names Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing: hobbies

Doris the cat

**By kind permiission of SMBC Comics. “Fixing Social Media”**

The Sunday Stealing meme continues to steal from 200 questions.

Hobbies I’ve learned from a friend

Do I have hobbies? I suppose genealogy is a hobby, but I don’t know who I learned it from. My cousin Lisa’s much more into it than I am, and I probably picked up a few things from her, but my quest started separately. Back in the olden days, when I used to read comic books, I would blame that on my OLD friend Uthaclena. When I was a kid, I used to collect coins and stamps, but I don’t know who I learned those things from

My physical activity preferences

Earlier this week, I was walking down the street. This woman, who I did not know, said, “I haven’t seen you on your bicycle for a while,” which is true. I used to ride it all over the city limits. Somehow, I didn’t pull it out of the shed in 2023. In 2024, I told myself I should take it to the bike shop and get it fixed up, but the one closest to me, the Down Tube, closed recently, and I haven’t gotten around to schlepping it to another place to get it tuned up. Maybe I will do that before the end of the season, which is coming to a rapid close. Meanwhile, I walk.

MUSIC

Music I think is essential for everyone to hear.

I don’t think there’s any music that is essential for everyone to hear. I can tell you what I’ve been listening to recently. The Rascals had an album called Freedom Suite, and the first song was America The Beautiful. I also just listened to Dave Brubeck’s Time Out album, which has the unexpected hit Take Five. Randy Newman’s Political Science is something I’ve loved for years. Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way always seems to have an effect on me, as does the Beach Boys’ Until I Die.

Something I have to relearn every time I do it

Most things of an even minor mechanical basis baffle me. For instance, there’s a step ladder in my office as we speak, which I can put up, but I have the darndest time closing up. My wife could do so in seconds. I was at church last week, and we were moving tables from one room to another for an event. Neither the guy I was helping nor I could figure out how to collapse the legs. So we ended up rolling the table with the legs extended because it was just easier.

When I start thinking about holiday season planning

I have no holiday season plans. It’s all random. My wife talks to her mother or brother, and something develops, but an extended plan doesn’t exist.

Quirks & preferences I have about writing letters

I used to love writing letters. I still have a whole bunch of letters that I’ve received from when I went to college in the early 1970s until the end of the ’80s. In the later period, I have even the letters that I wrote back; I used carbon paper to keep the copy.

READING

If I had to limit my reading to only three genres, I’d pick…

History, historical fiction, and nerdy nonfiction books mostly about music

When joining teams, would I rather lead or follow

It depends on what the team is and how good the leadership is. I like to find my niche in most communities. I only want to lead it if it’s being run so badly that I feel compelled to take over.

What’s my dream concert, and who would be performing

I’m sure I don’t have a dream concert. Every concert I get to see always has something to recommend it.

The funniest, weirdest, silliest animal/pet I’ve ever met

I used to have a not-very-smart cat named Doris when I was in college. I used to say, “Doris, your mind is so porous.”

How has love changed for me over the years

We don’t have room for all that. Every relationship, romantic and otherwise, alters the trajectory.

A book, movie, or song that brings me a sense of peace

Every time I see a movie again, I see it differently. When I listen to music, I often hear it anew. I’m not sure “a sense of peace” applies. When I was involved in my Bible study, we read a lot of the Old Testament stuff, the war/ history section, which gave me no peace whatsoever.

NOMENCLATURE

Names I like but wouldn’t suit me.

I spent so much time establishing my name that picking another one doesn’t appeal to me. I spent time correcting the spelling of my first and last name; people put a D in Roger or an E at the end of Green. Several people would call me George because I think the letters in Roger and George are not dissimilar.

What’s a part of myself I’m still working to understand

Finding the balance between doing good for society and caring for myself remains challenging.

Something I love about myself today

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s my power of observation of some mundane things. For instance, a few weeks ago, I was walking home. There’s a police station about a block and a half from my house, and a cop car was pulling out of the parking space and driving down the road. It was dusk, and I could barely see the vehicle, so I flagged the car down and told the driver to turn on his lights.

Names: changing, remembering

Archibald Leach

I’ve been thinking about names a lot. In my Bible reading, God’s often renaming people. “Abram, you’re now Abraham.”
“But, God, why would you make my name longer? Won’t take up more papyrus when people write about me in a few millennia?”
“Abraham, I created papyrus. Don’t sweat it.”

And when the Holy Spirit – ah – puts Mary with child, will she and Joseph have any say in the naming? They will not. Some angel shows up and says, “Mary, you’re gonna conceive, give birth to a son, and you’re gonna call him Jesus.” Joseph and Mary were thinking, “But we have no one named Jesus in our families.” They didn’t say this aloud, of course, because when angels show up unexpectedly, you tend to keep some of your thoughts to yourself.

