Names

In our family we have a habit of buying each other 'silly books' Among them we have "Do Ants have arseholes (and other interesting questions", "how to fossilise a Hamster" (a present from Dad to James last Christmas), The Suicide Bunnies which is just sickeningly funny, and currently, on loan from Dad, this little gem, which is about people's names.

Yes, we all know of someone who has passed through our lives who has had a ridiculous name...Dwayne Pipe, Chris(topher) Mastree etc. Working with kids for 15 years makes you wonder sometimes what the parents were thinking of - never mind the obvious tendency to name kids after public figures/celebrities, some parents are clearly just cruel.

The author of this book, Russell Ash (R. Ash!) has painstakingly searched through census data, and registers of births, marriages and deaths in the UK to find a whole range of ridiculous names, ranging from names that are downright rude to just plain bizarre.

Some are too rude to put in here, but some of them are absolute crackers - I have too many favourites, so I have just randomly sampled them ...(some are just odd, some of them you have to say out loud to get the 'rudeness' where there is rudeness!)

Gladys Friday
Norman Conquest
Ann Archy
Herbert ABCDEF Atkinson
Al Bino
Pharoah Stingemore
Bamlet Neptune Switzer
Fanny Pussephette
Euphemia Twat - authors footnote on this says "There were 48 'Twats'in Orkney and Shetland at the time of the 1841 census...."
Isabella Bumup
John Knobs Henry
Fanny Fecker
William Sodoff
R. Slicker (male, died Bradford 1876)
Jim Shoe
Elizabeth Pantoff
Mary Canary
Windermere Bigot Stringwell
Maria Entry

Whats worrying is a great many of the hundreds of silly names actually come from the north of England e.g. Lancashire, Yorkshire and a great many from my home county of Cheshire (in fact not too far from where I grew up!)

Its worth buying because some of the names are bloody hilarious.