The eNotes Blog Names and Nonsense Ten Curious Names of the Famous, Infamous, andOthers

Names and Nonsense Ten Curious Names of the Famous, Infamous, andOthers Naming your baby is a weighty task. Most people strive to select names that either have a connection to family or ones that have a   certain  panache.   But then there is that portion of the public where the name they select for their newborn is either offensive, unpronounceable, or unbelievablesometimes all three. In the United States, you can name your baby Dustpan Ghoul III if you please. Hey,   freedom of speech, although I am guessing none of the Founding Fathers would have envisioned this right being applied to Lil Dustpan. Some countries, however, are not so laissez-faire. In New Zealand, as  much as you may want to,   you are officially, not, nope, no way, allowed to name your bundle o joy Anal and your fall-back choice, Prince of Darkness, is out too. Here are a few odd names from history that you will probably be glad you never heard screamed at  you  on the playground. 1.   Armand Hammer,  famous industrialist born on 21 May 1898 in Manhattan, New York. His father â€Å"had named him after the symbol of the Socialist Labor Party.† As a youth, he sometimes claimed that his father had named him after Armand Duval, a character in the Alexandre Dumas novel  La Dame aux Camà ©lias  (1848). 2.   Ima Hogg:  Ima Hoggs first name was taken from  The Fate of Marvin, an epic poem written by her uncle  Thomas Hogg. She endeavored to downplay her unusual name by signing her first name illegibly and having her stationery printed with I. Hogg or Miss Hogg. Although it was rumored that Hogg had a sister named Ura Hogg, she had only brothers. 3.   Christine Daae: The Phantom of the Opera fan â€Å"changed her name from Victoria Bohm by deed poll† so that â€Å"if the Phantom came back today he would have a Christine Daae who would stay by him at the end.† 4. Kal-El Coppola: Is there some sort of pretentiousness contest when celebrities have babies? I vote for Superboy, aka Kal-El, son of He-of-the-Perpetually receding hair-line, Nicholas Cage. 5.   Velveeta: Anyone who has taught for as long as I have has their own personal stash of unusual names. My all-time favorite was a woman named Velveeta. She simply explained her mom loved the cheese and liked the sound of the product name. Velveeta, the woman, isnt famous yet but I would not be a bit surprised if she was one day. 6.   Ikea: My 15-year-old daughter has a classmate named Ikea. My guess is that the Dr. Spock manual was about as helpful as assembly instructions in Swedish. 7.   Lady Bird Johnson: If I had titled this image Claudia Alta Johnson I bet those of you non-Texans would have no clue who this woman was.   She is in fact, the former First Lady of the United States, wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Though she was named for her mothers brother Claud,  during her infancy, her nurse, Alice Tittle,  commented, she was as purty as a  ladybird,  which is a brightly colored  beetle. That nickname virtually replaced her actual first name for the rest of her life. Her father and siblings called her Lady,  though her husband called her Bird, which is the name she used on her marriage license. During her teenage years, her schoolmates had called her Bird, though mockingly, since she reportedly was not fond of the name. 8.   Tupac Shakur: One of most recognizable faces and one of the best-selling artists of the 1990s and beyond, Tupac is indeed his given name and he was named after an ancient Incan warrior and chief. 9. Dovakiim: Completely, 100% accurate representation of the offspring of two obsessed Skyrim fans. I think I hear  Triumph the Insult Comic Dog  warming up in the background On the plus side, he need never leave his parents basement as the reward for naming him Dovakiim is a lifetime supply of free games from Bethesda. 10.   Napoleon:   Perhaps you want to honor your French heritage. Perhaps you just like the polysyllabic name  Napoleon.   Everyone knows the dangers of giving your child a lofty name to live up to. Maybe it will work out for Cash, or Lakshme, or Sultan. But it might also be this How about you? What memorable names have you come across? Whether it be someone you know, a name from history, literature, a celebrity, whether you have been given an unusual name yourself, or given  someone a unique name wed love to hear them!

Futalognkosaurus - Facts and Figures

Futalognkosaurus - Facts and Figures Name: Futalognkosaurus (indigenous/Greek for giant chief lizard); pronounced FOO-tah-LONK-oh-SORE-us Habitat: Woodlands of South America Historical Period: Late Cretaceous (80 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 100 feet long and 50-75 tons Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Quadrupedal posture; thick trunk; extremely long neck and tail About Futalognkosaurus Youd think it would be hard for a 100-foot-long dinosaur to keep a low profile, but the fact is that paleontologists are still digging up new genera. One of the latest examples is the oddly named Futalognkosaurus, 70 percent of whose skeleton has been reassembled from three fossilized specimens discovered in Patagonia (a region of South America). Technically, Futalognkosaurus is classified as a titanosaur (a type of lightly armored sauropod with a widespread distribution during the late Cretaceous period), and with 70 percent of its skeleton accounted for, some experts have hailed it as the most complete giant dinosaur known so far. (Other titanosaurs, such as Argentinosaurus, may have been even bigger, but are represented by less complete fossil remains.) Paleontologists have made significant process identifying the exact place of Futalognkosaurus on the titanosaur family tree. In 2008, researchers from South America proposed a new clade called Lognkosauria, which includes both Futalognkosaurus, the closely related Mendozasaurus, and the possibly even more gigantic Puertasaurus. Tantalizingly, the same fossil site where these titanosaurs were discovered has also yielded the scattered bones of Megaraptor, a meat-eating dinosaur (not a true raptor) that may have preyed on the juveniles of Futalognkosaurus, or scavenged the bones of adults after they perished.