The Name Game: Crazy Things Afoot!

I got a phone call earlier this week from Yolanda. She works at the surgery clinic at Evans and when she announced herself, I had a heart-stopping moment of, 'Did I miss an appointment? How could I have an appointment there? You get into big trouble with these people if you miss an appointment!'

She continued on to explain that she was calling for Dr. Mayfield to give me, "Men's names from songs. . . He said you would understand."

I burst out laughing and told her, "I'm so sorry you've gotten roped into this, Yolanda!"

She said, "I asked him if I had research I wanted him to do on the phone for me, would he do it? And he said 'sure.'"

Heh heh. Sure. . .

So I am crediting these to both Mayfield and Yolanda, which makes her, officially, part of The Team.

"Paul & Silas" by the Stoneypoint Quartet.

Lazarus - from "Po' Lazarus" by James Carter & The Prisoners, off the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. (I asked Yolanda, "This is a good one! Have you ever seen the movie?" She hadn't. Was it funny? "Well, it's funny, but it's quirky-funny," and she said, "I hate quirky.")

Mayfield also tried to submit "LeRoy," but we already have it on the list.

I thanked Yolanda extensively. Told her I'd make her famous on my blog. Welcomed her, officially, to The Team. Glad to have you aboard, Yolanda!

But this wasn't the only crazy entry of the week. I also received a piece of mail from Mrs. Queeney. Enclosed was a print-out of the lyrics of an Irish song and an accompanying note:

"Dear Amy!

[yes, thank you for using the correct punctuation mark with my name]

I don't know why this wouldn't e-mail. I was no where near Mary Jean's disturbed Indians

[This is a reference to my sister's bizarre electronic issues in her home, which she blames on on, well, disturbed Indians]

Maybe we have angry Confederate soldiers.

Anyway, if you let mentioned names rather than only title songs in, here's another 32 men. Yes, it's patriarchal, but what you expect--Irishmen!"

32 names????? Seriously???? In one song???

She's serious.

Here's the link to it: http://www.irishsongs.com/lyrics.php?Action=view&Song_id=94

And here are the relevant lyrics--the last stanza that's a great big pinata of men's names raining down on our heads:

Meet Branigan, Flannigan, Milligan, Gilligan, Duffy, McGuffy, Malachy, Malone
Rafferty, Lafferty, Donnely, Connely, Dooley, O'Hooley, Muldowney, Mahone,
Madigan, Cadigan, Lanahan, Flanahan, Hagen, O'Fagan, O'Houlihan, Flynn,
Shanahan, Manahan, Hogarty, Fogarty, Kelly, O'Kelly, McGuinness, MaGinn...CHORUS


3 technical matters:

1. We have not been insisting on title songs only, so these are admissible in this regard.

2. While we reject the "name checks" found in rap and r&b and boy band songs, these are name checks of band members. So they are also in.

3. This letter represents the first fiscal investment in The Big "C," --that of the $0.44 for postage. (Maybe a little less, because she used a Forever stamp.)

Way to go, MLQ! I appreciate the vote of confidence that money can cast in a voice like no other!

Those familiar with the whole history of the Name Game will recall that I have often called out my friend Nick for not getting to the names from ABBA songs first. This, finally provoked a response:

"Look, sorry to say, but the movie Mamma Mia! kind of required that I distance myself from ABBA for awhile. Not out of pride (it has never been -- and never will be -- cool to like ABBA). But what I love -- really LOVE -- about that group was was the immaculate production quality. They routinely layered Agnetha's soprano and Frida's mezzo-soprano over each other to perfection -- with some ear-tingling instrumentation thrown in.

"That movie killed that -- and yet people apparently liked it. Astounding to me because it devalued the real genius (yes, genius) of that group. I was so annoyed -- that I engaged in some subconscious backlash. Maybe that a bunch of crap -- or maybe it a decent explanation of why no ABBA songs have come to mind during this little lyrical exploration.

[AP: "Little lyrical exploration"??? Back away, man. Back. Slowly. Away.]

"So this is not out of passion -- it's because I'm tired of being called out -- that I actually made myself think about this in order to give you two additional ABBA submissions:

Sam ("Hole in Your Soul")
Jerry ("Hole in Your Soul")

And here are a few more names for the list (more challenging -- and fun! -- now considering that many pop into my mind are duplicates):

Luka ("Luka" by Suzanne Vega)

[AP: But isn't "Luka" a woman's name? I thought this was a song about a woman who is being abused. . .]

Gabriel ("Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn)
Ulysses ("Ulysses" by Franz Ferdinand)
Jonas and Ezekial ("Jonas and Ezekial" by Indigo Girls)
Marvin ("Nightshift" by The Commodores)
Duke ("Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder)
Alex ("Alex Chilton" by The Replacements")
Tim ("Tim McGraw" by Taylor Swift)
Brian ("Brian Wilson" by Barnaked Ladies)

And if we're including Napoleon (from "Waterloo") and "Galileo", we should also include Rasputin (from "Closer to Fine" by Indigo Girls)."

Whoah! Nick smoked that. Very impressive foray.

