h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Similar to the young "Master Bates", son of U.S. Bates in the Jackie Gleason - Richard Pryor comedy, The Toy.

i met a couple called Barry & Cheri Shari.

I have a similar story. I went to high school with a girl named Anita Harer. I went to my 10 year reunion this year to learn that she has since become Anita Weiner. All I could do was laugh at the poor girl. She did NOT make it to the reunion, however.

I have to mention (in the context of American versus British perceptions of what makes a word or name funny) the TV series "Mork and Mindy", which screened in Britain at tea-time on Sundays in the late seventies.

Mindy, who befriends hapless alien Mork (well, Robin Williams was born Scottish, so the USA must have been like Mars to him while he was growing up)in the city of Boulder, Colorado, has a landlord. Our British ears could not believe the name.

(NB - for "VV" below read "W". Dratted filter.)

Mr VVANKER.

What? Don't the Americans have our swear words? Don't they understand the meaning of the transitive verb "to vvank" or the implications of being called a vvanker?

Evidently not... but did I mention the Robin Williqams, being Scottish by birth, would know what a vvanker was, and from the way he and Mindy repeatedly intone the word with brie and joy and relish, he evidently tipped off his co-star that the landlord character might as well have been called mr Jerk-Off or Mr Masturbator...

Granada eventually broadcast a warning before screening the show....

Robin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA 21 July, 1951.

No kidding? I heard it was Edinburgh, and his family moved to the USA when he was about eight - also that he based Mrs Doubtfire on an elderly Scottish relative!

Hmm... The Guide entry A14449115 says "Robin McLaurin Williams was born on 21 July, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, of Welsh and Scottish ancestry". so at least I waasn't imagining the Scottish bit... but I'm sure he was born a kiltie or at the very least lived there for a while as a kid.

While not quite as bad as some of the married names here described, I did once know a woman by the name of Helena Hellendorn. She had married Mr Hellendorn some years previously.


Geggs

There are always the problems of hyphenation. Being somewhat of a feminist, my mother wanted to hypenate her name with my father's when they married. However, they decided Dix-Fox was perhaps not a great combination!

My sister is getting married, and her name will be Paige Turner.