to ask if you know of any 'urban myths' that are actually true?

[manicinsomniac]

a colleague told me the other day that her husband had been to school with a brother and sister called Everard and Ophelia Dick. I was very dismissive, told her I'd heard that story several times before, that it was an urban myth and possibly on snopes.com.

Luckily I stopped short of saying that the story probably had racist undertones.

But I've just googled them and they're well documented in the same town that her husband is from. So the chances are he's right. I'm very and will have to tell her so in the morning.

I get so used to these name tales being false and offensive that I didn't think there was any way it was going to be true.

Does anybody know if any of the others are true?

Ah, thanks lemons

Silly me

I know a Jo King also.

I also met a Randy Wiggle once. I could not stop laughing for about an hour. Unfortunately I was at work.

Even funnier was that he introduced himself as 'Randy Wiggle from Milwaukee'. Not sure why Milwaukee is funny, but it is.

Trees are green no wonder some parents didn't realize what names they were giving their dc's, took me a while before getting some of them!

I always thought the one about swallowing spiders in your sleep was silly...until I woke up with a massive spider right on the corner of my mouth and going in! Ewww.

Names: I knew a red headed Amber Bush.

I know Manic, she said to me "how would you pronounce this new baby's name?" Thanks to MN I knew, she was horrified. But in Kilmarnock, she has a Pocahontas, twins Leonardo and destany (spelt with an A) and many other belters.

I used to work for someone called Dick Rotter. He was a very nice bloke, but I suppose you have to be with a name like that.

I met a client by the name of Richard Veryard and he told me to call him Dick.

Now work with a guy called Ufuk.

Wasn't there a company down south called Wayne Kerr Electronics?

One of my colleagues was called Richard Staines and an American customer was Randy Rogers. Still snurk now when I think of them.

Ben Dover is a porn star.

I knew an Annette who went out with a Mr Ball. Real.

I know a lady called Olive Green and went to school with a girl whose surname was Hoare.
A friend of a friend was named Kimberly Clark.

Ben Dover the porn star is the father of Tyger Drew-Honey, the oldest child in Outnumbered, fat fans.

I was taught at school by a man called Dickon Head, which never failed to make us fall into hysterics. And we had a family friend whose full name was Luke Skye Walker, although he was born in 1939, so pre-dated Star Wars.

Also, my friend's married surname is Hunt. Nothing wrong with that. Except for when they found out they were having a boy at the 20 week scan and declared that the name they had picked for him was Isaac. Isaac Hunt. It took about five of us to get her to see why she might want to choose another name...

Fact fans, not fat fans!

Ben Dover's sun is the elder boy in " outnumbered "

X-post . Sorry.

My late hubbs worked as a butcher with a mr T (terry) bone and I remember seeing a film and when the credits came up there was a Dick Pull ....I pmsl at that one!.

I went to school with a girl who had the surname longbottom. poor girl.

These aren't urban myths, urban myths are stories that are widely circulated and believed without having a basis in fact - like Bob Holness playing the sax solo on Jerry Dafferty's Baker Street or losing 70% of body heat through your head.

But funny but true names....there was a female teacher at the other school in the town I grew up with called Pat Mycock (We used to joke that her husband was called Phil or Paul)

I went to university with an A.C.Hunt (and to paraphrase a classic mumsnet bon mot, he lacked both the warm and the depth of a cunt) he was a lanky streak of piss and was utterly condescending to anyone who wasn't privately educated, white and male.

DHs grandad is John Johnson. Not a lot of imagination in the family!

And whoever mentioned Purple Aki upthread, it's not just NE England - I'm in Liverpool and everybody 'knows' about him. I give them this face every time as they all claim to have had a run-in with him but it's all a bit vague.

Just read the Fortean Times link.

I take back all my skepticism, Purple Aki is real!

I paid £££ for an extended warranty on a washer dryer that broke down at least twice a year. The guy that came to mend it each time was called Andrew Mann, he was known as Andy!

Dr Death was a consultant at a local hospital.

OK. Dr De'Ath.

Are but ComposHat, the 60-70% heat loss through your head is true.

Twas a big argument about it at the time.

I was pretty sure if was a myth, you don't lose heat faster or lose more heat through your head than anywhere else. If that was the case that 70% of heat was lost through the head, why not go out in a woolly hat and a swimming costume?

Heat loss occurs wherever the skin is exposed, so if you went out with a hat on, but no trousers, more heat loss would occur through the legs.

yap. eating the crust make youre hair go curly

DD is at school with children called Minge, Fanny Pong and Fanny Kok.
She has also had the company of a couple of Fuchs in Germany.
I worked with a Wayne King. Lovely man, a bit thick, but very nice.