Tag Archives: women

May 18 2012
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Greatest hits

Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton

“Foremost Female Physical Culturist, Writer, Authority on Feminine Figure Contouring, Cover Girl.” 

“There, you can go ahead and grab those keys that were wedged under this 5000 pound weight now”.

So read the business card of one Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton, a pioneer of female bodybuilding and weight lifting in the 1940s and 1950s. She also briefly ran a gym on Sunset Boulevard named “the Salon of Figure Development”. With credentials like those, you’re Funny Names Blog- bound from the start.

Abbye had acquired the nickname “Pudgy” as a child, and as nicknames tend to do, it stuck. It wasn’t a particularly apt name, considering at 5’2” she only weighed about 115 pounds, but it does sound funny and personable so we at Funny Names Central are certainly delighted she kept it.

Pudgy found fame after her husband Les bought her a pair of dumbbells to help her shed some of the weight she had gained working as a telephone operator. Not long after, she and Les found themselves frequent visitors to Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach. They soon attracted huge crowds who came to watch them perform acrobatics and displays of strength.

Pudgy was a breath of fresh air in an age when women weren’t exactly synonymous with weight lifting. She was featured on the covers of dozens of magazines in her patented two-piece swimsuit, and wrote an advice column in Strength & Health magazine for years.

Moments after this picture was taken, a stray bird ruined the party.

She helped organize the very first sanctioned women’s weight lifting contest way back in 1947  in Los Angeles. In 1948 she acquired the title of “Miss Physical Culture Venus”, a rare honor in an age where women’s “physique contests” barely existed.

We remember her fondly not just for her great accomplishments and amazing job titles, but also the unusual spelling of her first name and delightful nickname.

Those of you expecting girls, go ahead and add Pudgy to your list of potential names. It’s only a fitting tribute to a great woman who literally smashed through gender barriers.

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Apr 30 2012
9 Comments
Dave's greatest hits, Greatest hits

Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand

Pam Grier as Foxy Brown

Today’s post is about Foxy Brown. If you came of age during the 70′s, there’s a good chance you know Foxy Brown as a genre-defining 1974 blaxploitation film starring Pam Grier as an afro-sporting vigilante. I’ve never seen the movie, but it piqued my interest because blaxploitation is the best-named film genre ever, and as you’ll soon see, the film’s promotional poster was equally ridiculous.

This is before you even learn about the protagonist:

“[Foxy Brown is] a ‘whole lot of woman’ who showcases unrelenting black sexiness while battling the villains.” - Official description from a Los Angeles Times review

Not only might that be the most amazing character description in the history of ever, it also sounds right in keeping with our blog’s overarching themes of history, trivia, culture, and a bucket of silliness. Yet somehow, today’s post is not about the movie Foxy Brown.

Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, aka Foxy Brown

It’s about a young lady named Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, who saw this movie and was inspired to adopt the stage name Foxy Brown and emulate the character’s tough-as-nails attitude, in the process of carving out one of the most successful female hip hop careers ever.

Foxy Brown the rapper went on to release three albums – two platinum, one gold – which all reached the U.S. Billboard top 10, including 1999′s Chyna Doll, which reached number one on the U.S. Billboard charts. This gives her more number one albums than Tom Petty – with or without the Heartbreakers – has ever had.

Born in Brooklyn and raised by a single mother, Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand (who in 2001 was briefly engaged to a guy named Spragga Benz) sounds like a successful, hardcore lady.  For over a year (between 2005-06), she suffered from sudden hearing loss, and rather than use a hearing aid, she preferred to have someone tap beats on her shoulder while she was recording her music.

So now you can answer a Jeopardy! question (or do you question a Jeopardy! answer?) asking you to name two musicians who composed and performed music while deaf.

Who are Foxy Brown and Beethoven, Alex?

… and we know just the person who can help her do that.

You also know how to respond to a Jeopardy! thing about two artists who released only three albums, but saw an album go #1, two albums go platinum, and all three albums reach the top 10 during their lifetime.

Who are Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand and Jimi Hendrix, Alex?

Until someone proves me wrong with actual research, I’m willing to wager that those are the only two artists who fit that description. Unfortunately, it might stay that way because depression and some subsequent assault charges have slowed down Foxy’s career over the past few years. We hope she can get her career back on track and battle her demons.

(Dave’s note: if after enlarging that thumbnail, there isn’t some part of you that’s intrigued and amused by this unique cultural artifact, give me an address where I can mail the epoxy glue you’ll need to repair your fractured soul)

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Mar 26 2012
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Faith Popcorn

Faith PopcornFaith Popcorn (born Faith Plotkin) is a famous American futurist – one who predicts future trends – and author of the bestselling book The Popcorn Report.  She has made a living through her writing and marketing consulting company BrainReserve.

Like Shakespeare before her, Popcorn is credited with coining many entirely new terms, including “brailing the culture”, “InCulture”, and “transcouturing.”

Among Popcorn’s more interesting predictions:

  • Advances in genetics allowing people to custom-design pets to resemble their owners
  • Mechanized hugging booths
  • Lingerie infused with “neuro chemicals” to increase the wearer’s confidence

We’re pleased to welcome Faith Popcorn to the Funny Names Hall of Fame.

