Adam's Apple
Senior Member
- Apr 25, 2004
- 4,092
- 452
- 48
What is the strangest name you have heard someone have? When we lived in northern Illinois some years back, I worked for a subsidiary of an insurance company that managed large farms for wealthy East Coast owners. One of the farms had a tenant farmer by the name of Welcome L. Smith. I remarked to a colleague one day that, with a first name like Welcome, I wondered what the L. stood for. He said "Little". He was not joking.
What's in A Name?
By Thomas Sowell, Real Clear Politics
November 29, 2005
People have always sought distinctions, but the ways they have tried to distinguish themselves have varied widely. Some have let their achievements speak for them but others have let their clothes, their tattoos, their pierced body parts, or just their loud and strident talk establish their claims to be noticed.
Exhibitionists have been especially rampant in our times. In an earlier era, Joe Louis wore the same regulation boxing trunks as other fighters, unlike some of today's boxers, who sport all sorts of wild colors and patterns. But Joe Louis is remembered for being a great champion and for his dignity as a man.
One of the ways some people seek special distinction today is in the names they give their children. Not only are the names themselves distinctive, these names remain distinctive only in so far as other people do not give their children the same names. So names today have a much faster rate of turnover than in the past.
for full article:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-11_29_05_TS.html
What's in A Name?
By Thomas Sowell, Real Clear Politics
November 29, 2005
People have always sought distinctions, but the ways they have tried to distinguish themselves have varied widely. Some have let their achievements speak for them but others have let their clothes, their tattoos, their pierced body parts, or just their loud and strident talk establish their claims to be noticed.
Exhibitionists have been especially rampant in our times. In an earlier era, Joe Louis wore the same regulation boxing trunks as other fighters, unlike some of today's boxers, who sport all sorts of wild colors and patterns. But Joe Louis is remembered for being a great champion and for his dignity as a man.
One of the ways some people seek special distinction today is in the names they give their children. Not only are the names themselves distinctive, these names remain distinctive only in so far as other people do not give their children the same names. So names today have a much faster rate of turnover than in the past.
for full article:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-11_29_05_TS.html
