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With the removal of the Confederate battle flag from South Carolina’s State House grounds, the subject of the Civil War and the Confederacy has recently been in the news. No matter where you side on the issue, there’s no denying that the Confederate army was chock full of funny names, from Jubal Early to Bushrod Johnson to Vestal Coffin. Fabulous!

But today’s funny-named fellow of note is Moxley Sorrel, Brigadier-General in the “Provisional Army of the Confederate States,” aka The South. Born to one of Savannah’s wealthiest businessman and a mother from the famous Virginia Moxleys, Gilbert Moxley Sorrel was destined to shine. His childhood home was called the Sorrel Weed House (not a drug den). In fact, I do declare that it is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the entire United States. And to be clear–sorrel is a perennial herb. The tart, lemony flavor can be used for salads, soups, and…

They’re Pinky and the Brain

Yes, Pinky and the Brain

One is a genius, the other’s insane.

Such go the lyrics of the 1990s animated series Pinky and the Brain, about two cage-sharing laboratory mice. Today’s funny-named couple are not mice indeed, but they could be deemed Plinky and the Brawn. Yep, that there is Plinky–the one in the skirt–and you know who the Brawn is. And I don’t mean LeBron.

http://centerofthewest.org/

Actually, the Brawn was a native Texan named Adolph (before Adolf oozed of evil connotations) Toepperwein (before Tupperware oozed of delightful connotations), a rifle-doting trick shooter who toured the vaudeville circuit at the turn of the century (not this one; the one before). On a visit to a Winchester Repeating Arms Company, he met an employee named Elizabeth Servaty. He said, “Hey, nineteen” (her age at the time) and fell immediately in love with her.

In 1903, Ad took…

In February, we profiled interesting world leaders, including Canaan Sodindo Banana, former president of Zimbabwe. So it should come as no surprise that the deliciously fun-sounding Zimbabwe should offer up another funny-named leader. Today we spotlight Ndabaningi Sithole (pronounced nda-va-nin-gee sitt-o-le), who in 1963 founded the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), a militant organization that opposed the Rhodesian government.

http://polarch.sas.ac.uk/

It is because of people like him that Rhodesia no longer exists and is now known as Zimbabwe. It’s kind of like that old They Might Be Giants’ song Istanbul (not Constantinople).

Ndabaningi Sithole was born on July 21, 1920, in the rural area of Nyamanandhlovu. He was raised in a pagan household and spent his childhood in an isolated tribal environment. According to biography.yourdictionary.com, he was seven years old before he first saw a white person. At the age of 15, he defied his father and ran away to enter the Dadaya Mission…

You may have read that yesterday was long-reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II’s 89th birthday. But it was also a day of birth for much funnier-named folk than Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. Yep, that’s her regal name. It’s not quite as interesting as singer Iggy Pop (not to be confused with Iggy Azalea, whom we profiled less than a year ago), who turned the big 6-8, enjoying his Medicare benefits while sitting topless on a couch. Does he even own shirts? And nope, Iggy wasn’t his real name. He was born James Newell Osterberg, Jr. 

http://www.people.com/

Who else ate cake yesterday? Little Jason Duggar turned 15, surrounded by many of his 18 brothers and sisters. Peace out, Jason.

http://www.pinterest.com

Jason, the one who fell 12 feet into an orchestra pit and broke his leg, carries a rather normal name. However, let us recall that ALL of his siblings have J names:

Joshua, twins Jana…

http://beforeitsnews.com/

Good morning and welcome to another educational installment at the Blog of Funny Names. On this sunny, flower-blooming spring day, it only seems fitting to post about this colorful character. As his Nudie-mobile proudly proclaims, that’s Nudie Cohn!

Now don’t you go thinking this has anything to do with Live! Nude! Girls! No, folks, this here is the original rodeo tailor, creator of rhinestone-covered suits worn by everyone from Roy Rogers and Dale Evans to John Lennon, ZZ Top, k.d. lang, and Elton John. So who was this little man and how did he outfit celebrities for 50 years? Let’s dive right in!

Born in 1902 in the Ukraine as Nuta Kotlyarenko, Nudie Cohn rose to fame as the creator of the “Nudie Suit.” When he was 11, his mother, Pearl, sent him and brother Julius to America to escape Czarist Russia, telling them the streets of America were paved with gold. Little did she know, little Nuta…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart (1880 – 1963) was a British Army officer who served in the Boer War, WWI, and WWII.  He was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; survived two plane crashes; tunneled out of a prisoner-of-war camp; and bit off his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them.

This man could out-roundhouse kick Chuck Norris.

