A Horse By Any Other Name

Rachel Alexandra has won the Preakness, becoming only the fifth filly to win in that race's history.

This got me thinking about the names of racehorses: Secretariat, Seabiscuit, Street Sense.  Interestingly, regulations state that no horse's name may contain more than 18 letters.

In contrast, American Kennel Club rules state that no two purebred dogs may have the same name - resulting in long and colorful names such as "Champion Cookieland Seasyde Hollyberry."   I guess "Spot" was already taken.

Image: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us

Greiner-Petter-Memm-Noelle-Neumann-Maier-Leibnitz, party of two, your table is ready

The Germans are famous for creating fast cars and very long words.  For example: Hoechsgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung - a word which does not apply to the Autobahn.

But, this generosity with word length does not extend to surnames.  A German court recently ruled that a couple could not combine their last names to form very long surnames.  The idea was that a child born to such a name would then possibly marry and add yet another name to an already long name - and so on and so forth until you get last names like Greiner-Petter-Memm or Noelle-Neumann-Maier-Leibnitz - both of which already exist, incidentally.  But if someone from these families were to marry each other, they would not be able to take the surname of Greiner-Petter-Memm-Noelle-Neumann-Maier-Leibnitz.

image: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com

Octuplet Names Revealed

Bravely overcoming the challenge of thinking of eight names for her octuplets, Los Angeles-area resident Nadya Suleman has chosen mostly Biblical names: Maliah, Noah, Jonah, Isaiah, Nariah, Jeremiah, McCai, and Josiah.

Have you ever wondered how many people have the same name as you? Howmanyofme.com attempts to answer that question (with a long, and slightly humorous, caveat).

Law Breakers: Boys with unusual names

The name alone is not the cause of juvenile crime, but new research show that the difference between Michael and Ernest may be greater than you know. Some suggests adolescents with unusual names are treated differently by their peers. That's a nice way of saying people make fun of them so they misbehave. Researchers also say boys might act out because they dislike their names.

There is a person in the White House with an unusual name. As far as we know, he does not have a juvy record. Maybe this is why Barack Obama was known as "Barry" Obama in high school. Take a look at the label on his high school picture.