I have a friend who swears blind she was at school with a boy called Hugh Janus. I mean, really, at what stage did his parents not notice this was going to cause him problems in later life? Did his father not lean on the mantelpiece, his firstborn tucked burping over his shoulder, saying meditatively "Prime Minister Janus... H. A Janus QC... Dr Hugh Jan-.. oh bugger."
This is a very quick post (mmeh, Monday) - but I will just leave you with the thought that even the apparently beautiful and privileged can screw up on a spectacular scale where kids' names are concerned - did nobody think to point out to the glowingly attractive celeb couple that is Brangelina the appalling and unfortunate spoonerism in their daughter's name - Shiloh Pitt?
PS really ...Just also remembered the case in "Freakonomics" of the woman who called her daughter "Shithead", to be pronounced "ShuhTeed" - a minute's awed and almost admiring silence for sheer parental abuse there. And MantuaMaker's just reminded me of the boy called Nicholas Bott her brother was at school with..
5 comments:
Shiloh Pitt... I'm still chuckling. Cupid Stunt indeed.
A friend told me that on Sunday and every now and then I STILL find myself sniggering as I think of it. The fact that I'm not the biggest fan of either Brad or Ange helps too... schadenfreude rules. And this wasn't even one of their 200 adopted children they did this to!!!
And yes I too miss Cupid Stunt.. Oh Michael you NAUGHTY man!
We get lots of Chinese students with unfortunate names - Fuk Tu Yu and stuff like that.
Al had a colleague called Theresa Green and I once worked with a guy called Peter Rabbett who had a son called Benjamin.
But I can't think of any rude ones.
Initials cause probs too, don't they - my mother's best friend is called Margaret Ann Durrant. But I think she married into madness.
There are an uncanny amount of Theresa Greens and Richard Heads around. People don't think, do they? My mum was the opposite end of the spectrum and didn't call me Sophie because she thought I'd get called Soapy at school, bless her. Still would have preferred that to Juicy Lucy and Loose Elastic, but hey ho.
My favourite has to be the very well spoken gentleman who phoned up an ex-girlfriend of mine to request a copy of a report published by the organisation she worked for. When she asked for his name and address he boomed out 'the name is Pouch, Dick Pouch' ...
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