What's in a name?

[Duck on Wheels]

Indeed, Mr. Silver!

I think one of the most unusual names I have come across was Mignon as in Filet Mignon! I don't really understand why parents name children the same first and last names like Richard (D*ck) Richards or Sam Samuels. I have known a couple of those.

I think Mignon is actually a fairly common girls' name in France. The cross-cultural problem again. I struggled with it when naming my own kids. Some names that I liked in Norwegian simply would not do for a kid who would also be crossing the Atlantic a lot -- like Roar (pronounced roo-ahr), or Just (pronounced yoost). My daughter wound up being named after my grandfather because his middle name is a girls' name in Norwegian. So we kinda held our breath when she signed up for a dorm in college in the States -- what gender roommate would they assign to her?