When Your Name Is Just Too Perfect For The Job: COTD

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Some people were seemingly born for the jobs they’ve taken on. Or, at the very least, they were given the perfect name for a job. Will Power is a great racecar driver name, as is Dick Trickle. There’s Dr. Joshua Butt who is a gastroenterologist and Tom Kitchin who is a chef.

I’ve said it before, but my name isn’t made up. Well, sort of. I named myself Mercedes in 2012 and then went through the legal process to change my name to Mercedes. My original legal last name was Streeter, but I recently changed it to the last name of my biological grandfather to honor my family’s history. I kept Streeter around as a layer of protection from creeps and admittedly, “Mercedes Streeter” is just too perfect of a name for someone writing about cars and motorcycles.

Jason went to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Mustang 60th anniversary event, but there may have been an even better choice, as pointed out by 10001010:

Shouldn’t Sally be the one covering the Mustang event?

Today, Lewin wrote about how Dubai and its airport suddenly found itself with a lot more water features than it should have. It’s wild watching an airliner taxi its way through a flood. Perhaps more surprising was the Porsche Taycan that briefly served as a boat. Andrew Wyman got me with this:

That Porsche driver: “I’ll take the boat less Taycan”

Finally, Lewin wrote about how a dealer is selling a Maserati Levante for $31,000 off. V10omous wasn’t impressed and gave it the full Joe Walsh:

My Maserati cost $1.85…..

DialMforMiata came in for the rhyme:

…It lost its turbos so now it don’t drive.

As did Mr Sarcastic:

It turned to rust
Now I ride the bus.

Have a great evening, everyone!

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55 thoughts on “When Your Name Is Just Too Perfect For The Job: COTD”

  2. I worked with a fellow named Peter Dick. His brother – and I swear to God – Harry Dick. We used to joke with Peter that his sister married a guy named Quick. Anita Dick-Quick. Also in town was an insurance salesman Harry Cox.

  3. There was a girl in middle school named Penny Nicholl.

    Damn! I never thought to ask her if she had a sixth sense. Ah, missed opportunities.

      1. Hmmm, it could have been Nichols rather than Nicholl, that was a very long time ago. Is your aunt in her late 50’s and raised in San Antonio?

  4. “I kept Streeter around as a layer of protection from creeps and admittedly, “Mercedes Streeter” is just too perfect of a name for someone writing about cars and motorcycles.”
    Yeah, agreed about the latter, it’s too good a name not to keep for such an occupation, and, yeah, a wise course of action about the former, unfortunately.
    While I do not have any first-hand accounts of nominatively determinative names and otherwise humorous names, my mom did have two such from her college days. She had a professor named Dr. Legg (alas, not in anything related to anatomy, kinesiology, or the like) who had a brother named either Henry or Harold (I do not recall which one) and was inevitably saddled with a nickname such that he was known as Harry Legg. And my mom had a college roommate named June who married someone with the surname Bugg and she went through with the traditional name change so she was known as June Bugg.

  5. My grandparents knew a couple with the surname Lear. Named their daughter Crystal Shanda. I’m thinking she likely applied for emancipation the moment she turned 14.

    Oh, they also lived on Easy St—but that name only lasted a year or so before residents applied to have it changed

    1. Absolutely! So many Saturday mornings listening to those knuckleheads while Dad & I complete the day’s tasks. I have their podcast at the ready, and lots of old episodes downloaded to my phone, just in case I need a fix.

      Yes, that pun was intended!

      And I agree about the comedy, what I learned, and what can still be learned.

    1. And why would you ever invest with Bernie Madoff With All Yo Money?

      Then there’s the crypto king, Mr. Bankman Fried (sounds like “freed”). Who is of course, no longer free, for crimes related to being a pseudo bank.

      Lorena Bobbit made the news again (indirectly), when the guy she bobbed had to have another ten pieces of his anatomy removed. (Apparently an infection in his feet necessitated removal of his toes.)

      I still think Mr Car-roll Shelby was destined to produce race cars, and while Adam Car-olla isn’t in the auto biz, he does have a nice collection of race cars.

        1. Yes and no. He was picked to be one of the hosts when they were developing Top Gear USA but the show didn’t test well so they switched things up. Tanner was retained, but Carolla and Eric Stromer were replaced by Adam Ferrara and Rutledge, I believe before the first episode aired.

  12. My wife has a family member named Richard Long, except he goes by Dick. She worked for him for a summer at his business as a high school job. She fielded many calls that thought it was prank paperwork for financial applications. Last name – Long. First name Dick.

    I also had a high school teacher named Mrs. Head. Her husband was Richard, and he went by Richard… Definately not Dick. They should have changed their last name.

      1. I once worked with a guy named Dean Wermer. He never forgave his parents for the Animal House reference. When he married, he changed his last name – not to her maiden name, but to something they picked together.

  14. An old girlfriend told me that she had a gynecologist named Dr Stringfinger. It seemed implausible but I like to think it was true.

    And here in Massachusetts, you’ll occasionally meet Richard Hertz from a town in the central part of the state and once he lets his guard down he’ll introduce himself as Dick Hertz from Holden.

  15. I was assigned to compete with the son of a cop that had the last name Baton in high school. He was philipino rather than french so it wasn’t exactly a perfect nomative determinism thing.

  18. I once met a man named “Dick Swallows.” He was in the bird control business, meaning he was a dick to swallows.

    Do not know if the nominative determinism extended to extracurricular activities.

    4. Yeah, growing up we actually had a neighbor named Bob Law who was a lawyer…he had a 2nd gen Lincoln Town Car and we even eventually bought it from him. Great car

    1. A fixture in Austin. I’ve known many men that went to him over the last 25 years. Someone eventually told me they saw a diploma or something on the wall with his real name. I suppose he changed to Chopp early in his career. Seems like a ballsy move that really paid off.

  22. I visit the dentist’s office twice a year for a cleaning. I lose track of who my dentist is sometimes there is so much turnover. One time I came in and was told Dr. Chu was coming in to examine my teeth and I was like, “Doctor Chew? He was made to be a dentist.”

    1. I had my AC replaced a while back and the guy’s last name was Painter. I suggested he was in the wrong line of work but he assured me he wasn’t because he hated painting.

      1. I lived in semi-rural indiana for awhile and there was a junky old suburban running around with rear window graphics proudly proclaiming “I want to shoot you!” And then in much smaller text was the url for a photographer’s website.

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