Having lived with my name for a number of years…..a lot of
years to be more specific, I have always been on the alert for unusual or
different names of people.

My name (according to a website called “How many of me?�) is
the only one in the country with my spelling. There are about six Perry Perry’s
scattered around but only one so far of Peary Perry. There is a lady over in
Florida who claims to be named the same but when you try to locate her it comes
up as a link to a real estate website. I suppose it is a link to get your
attention to some swampland in Florida, who knows?

Anyway, after having lived with my name this long I can tell
you than I have heard just about all the comments that can be made….Peary
Perry- quite contrary, P2 (p-squared) Double P —P man—and on and on. The
best one I think I ever got was a lady who called and started to say something
and then told me ‘ I bet you have heard them all, so I won’t even try.’

When I was in the army, I used to call home collect….the
operators would ask my name and then I would hear them tell one another…’listen
to this guys name’  Hahaha.

Trying to order something on the phone with some clerk in
India is always a challenge. I would rather have a root canal.

To make matters worse, I married a lady named Sabra. So she
has had her fill as well. Sabre Jet…Sabre toothed tiger …etc. Her mother was
named James and her father was named Shirley. Ours is a family name disaster.

When our children were born, we decided upon logical names
like Tom, Christopher, Matthew and Jeffery. I screwed up the last one by
accident. When our last was born, I wanted to name him Alfred, after my
grandfather. On the way to the hospital I met a bunch of friends and we had a
few adult beverages to celebrate. All of these guys told me that Alfred was a
bad name, since he would be called Big Al or Alfonso or Al as in Capone. So I
rushed to the hospital and told the office to change the name before they sent
it off to the records place. The lady used that white out stuff we used in those
days and asked me how I wanted to spell it. My mind was a little confused
(possibly by the adult beverages) and I spelled it Jeffery rather than Jeffrey.
Oh, well it works for us.

I notice that rappers make up strange names for themselves
..Fifty Cents or Little Wayne or whatever. He late singer Prince did something
weird with his name didn’t he. I think everyone just referred to him as the
‘artist, formally known as Prince’. Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the
world named his new kid… X AE A-12…pronounced like XASHA12…rolls right off the
tongue doesn’t it? Imagine if he ever has to call home collect? Probably not. Someone
will make the call for him. When you are that rich you can call yourself
whatever you want to and no one will say a thing. In my next life I think I
would like a cool name like No-No 714….or Skyman 12….or just plain old
‘Skippy’. Imagine if you will, how the world would have changed if Hitler’s
nickname had been Skippy or Spanky. Might have been a totally different world
for us all.

I once had a friend here in Houston, who changed his name
from whatever it was to just “Chandler’. One name only…no first name of last
name…just ‘Chandler’. We flew into Mexico with a bunch of guys on a hunting
trip one year…The two of us were in the front of the line going through Mexican
customs and immigration. The officials had a very difficult time with my friend
with only one name on his immigration documents, then they came to me.

By the time they got through with us, several of the folks
hunting told us that the next time we traveled with them, we needed to be in
the back of the line.

Like this? Want more?

Go to Letters From North America on Facebook and sign up…..thanks