The Strange Name Movie Page #3

in the neighborhood, you know.

And so she used to call.

- Tim Burr!

And he would trot home.

[laughs]

- It's a vivid memory because

she would do it often.

You know, almost every

night for dinner.

- It worked every time.

- That's funny.

I don't recall her calling

the other names out.

- If I had to do

it all over again,

he definitely

would be Tim Burr.

It was done with love.

- [Narrator] I doubt that Tim

ever suffered any distress

from the name so

lightheartedly conferred

by Mr. and Mrs. Burr.

Most often, the culprit

isn't the parents,

but rather

the language itself.

Certain words have a way

of creating mischief

when they get together.

A union that might have

happened centuries ago,

quite arbitrarily.

In other words,

it's nobody's fault,

but if you have

one those names,

it might seem like more

of a curse than a legacy.

- My name is Elana Cockburn,

and my last name is spelled

[spells name aloud]

And I didn't know

what cock was,

so I was totally

just not getting it.

And kids were

starting to laugh,

and I don't know where

the teachers were,

where the chaperones were, but

I was totally caught off guard,

and it really affected me.

I felt really embarrassed.

- A sexually suggestive

name could bring up

issues of confusion

and shame for the child,

and it would be important

that a child understands

what their name means so

that they don't make up

ideas in their mind,

which is very common

for children to do.

- When I first realized

that my name was unusual

was when kids started

mentioning something about it.

And I got the fuller

meaning when I came home,

and "Like, Mom,

this kid's making fun of me."

Like, I knew it was

something inappropriate,

but that's when I finally

found out that it was like

a hooker, what a hooker is.

- If a girl has

a sexually suggestive name,

it would be a nightmare

for most girls.

Now how they deal

with the nightmare,

they may react to it in

very, very different ways.

Some of them may say,

"I never want to have sex."

Some of them might

become hypersexual.

There may be a lot

of different ways

that they'll deal with it,

but no matter what,

it's gonna be a nightmare.

- I explained to my kids when

they asked me the question,

"What is a hooker?"

I told them that they

were ladies of the evening

or prostitutes that would sell

themselves to men for money.

And they kind of looked

at me like, "Okay."

We are a descendant of

Fightin' Joe Hooker.

General Hooker was

in the Civil War,

and he was like a crazy...

brought all these girls back.

Always liked drinking.

- Hooker was associated

with Fightin' Joe,

because he used to bring

ladies of the evening

to his troops before

they fought battle.

- Being teased as

a kid was a little hard.

And then, of course, as

you become a teenager,

it gets a little bit different.

On a higher level.

And substitute

teachers were always

pronouncing my name

incorrectly,

which was always embarrassing

in the middle of class.

They, too, stumbled over my

first and last name constantly.

When somebody heard my last

name for the first time,

or saw my last name

for the first time,

usually was followed by

giggling and laughter.

As I got older,

yes, the C from Cobbledick

got changed to a G.

Gobbledick.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Your last name is Dick.

My father did share with

me from his generation,

they used to refer to

him as Wrinkledork.

- [Narrator] A name that

includes intimate body parts

or suggests promiscuity

is sure to get attention,

but for every

Cobbledick or Cockburn,

there are 100 others who

were, quite accidentally,

named after celebrities

or cultural icons.

So what happens when

your name is famous,

but you, personally, are not?

- The Beatles arrived in 1964,

and I was born in 1958.

As a kid, it was very

tough to deal with having

the name Paul McCartney.

No child wants that

kind of attention.

And I remember being

at awards ceremonies

for Little League,

and I was probably

the only kid in that room

that was saying, "Please

don't call my name."

It felt more, to me, like

I was being laughed at

whenever my name

was called out.

I actually think it had

a huge impact on my personality.

Her name is Linda McCartney.

- Stop it.

Okay.

My name is Linda McCartney.

- And my name is Paul McCartney.

We've been married for 26 years.

- 26 years.

You cannot say

Paul and Linda McCartney

without having people go,

"Paul and Linda McCartney?

Really, really?"

- My full name is

Ronald James McDonald IV.

My grandfather and

great-grandfather were around

before the hamburger, so they

didn't have to deal with this.

So my father

was born in '48,

so he barely

had to tolerate it.

For me, it was horrible.

And I think if I was born

in the current times,

they would have called

it school bullying

probably from the beginning.

As a child, it was

very difficult.

It was worse for me

than it may have been

if I lived in one

town my whole life.

My mother moved us wherever

she could find good work,

which meant in

my first four grades,

I went to 15 schools.

So that's 15 new

schools, new roll call.

I never let it shame me,

but it didn't

make it any easier

to be teased.

Each school, each

circumstance, was pretty much

the same reaction when

I would be announced.

You know, they would

say Ronald McDonald,

and before I could

even say, "Here,"

there would be laughter,

sometimes for five,

ten minutes.

I can't tell you

how many teachers

would just remark

that having a name like that

would build character,

and later in life,

I would appreciate it.

- When I tell people

my name is Alfred Capone,

they usually ask me if I'm

related to the real Al Capone,

or if I'm in some way

associated with the Mafia,

I normally tell them no.

The name actually, Alfred

Capone, has been in my family

for about three or

four generations.

I did get a tattoo of Capone

with the Italian

flag on my ankle,

so it's something

that I'm proud of.

Certainly proud of my family

and my heritage and my name.

I think there are plenty

of names out there

that are a lot worse than

being named Alfred Capone,

such as serial

killers or murderers.

- My full name is

Donald L. Trump.

My dad's full name

was Donald L. Trump.

My mother named me

Skip Trump.

In the last few months,

I've increasingly

used Skip Trump,

even in

professional situations,

because the other

Donald Trump

has gotten a lot of attention.

When it's a phone call,

I often get the response,

"No, that can't

be your name."

When I show my ID,

I've had TSA agents

at the airport say,

"Is that really your name?"

This is a U.S. passport,

and they're asking me if

it's forged, basically.

- Go ahead, Dad.

Introduce yourself.

- I'm Donald R. Duck, Senior.

- And I'm

Donald R. Duck, Junior.

- And I'm Donald R. Duck III.

- Is that better?

- Go for it.

- Go ahead.

- What?

- Do it again.

- Oh.

I'm Donald R. Duck, Senior.

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