Great names

I've always had a bit of fascination for great names, probably dating back to the time a potential client handed me a business card, made out of real wood, with the name Don Duck printed on it. How, i wondered for many days afterward, had Mr. Duck avoided that life sentence for matricide?

Cherie K. Berry may be a near-total washout as North Carolina Secretary of Labor, but it's somehow comforting nonetheless to get on an elevator and see her face and signature giving the state's imprimatur to that particular lift mechanism, the knowledge that, should the elevator fail to get me safely up to the 3rd floor of my building, there's someone in Raleigh ready to take personal responsibility for it.

And her name is Cherie K. Berry.

So it was somewhat shocking to me when someone left a comment on a post from a week or so back about the new greatest soccer name of all-time, directing me to the Name of the Year blog.

As their subhead says, "Collecting Great Names. So You Don't Have To."

And they mean it.

Check out, for example, this post on the 2007 name of the year. (It appears they actually award NOTY for the current year, not the previous year.)

Or the Hall of Names.

I for one am dying to know what crimes against humanity Mummenschonz Bitterbeetle and Licentious Beastie committed to get themselves ejected from the Hall. Fortunately, they promise to reveal the details "as soon as the NOTY Special Prosecutor concludes his inquiry."

Now get this. These guys have been doing this since 1983.

Kinda makes me feel like a rank amateur. A dilettante in the world of great names, if you will.

I mean, these are guys who spend their time arguing over the Dragonwagon Doctrine, for cryin' out loud. How can i hope to make another post about Ambiorix Burgos or Lastings Milledge knowing that these guys have already immortalized the likes of Dudu Chili and Ringo Wong?