c4countdown

Hiyo.

I occasionally encounter unusual names that are also valid words for Countdowners... Apart from the obvious Victoria, May, June, loads of girls names that are flowers, and occasionally fruits so I wondered what other examples people have encountered.

.. and have encountered a person called Virtue, Valiant, Hope and there were at least two people born in the last 20 years called Zodiac.

There was a common tendency in times gone by to use mothers original surname as a middle name. E.g. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, which is kinda cheating.

I wondered what other examples people had encountered...

DC

The influence of pop singer celebrity - Kylie.
Apparently a kylie is a boomerang.
But I prefer the capitalised Kylie, which of course would not be valid for Countdown.
Kylie (capital K) is at ype of incontinence wear (sheets, pants etc).
I can't resist a little inner smile when I hear a parent calling out "Kylie" because I always think of an
incontinence sheet.

Expanding from this topic, I don't know any first names that are allowed in Countdown, but there are a few names that if you spot, there is an anagram, thusly giving you a legit Countdown word, for example:

CAROLINE = LONICERA*
KRYSTAL = STARKLY
MICHAEL = CHAMELI*

* LONICERA and CHAMELI can be both pluralised.

Caroline is actually valid, I seem to remember. Is it a cake? Don't think its pluralisable though.

Patrice Evra = prevaricate

is worth remembering in case they extend letters round to 11 letters.

Ginger Jono wrote:Caroline is actually valid, I seem to remember. Is it a cake? Don't think its pluralisable though.

I don't see it in the dictionary...

I wonder could someone order multiples of them in a restaurant..

DC

Ginger Jono wrote:Caroline is actually valid, I seem to remember. Is it a cake? Don't think its pluralisable though.

It does list Caroline in the ODE, but it only has a capital letter, sorry.

Anne (an)

Very interesting!

Jason Larsen wrote:Very interesting!

God, that child's parents must have hated him/her.

No, not me!

In fact, I've never even heard of a Caroline!

Ben Wilson wrote:

Jason Larsen wrote:Very interesting!

God, that child's parents must have hated him/her.

And I thought I was unlucky to have a surname like Bolas

Can't think though where this name would've originated from

My last name is Norwegian.

Jason Larsen wrote:My last name is Norwegian.

I thought it was Larsen.

My last name's nationality is Norwegian.

Ben Wilson wrote:

Jason Larsen wrote:My last name is Norwegian.

I thought it was Larsen.

It could be an alias

Again, my last name's nationality is Norwegian.

Jason "Nationality is Norwegian" Larsen. Got it.

My name is just Jason Larsen, Dinos.

Jason Larsen wrote:My name is just Jason Larsen, Dinos.

So is Jason your middle name then or do people know you by Just .

Joseph, my name is Jason William Larsen.

Jason Larsen wrote:Joseph, my name is Jason William Larsen.

We were just having a mess with you , surely you worked that out .

Thank you for calling a halt to the messing about Joseph.

Thank you!

For a whopping 3 points, KAI is in there as a food in New Zealand. You can also have JOHN (a toilet),JOE (an ordinary man), JOEY (a baby kangaroo), HARRY (to rush) and MAX (maximum). I only knew about the last two because my brothers are called them.

Kai Laddiman wrote:JOE (an ordinary man)

I know at least 1 Joe who ain't ordinary

When I worked as a midwife I knew a Miss Salmon who called her new born boy Rock (Rock Salmon!!!). A well meaning relative pointed out that it would be cruel to saddle a child with Rock Salmon as a name, so mummy promptly changed it to Ginger Solo Frederick. I kid you not!

I

Joseph Bolas wrote:

Kai Laddiman wrote:JOE (an ordinary man)

I know at least 1 Joe who ain't ordinary

Who might that be?

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:

Kai Laddiman wrote:JOE (an ordinary man)

I know at least 1 Joe who ain't ordinary

Who might that be?

Well actually, its myself

I am quite a weird and unusual person and I think people who have met me before at the CO-events will agree with me.

Joseph Bolas wrote:
Well actually, its myself

I am quite a weird and unusual person and I think people who have met me before at the CO-events will agree with me.

Actually, surprise surprise, I was being sarcastic.

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:
Well actually, its myself

I am quite a weird and unusual person and I think people who have met me before at the CO-events will agree with me.

Actually, surprise surprise, I was being sarcastic.

See, an ordinary person would've got that, but then I said I wasn't orindary so I didn't get that it was sarcastic , sorry.

What would be really unusual would be a Joseph Bolas post that didn't include an embarrassed apology for some incredibly minor mistake.

Both my first name and surname are valid words.Not sure about my middle name (James) - does anybody know of anyone whose given name, middle name and family name are all valid Countdown plays?