The idea of changing one’s name is an old one. Popes always do that. I have no idea who Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin was, but I’m familiar with George Sand. Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Dr. Seuss, John le Carré are all familiar noms de plume.

I’m fine with people changing their names when it’s their choice. Actors have been doing it forever. I used to be really good at remembering that trivia. Maurice Micklewhite? Michael Caine. Archibald Leach turned out to be Cary Grant at least five times in Jeopardy! clues. Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson. Would John Wayne be JOHN WAYNE if he were billed as Marion Morrison?

George Terebeychuk, a Ukrainian immigrant in Sudbury, ON Canada, changed his surname to Trebek, as his cousin Mike had done. George was Alex Trebek’s dad.

He’ll be back

Still, I was oddly pleased when a bodybuilder named Arnold Schwa…something-or-other decided to keep his moniker, which the so-called tastemakers thought was career-killing. Schwarzenegger, that’s it. According to Box Office Mojo, films in which he has acted “have grossed a total of more than $1.7 billion within the United States, and a total of $4.0 billion worldwide.”

I recall real antipathy in the 1960s when a heavyweight boxer changed his name to Muhammad Ali. He may have been revered upon further reflection, but in the day, some of his opponents would taunt him with “Clay! Clay!”

One of the terrible things that happened to enslaved people is that they lost their names. Likewise, indigenous people from the Americas to Australia experienced intruders who thought they needed a change in order to make it “easier.” Easier for whom?

Lots of people’s names were changed because of bad transcription, or willful changes at Ellis Island. Conversely, my Nordic ex took back her family name.

Steve?

I’m rather bad with names. I am of the opinion that everyone should have name tags. This is especially true when almost everyone is wearing a mask. The last time I watched Grey’s Anatomy, the doctors wore picture IDs so you could tell who the heck was treating you under all that PPE. I could never be a teacher, learning new names every year.

Some folks are great with names. Former US Senator and basketball star Bill Bradley would go on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He’d meet the audience before the show and share all of their names. Likewise, my former Congressman Matt McHugh was astonishingly good at remembering not only people’s names but the names of their spouses and children.

The Name Game -Shirley Ellis
The Name of the Game – ABBA
You Know My Name – The Beatles (Anthology 3)

G is for Green as a surname (ABCW)

“a medium light hue of greenish gray similar to asparagus, but lighter”

When Green is your last name, you have heard every joke there is about it. “Mr. Green Jeans,” a character from the Captain Kangaroo children’s show, played by Hugh “Lumpy” Brannum, when I was growing up. Green tambourine, a song by the Lemon Pipers, a #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for one week in early February, 1968. “Green, green jelly bean,” whatever THAT is, and others too mundane to repeat.

Kermit the Frog was right: it’s not that easy bein’ Green. “It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things.”

So when my wife and I were thinking about first names for our now-teenager, among the MANY rules I had was that it could NOT be a SHADE of Green. And there are quite a few of them.

Hunter Green – “a color that is a representation of the color worn by hunters in the 19th century” – terribly out of date, though in fact that there are at least three prominent people named Hunter Greene

Kelly Green – “the name derives from the fact that the surname Kelly, as well as the color green, are both popular in Ireland” – Besides being gender non-specific, my hangup at the time, the Kelly Song from the TV show Cheers was rattling around in my head

Laurel Green -“a medium light hue of greenish gray similar to asparagus, but lighter” – I’m not that fond of asparagus.

Olive Green – “the shade of dark yellow-green found on green olives. It has been commonly used by militaries around the world as a color for uniforms and equipment.” Give peace a chance. Moreover, Olive Oyl is Popeye’s lanky girlfriend.

Paris Green – ranges from pale and vivid blue green to deeper true green. It comes from the inorganic compound copper (II) acetoarsenite and was once a popular pigment in artists’ paints”

For ABC Wednesday

So You’ve Forgotten Someone’s Name at a Party

It is a “particularly elegant solution, because now you will never have to remember another name ever again.”

So You’ve Forgotten Someone’s Name at a Party is a purported humorous article in the New Yorker. It is actually my life.

“You’ve met four times. They definitely know your name. And yet . . . you still can’t remember theirs. Jamie? Janie? Or maybe it’s something crazy, like Beth. Whatever they call themselves, you’re ten minutes into the conversation, and at this point it would be rude to ask.”

It happens to me ALL the time. And I’ve done all those “how to remember names at a party” tricks , such as repeating their names as often as possible without being obnoxious. “Well, Sarah, I grew up in Binghamton…” It doesn’t work consistently well.

If I meet six people, it’ll usually work for the first and second. Maybe the third. But by the fourth, the second person’s name is gone. Yet I’ll recall details about them. “So when did you get your teaching degree?”

The article suggests these solutions: “Die.” Well, that seems extreme. It’s not that I haven’t said, “I just want to die,” but I didn’t mean that LITERALLY. You know LITERALLY literally.

