Merry Christmas, everyone! Today we do not spotlight only one funny-named person, but some of the poor souls who had to share their birthdays with the baby Jesus. One collective gift instead of two. I wonder if anyone born on Christmas enjoys it?
Well, we can’t ask Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, because he died in 1948. Being born on that day probably wasn’t a problem for him in the city of Karachi, but now 12/25 is observed as a national holiday in Pakistan because it is HIS birthday. Way to be famous! P.S. How many Muhammed Alis are there? One is enough. Right, Cassius Clay?
Now one name NO ONE steals these days is Adolf. Yep, that name had a quick decline in the 1940s. But that was way before Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus was born on Christmas day in 1876. He won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1928 for his work on sterols and their relation to vitamins. I don’t know what sterols are, but I bet Dave does! Hey, do you guys remember in 2012 when a judge ruled kids named Adolf Hitler and Aryan Nation had to be taken away from their parents? Lesson learned. No genocide-themed names.
Moving away from evil dictators, we discover that Louis-Joseph Chevrolet, co-founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company, was born on Christmas Day, as was Greek composer Antiochos Evanghelatos (Evangelizing gelato?).
On Christmas of 1904, Gerhard Herzberg, the Canadian physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1971 for molecular structure, came into the world. Exactly two years later, Ernst Rusk cried his first cry, and he, too, won a Nobel Prize–for physics in 1986, when he was super old.
As far as entertainment goes, Christmas babies include bandleader Cab Calloway, actress Helen Twelvetrees (like the 12 days of Christmas!), Humphrey Bogart, and Norah Dunfee, the elderly lady at the bus stop who gives Tom Hanks advice in Forrest Gump.
Actress Irish McCalla (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle) was also born on Christmas. Should her name really be an adjective? Are you even reading this or looking at the pic?
Those of you who are into boxing may be familiar with Christmas baby Emmanuel Agassi, Iranian boxer and father of Andre Agassi, oh he of formerly lovely locks.
More fun-named Christmas babies include:
1934 – Giancarlo Baghetti, racing driver/journalist
1937 – O’Kelly Isley, singer in the Isley Brothers
1938 – Wibo van de Linde, Dutch TV host
1943 – Hedley Howarth, cricketer
1943 – Ravish Malhotra, Indian cosmonaut
1949 – Sissy Spacek (yay, alliteration!) of creepy Carrie
1958 – Joop Hiele, soccer player
1960 – Ron Bottitta, British actor (oh, the teasing he must have endured)
1971 – Dido, pop singer whose song “Thank You” makes me wretch, and I really only added her because her full name is Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong. Awesome.
1985 – Perdita Rose Annunziata Weeks, British actress and younger sister of Honeysuckle Weeks
Well, that about wraps it up for famous funny-named Christmas babies. Enjoy your holiday!
The Blog of Funny Names 
Reblogged this on I Don't Get It.
Sheena is a lot skinnier than I remember as a kid.
You have memories, yes?
I confess, I was looking at the photo of Irish. You got me.
Helen Twelvetrees is such a great name. I feel bad that we haven’t covered her here before! Wow. That’s good stuff.
Seconded on the no genocide theme. That really put to bed my polished kitchenware company PolPots back in the day.
You crack me up.
Brilliant Christmas offering!
Speaking of Cab Calloway, I get a kick out of this version of Cab Colloway’s “Minnie the Moocher”:
I’d never heard Hugh Laurie sing before!
i love these one totally understand dido’s desire to be known my only one name. i’m surprised she didn’t go with one letter, “D.” ) merry christmas –
I can see why she picked Dido, too! Merry Christmas!
What should we call ya? Peaches? Beth? ksbeth?
Yay!!!! I’m not sure if I ever told you this, but I love boxing, kerbey! 😉 😉 [winky face]
Kerbz! Were you around when we featured Dido on the BoFN? https://funnynamesblog.com/2012/03/01/florian-cloud-de-bounevialle-omalley-dido-armstrong/
No, I didn’t know that! Yikes, 2012, and you were already all over it. I didn’t know about Rollo either.
Kerbey, I promise I did read your little quip, but I may have spent a second or two looking at the pic too. There’s gotta be a “Luck of the Irish” joke to make here, but I’m all holidayed out and chillin with a cat I’m allergic to!
I think of all these names, my fave fave fave may be Antiochos Evanghelatos. What an amazing name. If he came to evangelize gelatos to me, I’d totes buy some!
It is a great name. It should be featured in the new “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” BTW, this is why cats are the devil.
Whoa! Sick cough syrup Dave missed (or at least rapidly forgot) the part about Emmanuel Agassi. I’d never heard of him before, but that’s a pretty amazing sporting lineage. Those Agassi-Graf kids have an Olympic boxer grandfather, and both of their parents were among the greatest tennis players of the 90’s, with their mom possibly the greatest women’s tennis player ever! Wow! I’d pay a lot to have those athletic genes!
That’s a good point. Probably best that he didn’t mate with Brooke Shields, as far as athletics.
And stop being sick.