Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Great one! But the speculation on the cause of the pattern omits one obvious possibility: perhaps it is more difficult for men with laughable surnames to marry and pass on the family curse. Really, if Mrs. Cock could make it through the first date with Dick withouth convulsing on the floor with tears running down, surely she would also need to have no friends or family to restrain her from walking down the aisle.

Of course, in a few rare cases the beau might curtail the humor by quickly demonstrating assets outweighing the liability.

The article brings to mind a young lady I met in college. Her last name was always given as a mumbled Sechs, pronounced “sex.”. I made the mistake of saying “pardon” twice — only because I couldn't hear — and the situation became very awkward. Needless to say, in the Seinfeld pattern, ….

There's a fairly well-known Korean actor named Han Suk-kyu (or Suk-kyu Han, if you follow the Korean convention of placing the surname first like in Japanese). He's probably lucky that he didn't grow up in an English-speaking country.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0359197/