Certainly the unusual name phenomenon, when one gets out of high school where all the pressure is to be a Lisa, Jennifer, or Greg, comes in handy. This happened with my husband a few days ago when he called a store which he used to visit all the time in Winnipeg. No need for "This is Dag Tollefsen" for him. Just "This is Dag" and the guy immediately remembered him.

However, people are not really used to unusual names in Newfoundland yet (the land of Heathers, Pauls, Jacks, Amys) so we often wonder if the reason he never hears back on some job applications is because the person is afraid of trying to pronounce his name. My Turkish friend with the Turkish huband with the Turkish name seems to be suffering from the same problem, too.

And also funny - just before this name thread came up, my husband and I were talking (in an abstract way) about potential baby names. Everything he said, I hated because I had known some terrible person by that name, and everything I said, he disliked for the same reason. I wonder if there are any names out there that don't carry emotional baggage for us? The only names I ended up liking were those of my very good friends! I'd better not get too chummy with the Board people or I'll end up with children named Sparteye, Fiberbabe, wwh, and Bobyoungbalt!!!!!