van Wolfswinkel showing off the latest fashion.

Something we have learned over the course of this blog’s existence is that Dutch people have funny names. To this point, significant figures in Dutch political life currently include Albertine van Diepen, Jolande Sap, and Wim Kok. That’s in addition to the ones already covered in our blog in the past, including Kees A. Shouchamer Immink, Cornelius Drebbel and Dr. Cornelis Bontekoe (we have a thing for Cornelii here at Funny Names HQ). If you want a few hours of free entertainment, just leaf through a Dutch phone book for some good laughs (unless that sounds to you like a pretty sad form of entertainment, which it is, so touché).

Where was I? Oh yes, Dutch names. If all that didn’t convince you of the potency of the funny names in the Netherlands, perhaps today’s subject Ricky van Wolfswinkel will get you there. Yes, that’s right – Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Ricky is actually his given name, granted to him some 23 years ago in the fine Dutch village of Woudenberg, “famous” for the Pyramid of Austerlitz, a landmark which is pretty much what you’d expect – a beautiful green pyramid with a giant phallic tower protruding from its center. One can only imagine what its designers had in mind during the sketching stage.

The tower has one step for each funny name found in the Netherlands.

The most famous son of Woudenberg, Ricky van Wolfswinkel is a promising young soccer player who has not yet followed his destiny to the German team Wolfsburg like fellow nominally canis lupus-inspired football man Wolfgang Wolf, but there is still hope. Van Wolfswinkel is currently giving manly winks to the crowd in Lisbon, Portugal, playing for Sporting. Rumors are abound about a possible move to Manchester United, which would certainly make his funny name famous around the globe – if they can just fit it on the back of his jersey.