What's In A Name?

Vintage Old School

Gold Member
Leland Sklar on his YouTube channel mentioned an interesting story the other day about individuals with strong names: Thurl Ravenscroft (actor, voice actor, singer), Gray Baskerville (legendary hot rodder), and Basil Rathbone (Shakespearean actor). That got me to thinking.

So if you could choose a new name for yourself what would it be and why? Or if you have a nickname or stage name--or you want one--what's the story behind it?

I was born with a hereditary bone deformity with my right foot pointing backwards at the 5 o'clock position. The doctors told my parents that I would never be able to walk without braces and some sort of physical assistance for the remainder of my life. Fortunately my parents never told me any of this and I started walking at a normal age. This was long before technical advances in surgery so I had to wear metal leg braces at night (think young Forrest Gump) to pull my right foot towards a normal position. I had to wear orthotic Wingtip shoes until I was 14-years-old before I was allowed to wear normal street shoes. All this to say I didn't have an athletic bone in my body and I was the only kid in school that had a legitimate doctor's note prohibiting me from playing sports. The way I'm wired I was never really into sports anyway so I never got around to understanding the fundamentals of different sports.

Fast forward to 2000, my youngest daughter is in her first year of Peewee Co-ed Soccer. The team coach called me right before practice one day saying he couldn't make it and would I mind putting the kids through drills, plays and a practice game. Sheer terror enveloped me. I didn't have any clue whatsoever to do. After "drilling" the kids and bluffing my way through practice one of the young boys ran up to me as we're exiting the field and said "Coach Doug, you're the best coach ever!" Now if there are two words in the English language that should never be used together in the same sentence it's Coach . . . Doug. My family and close friends from time to time will call me Coach Doug to remind me that it may be the greatest title ever bestowed upon me.
 
When I was in juvie, during my high school years, I got the nickname Flower Power, because I looked like an effeminate hippie, but none of the tough looking kids could take me down.
 
When I moved to Florida I got together with a bunch of guys pier fishing and there were three or four of us named John or Johnny, so I chose Johnny G. Last initial . It became G-Man, G-Money, G, and a few others. I coached swimming for many years, and was Coach, or Coach Johhny, but nothing too exciting.
 
I was called wraub bass a lot in the 90s, because of that It Takes Two song, which is weird 'cuz I'm really more of a DJ E-Z Rock kinda guy.

True story.
 
I've been called Mr. Bill a lot but it's Bell-just an A in there. Girls would call me Wally in high school. Not after Wally Clever (I wish) but Wally Gator the cartoon character. But back then I was still a tadpole so hadn't undergone metamorphosis to the butterfly I am now ROFL. My middle name is "Chandler" which sounds "sophisticated" so sure as hell I can't go by my middle name. My wife goes by her middle name. My Grandfather had three names Charles Richard Furman Beall. I'm not sure what people called him but my Dad's bro was a junior and he went by Richard. My Mom's brother's name is Richard but he went by "Dick" which TBH was really appropriate-he really was Dick and not a Richard-if you know what I mean. I went by Arthur all my life till working on MS people nicknamed me Art. So everyone in hometown and family still calls me Arthur-everywhere else Art. My wife calls me Art. I call myself GetAgrippa-thats a damn fine name.
 

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So Coach Doug...

What would choose as your new name?

If I would have remembered about the name Phineas when my son was born, he would have been a Phineas.

Who here likes their own name? Lawrence Leslie Hinkel is mine. It's just all wrong for me ha ha.

OK you can stop laughing soon.
 
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Lawrence leslie Hinkle sounds more like a scientist working on the cure for cancer....how could you not like that!. I was in a club years! ago playing in a band when out of nowhere friends I had drove up to catch a set. Jerry walks in and yells Danny! Diamond!. I've been that ever since.
 
So Coach Doug...

What would choose as your new name?

That's a good question. I'll have to give that some serious thought. Obscurity suits me well, so my given name has always fit that bill.

I do know of a location sound mixer in the film industry who legally changed just his first name to Senator. He claims he gets seated quickly and receives better service at restaurants.
 
That does it, I'm changing my name to Senator Lieutenant-General Duke King.

That's a good question. I'll have to give that some serious thought. Obscurity suits me well, so my given name has always fit that bill.

I do know of a location sound mixer in the film industry who legally changed just his first name to Senator. He claims he gets seated quickly and receives better service at restaurants.
 
My grandfather, a coal miner, who passed in 1965...he was born in the late 1890's and dirt poor. Daniel Webster Hinkel.

Yet he felt it was important enough to get the spelling of his name legally changed from Hinkle to Hinkel.

I never understood why he would want to do that.

The only thing I could come up with is that he's pure German and the way our name is said....to him didn't match the way it was spelled.

I can only imagine at how much it gnawed at him before he had to do something about it.

Either that, or some other guy named Hinkle stole his gal

One of those.
 
so my family is very Swedish/Scandinavian, and I was almost named Per Frederik Swanson...but my dad also really wanted me to be a "third", so they flipped a coin, and I got James Alec Swanson III.

when i was real young, the tv show Emergency was my world, and in 1st and 2nd grade I was always Roy DeSoto...I even signed all of my school papers "Roy D"....the teachers just knew who I was

In high school, I was Sven for a while, but I got a job working at a local diner as a cook, and ended up being The Swedish Chef...

in hockey I was called "Stinky" or "Barf" because i never washed my gear, and opponents did not like to be around me in the crease (I played D and RW)

I still sometimes wish I had a name that more directly reflected my heritage, but it was cool to have my current name at formal occasions, like graduations. mom always just said to use the ø when I wrote my last name...Swansøn...

In high school, my freinds had a "joke" band called Stumpy Smalls and The Elektrik No Rhythm Band, and i have always thought that Stumpy Smalls would be a great stage name
 
My ancestry is well documented, an ancestor did a family history dating from around the mid-1700s up to 1950 or so, iirc.

It's kind of a boring read, no sword fights or duels, as I recall.
 
My grandfather, a coal miner, who passed in 1965...he was born in the late 1890's and dirt poor. Daniel Webster Hinkel.

Yet he felt it was important enough to get the spelling of his name legally changed from Hinkle to Hinkel.

I never understood why he would want to do that.

The only thing I could come up with is that he's pure German and the way our name is said....to him didn't match the way it was spelled.

I can only imagine at how much it gnawed at him before he had to do something about it.

Either that, or some other guy named Hinkle stole his gal

One of those.

The change could have been done by immigration.
When my great grandfather came to the US they dropped the "a" in my last name "for ease of spelling," disregarding how my last name is spelled and pronounced. It would have made more sense to change the last half of my last name to "cloud" because thats how it's pronounced in the US.

The closest I've ever come to a nickname is "Highlander" due to my last name, but it doesn't stick for very long. My bass player has the same last name so it's confusing when used around the two of us. He's also the first person I've met with the same last name that isn't directly related to me.
 
In highschool my bandmates called me Ludwig VonMoodenheimer, and variously, Mood, Moodeye, Lud & Moodman.
Looking through a book of names, my wife came up with these actual names, Boyne Doyne for a boys name. Good thing we never had kids.
I had uncles named Judge, Perk, Shorty, Red, Sprout, Dutch, Jake and a step-grandfather named General Grant Riddle.
My dad was Ira, no middle name, that'd be easy to sign, they called him Ike.
 
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange

People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down

People are strange...as am I!;)
 
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