Singer Ciara [pron. see-AIR-ah] explaining how she got her name (People):
My mom was trying to figure out my name when my dad bought her a fragrance called Ciara by Revlon. That’s where my name came from!
(The perfume name, according to the television commercials, was pronounced see‑AHR‑ah.)
Elon Musk explaining how Tesla Motors got its name (Elon Musk):
[W]e didn’t actually come up with the Tesla Motors name. Bought trademark off Brad Siewert for $75k in late 2004. He’d originally filed for it in 1994. Our alternative name was Faraday, which was used by a competitor several years later.
About a woman who married a carnival ride named Bruce (Daily Mail):
Most women look for a handsome, successful, dependable man to be their husband.
But Linda Ducharme, of Tampa, Florida, has decided to forgo relationships with men for those with metal.
The 56-year-old is ‘happily married’ to a skydiver carnival [ride] called Bruce – as she is sexually attracted to objects.
‘His name is Bruce and we’ve know each other since 1981,’ she said.
(You know you’re obsessed with names when your first question upon reading about this woman is: “I wonder why she chose the name Bruce?”)
About crafting names for San Francisco’s high-end condo towers (Modern Luxury):
Perusing high-end real estate literature these days is like reading the cubby signage at a Pacific Heights preschool. At the foot of the Bay Bridge, there’s the Jasper, a 400-foot-tall skyscraper by real estate developer Crescent Heights. Off Van Ness, you’ll run into the Austin, a shiny condo building from Pacific Eagle. And on Harrison Street awaits, well, the Harrison, with its private penthouse lounge, Uncle Harry’s. The trend of monikering luxury dwellings as though they were Ralph Lauren linen collections has hit San Francisco big-time, with the Ashton, the Avalon, and their ilk taking the place of yesteryear’s Paramount and Bel Air.
About British professional boxer Tyson Fury (The Guardian):
Yep, he is named after Mike Tyson, and yep, Tyson Fury is a perfect name for a boxer. Fury was born prematurely and only weighed one pound. “The doctors told me there was not much chance of him living,” said his father, John Fury. “I had lost two daughters in the same way who had been born prematurely. They told me there was not much hope for him. It was 1988, Mike Tyson was in his pomp as world heavyweight champion, and so I said, ‘Let’s call him Tyson’. The doctors just looked at me and smiled.”
About the recent celebrity baby name Indigo Blue (UPI):
French star SoKo is a new mom.
The 33-year-old singer and actress, born Stéphanie Sokolinski, took to Instagram Monday after giving birth to a daughter, Indigo Blue Honey.
SoKo shared a photo of herself kissing her baby girl’s foot. She said she named her daughter after The Clean song “Indigo Blue.”
About Marguerite Annie Johnson becoming Maya Angelou, from the book Maya Angelou: “Diversity Makes for a Rich Tapestry” by Donna Brown Agins:
Barry [Drew] signed Marguerite to a three-month contract performing as a Cuban calypso singer at the Purple Onion. He suggested that she change her name to something more exotic. She decided to use to childhood name, Maya. For added dramatic effect, she changed her married name, Angelos, to Angelou.
(Before she was a writer, she was a singer/dancer! This was news to me. The childhood nickname Maya came from her brother, who called her “Mya Sister.”)
About Malaysian sisters named Malaysia, Mayday and Mardeka (Malay Mail):
Mayday’s name pick also went through a similar spur-of-the moment decision, when Victoria was in labour.
“It was less than 24 hours to go before I had to go into labour and I looked at Kamalul and said we are going to have a baby girl soon and we have yet to decide on her name.
“At that point he was reading a historical book about Cold War and was at the part of the story where a plane was going down and an American pilot scream Mayday. He suddenly asked me why not we name her Mayday?” Victoria said with a big smile recalling the moment.
The couple immediately agreed on it since they wanted all their daughters name to start with the pronunciation of “Ma”.
About Cornell University’s two corpse flowers, named Wee Stinky and Carolus (14850.com):
Wee Stinky is named for the spot on the Cornell campus known as the Wee Stinky Glen, near the Cornell Store, that used to have a distinct odor. Carolus was named after Carolus Linnæus, the 18th Century Swedish botanist who laid the foundations of the modern biological naming system known as binomial nomenclature, says Ed Cobb, research support specialist in the Plant Biology Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “It’s also in honor of Carol Bader, the greenhouse grower who nurtured these plants for nearly ten years, but passed away before they bloomed.”
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