Ocean~River~Oliver

viv1969 said:
Hadleigh is also a very old, once popular name.
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My cousins granddaughter is called (and spelled) Hadley.
I was convinced they had a new dog, when I first heard the name ;)
 
Shirleyr said:
Arwen is welsh, translated 'noble maid' true, not from facebook. Nice name. There are some beautiful welsh names.
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I don't think his parents knew that. They got it from LoTR.
 
In certain circumstances a nickname can also cause difficulties. Up until the time that the law was changed regarding homosexuality a lot of gay men joined the Merchant Navy and served as stewards because, with a few exceptions, the rest of the crew would accept them for what they were and they didn't have to worry about being assaulted. Also most crew cabins were two berth and if they were a couple the Chief Steward would allow them to share a cabin.

I served an apprenticeship as an electrician at the dockyard in Falmouth and most of the apprentices were given nicknames by the tradesmen, usually regarding their appearance or abilities, such as Butch who damaged more than he repaired and Fred because he looked like Fred Flintstone. My surname being Perkins and the fact that I was then slim with longish very dark curly hair I immediately got nicknamed Polly after Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green.

As you can imagine given my appearance and being addressed as Polly by a tradesman, this sometimes caused me unwelcome attention when working on a ship, but it also taught me a lot about prejudice. Without exception when an approach was made by one of the gay crew and I explained the reason for the nickname and that I was in fact heterosexual, the word was quickly passed around amongst the crew and I was never bothered again on that particular ship.
 
viv1969 said:
Second and third names... Pretty irrelevant in real life.
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Though they can cause confusion.

I had a friend named William. He died last year and at his funeral his brother gave a very touching eulogy, in which he persistently referred to his deceased brother as Jonathan. But fortunately he explained.

It turns out that William's middle name was Jonathan, and at home as a boy he had always been known as Jonathan. I'm not sure why. Maybe one of those odd family customs where the first name is a traditional name that's been used in the family for generations, and the second name is the "real" name. Anyway, until he was 18, everyone knew him as Jonathan.

But then he went to university. Presumably he had to put his full name on the application form, and maybe he hadn't been careful to indicate which name he used, or maybe the college's signwriter wasn't paying attention. Either way, when he arrived at college, the name which had been painted on the door of his college room was William [Surname].

And apparently he didn't want to make a fuss - which is absolutely 100% like the William I knew - so he decided that he may as well be William. And his double identity persisted for the rest of his life: to anyone who first knew him before college he was Jonathan, and to anyone who first knew him at or after college he was William.
 
kingo15 said:
Friend of mine is actually called wayne king.........

What were his parents thinking or not as the case maybe.
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My niece started school with a kid called Harry Monk.......... everyone in our family saw the hilarity straight away, apart from mum, we had to gradually break her into the joke.

It was similar when my nephew Bradley was born, they wanted to give him the middle name of Justin. We again went through the process of why the initials BJS was amusing but could cause him issues later in life :LOL:
 
StewartR said:
Though they can cause confusion.

I had a friend named William. He died last year and at his funeral his brother gave a very touching eulogy, in which he persistently referred to his deceased brother as Jonathan. But fortunately he explained.

It turns out that William's middle name was Jonathan, and at home as a boy he had always been known as Jonathan. I'm not sure why. Maybe one of those odd family customs where the first name is a traditional name that's been used in the family for generations, and the second name is the "real" name. Anyway, until he was 18, everyone knew him as Jonathan.

But then he went to university. Presumably he had to put his full name on the application form, and maybe he hadn't been careful to indicate which name he used, or maybe the college's signwriter wasn't paying attention. Either way, when he arrived at college, the name which had been painted on the door of his college room was William [Surname].

And apparently he didn't want to make a fuss - which is absolutely 100% like the William I knew - so he decided that he may as well be William. And his double identity persisted for the rest of his life: to anyone who first knew him before college he was Jonathan, and to anyone who first knew him at or after college he was William.
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Smomewhat smilar experience for me. For some unbeknown reason my parents decided to christen me Lawrence (even my mum can't remember exactly why!). Considering I grew up in a rough part of London this caused me no end of grief as a child and I was often bullied over it for being "a posh kid". I detested the name and often asked my parents why the hell that hadn't called me Peter or John or something normal! I started calling myself Larry as soon as I got to college. Nowadays only my family and a couple of old schoolmates call me Lawrence, everyone else knows me as Larry. Causes some hilarity and the odd misunderstanding at parties and get -togethers.
 
Larry is the contraction of Lawrence, rather than a completely different name though, so slightly less confusing.
 
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