Totally off-topic, but the equivalent words to 'Smith' are common surnames in many other European cultures - Schmit (and Schmitt/Schmid) in German, Ferrari in Italian, Kovacs in Croatian and Kowalski in Polish for example.

According to a survey 26 people in the UK had the name 'arsenal'. Obviously this word's in the dictionary

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:According to a survey 26 people in the UK had the name 'arsenal'. Obviously this word's in the dictionary

Would 'dinos' count as an abbreviation of dinosaurs ?

I knew a girl called Kylie at school. She had a twin brother, who fortunately wasn't named Jason - they were born early enough to avoid that.

The real meaning of the name Kylie reminds me of my favourite story about Australia - when one of the first European visitors asked an Aborigine "what do you call those skipping creatures", his reply of 'kangaroo' actually meant "I don't understand". I think Richard Digance has mentioned this on the show.

Martin Smith wrote:when one of the first European visitors asked an Aborigine "what do you call those skipping creatures", his reply of 'kangaroo' actually meant "I don't understand".

No it didn't!

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Martin Smith wrote:when one of the first European visitors asked an Aborigine "what do you call those skipping creatures", his reply of 'kangaroo' actually meant "I don't understand".

No it didn't!

i'll back Kai up on this one - this was another urban myth debunked by the wonderful QI a while back

Ah sorry guys. That quote has boomeranged on me.

Martin Smith wrote:I knew a girl called Kylie at school.

Kylie is also the name of a well-known brand of incontinence wear.
Not such a glamourous name perhaps.

Martin Smith wrote:Ah sorry guys. That quote has boomeranged on me.

Been there Martin. I've seen plenty of my interesting (what I thought to be) facts destroyed by Stephen Fry!

Matt Morrison wrote:

Martin Smith wrote:Ah sorry guys. That quote has boomeranged on me.

Been there Martin. I've seen plenty of my interesting (what I thought to be) facts destroyed by Stephen Fry!

He also propagate a fair amount of shit of his own, judging by the rare occasions on which the programme stumbles upon topics I know a bit about. For example, the section on the Russell & Whitehead proof of 1+1=2 was mainly bollocks, and the section on the meaning of countries' names in Chinese was total crap (Chinese characters don't work like that - it would be like saying that English speakers think that a seahorse is a kind of horse.) So I wouldn't worry too much.

There are some people I know who are brother and sister called Angel and Merlin! Oh yer and also that stupid name Kai!

I met a girl called Jupiter a few years ago. That's the kind of name which makes me think hippies should be sterilised

EDIT: Is Jupiter even a word?

Martin Smith wrote:I met a girl called Jupiter a few years ago. That's the kind of name which makes me think hippies should be sterilised

EDIT: Is Jupiter even a word?

Doubly worrying at that was the name of a male Roman god.

Can't help but feel for the children in this news story though.

Hiyo,

A quick look in the 1984-2005 birth registers reveals about 60 odd people with "Jupiter" in their name. Mostly as a middle name, but about 10 as a first name. One even has "Star" as a middle name, "Jupiter" as their first name. I wonder are they astronomers? As long as they're not astrologers, then we're really entering hippy territory.

There's about 700 people listed with "Merlin" in their first and middle names for those years

Just out of curiosity from the names of the people in this thread predictably Dinos has easily the rarest, the rest of us have really common names except......

The first person in Britain called "Kai" was likely Kai Petersen Born in 1901. There is a single "Laddiman" family in all England in 1901, living in Norwich. It's pretty likely a certain someone is descended from them.

DC

Hey, just because their names (and parents...) are odd doesn't mean they themselves are.

As far as goes unfortunate names, here's the winner by a clear 7 inches... well. Six and a half.

http://carcino.gen.nz/images/index.php/ ... 0/130e3af8

DC

What's wrong with that, Dave?

This be my favourite

It's surely only a matter of time before bumgardner gets added to the ODE.

No discussion of this nature can be complete without reference to this legend of NASCAR.

Junichiro Koizumi? That really doesn't sound all that uncommon!

After all, we have a guy who plays for Seattle's British rounders team and his name is Ichiro Suzuki.

Everyone here just loves him!

Jason Larsen wrote:Junichiro Koizumi? That really doesn't sound all that uncommon!

Jason, you're a funny guy!

I started a trend, Phil, didn't I?

lol at Randy Bumgardner btw for those who didn't know my full first name is Konstadinos, but I prefer Dinos as I'm pretty sure I resemble an extinct lizard.

Dinos Aurus wrote:lol at Randy Bumgardner btw for those who didn't know my full first name is Konstadinos, but I prefer Dinos as I'm pretty sure I resemble an extinct lizard.

Hence my Dinos Aurus pun.