Teaching in a poor county with a lot of illiteracy and semi-literacy, I have been shocked and amused by the names of some of my students. What self-respecting parent would name her daughter Pandora, I thought? But then came Telephany, spelled t-e-l-e-p-h-o-n-e.
When I asked "phe-molly" who she was named for, she said "they named me at the hospital." Her name was spelled f-e-m-a-l-e.
Then there were the twins, Regina and Vagina.
My daughter, a fifth grade teacher in Florida, claims to know of students named Tequila, Sangria, Lasagna, and Diarrhea.
A colleague claims he knows a child named "Sha-th-ead," spelled "s-h-i-t-h-e-a-d." Naming your child that constitutes child abuse!
Sad but true! I remember my classmate "Queen Elizabeth Bristow," who seemed to have a penchant for being called to the office, dissolving my classmates in laughter whenever her name was read. Given that I (and presumably she) was born in 1952, the year Her Present Majesty assumed the Throne, the origin of her name is fairly easy to discern.
Then, also sad to say, there are those of us whose names, presumably through no fault of our own, have entered popular language as slang. "Johnson," for instance.
Posted by: Bruce Johnson | 10/18/2005 at 11:25 AM