Utah baby namer
Apparently, Utah Mormon names are often pretty unusual. A couple who used to live in Utah have been collecting such names for the past ten years or so; the result...
Archive for Names
Names for the (Biblical) nameless
Recently came across an interesting item in Wikipedia: List of names for the Biblical nameless, which "compiles names given in Jewish or Christian mythology for characters who are unnamed in...
Gorilla gorilla
I'm pretty sure that I already knew that the Western Gorilla has the taxonomic name Gorilla gorilla (genus + species). But I don't think I knew until now that the...
protein name
There's a drug called rapamycin, which is showing promising results in anti-aging studies. But that's not why I'm mentioning it here. I'm mentioning it because of this sentence from the...
A flu by any other name, or, flu versioning
Makers of computer software and hardware have to give each new version of a given product a new label or name, to distinguish it from other versions. There are a...
Band name
Just saw this headine: Supreme Court Rules that Government Can Fine for 'Fleeting Expletives' --Washington Post, April 28, 2009 Wouldn't "The Fleeting Expletives" be a good band name?...
nnn: More Names, More Games
I know of at least three entirely different games called The Name Game. One of them is used for introductions and theatre warmups: everyone stands in a circle, and one person says their name paired with an adjective that starts with the same letter—"Frantic Fran," for instance. As they say this, they make a gesture […]
NN: The Eponymous Four
I don't know how long people have been coming up with odd names for groups of musical performers, but the practice dates back at least to the 1930s. (Before that there were named musical groups, but the names were usually descriptive (and often place-linked), like "The London Philharmonic Orchestra," rather than fanciful.) Bands with names […]
nn: Secret Identities (Reader Comments and Addenda)
I just came across a resource and a name that are both cool enough to be worth adding a comment here. The resource is the Real Names of Famous Folk site, which lists lots and lots of pseudonyms of all varieties. The name is (are you ready for this?): Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio […]
nn: Secret Identities
"'We name our fondlings in alphabetical order. The last was a S—Swubble, I named him. This was T—Twist, I named him. The next one as comes will be Unwin, and the next Vilkins. I have got names ready made to the end of the alphabet, and all the way through again when we come to […]