• PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    My grandfather in law only had one name. When they immigrated, they made his first name “XXX”.

    One time someone asked him “like the movie?”

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      I met a soldier who’s last name was too long to fit on a nametape. They asked if he could shorten it and he chose X instead. iirc he was Indonesian or Thai…

      • RBWells@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        I worked with a lady whose married name was Xu, she’d kept it when she divorced him. She was Laotian. (Really cool lady, grew up in refugee camp, married high roller Chinese guy, got t educated, when they divorced she moved to the US and was successful on her own). One day i forwarded her an email from a vendor, his name long and unpronounceable, and she looked at it and said, oh! That is the same as my maiden name! I could see why she kept the last name of the Chinese husband :)

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          heh, easy decision to cut a lot of time signing shit out of her life.

          I feel bad for the kid in first grade who’s like “I’m Bobby, Bobby Laxwhanxijontongsilvalessbronchongamonson”

      • Jumbie@lemmy.zip
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        12 hours ago

        That’s actually against regs in the US military. The correct way is to keep spelling until the name tape runs out of space.

        However, who’s going to correct the man about his own name? In his case, X literally pronounces as KingFaldTheBeeswaxBeeblebrox and I’ll be damned if you think it’s anything else, you silly gate guard!

        What happened? I blacked out.