Famous people with unusual names - how many?

[MannyMoeAndJack]

This is a little tongue in cheek....I've noticed that whenever a poster asks for opinions on unusual names, there will generally be one or two replies along the lines of, 'don't choose it, it won't suit an adult' or 'they won't be taken seriously' and similar.

Well....just how many people in the public eye do have unusual (first) names? Are there very many?

Tiger Woods

His real name is Eldrick, Tiger is just a nickname.

rip torn

Rip Torn was born Elmore Rual Torn, Jr. on February 6, 1931

well Eldrick is quite unusual in the grand scheme of htings too I guess.

am imagining the replies you'd get on here for suggesting it for an imminent baby lol

OK, but in my book, Eldrick is also fairly unusual!

Ditto Elmore

It is fairly unusual, but not as unusual as 'Tiger' - he was named after a friend of his dad's.

Elmore's a fairly normal name for someone of that age. And it's actually a name, unlike 'Rip'.

Oh, and before anyone brings up Sigourney Weaver, she was born Susan Weaver, and changed her own name as a teenager.

impressed with your name knowledge nqc

Oprah Winfrey?

Her name (Oprah) was mis-spelt, as was Brittney (Spears)

a friend has just used Tiger as a middle name.

the late River Phoenix

Isn't there a Rainbow and Leaf in the Phoenix clan as well?

Not sure on this but isn't Joaquin a.k.a. Leaf?

And I would say Madonna is an unusual name

His 3 sisters Rain, Summer, and Liberty and Joaquin, don't know where I got the LEaf from. Then a half sister Jodene, changed her name to Trust.

he was originally River Jude Bottom. Fancy that, River Bottom.

Yeah, Madonna's a weird name.

(Oh, no, I lie, I knew about Sigourney Weaver already - because Sigourney is a name that used to be a boy's name. Names only go from being boy's names to girl's names, in our culture - bit of a bugbear of mine.)

Don't forget those famous () daughters of Bob Geldof and/or Paula Yates -Peaches, Pixie, Fifi Trixiebelle and Tiger Lily (if I've got them right??)

Sienna isn't your common or garden name really

American kids can be called anything (multi-cultural, see? ) and nobody bats an eyelid - I don't believe they have playground teasing for weird names.

We lived in a normal residential area on Long Island; a Jewish baby over the road was called Yair (pronounced Yah-ear) and a brother & sister of Irish descent 2 doors down were Tara (boy) and - ooops, I forget his sister but hers was pretty odd by UK standards too.

Condoleeza Rice

These are all American so far (except Sienna, & Siena isn't that different from Florence) so my case rests

Yeah, it seems to be a lot more normal in the US to use unsual names. And plenty of names that are normal (or normal-ish anyway) there are unknown here.