My great uncle's first name was King. I've always thought that was way cool, if a little pretentious.

So did I, but she was MIH-kel, not pronounced like Michael.

Was she Eastern European in any way? I vaguely remember that Mikel's name was explained as "oh, her mom's Ukranian." (We just said it Michael, though that may not have been strictly correct.)

I also went to elementary school with a girl called Kyde. Her mom claimed it was Native American of some sort.

But the kid I knew who had the most trouble with his name, as far as teachers went, was Kjeld, which is -- Swedish, I think? It was death to substitutes. (He said Keld, though that may not be how it's pronounced in Stockholm.)

Kjeld, which is -- Swedish, I think? It was death to substitutes.

There used to be a hockey player named Kjall Samuelson. I think he was a Swede. The French commentators pronounced it "Shell," which I thought was pretty cute.

LEE-roy. Which I can't hear now without singing to myself, "Leroy says send a postcard, Leroy says hello, Leroy says keep on rockin', girl..."

As in "the King"?

Exactly.

My college roommate had a friend named Sun King CommonLastname. I just googled him, and he's a working actor. Still named Sun King. Hee.

Sarameg: that I heard this am that Texas has the highest number of employed people without health insurance

I can confirm this. It's a big deal, not that the Lege is doing anything about it.

Gud: I discovered that when you go by your middle name, that it's very anticlimatic when people discover your middle name.

As a fellow goes-by-middle-namer, I can also confirm this.

OT: HUGE congratulations to Little Man Isaac, Burrell, and the Burrell-family folks! Isaac was on our short list, too, 'cause it's a freakin' awesome name.

Kjeld, which is -- Swedish, I think?

Almost always Danish or Norwegian.

The world generalizes to MY experience

Ooh. Look. New tagline.

My family's very big on family names. Annoyingly, the name my dad adopted at 18 sounds a lot like my mother's family nick, so it can get confusing on the phone. My mother has her given first name, used by many friends and all colleagues. Colleagues also hyphenate her maiden and married names. Old friends and family call her by the nick. Perfectly clear.

My dad's nickname is Brother Moore. Simply because his older brother Leston goes by Brother Les.

I used to be unsure of how to spell my mother's (very unsecret) maiden name, so half the time I used my maternal grandmother's maiden name instead.

Not efficient.