Which may explain John Ydstie
Oh, those wonderful names on National Public Radio:
[W]e’ve often wondered what it would be like to be one of them. A Nina Totenberg or a Renita Jablonski. A David Kestenbaum or a Lakshmi Singh. Even (on our most ambitious days) a Cherry Glaser or a Sylvia Poggioli.
So finally, after years of Fresh Air sign-off ambitions, we came up with a system for creating our own NPR Names. Here’s how it works: You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited.
(Via Nicolle Guanabo’s husband.)
smitty »
28 April 2009 · 7:33 am
This is interesting. Slightly varying the rules, I could be Christophle Shilbottle.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Shilbottle,+Alnwick,+Northumberland,+NE66,+UK&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=50.37814,78.398437&ie=UTF8&ll=55.328949,-1.691551&spn=0.142572,0.306244&z=12&iwloc=A
fillyjonk »
28 April 2009 · 8:07 am
I suppose if you’ve never been anywhere exotic, you don’t qualify for an NPR name? Canada is the only other country I’ve been to, and at that, only to Toronto and Montreal.
Kirk »
28 April 2009 · 8:08 am
Under this metaphor, I would be Lorken Sestriere….the darn thing works, doesn’t it?
CGHill »
28 April 2009 · 8:20 am
You could get away with Montréal provided you pronounce it with as much feigned-French Canadian accent as is humanly possible. And you must spell it with the accent aigu.
fillyjonk »
28 April 2009 · 8:27 am
Or I suppose I could use one of the Hawaiian place-names, even though that’s technically the same country. (Maybe I can claim I am being “vintage” of 50+ years ago?)
Mark »
28 April 2009 · 9:02 am
Welcome to All Things Considered. I’m Marak Santanyi.
It’s on Mallorca. And I went there for WORK. Those were the days. . . .
Tatyana »
28 April 2009 · 9:09 am
Hehe. I don’t even have to bother my pretty little head.
All I have to do is to sign my real name…alongside to the collection of misspelings, actual and real (I have envelopes to prove it).
The absolute favorite in the race is KECHANA. Not even one “T” where I have two.
fillyjonk »
28 April 2009 · 9:11 am
…Though the benefit to using “Montréal” would be that I could pronounce it “mohn-rey-arrrghhhl” and get angry with anyone who didn’t pronounce it PRECISELY as I did.
(My real surname? I get it mispronounced from time to time. It’s not that hard but people seem to like to leave off the last two t’s. I’ve never taken anyone to task for it; it seems kind of a prima donna ish thing to do.)
sya »
28 April 2009 · 9:47 am
Dang it, I don’t have a middle name.
Ted »
28 April 2009 · 11:50 am
Meet Rotbert Reuschbach.
McGehee »
28 April 2009 · 12:01 pm
Hmmm. Kevmin Beavercreek? Kemvin Poucecoupe?
Kmevin Coutts!
CGHill »
28 April 2009 · 5:15 pm
I think I’m going to borrow a Turkish diacritic, inasmuch as it’s their town: Charğles Sinop.
McGehee »
28 April 2009 · 5:39 pm
Not bad. Compared to some, I’m lucky in that I have more than one place to insert the borrowed initial into my first name — but if it hadn’t been for that drive down from Alaska ten years ago I’d have to petition for Utah or some such to be considered “foreign.”
Which, given the point of the exercise is NPR, would probably be accepted enthusiastically.
Hatless in Hattiesburg »
28 April 2009 · 6:26 pm
NPR name…
Problem is – my middle initial doesn’t fit in any pronounceable way into my first name. Shuffling in a few of both names’ letters though, it might be …