Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Names

I love names - weird, quirky, funny, and plain bizarre. In fact I used to resent my name. Jennifer is so ordinary. And rarely did anyone in Wisconsin spell "Hibbard" right. I was always transformed into Hubbard (forced relations: "Old Mother" with the cupboard) or Hibbert.

I would like to add that I've never met a Hubbard or a Hibbert, so I don't know why Wisconsinites insisted on changing my name to either one of them.

Today while organizing the annual report and logging in annual meeting sponsorships I ran into two fabulous names:

Krista Pickle
Neil Grabowski

How great is the name Grabowski? Great in the sense of: it's really funny and I'm glad it's not my name.

And there's something about the perky name "Krista" with the last name "Pickle." She should be a cartoon character ....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find it highly offensive that you are making light of traditional Jewish names in this fashion.

Do you know who else made fun of Jewish names? Hitler, that's who.

Kelly said...

I went to school with Grabowski's. Catholic school. It's Polish, and relatively common, especially when you live in Western PA.

But man, I wish my last name were pickle.

Knittyjen said...

I went to school with plenty of -ski names (lots of Polish in Wisconsin too ... hence our fondness for the Polka) but I never heard Grabowski. The other really common trend is names starting with "van." The most outrageous being: "Vandenlangenberg"

Knittyjen said...

Oh, and I also had friends whose last name was - and still is, I suppose - Sobiesczyk ... a name to strike fear in the hearts of substitute teachers everywhere as they take roll call.