What's In A Name?

Ahhh, Shakespeare ... "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet ... "
Back then, it applied. Now days ... Not so much.
A name can have an extremely positive, or negative impact on the wearer of it. I was born, Floyd William Flanigan. In 1927, Floyd was a popular and usual first name. In 1979, not so much. Granted, I was named after my maternal grandfather who was a wonderful man. He had no sons, so I was offered up as his namesake. But ... as I grew up, believe it or not, I had girls who wanted to go out with me but didn't because they just couldn't handle the name. There was a guy in my high school named Billy Heck. Talk about a cool name. And the  girls flocked to this guy. When I started going by a shortened version of my middle name, which is Billy as well, the girls were much more easy ... to come by ... yes, much more easy to come by. It was kind of like a social experiment. If I introduced myself as Floyd, I was received a certain way. If I introduced myself as Billy, it went much better. But ... I'm not the only one. My name-related woes were short-lived and not really that bad. But let's take a look at some others:

Dick Trickle ... Race car driver.
Parker Schnovel ... Gold Prospector.
Coco Crisp ... Baseball player.
Dick Pole ... No kidding. He played for the Red Sox.
Matt Schmuck ... He was in my study hall, freshman year.
Fair Hooker ... Player for the Cleveland Browns.
Ben Dover
Harry Butts
Richard Head (Dick for short)
Rusty Ford
Penny Nickles

The list just seems to go on and on. What were the parents of these people thinking when they named them? Talk about cruelty to children! Imagine roll call each morning in the sixth grade for Mike Hunt. Imagine what third grade was like for Jeff Artz.

Anyway ... I'm keeping this one short.
PLEASE ad to the list of screwed up names if you know of any. And if you are an expectant parent, read the list and think hard before naming your new addition to the family!

Thanx for spending a little time with me.
I appreciate it.
Billy