When I told him that I would make him famous on the blog, he was quick to give credit for the "it will never be cool to like ABBA" line to another writer, Adam B. Vary. Admirable and honorable.

Following our vote that admitted TV theme songs, we had a flurry of activity in the Comments section:

Janice gave us

George
Elroy both from the Jetsons

She asks about Scooby-Doo, but this doesn't seem to be a man's name used to describe a dog, but a dog's name used to describe a dog who is oddly like a man. I don't think we can allow it.

Carlo got back in the game after nursing his wounds over the name-check submissions being thrown out and gave us Gilligan and then Robin, from the Dukes of Hazzard song.

Also from Janice, Manny, from Handy and Manny. (I've never heard of this.)

And Max, from Max and Ruby.

(Gemma and Josh love this cartoon! Ruby is the older sister and Max is the younger brother. They are both rabbits and, amazingly, Gemma sees a lot of herself in Ruby and Joshua laughs and laughs at Max's antics.)

There was some controversy as Mary Jean tried to submit "Mike" from the Brady Bunch. Mike isn't in that song. But "a man named Brady" is--and Janice wonders if this is admissible because Brady can be a first name.

We allowed Thompson last week, though it was referring to a weapon, because it can be a first name. So I don't see why Brady should be excluded.

Then MJ's son, Joe, came up with Phinnas and Pherb. I was thinking, "Thanks for playing, young one, but can we be a little serious here?"

But Janice chimed in that these characters--though weird--are little boys. So. OK.

"Flow Rider"? This is not a man's name. That'd be like including "Spider Man" or "Aqua Boy."

Sponge Bob and Square Pants, also submitted. But we already have 'Bob' on the list and "Square Pants," again--not a man's name.

There are plenty of other TV theme songs to mine, though. Let's stay the course.

Finally, Amanda, new to all of you, old friend from Korea, came up with several new hits--

Leonard, Leonid, Lenny, Lester -- all from REM's End of the World as We Know It. We already had "Lester" from Dad's Big Band submission, I just thought it was interesting that a name like "Lester" could show up twice.

Also,

Ronnie from Escape Club's "Wild West," and

Victor from Billy Joel's "Leningrad."

Welcome aboard, Amanda. Way to make a splash!

I don't even know how many new names this is. About 60, I think.

60 Names!? Ugh. But Laura is going to tag team this one for me (again), and do some fancy excel-ing to get the list ready. Stay tuned for her update posted at the end here.

We've broken 100. Never thought it could be done. And there are a lot more Name Game Fridays ahead of us, so keep them coming.

From Laura - here you go:

1. Abie
2. Adam
3. Al (taken as different from Albert, because it might be short for Alan)
4. Albert
5. Alex
6. Amadeus
7. Andy
8. Anthony
9. Ben(nie)
10. Bernie
11. Bill(y)
12. Bob(by)
13. Brady
14. Branigan
15. Brian
16. Buddy
17. Cadigan
18. Cain
19. Casper
20. Charles(Charlie)
21. Chester
22. Chris
23. Connely
24. Daniel
25. Davy
26. Dean
27. Donnely
28. Dooley
29. Duffy
30. Duke
31. Earl
32. Eddie
33. Eli
34. ElRoy
35. Elvis
36. Ezekiel
37. Felix
38. Fernando
39. Flanahan
40. Flannigan
41. Flynn
42. Fogarty
43. Frank
44. Fred
45. Gabriel
46. Galileo
47. Gene
48. George
49. Gilligan
50. Gus
51. Hagen
52. Harry
53. Henry
54. Hogarty
55. Jack
56. Jeremiah
57. Jeremy
58. Jerry
59. Jessie
60. Jesus
61. Jim/James
62. Joey
63. John(ny)
64. Jonas
65. Jose
66. Juan
67. Jude
68. Julio
69. Kelly
70. Kenneth
71. Lafferty
72. Lanahan
73. Lawrence
74. Lazarus
75. Lee
76. Lenny
77. Leonard
78. Leonid
79. Leroy
80. Lester
81. Levon
82. Lloyd
83. Louie
84. Luke
85. Madigan
86. MaGinn
87. Mahone
88. Malachy
89. Malcolm
90. Malone
91. Manahan
92. Manny
93. Marciano
94. Marty
95. Marvin
96. Maurice
97. Max
98. McGuffy
99. McGuinness
100. Michael
101. Micky
102. Milligan
103. Monty
104. Moses
105. Muldowney
106. Napoleon
107. O'Fagan
108. O'Hooley
109. O'Houlihan
110. O'Kelly
111. Oliver
112. Paul
113. Peter
114. Pherb
115. Phinnas
116. Rafferty
117. Rasputin
118. Rene
119. Richard
120. Ricky
121. Rico
122. Robin
123. Roland
124. Romeo
125. Ronnie
126. Roy
127. Sam
128. Shanahan
129. Silas
130. Stan
131. Sue
132. Thomson
133. Tim
134. Tom(my)
135. Tony
136. Ulysses
137. Victor
138. Vincent
139. Walter
140. Wayne
141. Whelan
142. Willie
143. Wyatt