Verse written by Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (1857-1941), founder of the Scout Movement:
Pronunciation of Baden-Powell
Man, Nation, Maiden
Please call it Baden.
Further, for Powell
Rhyme it with Noel.
From Otter, Apple, CrimeFighter: celebrities should save stupid baby names for their sons by Eleanor Margolis:
When parents inflict a sickeningly cutesy name on a daughter they’re (unwittingly, I hope) defining her by her cuteness — something that a massive chunk of society was going to do even before they gave her a name that would look stupid on a Bichon Frisé. Either they’re blind to the fact that women have a hard enough time being taken seriously without being called Marshmallow Twinkletits, or they don’t plan on taking their daughter seriously themselves.
So, if idiot parents feel a biological imperative to name their children after “aDORKable” things, I think they should go for it. My one caveat is that they bestow these names on their sons rather than their daughters. Because naming a boy “Otter” may not be revolutionary, but it would definitely take one white, middle-class man down a notch.
From Is Bernie right name for president? by Bernie O’Neill:
Kennedy was the first Catholic president. Obama the first black president. Hillary would be the first woman president.
But more importantly, Sanders would be the first Bernie president. I like the sound of that.
From Intact, Packed Etruscan Tomb Found by Rossella Lorenzi:
So far [archaeologist Clarita] Natalini and colleagues have been able to read the word “Laris.” Lars is a common Etruscan male first name. The stone coffin contains the skeleton of a male individual.
From an article about the US Navy’s most futuristic ship, the USS Zumwalt, which is captained by a guy named James Kirk:
“We are absolutely fired up to see Zumwalt get underway. For the crew and all those involved in designing, building, and readying this fantastic ship, this is a huge milestone,” the ship’s skipper, Navy Capt. James Kirk, said before the ship departed.
(The original captain of Star Trek‘s very futuristic starship Enterprise was named James T. Kirk.)
From What’s in a Name? by Jamaal Allan (who is white, but often assumed to be black):
When people have seen my name before they’ve seen my face, I get “OH — you’re Jamaal.”
[…]
It is not uncommon for people to follow up with, “I expected you to be–” and then there’s a pause; a sudden realization they are on the verge of sounding racist. There’s a look–not quite ‘deer in the headlights’, but it is a definite freeze. What to say next? I’ve heard several: taller, older, different (usually accompanied with an uncomfortable chuckle).
Very few people have the courage to say darker.
(Found via NPR.)
From the book Suffolk Surnames (1858) by Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch:
The following anecdote was related to me by a friend: At a trial, in which a well-known Liverpool merchant, Ottiwell Wood, was a witness, he was requested by the presiding judge, who was somewhat deaf, to spell his name; which he did as follows: “O double t,
i double u, e double l, double u double o, d.”
From the book From Red Hot to Monkey’s Eyebrow: Unusual Kentucky Place Names (1997) by Robert M. Rennick:
Kentucky’s Mousie, still a post office serving many families in the Jones Fork area of northern Knott County, wasn’t named for a mouse at all but for a young woman — named Mousie. She was then (1916) the twenty-year-old daughter of Clay Martin, a large landowner in that area.
Why would a girl be named Mousie? Why not? Mousie is not at all an unusual given name in eastern Kentucky. Since the Civil War, scores of young Mousies throughout the region have borne this name. Mousie Martin, who later became Mrs. Mart Gibson, used to tell us that she was so named at the suggestion of her grandfather, for she had an older sister named Kitty and he rather liked the idea of having two little varmints in the family.
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