Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Retiring of a Name

I was recently having a conversation about names with my friend Jackson. I had remarked that I had once heard a comedian quip that to retire a number you must do good things (The retiring of 23 in Chicago for Michael Jordan). However to retire a name you must do bad things. For instance, the surname Hitler seems to have completely disappeared........

.......It has been about 20 minutes since I wrote that last part. I went on a 50 state search of the Surname Hitler and I must now retract my statement. I found 144 people with the last name of Hitler in the US. Please note that 9 of them are ACTUALLY Adolf Hitler with 5 more using a variation (Adalf, Adolph, etc...). I can only chalk this up to white supremacists gone wild (Or WSGW as we refer to it in the industry).

Other Hitlers I can also attribute to name changes, (or cruel, CRUEL parents)--they include the following:

Adolfo Hitler - Cross between Fabio and the Führer. Has a salon on 42nd Street.

Eva Hitler - too coincidental to not be a name change.

Gunsmoke Hitler - What you get when you cross Fascism and Nintendo

DeOmega Alpha Hitler - Wow.

Prince Hitler -This must have been the second name change. He changed it back to Prince Hitler after having so much difficulty explaining his previous name (which consisted of a symbol blending the male and female signs with a swastika).



TO




Vinny Hitler - Apparently the uniting of Italy and Germany meant more to some than others.

Shawanda Hitler - PLEASE tell me that this name change was marriage related.

I seem to have strayed from my original topic...and I have seriously wasted a half an hour that I will never get back.

5 comments:

  1. There was a family recently in the news that had a son named Adolf Hitler or something like that. They threw a big stink when a pastry shop wouldn't put "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler" on his cake. Then, the state got involved and took their kids away. It doesn't pay to name kids after not-so-popular dead guys. Oh, yeah...they also had a daughter named Aryan Nation. What?!?!?!

    When I was in school, we read about a piglrim named Opportunity Lane. I mean, seriously, don't these parents consider the ridicule kids will get? I tried to keep it simple when naming my children, but kids will always find a way to make names silly or mean.

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  2. That's pretty funny...Liz and I used to work at a video store and we always liked the names such as Isabell Bell, Bill Williams, and so on. Ah, the joys of a funny name.

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  3. Working in Medical Records we run past many funny names and just wonder what some parents are thinking. There is a kid out here named Random... Not sure what story the parents were trying to tell with that name!!!

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  4. That was a great post! Of course people read your blog!! You on my "Blogs to Follow" list that I have on our blog...comes to the top everytime you post something new...I usually see it on Facebook first, though! Good luck with your book...I hope you really do it! We love keeping up with your family, so keep the posts coming!!

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  5. That was hysterical!

    I'll tell you...some parents are crazy. Or maybe it's the drugs used in delivery although that doesn't give the Dad an excuse. ;-)

    Isn't it amazing how the internet will just suck you right in?

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