The Turner Prize and Enrico David Enrico

On Monday the London Lite ran a short piece on the entries for this year's Turner Prize. Here's part of it:


I feel sorry for the caption-writer on this one. David Enrico sounds a more plausible name than Enrico David (in my opinion).

At least the London Lite is less critical of the Turner Prize than the Daily Mail...

Names: Joy Rider

A couple of years ago, Apus wrote about one of our colleagues who had uncovered some interesting names while working on her family history: notably, Arthur and Walter Bottle.

That same colleague has continued her research and she recently stumbled across another great name: Joy Rider.

Interestingly, the Joy Rider in question was born in Kent in 1939, while the first recorded usage of the word 'joyriders' (or in this instance, 'joy-riders') dates from back in 1908 - according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The definition it gives is: "A pleasure trip in a motor car, aeroplane, etc., often without the permission of the owner of the vehicle."

The word originated in the US and I'm not sure whether it was widely known in the UK by 1939. I would suspect not, judging by this evidence.

Greetings to any Joy Riders reading this post!

Trivia: Google PageRank

A bit of Saturday morning trivia: Google's PageRank algorithm, which scores web pages on their importance from zero to 10, is actually named after the chap who developed it: Larry Page.

It's a good job he wasn't called Larry Bottomley, as I'm not sure the name 'BottomleyRank' would have worked quite as well.

• Here's a handy PageRank checker.

• And here's some info about Google's PigeonRank.

Stan Still, Annette Curtain, Dick Trickle...

Regular readers of The Engine Room will know that we're fans of unusual or amusing personal names. Recently, for example, I've written about a hangman called Ed Roper while Apus has told us of a certain SM Allcock.

If you're of a similar bent, you may enjoy a current BBC News article, 'Most unfortunate names' revealed, which includes such gems as Stan Still and Annette Curtain.

It's also worth reading the comments following the article, especially the fourth (and currently final).

While I'm on the subject, I should mention that my colleague Clutchslip once met American racing driver Dick Trickle...

Names: Crook and Fear, Tinkler and Fidler

A while back I came across a news story in which a courier firm employed a transport manager called John Crook and then ended up being called before the authorities for various offences.

It gets better: the company was defended by a solicitor called Jeremy Fear.

Kent courier disqualified for hours offences


And from the same site, here's a story in which a haulage firm chief executive called Andrew Tinkler meets a government official called Stephen Fidler.

Tinkler pushes ahead with LHV prototype trial


Little things like these help me get through the day...

The House of Kitty Ussher

As regular readers of this blog will know, one of our preoccupations is names - company names, product names, project names and especially personal names.

On that theme, this morning I was tickled to learn that the Labour MP for Burnley and Padiham is called Kitty Ussher. What a brilliant and unlikely name for a politician - to me it seems very 1920s. And I love that double 'S'. Anyway, here's a picture of Kitty (taken from her website), in which she sadly isn't dressed as a flapper:



Any other politicians with good names that you know of?

(Oh, and isn't Wikipedia great? Apparently a previous Burnley MP and indeed relative of Kitty Ussher was the equally impressively named Gerald Archibald Arbuthnot...)

My good friend Mr Wholesale

An Engine Room regular has suggested that Apus and I are a little too critical of the writers we work with. By way of apology, I'd like to share an anecdote showing that sub-editors are fallible too.

I was checking a page proof when I came across the sentence: "The licence was lost by Mr Meats Wholesale" - 'Mr Meats Wholesale' of course being the name of a wholesaler. However I read it as the name of a person: first name Meats, surname Wholesale.

As a result I was left wondering why Apus, who I knew had subbed the copy, had used 'Mr' before this person's name, as it isn't our house style to use titles.

Eventually I reached the conclusion that 'Meats Wholesale' could be the name of either a man or a woman, and therefore the 'Mr' was necessary to indicate the gender of this person called Meat. Well, it made sense to me...

What's in a name?

One of our colleagues is working on her family history and, using the internet, has more than 3,000 people in her extended family tree. One of the many family names she has encountered is Bottle, including a father and son back in the 19th century with the first names Walter and Arthur. Who says Victorians didn't have a sense of the ridiculous?

Inspired by the Bottles I Googled 'silly names' and came up with the following in a long list of real people whose births were registered in Cornwall during the 19th and early 20th centuries:

Reginald Thistlewayte Cocks
Urania Emma Hodge Button
Orchard Betowing Champion
Adolphus Segro Palmiston Stinton
Wesley Mendelssohn Valatart Barrett the V

Imagine trying to convince the cops that any of the above is a real name...

A cat by any other name

Walking to the station this morning, rain shield in hand, I came across the following handwritten notice on a lamp post:

Missing kitten! An 8-month-old kitten who answers to the name Ginger or more likely Billy

If the cat answers to the name of Billy, its name probably is Billy – so why insist on Ginger? I'm not surprised it ran away...