The Name Game: Here Come the Girls!

"Are we really going to do this?"

Yes. We really are. And we're going to start with an e-mail from KQ:

"I have to admit, I was a bit rushed last week and one day I started to read your Name Game blog, got about a third of the way through and figured it wasn't anything new or pressing, and I'd just skip that one and catch up later."

[By which she means: it was way too long and boring, so she didn't read it. And I don't blame her. But I'm serious blogger, and that means writing the long, boring stuff when required.]

"Well, yesterday my mom called to have me walk her through sending you her list of names (hope it got to you in a readable format)"

[Her Mom is Mrs. Queeney, who did send the attachment, but it was NOT readable, so I'll be re-typing ONE HUNDRED names instead of copying them electronically. --Because she did send them on hard copy, making the capital investment in this project now 88 cents. I figure that Mrs. Queeney owes me something for the inconvenience, so I ripped off her title, "Here Come the Girls" and used it as my own.]

"and I thought, "Wait, we started the womens' names now? how could I have missed that?"

"Upon re-reading, to the end, the entry of that day last week I felt terribly guilty for having abandoned the cause. I stepped out of the race, and you can't do that so we can't either."

Yes, KQ. Exactly. I'm not sure how or when this thing became a metaphor, but it has and it is and we shall persevere.

Speaking of those who picked up on the metaphorical point, let me say that when I logged in the day after the last Name Game post and found Suzanne's 80 entries, and those of a few more who got right one it, I started to cry. I really did. And it's not just because I'm menopausal now and my hormones have declared an unbridled Senior Ditch kind of day.

So.

What are we looking at here?

First, a few more men's names:

from KQ: "Seamus" from Pink Floyd's song

From Mrs. Queeney: Stan, "The Ascent of Stan" (Upon checking, we already have "Stan")
"Mighty Quinn" (though I can't believe that didn't end up in that long Irish list. . .)
"Clyde" from "Bonnie and. . ."

My parents are in town and the OOO has failed to come up with the musical number Mrs. Queeney challenged him with. I'm not going to tell him, either. He'll have to pry that rusty trap open. . .

Emily gave us "Rudolph" from Reindeer fame. Huh! Right there in front of us this whole time. . .

And Amanda gave us "Jason," from a song titled "Birdhouse in Your Soul."

My brother--yes, I have a brother, though so far you've all only heard from various sisters--phoned in "Bad Bones Billy" from Springsteen's "Rosalita."

We've already got Billy, of course. And the judges are not taking names qualified as nicknames to be different submissions. Though we WILL take "Rosalita" for the women's list.

I mention this failed submission to the men's list only to point out that I'm NOT going to point out that my brother has a giant goose egg next to his name while all his sisters have faithfully posted numbers in the double digits. But, like I said, I'm not going to point that out.

Finally, I have a men's name to submit. Suzanne claimed a HER moment for not coming up with Don Quixote. I'm going to double down on that and point out that we then BOTH missed, in that theme song, the name "Sancho." DOH!!!

If you look on the left of the page in the labels, there is one titled "Name List: Men's" and one titled "Name List: Women's." That's where the complete list will be posted from now on because these lists will become too long to have up on one page that can be displayed.

And the men's list is now 202 names long.

One question for the judges came up: Are we taking instrumental songs that feature a name in the title but, obviously, no lyrics?

No.

And another timely clarification: Multiple spellings of the same name do not count as different names for the list. So all the Amy's, Aime's, Amee's, Aimee's, and Aymie's out there amount to one magnificent name for the list.

Now, if you peruse the comments section of the last Name Game post, you will find all the submissions so far, save Mrs. Queeney's list of 100, which are going to magically appear on the Name List and if you have any questions as to where they are from, you'll have to ask. But for the others, you can check the comments.

Let me also surmise here that Suzanne's list of 80, on which Sister #1, who has already excelled these into a sheet for me, commented, 'That woman is a nut," --came not from any kind of research, but from the top of Suzanne's head.

We are already so well past 200 submissions that I have no idea how many have been duplicated. Let me fiddle with the list here and get back to you. . .

Huh! A lot of duplicates. Not duplicate songs, but many, many names appear in more than one tune. Interesting. And a definite advantage for the men's names because a good number of them are probable one and onlies. (e.g "Shaugnessey"--come on. You're not gonna find that name in too many places. Or "Maurice." I mean, seriously.)

So our women's list now totals 182. That's a bang up start! Well done.

The judges had to make another ruling, by the way. What are we to do with names like "Peggy Sue." Count Peggy and Sue? Sure. Two names. But count it, also, as "Peggy Sue" and therefore different from "Peggy"?

Nope. Talk about leaving the door open to the Irish. . .

OK, team. 618 names to go. 9 weeks to find them.