“I had never heard the name ‘Kelvin’ before. There isn’t anyone who names their kid Kelvin. So when I thought more about it, I realized that no one else has this name. It became unique. Now we think it is better than Kevin,” Sandström said....
“He wasn’t so old [at the time of the tattoo] so he didn’t think about it. He’s five now, but when I got the tattoo he was approaching two,” she said.
"Swedish mum renames son after tattoo typo" (via Fark) Read the rest
The Social Security Administration has released its "Top 10 Baby Names of 2017" male and female baby names in the United States. (No info on gender neutral names though.)
Male names:
1 Liam 2 Noah 3 William 4 James 5 Logan 6 Benjamin 7 Mason 8 Elijah 9 Oliver 10 Jacob
Female names:
1 Emma 2 Olivia 3 Ava 4 Isabella 5 Sophia 6 Mia 7 Charlotte 8 Amelia 9 Evelyn 10 Abigail
The SSA's Baby Names page also has ways to look at name ranks by birth year, state, and also changes in popularity. Read the rest
A brand manager at Dong Energy finally convinced them that their company name might be getting in the way of their messaging. They will be Ørsted from here out. Read the rest
Dan Hon (perfecting earlier work by Tom Taylor) trained an AI on the vast corpus of British place names, then set it loose. The results are amazing, illustrative of an uncannily human humor seemingly at work, something you'd never get from the standard syllable-randomizing place name generators of yore.
"There aren’t as many cocks as you’d think," he writes.
My favorites: Brotters Common, Boll of Binclestead, Farton Green Pear End, Weston Parpenham, Sutsy Compton, Stoke of Inch, Kinindworthorpe Marmile, Rastan-on-croan, Fuckley, Fapton, Waterwitherwell.
See also Hon's AI trained to generate Ask Metafilter post titles.
Surely neural-net-generated Liffs are next. Read the rest
In 1987 or so, the Welsh island of Anglesey, legendary redoubt of the druids, hosted a similarly legendary gathering to which only people with fish-themed surnames were invited. In Fish Story, Charlie Lynn (with the help of one Caspar Salmon) sets out to unravel "the truth behind a fishy tale." Read the rest
When I was a youngster, during the golden age of prank calls before caller ID, my friend and I found the name Zerba Zzyx at the end of the telephone book. We called Mr. Zzyx and asked if he realized he was the last name in the telephone book. Much to our surprise, he pleasantly told us that yes, he was aware of that fact, and hung up. (It wasn't one of our proudest prank call moments.)
Anyway, I hadn't thought about Mr. Zzyx for many years until I just saw this post on Weird Universe about "Zzyzx Road," just outside of Baker, California. Here's the origin of the road's name:
Entrepreneur Curtis Springer decided he wanted to be the last name in the directory, so when he opened a health spa at a natural springs in the Mojave Desert he called it Zzyzx Springs, so he could promote it as "the last word in health." By 1965 he had convinced the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to rename the road running to the springs Zzyzx Road. (It used to be Soda Road)...
Several movies have been named after Zzyzx Road, including the record-holder for the lowest-grossing Hollywood movie ever.
Sufficiently curious about any connection between Zzyzx Road and the Zerba Zzyx who I telephonically encountered in the 1970s, I did a Google search found this 1981 article from the Associated Press:
(Cincinnati) Roger Obermeyer wanted a way to make his name noticed in the city telephone book, so the advertising executive has himself listed as Zerba Zzyx, the last name in the directory. Read the rest
Every bubble of Dognames represents a particular name. Max and Bella lead, followed by Charlie, Coco, and Rocky, and Buddy and Lucky, and so on. [via] Read the rest
A weirdly fascinating single-serve site: How many places are named Pittsburgh? (Spoiler: three!)
There are 15 New Yorks, 29 Londons, 53 Parises, 248 San Franciscos and 320 San Antonios. But there is only one Truth or Consequences. Read the rest
Zip through 105 years of popular baby names in this interactive map by Mike Barry. Toggle for boys or girls. We've come a long way from John and James and Helen and Mary. Read the rest
Last night in Charles City, Iowa, a freight train car separated from the track as it was changing connections and tipped right into the back of a bar. The name of the trackside tavern? DeRailed.
Nobody was injured.
Apple's signaled that its desktop operating system is to be renamed MacOS, making the questionable search string "OS X" a thing of the past. The new brand turned up on an environmental webpage at its site (an official manifestation of hints already found in technical documents), though it was soon replaced by the currently-official name. Read the rest
If you live in Austin, Texas and need a vasectomy, how could you choose a physician other than Dick Chopp!
Dr. Richard (Dick) Chopp is well known in the Austin community for performing Vasectomies. He also enjoys treating patients with metabolic evolution of kidney stone disease, male endocrine urology disorders, prostate disease and Peyronie's disease. He has extensive laparoscopy surgery experience, is on the transplant team and performs Living Donor Nephrectomy.
(via Reddit)
Granted, by "top" they mean "top 1000," but still: what on Earth are you thinking, parents? Read the rest
Rod. His name is actually Rod. Read the rest
Kim-Jong Sexy Glorious Beast Divine Dick Father Lovely Iron Man Even Unique Poh Un Winn Charlie Ghora Khaos Mehan Hansa Kimmy Humbero Uno Master Over Dance Shake Bouti Bepop Rocksteady Shredder Kung Ulf Road House Gilgamesh Flap Guy Theo Arse Hole Im Yoda Funky Boy Slam Duck Chuck Jorma Jukka Pekka Ryan Super Air Ooy Rusell Salvador Alfons Molgan Akta Papa Long Nameh Ek is believed to have the world's longest name.
At 63 words long, Mr. Ek's is at least the longest in Sweden, where the law provides an option to change one's name once free of charge. Any further changes are $149, reports The Local. Ek has changed his six times, making it longer on each occasion, and there is no official limit.
"My parents were a little confused the first time a letter came addressed to Usama-Bin Ek instead of Alexander," he told news site Nyheter24. "I don't always get my mail and sometimes the electricity bill is late, but that's part of the charm."
Ek says he goes by "Papah Long Nameh" day to day. He was born Alexander Ek. He released the above photo montage to the press, featuring his official grant of a personal name and a selfie featuring himself in a bathtub full of hot dog sausages. Read the rest
