Welcome back funny names fans. After last week’s Norwegian Drummers taking over the air waves of Jazz, I thought this week we should go a completely different direction.
Celebrities with birthdays on July 24th: Happy birthday to you!
Jennifer Lopez (Pop Singer)
Tanner Braunhardt (YouTube Star)
Saffron Barker (YouTube Star)
Skylander Girl (YouTube Star)
Bindi Irwin (TV Show Host)
Amelia Earhart. 1897 to 1939 (Pilot)
Wait Amelia Earhart!?! How on earth have we at the BoFN missed Amelia Earhart, someone whose last name looks like “ear ♥” but is pronounced more like “air heart.” Her name is the epitome of Nominative Determinism. By her very name, Earhart was destined to fly and and loved doing it.
Amelia Earhart standing under the nose of her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra. Photo courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute.
She was first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic. She received the United States Distinguished Flying Cross for this feat. She set many other records—including the first “Airster to reach an altitude of 14,000 feet (4,300 meters)”. She was the 17th woman to receive her pilot’s license. She wrote best-selling books about her flying experience, lectured around the country and was a key player in the forming the the 99’s—an organization for female pilots still in existence today.
We would be remiss not to mention that she married her publisher, George P. Putnam of Putnam Press.
She took a post at Cosmopolitan magazine where she turned her column into a campaign for greater public acceptance of flying, especially promoting the role of women in the field. She even received celebrity endorsements to finance her flying.
But she didn’t stop there, oh no. She was a visiting faculty member at Purdue University where she became an advisor to aeronautical engineering and a career counselor for the female students.
She donated $1,500 to Commander Richard Byrd’s South Pole expedition.
It was her solo journey around the world that captured the world’s attention and cemented her celebrity.
Her career ended when she disappeared on July 2nd, 1937, at the age of 39—22 days before her birthday. She disappeared somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, between Lae, Papua New Guinea, and Howland Island.
She was declared dead in absentia on January 5, 1939 at the age of 41.
Amelia Earhart, if you were alive today, you’d be 121-years-old and watching SpaceX launches on TV. Happy birthday to you.
Tracy – Fannie Cranium’s Guide to Irreverent Wisdom
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The Blog of Funny Names 
such an interesting life, sad it was cut short. my own mother, amelia, told me that she was named after her. i had no idea as she never mentioned it until she was in her 80s.)
What a cool connection. To be named after such a pioneering adventurer. I bet your mom has some stories of her own.
Oh boy!……
Definitely nominative determinism. I didn’t realize she had done all those other things!
“. . . Fannie takes to the skies for another fine BoFN offerin’ . . .”
“. . . Fannie caught our ears on this one, and then won our hearts . . .”
“. . . Fannie goes trans-oceanic on this solo flight, but this time we’re happy to report that no-one goes missing! . . .”
Wonderful blurb! Glad to know you survived the monsoon. I saw something on the news a few weeks ago and wondered if it was in your neck of the woods.
Thanks, Fannie!
Basically, very little or no monsoon in this neck of the woods this year, creating water problems (relatively speaking, like for certain kinds of farmer) and instead we got a swelteringly hot and humid heatwave (apparently worst on record) with high alerts for heat stroke, etc. etc. Where’s the monsoon when you really need it?
I hear you. The West is on fire right not. When I went out to water the vegetable garden this morning, dust puffed up from the ground for every step I took. The east coast is getting all the rain in the States right now.
Joni Mitchell did an “Amelia” and so did Jaco:
Cool! I had no idea.
Reblogged this on Fannie Cranium's and commented:
Amelia Earhart was the first female aviator to cross the Atlantic, but she accomplished fare more than that. This month’s contribution to the BoFN.