Bad Names

We caught a commercial the other day that showed a supposedly real couple. Vicky and Courtney.

The man’s name was Courtney.

I haven’t heard that name often for a man.

“Courtney is a bad name for a man,” I said.

“That has to hurt coming from a ‘Clifford’,” my loving wife said.

Which got us thinking about names.

My grandfather, Clifford, had two brothers - Gordon and Seward.

I’m thinking I got the best of that trio.

Who would name their kid, ‘Seward’?

John Wayne’s real name was Marion, which is also pretty uncommon for a man.

“Did you hate being ‘Clifford’?” Kathy asked.

“No!” I said. “I liked my grandpa and I was glad to be named for him.

Of course, most people call me ‘Cliff’, but I also get a number of nicknames.

“Clavin”.

“Big Red Dog.”

“Sam isn’t happy with his name,” Kathy said. “Or he wasn’t when he was young. He couldn’t figure out why his name is ‘Salvatore’ and we call him ‘Sam.’”

“It’s an Italian thing,” I said.

“He knows that now, but some people also call him ‘Sal’ and he didn’t like that, but he’s getting used to it. What he really hates is his middle name.”

Which is ‘Gordon’.

He’s lucky that it isn’t ’Seward’.