So let’s backtrack. Born in 1880 to an affluent family, he initially studied law at Oxford, but raging testosterone got the better of him and he quit the university in 1899 to get his fighting on in the Second Boer War, aka the Tweede Boereoorlog. He entered the army under the false name of “Trooper Carton”, and claimed to be 25 years old.

Carton de Wiart was sent to an invalid home after sustaining wounds to the stomach and groin, enough to keep a man down for…

http://www.olympic.org/

Do you remember that amazing vault that Kerri Strug did at the 1996 Olympics? I remember it like it was yesterday, up late at night, riveted to the TV. The diminutive Dominique Moceanu had faltered in the last rotation of team optionals, falling on both vaults and forcing the chance of a USA gold medal upon Strug’s final vault. Injured and limping from her first attempt, the plucky Strug pushed forward to make Olympic history.

But Strug was just one of the amazing girls on the USA gymnastics team, called The Magnificent Seven, including double Dominiques: Dawes and Moceanu. The one on the above right is Dawes, and the littlest (and youngest) one on the left is today’s focus.

http://www.pinterest.com/

Dominique “Domi” Helena Moceanu was born in Hollywood in September 1981 to Dumitru and Camelia Moceanu. Both had been gymnasts in their native Romania and pushed Dominique to excel in the sport, starting her in classes…

Once upon a time, a one-legged Civil War veteran named Rulandus Pitts married a woman named Nelly Shay, and they partook of afternoon delights and made a baby, whom they named Eliza Susan Pitts, after Rulandus’s two sisters. By jamming the end of Eliza into the beginning of Susan, the baby became ZaSu. Because that’s normal.

ZaSu Pitts was born 120 years ago in Kansas and moved to California when she was nine, where she would grow up to star in both silent films and talkies. America’s Sweetheart, Mary Pickford, predicted that people would pronounce the uncommon name as Zaz-oo, as it appears. Pitts however, preferred “Say Zoo,” which is crazy talk because Za does not sound like Say, nor does Su sound like Zoo. So right off the bat, we know ZaSu was a curious dame.

Her first non-extra role was  in the 1917 silent film, The Little Princess, as an orphaned slavey (Yes…

not kosher

Chances are, if you don’t hail from the Lone Star State, you mightn’t have heard about this lovely lady. Ima Hogg (1882 – 1975), known as “The First Lady of Texas,” was a philanthropist and collector of arts and antiques. Yes, that was her real name. Bless her heart. And you can blame her parents, Sarah Ann “Sallie” Stinson and James Stephen “Big Jim” Hogg, Attorney General of Texas and later Governor. Her first name was taken from The Fate of Marvin, which her uncle Thomas Hogg penned, and featured two young women named Ima and Leila. What was wrong with Leila?

As it turned out, she never married and was saddled with that name for all of her 93 years. Yikes. She knew it was an odd name, and tried to downplay it, using stationery that read Miss Hogg or I. Hogg. Her brother William defended the unfortunate name on more than one…

http://minnesotaconnected.com/events

Today’s post spotlights Russian painter Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866-1944). Born in Moscow to Lidia Ticheeva and Vasily Silvestrovich Kandinsky, he recalled being fascinated and stimulated by color as a child. He attended the University of Moscow, studying law and economics, as far from painting as the east is from the west. His interest in art began at the mature age of 30, at which point he settled in Munich, studying first at (wait for it) Anton Ažbe‘s private school.

Kandinsky compared painting to composing music, writing, “Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” Check out these good vibrations.

Munich Schwabing with the Church of St. Ursula

He focused on landscapes and towns, rather than human figures, except for Sunday, Old Russia (1904). Kandinsky spent the years from 1906 to 1908…

http://bobcanada92.blogspot.com/

Wacky Imogene Coca (1908-2001) may be best remembered for playing opposite Sid Caesar in Your Show of Shows, which ran Saturday nights on NBC from 1950 to 1954. However, folks under 60 may remember her as Aunt Jenny on The Brady Bunch or the patently annoying Aunt Edna on the cinematic triumph, National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Originally deemed Emogeane, she was born in Philadelphia to José Fernandez de Coca, a violinist and vaudeville band leader, and Sadie Brady Coca, a dancer who also performed in a magician’s act. SADIE BRADY COCA. Awesome.

“I began as one of those horrible little children who sing with no voice,” Coca said of her early training. By the time she was 13, however, she found herself tap dancing, somersaulting, and dancing ballet. She got her first job in the chorus of the Broadway musical When You Smile, and later went on to win the second-ever Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding…