Speaking of names

[dr_whom]

So there's this old joke where a guy comes before a judge with a petition to change his name, and the judge says, "Well, what's your name now?" And the guy says, like, "George Schnitzelpusskrankengescheitmeyer." So the judge says, "I can see why you want to change it. What do you want to change it to?" And the guy says "Walter Schnitzelpusskrankengescheitmeyer."

I have to imagine that something similar must have happened when the actor Mahershalalhashbaz Ali changed his name from Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore.

Comments

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it dropped him considerably backward in the alphabet!

[dr_whom]

…I think we might have different intuitions about which direction in the alphabet is "dropping"!

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

I meant "forward"! Why on earth did I say the exact opposite of what I meant to say?

It dropped him forward, so now his name is going to be the first thing anyone hears whenever the register is called, which will make his name all the more memorable.

[zdenka]

Oh my goodness. Mahershalalhashbaz was one of my favorite over-the-top Biblical names when I took a class on the Bible as Literature in high school. I didn't imagine anyone would actually use it in the modern day. If I recall correctly, it means "the spoil speeds, the prey hastes" and it's from the Book of Isaiah.

[(Anonymous)]

"Otto von Schnitzelpusskrankengescheitmeyer" is the Animaniacs' foil in the "Schnitzelbank (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WAb4K54W6M)" song.

[dr_whom]

I know; I picked it because it was the first incredibly long name to have to try and say that came to mind.

[inthelemonlight.livejournal.com]

(Marisa here, lurking around LJ while taking a break from coding all the things.)

I'm disappointed that I didn't recognise Otto's surname in print. Aww.

Jonathan Lethem tells a story about a neighbour he had while growing up whose surname was 'Hitler'. Obviously, this was unfortunate; and equally obviously, the guy decided he really needed to change his name already. Problem was that he changed it only slightly, and in the worst possible way: he added an S onto the beginning.