There was a Haskell basketball player in the 80's named Jay Hawk. I think KU was actually looking at him to play on the hill.

  69. tangential_reasoners_anonymous (anonymous) says…

    Oh, and there's the tale of a non-English-speaking woman who loved a "name" she had heard during her labor... *Placenta* Marie.

  70. denak (anonymous) says…

    "....Serenity's son's name is Kainen..." We know Serenity and Kainen very well. The funny thing about this is that she has such a unique name and yet her sister has such a normal name...Paula. As for unusual names, I've knows a lot of kids named after countries, states,cities or continents. I've known an Asia, quite a few lately named Paris, Dakota, China and Amerika. (spelled with a "k" not a "c.")The worst example of naming came when I was going through foster careadoption classes a few years ago. One of the prospective parents asked the teacher if it was ok to change the child's name and at what age is it not. The teacher than told us about a sibling group of 3 whose parents named them after the rock bands, Motley Crue, Led Zepplin and Cinderella. If that wasn't bad enough, Cinderella was a boy! When he was adopted, his parents asked him if he wanted to change his name. He said yes and promptly changed his name to .......Sam!Dena

  71. Calliope877 (anonymous) says…

    I've been told that my middle name is unusual. The most intriguing guy names I've heard are : Natalie (prounounced Nuh-Tall-ee) & Paris.I used to know a girl named Anastacia. A girl named Fryske was a grade above me in school.

  72. kristenkim (anonymous) says…

    My cousin is named "Abra." I had two friends growing up with unusual names: one was named Apple, the other named Forrest Love. Forest was a guy, and his parents were definitely hippies. His sister had an unusual name too, but I can't recall what it was.

  73. lovenhaight (anonymous) says…

    Hmmm...one of my best friends in high school was Shaliko...I know a kid named Lord Awesome (that is the first name), one named Anakin...my friend's niece and nephew are Draven, Nevaeh, and Lux Elorah...and we'll probably have a Seamus (pronounced Shamus. Its the Gaelic James, for those of you who aren't cool enough to be Irish.)

  74. unklemonkey (anonymous) says…

    HAHAHA lee you are hilarious

  75. lovenhaight (anonymous) says…

    Oh, and how could I forget my grandmother's friend Female! Pronounced Fem-a-lee...her mom thought that the nurses named the baby. It was Georgia in the 30's...

  76. lovenhaight (anonymous) says…

    And I saw a girl in the Atlanta airport food court named Phelonie...I think its her mother's fault she works in an airport food court...

  77. EarthaKitt (anonymous) says…

    Cletus Dinkle. Sold Buicks in Topeka. True story.

  78. The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…

    "And I saw a girl in the Atlanta airport food court named Phelonie:I think its her mother's fault she works in an airport food court:" LovenhaightNope. It is the system's fault.

  79. George_Braziller (anonymous) says…

    This is not a joke. I really did go to high school with a guy whose name was "Harry Pitts." Why he didn't go by his middle name or modify his first name I don't have a clue.What were his parents thinking?

  80. alm77 (anonymous) says…

    Oh, and when I helped out with preschool we had a Levi Denim. I thought it was cute.

  81. chapdaddy (anonymous) says…

    I once heard about this kid name Barack Obama. That's messed up.

  82. Alfred_W (anonymous) says…

    For a long time, there was a "Lumpy Rutherford" in the Lawrence phone book. My friends and I thought it was a riot, though we never called to see if it was a real person or some Leave it to Beaver fan just put it in there.

  83. Easy_Does_It (anonymous) says…

    I agree with Innocent, he does have an unusual name and apparently a good sense of self.

  84. Newell_Post (anonymous) says…

    I swear this is true. My father's high school English teacher was named Ima Hoar. Wyandotte HS, 1937. I actually met her when I was a small child.

  85. Newell_Post (anonymous) says…

    I swear this one is true, also. There was a salesman who used to call on me named Richard Odor. His friends called him Dick.

  86. aero_steve (anonymous) says…

    1) I have a nephew Jeronimo Javier with a very Scottish surname. My brother thought it was a good idea on acid. His other kids have relatively common names.2) A former coworker named his first born Jack Ryan and was well aware of the Tom Clancy character.3) I went to high school with a Star Bright.

  87. sunflower_sue (anonymous) says…

    gnome, I completely forgot my maiden name! It is so unusual (I would say "uncommon") that I am related to everyone with that name...and here's the kicker...no matter how it is spelled. My aunt is a geneology freak...er...I mean buff. I've got two big ol' books she's written on our family tree.

  88. bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…

    OMG Sue,now you're just gonna have to e-mail me that maden name of yours! no matter the spelling? wow.

  89. canyon_wren (anonymous) says…

    Guess I am a day late and a dollar short with this, as I didn't check out this OTS yesterday, but when I was at KU, my plant ecology professor was Worthy Horr. There was also a female professor (English?) named Wealthy Babcock. I thought it would be neat if they got married and would wind up Worthy and Wealthy!

  90. orangeku01 (anonymous) says…

    I had a great uncle Elmo and a great-great uncle Grover. They were born many years before Sesame Street--who would have known!

  91. CarterFaucheaux (anonymous) says…

    Vicky Knickerbocker SmokerAnita DickCarl Funk Wittum

  92. bndairdundat (anonymous) says…

    Back in the mid 60's there was an older guy that hung around Fergus Grocery on East 13th Street named Philmore Cox

  93. bndairdundat (anonymous) says…

    Middle name "Harry"

  94. tangential_reasoners_anonymous (anonymous) says…

    You know, when you get right down to it, ALL names are pretty friggin' unusual.

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