A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families

Children are rarely familiar with the names the LEGO company gives its various bricks and accessories. Giles Turnbull was delighted to find his son had his own terms for each piece. So he gathered more children, four in all, to find out what names they used, and assembled those names in a handy chart. Link -via Buzzfeeed
| Neatorama Shop » Science T-Shirts (Geektastic!) | |
| Something Somewhere Went Terribly Wrong | See more Science
T-Shirts » |
10 Bizarre Wine Brands

These are the kinds of wine that people buy just for the name. Are they good? Who knows? No one wants to open a bottle, they just want everyone to see the name on their wine shelf! The wine pictured was named (Oops) because it was made from grapes that had been mislabeled for years. Link -via Blame It On The Voices
Oddly Named Places

When you see a town like Tightwad, Missouri, you have to wonder how that ever came about.
This small town got its name from an incident in which a store owner cheated a postal worker by charging him an extra fifty cents for a better watermelon. Certainly they are much more hospitable these days, though it appears they all are still pretty tight with their money: none of the families counted in the 2006 census were living below the poverty line. And most of them keep their money in the Tightwad Bank.
Read about twenty other strangely-named places and the stories behind them. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Colorful Pub Signs
One of the charms of Britain is the array of friendly, locally owned neighborhood pubs and their interesting historic names.
Britain’s colourful pub signs speak volumes about the country’s equally colourful history, as well as depicting folklore, heraldry and social customs. Pubs were never named by accident and each sign invariably has a story behind it. The artwork on Britain’s pub signs is inspired by royalty and nobility, religion and the church, military heroes and battles, occupations and trades, myths and legends, sporting activities and pastimes, along with numerous other sources.
Read some of those stories at Dark Roasted Blend. Link
Kelly Hildebrandt and Kelly Hildebrandt
You are cordially invited to the wedding of Kelly Hildebrandt and Kelly Hildebrandt? You may not be personally invited, but it’s true that the two Kelly Hildebrandts are getting married. The female Hildebrandt is from Florida, and she fell in love with a guy in Texas with the same name!
“I was like, ‘I wonder if there’s any other Kelly Hildebrandts on Facebook’,” she explained. “So, I searched my own name and he’s the only one that came up. And actually, in the picture, he didn’t have his shirt on, and I’m like, ‘oh, he’s cute!’”
And the Kelly in Texas was also intrigued.
“She started off, ‘hey, I see we have the same name, and I thought it was kinda cool, so I wanted to say hi, I guess’. Lots of laughs,” he said.
Three weeks after their first online encounter, Kelly, the boy from Texas, decided to fly to south Florida, and see Kelly, the girl, in person.
The two will be wed in October. Link -via YesButNoButYes
| Neatorama Shop » Party Supplies | ||
See more Party
Supplies » |
||
Alan-Allan-Allen

Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss might be difficult. It was for me! You’ll be given ten well-known men, all with the same first or middle name. Do they spell it Alan, Allan, or Allen? I scored just 40%, and I thought I knew these guys! Link
10 People Who Gave Their Name To Food
Have you ever wondered who the Alfredo in Fettuccine Alfredo was? Or The Salisbury in Salisbury steak? Listverse has the stories of those whose names are left behind in the foods we eat.
Crêpes Suzette (thin pancakes covered with orange liqueur and sometimes set alight) were invented by the famous French chef Auguste Escoffier in honor of the renowned French actress (and Baroness) Suzanne Reichenberg (1853-1924). While this is the most likely origin of the dish (as Escoffier almost single-handedly invented modern French cuisine), other stories claim it was invented by a 15 year old assistant chef serving Queen Victoria’s son. This is most unlikely as an assistant chef would not have been given the chance to cook for royalty.
Link -via the Presurfer
Know What They Almost Called It?

