...was one of the twelve red-bearded dwarfs whose exploits were chronicled by the journalist Beachcomber. The de Rooftrouser family were well known, of course, but none of its other members had such an unusual first name.
Here are twenty-five more uncommon (to an English ear) first names; each one has been borne by at least one (fairly) famous person. Twenty-two of them are dead and the other three never lived.
How many surnames can you add?
1 Richmal
2 Rudyard
3 Keir
4 Dwight
5 Willkie
6 Denholm
7 Endeavour
8 Praise-God
9 Pelham
10 Canaan
11 Dodie
12 Molonay
13 Millard
14 Plantagenet
15 Linus
16 Maya
17 DeForest
18 Kublai
19 Django
20 Brigham
21 Aphra
22 Branwell
23 Orde
24 Alma
25 Gerard
How many surnames can you add?
1 Richmal
2 Rudyard
3 Keir
4 Dwight
5 Willkie
6 Denholm
7 Endeavour
8 Praise-God
9 Pelham
10 Canaan
11 Dodie
12 Molonay
13 Millard
14 Plantagenet
15 Linus
16 Maya
17 DeForest
18 Kublai
19 Django
20 Brigham
21 Aphra
22 Branwell
23 Orde
24 Alma
25 Gerard
7 comments:
1. Crompton
2 Kipling
3 Dullea
4 D. Eisenhower
5 Collins
6 Elliott
7 Mission 87 to the ISS
8 Ifyoufeellikeit
9 123
10 Abel
11 Smith
12 Holyecki
13 Wainwright
14 (Henry)
15 Roache
16 Angelou
17 Ation
18 Khan
19 Reinhardt
20 Ellis
21 Behn
22 Apples
23 Inarily
24 Cogan
25 Manley Hopkins
and a bonus one for you:
Tuesday
Thank you Grumio. Only eleven of your answers were the ones I had in mind, but in the case of No 25 yours was better than mine, and in other cases I suspect you knew the one I meant perfectly well but preferred to put something witty (in some cases so witty that I didn't understand what you were getting at).
Rik Mayal?
Kipling
Symonds (newsreader I think!?!)
Dwight Eisenhower
Millkie
Elliott
Todobetter
SillyBilly
Crescent (you know thats right Tony)
James
Smith (I have watched 101 Dalmatians 3,569 times)
Sauce
Channing/Manning/ something ...ing
Jones
From Peanuts
Angelou (I know why the Caged Bird Sings - you didnt think I would know that did you?)
Kelly - you mean there are people who dont know McCoy?
Khan
Reinhart - I might have had help with that one from someone over 70
Back
Dite
Bronte
a pastrami sandwich
Mater
Depardieu
I am of average erudition !
Thankfully, because of a proper education...
I too thought 25 was a Manley Hopkins, had a vague recollection of "Barebones" but couldn't place it, and was very happy that Aphra was mentioned [ a most unusual femal name ].
I always thought that "Willkie" only had one 'l', but there again, it may be Scottish.
An excellent blog.
For your interest, I arrived via the "vulgar" Finnish entry, having been given the Finnish word for "hell" and surfed via that to "Management by perkele" and John Donne !
The web is quite remarkable, but there again so were books in a library when one could be bothered to browse them.
I don't normally publish anonymous comments but I will make an exception in your case, whoever you are, because you said something nice about OMF.
Now try the post of July 4 but if you want to tell me how you got on you should give a name (not necessarily your own) and include a gigantic compliment.
Yes, well, there are probably rather a lot of Keirs and Linuses and Denholms and Gerards. And Dwights are astoundingly common in America. I suspect there are a fair few Wilkies and Dodies, too, though I could guess who you were thinking of easily enough.
Fillmore took me a while (I used to be able to recite the names of all the Presidents in order as a party trick, but I gave it up years ago as no-one seemed to find it impressive or amusing).
And I missed Beachcomber - darn!.
I rather think there may have been more than one firebrand preacher with the name Praise-God (indeed, it's the kind of name you still find in some Christian communities in Africa and so on), but I couldn't name any of them.
Ah, and I missed Mr Palliser - but knew Mr Morse.
Yes, but in every case there was someone fairly famous who had the name. Perhaps I should have made this clear.
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