“Build a Time Machine, Go Back to the Moment They Were Born, and Name Them Something Easier to Remember.” I’ve been wary of interfering with the space-time continuum ever since I saw the ill effects on some Star Trek episode. I change their name, they’re mortified by it, and they never go on to win a Nobel Prize in Physics. I just can’t bear that responsibility.

“Start Mimicking Them and Get So Good at It, Others Accidentally Start Calling You by Their Name.” Given all my fine qualities, I’m surprising not good at this. Besides it’s more rude than I choose to be.

“Persistently Call Them a New Name Until They Have No Choice But to Accept It As Truth.” As a librarian, I am keenly aware of false news, and I shall NOT be a purveyor of same!

“Pay an Arsonist to Set Fire to the Party.” Seem extreme. Well, I won’t do that if I’m otherwise having a good time. I don’t get out that much.

“Say Every Name You Can Think of Until They Respond to One.” I’m not going to add MORE stress, thank you.

“Draw a Scar on Your Head and Say You Lost the Part of Your Brain That Remembers Names in a Motorcycle Accident.” Mine would be a bicycle accident, but as the writer suggests, it is a “particularly elegant solution, because now you will never have to remember another name ever again.”

“Stage a Robbery to Gain Access to Their Wallet and Identification Cards.” Again, too much work; I guess I don’t hang out with the right crowd.

“Ask Another Friend What the Person’s Name Is.” That I’ll do, with increasing frequency.

Of course my real solution is that everyone needs to wear name tags, with at least 27-point font. That’s a minimum.

Names not the same, state to state

Ariza; Zyquavious; Kinnick; Khodee; Hudaifa; Petie; Autzen; Neyland; Korver (52 of 90).

There’s this website to which I subscribe, before it became a paid site. A recent email reads:

“Since 2010, 71% of babies named ‘Morrissey’ have been born in California (Californians really love the Smiths). Over the same period, 62 of the 99 babies born ‘Krymson’ entered the world in Alabama (where delivery rooms echo with shouts of ‘Roll Tide!’).

“These findings come to us through a rabbit hole of a query, which scours the latest Social Security Administration data for names where more than 50% of births are from a given state. Want to know which baby names are most characteristic of your state?”

There are an amazing 263 names for which at least half the people so named in the country were from the Empire State. Forty-eight names ONLY show up in New York, such as Trany (89 times) and Ruchel (82). Then there are those names that predominate here, such as Frimet (116 out of 118), Brucha (114 of 116), and Chany (337 of 344).

Other large absolute numbers: Malky (603 of 635), Gitty (714 of 805), Faigy (668 of 754), Raizy (556 of 628), and Yakov (548 of 707).

I figured California might have a lot of qualifying names; there were 63. It had eight names only found in the Golden State, including all seven of the people named Hovik. Also Hayk(85 of 100), Narek (111 of 153), Armen (108 of 174), and Curren (107 of 208).

Hawaii has 33 names where it predominates, including all 8 folks named Kiai and Kuhao, 31 of the 34 people named Hilinai. Mahina (85 of 143) and Nainoa (87 of 126) are well represented.

All 6 persons named Sanjuanita are in Texas, with a total of 28 names on the list. Other names specific to the Lone Star State: Brazos (89 of 98), Kinsler (181 of 247), Roel (252 of 369), and Debanhi (124 of 202).

Pennsylvania has 8 names listed, including Khayr (all 5), Coopar (13 of 14), and the distinctly Amish name Benuel (95 of 136).

All the 6 New Jersey names listed have between 50.5% and 57.6% of the country, including Brocha (74 of 134), Avrohom (344 of 663), and Binyomin (133 of 263).

The 5 Illinois names noted are Szymon (79 of 113), Augustas (5 of 8), Oliwia (44 of 82), Zuzanna (112 of 219), and
Kacper (165 of 325).

Two of the four Florida names are very similar: Dawens (6 of 7), Juvens (11 of 14), Marvens (84 of 118) and Marvins (10 of 19).

The three names from Louisiana: Jamyri (all 6), Jarden (5 of 8), and Amyri (44 of 82).

Massachusetts prefers Joaolucas (6 of 8) and Mariaeduarda (37 of 69).

These states had only one special name each. Arizona – Ariza (191 of 231); Georgia – Zyquavious (6 of 10); Iowa -Kinnick (202 of 257); Maryland – Khodee (5 of 8); Minnesota – Hudaifa (5 of 5); Missouri – Petie (5 of 5); Oregon -Autzen (6 of 8); Tennessee – Neyland (151 of 192); Utah – Korver (52 of 90).

Why I find this fascinating, besides the fact that the information exists at all, is that it is a reflection of the familial, ethic and social fabric of a given location.

The database also can track the most gender-neutral name of the decade. With Rooney, a baby with this name is only 0.29% more likely to be a baby girl than a baby boy. Other gender-neutral names include Clarke, Amory, and Cypress.