Original names and working titles of movies, TV shows, companies, sports teams, and even people are often very different from what we know them as. If you read posts at mental_floss on a regular basis, you’ll know the answers to today’s Lunchtime Quiz, which asks you what earlier names these things had for a time. I scored 50%, which means I haven’t been reading as closely as I should. Or else my memory is going. Link
Make Yourself an NPR Name
Liana Maeby [pictured at left] is a blogger who’s fascinated by the complex and memorable names of the correspondents on National Public Radio: Renee Montagne, Korva Coleman, Lakshmi Singh, Sylvia Poggioli, Corey Flintoff. How cool would it be to have a name like that?
Liana and her boyfriend Eric decided to try it out by devising a formula for creating their own custom-designed NPR names. The rules are simple; here’s how it works:
"You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited."
So Liana is now Liarna Kassel, and Eric is Jeric Bath.
Lots of folks on Twitter devised funny NPR names for themselves, like Pamelda Fondo, Stefsan Swakopmund and Marmilyn Zug.
NPR’s Monkey See blog caught wind of the game and invited readers to leave their NPR names in the comments. 164 people did, but a lot of them just aren’t that good.
I’m convinced that Neatorama readers can come up with better NPR names. Wanna try?
From the Upcoming
ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.
Car Talk Staff Credits
Tom and Ray Magliozzi are the stars of NPR’s popular Car Talk, but they aren’t the only people who make the show what it is. The website gives credit to a huge and interestingly-named staff. For example:
Alternative Fuel Consultant Amanda Livering Cole
Anger Management Coach Kirsten Hollered
Auto Seat Tester Fitz Matush
Bail Bond Provider Freida Gogh
Business Forecaster Luigi Bord
Door-to-Door Sales Annie Von Holm
Parts Inventory Manager Wayne Debach
Receptionist Sedona Tush
Link -via Bits and Pieces
| Neatorama Shop » Scientists Do It ... T-Shirts | |
| Möbius Does It On The Same Side | See more Scientists
Do It T-Shirts » |
Marijuana Pepsi Jackson
You thought a boy named Sue would have to grow up strong and tough? Try overcoming life’s obstacles as a girl named Marijuana Pepsi Jackson! Ms. Sawyer (her married name) is a schoolteacher who had parents with a sense of humor.
Sawyer’s aunt, Mayetta Jackson of Chicago, clearly remembers when the name was picked in 1972. The newborn’s mother and father were products of the post-Woodstock era when reefer was rampant.
“And they would cool off with a Pepsi,” she said, which makes you think it’s lucky for Sawyer that it wasn’t Coke instead. “I thought it was crazy,” her aunt said about the name, “but they were such fun-loving people that it suited them.”
Ms. Sawyer’s story does have some elements of the Johnny Cash song.
She gives a surprising amount of credit to her mother for making her resilient and resourceful. “She instilled in me that fighting attitude – never take no, you can do anything,” Sawyer said.
By high school, her name was cool to many. “They were like, ‘Oh yeah. Man, I wish I had your name. I love that. I’m going to name my kid after you.’ I hear that so much and I go, Lord, please don’t do that to that child.”
(image credit: Jeffrey Phelps)
Origin of Hi-Tech Names
Rob Lammie of our pal mental_floss blog wrote a very nifty post about the origins of 8 tech names. For instance, ever wonder why it’s called a Tivo?
Can you imagine if, instead of “TiVo-ing” the latest episode of Lost, you were “Bongo-ing” it? “Bongo” and “Lasso” are just two of the 800 possible names the marketing folks kicked around before settling on TiVo. The final name was cobbled together from “TV” and the engineering acronym “I/O,” which stands for “input/output.” Little did they know their noun would become a verb and their oddly-named invention would forever change the way people watch television.
Previously on Neatorama: Evolution of Tech Logos
Most Unfortunate Names
Parents may think they are showing their sense of humor when they name their baby, but how would YOU like to go through life with a name like Terry Bull, Paige Turner, Justin Case, Barb Dwyer, or Anna Sasin? Those are some of the names of real people uncovered in Britain.
Retired airman Stan Still, 76, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said his name had been “a blooming millstone around my neck my entire life”.
“When I was in the RAF my commanding officer used to shout, ‘Stan Still, get a move on’ and roll about laughing,” he said.
“It got hugely boring after a while.”
The names were compiled through The Baby Website and through phone directories. There are more names in this story from the BBC. Link -via Buzzfeed
Boys With Unpopular Names More Likely to Commit Crimes
Beware of naming your baby boy Ivan, Malcolm, Alec or Ernest: you could be setting him up for a life of crime.
Two economics professors (inoffensively named David and Daniel) at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population, and came up with a popularity name index (PNI) for each name. They concluded that, regardless of race, boys with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity.
Their study was published in the January issue of Social Science Quarterly, and the publisher stated:
“adolescents with unpopular names may be more prone to crime because they are treated differently by their peers, making it more difficult for them to form relationships… Juveniles with unpopular names may also act out because they consciously or unconsciously dislike their names.”
From the Upcoming
ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.
Pet Names of the Year
PetFinder has posted their annual lists of the 10 most popular names for dogs and for cats. In addition, they have lists of the 10 most unusual pet names, and the 10 most unusual names for groups of pets. The most unusual individual names are:
1. Woe Izmee
2. Gwyneth Poultry (a duck)
3. SoSueMe
4. 54cent Swee’T
5. Iamaredneckwoman
6. Angry Chef Soup
7. Ms. Cornflake Especially
8. Bon Jo Flea
9. McLovin
10. Joe the Plumber
A shelter had a dog named Buck up for adoption and didn’t get any response. They changed his name to Joe the Plumber, and he had a new home in no time! Link -Thanks, Katy!
6 Weird Baby Names
Who said you have to be celebrity to name your kid something weird? Mental Floss has document 6 very weird names. Imagine being named Eclipse Glasses Banda or having a last name that means “pisses.” It happens, all over the world.