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Mar 01 2012
2 Comments
Dave's greatest hits, Greatest hits

Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley “Dido” Armstrong

We thought we were on a roll after stumbling upon the name Rollo Gillespie while paying homage to Sir Stamford Raffles, but we quickly rolled into another Rollo: Rowland Constantine O’Malley Armstrong, known to friends and family as “Rollo.”

However, while Rollo is a founding member of successful British electronica band Faithless, as well as a fine fellow who will someday earn his own post in this blog, what brought him to our attention was actually his slightly more famous and slightly more humorously named sister.

She is Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong, better known as the singer Dido.

Despite having so many excellent names to choose from, her parents – an Irish pub…lisher and an English writer – didn’t call her any of them as a child. Instead, they called her Dido, most likely in homage to the founder and first Queen of the Carthaginian Empire. So it wasn’t shocking when the singer adopted Queen Dido’s habits and set her sights on conquering the music world at the turn of this century.

She burst onto the scene in 1999 with No Angel, which sold 21 million copies on the strength of her breathy vocals and the breakout singles “Here with Me” and “Thank You,” the latter of which was also used in a collaboration single with Eminem called “Stan.”  Her follow up album, 2003′s Life for Rent, went on to sell another 12 million copies. She also picked up a Grammy nomination in the process. Her 2008 album Safe Trip Home was also well-received by critics, and helped continue her success with a second Grammy nomination.

So how does one develop the toughness to handle the rigors of fame and fortune? Well, for Dido, it appears her unusual name played a role in her developing a thick skin. According to Wikipedia – a go-to source for supporting our own unverified assumptions – Dido had to “deal with [her name's] unusual and ambiguous nature, which led to her being bullied and even pretending to have an ordinary name.” Florian (another name we’ve recently profiled) also had this to say of her assumed name “Dido”:

To be called one thing and christened another is actually very confusing and annoying. It’s one of the most irritating things that my parents did to me. … Florian is a German man’s name. That’s just mean. To give your child a whole lot of odd names. They were all so embarrassing. … I thought it was cruel to call me Dido and then expect me to just deal with it. – Dido, from a 2001 Observer article.

While we express sympathy for her childhood struggles, it appears that Ms. Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong has gotten the last laugh. And for that, we have to say:

No, Dido, thank you!

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Feb 28 2012
4 Comments
Dave's greatest hits, Greatest hits

Vlurma and Titus Byrd adopt Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. and Change History

Vlurma. Despite a limited number of six-letter combinations in the English language, there

Vlurma Sale Byrd (R.I.P) of Crab Orchard, West Virginia, passed away in 1965. (Photo from FindAGrave.com)

are still some that can catch you off guard. Vlurma is one of those names. Without looking up the data, I’ll hypothesize that there’s a 100% success rate of people named “Vlurma” making significant cultural contributions.

But lots of people have funny names – just in that obituary, there are Mose Pitzer, Walter H. Walker, and E. E. Noonkester – so what makes Vlurma Sale Byrd and Titus Byrd stand out? While living in Crab Orchard, West Virginia, they adopted a young child named Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. and out of a household that would make Ras-I Alujah “Livingstone” Bramble from St. Kitts and Nevis blush from funny name inadequacy, came one of the most significant political careers in American history.

Young Cornelius was renamed “Robert Byrd” and went on to serve the longest career in the U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress ever. His 57-years in Congress (including 51 in the Senate) saw Democratic Senator Byrd evolve into one of the most beloved politicians of all time. As a young man, he had spent a year as a Grand Wizard in the KKK, a decision he would later regret after he realized that being a Grand Wizard didn’t fly politically outside the friendly confines of West Virginia. He went on to renounce all forms of racism and two years before his death in 2010, he endorsed Barack Obama, who would become the first African American president of this country.

Along the way, he served as Senate Majority Leader (twice), Senate Minority Leader, Senate Majority whip, and was regarded as the last great rhetorical senator. An extremely hard worker, he earned a law degree while taking night classes during his tenure as a U.S. Senator.

Byrd presents his album "Mountain Fiddler" to President Carter

A dapper (and suggestive-looking) Byrd presents his album “Mountain Fiddler” to President Carter

Oh, and he was an accomplished fiddler too. He fiddled John Denver songs for constituents in his Senate office, he fiddled and sang (and hollered!) while wearing a sweet vest on Pop Goes the Country, and presented an album of fiddle music to President Jimmy Carter, a fellow Southern Democrat. He also published nine books, including a landmark four-volume history of the U.S. Senate.

In his later years, he would unfortunately become famous to younger audiences for a bizarre, but impassioned, speech about barbarism and valleys in light of the Michael Vick dog fighting scandal.

Nonetheless, after his death in June 2010, he was remembered fondly by allies and enemies alike as one of the giants of the United States Senate.

But Senator Robert Byrd would have never existed if it weren’t for two selfless West Virginians who adopted a young Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. whose parents had both passed away in the 1918 Flu pandemic. That’s what earns them – and not E. E. Noonkester or Mose Pitzer – a spot in the funny names hall of fame.

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