Re: (OT) Re: Anthroponymy (was Re: Re: Laadan)

Roger Mills scripsit:

> A while back someone mentioned that when the Dutch were officially required
> to adopt surnames (Napoleonic era?), a lot of people, either out of spite or
> mere whimsy, took such "funny" names.  In that regard, and speaking of cows,
> my new neighbor, whose name is Bont, recently explained that it was
> shortened from Bontekoe "Spotted Cow".  (That would be Dutch, not Native
> American)
In Austria-Hungary, when Jews were compelled to take surnames, they sometimes
had to bribe the officials to get good ones, and poor people were stuck
with the losers: hence the joke about the fellow who got the name "Schweisshund".

"What, you didn't pay enough?"

"You have no idea how much I had to pay for just the 'w'!"

--
John Cowan    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan   <jcowan@...>
    "Any legal document draws most of its meaning from context.  A telegram
    that says 'SELL HUNDRED THOUSAND SHARES IBM SHORT' (only 190 bits in
    5-bit Baudot code plus appropriate headers) is as good a legal document
    as any, even sans digital signature." --me