Last names are funny, aren't they? They usually seem quite nonsensical -- just a happenstance combination of random sounds, to make a distinct family identity. At least this is the way that I grew up thinking about last names in the United States of America. Sure, there's a subconscious recognition that the last names actually mean something. The last names Smith, Miller, and Baker, for instance, were common ones in the part of the world where I grew up -- and it makes sense that, ancestrally-speaking, Smiths were metal-workers; Millers worked in the grain mills; and Bakers worked in bakeries.  But the economic system has changed so much since the days of family trades and apprenticeships that these names have become disconnected from their original meaning. And the disconnect is further enhanced, I imagine, by all the different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (not just Anglo-Saxon families like Smith and Miller and Baker) that have settled in North America.

But moving to a different country -- with a different language -- helps to reconnect the dots in surprising and amusing ways. I often find myself reading the names of people like sentences -- subconsciously translating everything into English -- even though Dutch people themselves probably don't make the association, in the same way that I never did with Smith or Miller or Baker.

So I think about my friends Jurren the Great... or Jannie of the Helmet... or Marco Peacocks... or Frank Windowshop...

Or when I hear about Dutch sports stars, my mind cannot help but translate their names into Frank the Farmer... or Demy the Guy-from-Zeeland... or Maarten Prickly-Mountain... or Rafael of the Fart (actually, the Dutch "Vaart" should be translated "Voyage" -- but my English ears can hardly avoid the obvious association with the English word "Fart," which is pronounced very similarly).

Funny, huh? Do you ever notice this kind of thing? If so, what are some funny or interesting names that have stood out to you?