“I grew up with 6 brothers. That’s how I learned to dance–waiting for the bathroom.”–Bob Hope
“Big sisters are the crabgrass in the lawn of life.”–Linus (Charles M. Schultz)
When it comes to siblings in major professional sports, a few names immediately come to the minds of today’s fans. The Manning Brothers. The Williams Sisters. The Molina Brothers. The Klitschko Brothers.
Yes, they come to the mind of the everyday sports fans–but we at The Blog of Funny Names set a higher standard. When it comes to siblings with funny names, two pairs of boxing twins(yes, twins!) stand out above the crowd. So let’s investigate.
Jermell and Jermall. Easier to tell apart from the hair and tattoos than the names.
Jermell and Jermall Charlo are identical twins born one minute apart in LaFayette, LA in 1990. Wow–it’s hard enough to tell identical twins apart–their parents had to give them practically identical names, too? They are both undefeated professional boxers in the light middleweight division. Jermell, though 60 whole seconds younger, is the somewhat more accomplished, sporting a record 23-0. Jermall is 17-0. They are rated #13 and #16 respectively as contenders in their weight class in the current IBO rankings. One would assume that they will emulate the heavyweight title holding Klitchko brothers and never fight each other. Since there seem to be dozens of title belts available, that shouldn’t stop either of them from aspiring to eventual championships. You can get a look at Jermell when he takes on veteran middlewieght Gabriel Rosado on a Showtime boxing card January 25.
McJoe and McWilliams Arroyo
And I thought it was only WASP parents that gave their kids two last names (e.g., Outerbridge Horsey). In this case, the Puerto Rican parents of McJoe and McWilliams Arroyo did one better by giving them Scottish sounding first names to go with their fairly common Latino surname. Why? Your guess, as they say, is as good as mine. They both won medals at the world amateurs in 2007 and both qualified for the 2008 Olympics. Since turning pro in 2010, McJoe is 13-0, McWilliams is 14-1. They avoid fighting each other by competing in adjacent weight divisions, McWilliams as a flyweight and McJoe as a super flyweight. Both are ranked well within the IBO top 50 in their respective weight classes. They also both fight next on same card on January 25. Sorry, they are not on TV; you’ll have to go to Humacao, Puerto Rico to see these matches. Isn’t that what any self-respecting funny names fan would do?
A combined 67-1 between the two sets of twins–you have to wonder if McWilliams is kicking himself for that one loss. One would also hope he is not kicking his parents for the name.
McJoe and McWilliams. Er, McWilliams and McJoe? Whatever.
More of my own silliness at http://www.millenniumconjectures.com
The Blog of Funny Names 
Reblogged this on The Millennium Conjectures™ and commented:
I admit it, holidays left me in a lazy blogging fog. One more reblog–my monthly guest post on The Blog of Funny Names–and I promise to get back on track. Eventually.
hahaha…
three “ha”s is for triplets, keep it to two for twins. 😀
Heehee! Good point!!
Two “heehee”s is acceptable! 😛
Wow, very impressive research. Some of these guys were beyond my radar… I’m at risk of losing my clout as the BoFN boxing guy!
McJoe and McWilliams are two AMAZING first names! We need more McSomething first names!
P.S. And Amb, doesn’t Jermell look like Troy from Community?
You could’ve just said “Troy” – you know I’d know who you meant 😉
(And yes, he does!)
I really should have said that. Thanks for calling me out on my redundancy 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 (Passing through several time zones and having very early interviews has me on a fairly exhausting schedule, even by Dave standards). Looking forward to sleeping on Friday!
Maybe their parents were McDonald’s franchisees?
Dave, In the immortal words of Satchel Paige, “don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
I read the first part too fast the first time through and thought you were referring obliquely to Dave and Rob, and I thought “Hey, I didn’t know Dave and Rob were twins!”
It’s a good thing I’m not a delivery RN or I would be veto-ing names like McJoe and McWilliams, that reflect the rich, authentic tapestry of the Puerto Rican culture. Not. How do you even justify that? All I can think of is if McDonald’s merged with Oklahoma Joe’s. You KNOW they got made fun of. Oh, wait a second, THAT’S why they learned to fight. I get it: this is all very boy named Sue.
Here is an even better tale after that same manner. It seems that boxer Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko is actually Joseph Kingkong Agbeko. While King Kong has been pushed as his boxing nickname, his REAL, given middle name is Kingkong. He had to become a boxer because everyone on the schoolyard wanted to fight King Kong. True story.
And to think parents have nine months to think it through clearly and still get it wrong. And also that TWO (presumably) people thought, “Yes, let’s go with King Kong. There can be no down side to that.” Doesn’t King Kong always die at the end? It’s like reading about all the terrible things that befell Job and then saddling your child with that name. Agbeko is hard enough to say as it is.
I’d be afraid the kid might climb up a building and start swatting at planes!
That’s a fantastic story! I can’t believe you just casually dropped it in comments like that instead of working it up into a post!
(I guess my conversion from Funny Name Scarcity Theory was shallow and short-lived.)
are they related to mc-lovin?
How the heck should I mcknow?
Oh I’m lovin’ the McNames. We need more of these. We had a double-mac in one of the sports draft roundups…Mackenzie MacEachern. But McTwins…yowza!
what about mcmuffins for two hot male twins?
With all the McDonald’s riffs swriling around I was trying to think of something with double arches/double Arrocharlos, but I couldn’t get it to quite click.
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