Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names...

I am sure you have come across strange given names. Sometimes it's no one's fault. For example, Arthur is a very nice English name. But there's this story about a doting Chinese-speaking grandma   who called her grandson "Ah Teur" which means "pig" in Hokkien. Solomon is another nice name but when shortened to "Solo" and pronounced as "Saw Loh", it means, in Cantonese, someone who's not very bright. That's ironic, given the Biblical character's renowned wisdom. So, how did I get started on this name thing here?

Well, New Zealand has a list of banned names and it has just updated that list:

http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/01/new-zealand-reveals-new-list-of-banned-names-for-babies-3709255/

Among the banned names in the list:

Anal
. (yup, that's it... just a full stop!)
/ (one couple wanted to use the back slash to separate two names!)
Lucifer
4Real
Majesty
Queen Victoria
Knight

The story above also notes that:

"In 2008, New Zealand’s family court ordered a nine-year-old girl, whose parents had called her Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii, should have her name changed. Judge Rob Murfitt said it was embarrassing and ‘makes a fool of the child’.

He also criticised parents who gave their children bizarre names, citing examples such as ‘Number 16 Bus Shelter’, ‘Midnight Chardonnay’ and twins called ‘Benson’ and ‘Hedges’.

New Zealand is not the only country to ban parents from giving their children bizarre names. Sweden also has a similar law and has blocked attempts to name children Superman, Metallica and Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116."

Oh, about super hero names... there is a Singaporean with the name Batman. And his dad too has an interesting name in light of the young man's name (many Muslims in this region do not have surnames but use the name-form "single given name bin father's given name). Check it out here in this link titled "10 Strangest Names EVAR!"...

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/05/19/10-strangest-names-evar/

All this reminds me of that Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOHPuY88Ry4

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Bet you didn't know that there's such a thing as...

Frotteurism

Pocket Square

Well, I didn't know what "pocket square" meant when I read this...

So I Googled and learnt that it's the handkerchief tucked into and sticking out of a jacket's breast pocket:

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An ad that stole the show!

Finally, I thought this was a very creative idea below. Thieves had stolen five tonnes of Nutella. So what did the company do? Cry over spilled milk (chocolate)? Nope, it put out this unusual ad: