People with real l337 speak names?

An anonymous reader writes "I'm considering naming my first-born child either Br4d or J4n37, depending on gender. My wife isn't too keen on the idea but there's plenty of time left to persuade her. Anyway, it had me wondering whether there are any people out there with real l337 speak given names (or even just a digit in their name). Do you know of any? Other than people saying your dad is a l4m3r, What are the possible pitfalls of having a digit in your name? Is it legal to have a digit in a name? Am I guaranteeing my child becomes a misfit? Am I the misfit?" Ask Jennifer 8. Lee.

Not a Joke

[Merlin42]

Jon Blake Cusack 2.0 [cnn.com]

Ry4an

[ry4an]

I had my name legally changed to Ry4an 10 years ago. It's worked out fine though most formal records just exclude it.

The word is "sex"

[gtrubetskoy]

unless you expect your first-born to be either masculine or feminine. English grammar does not have genders, which is why most people don't realize how screwed up this sounds (because they don't know what the word gender means). In many (most?) other languages words have geneders, e.g. in French a table is of feminine gender and in Russian it's masculine. Gender is purely a grammar term. Confusing the words "gender" and "sex" is equivalent to using "it" when referring to a person.

I know this is OT, but WTF is the topic today anyway?

Seen it.. once

[viniosity]

Back in 1999 there was a guy at Apple who's name (as posted outside his cube) was Bo3b. I believe the '3' was silent.

Tom Lehrer already addressed this

[Concerned Onlooker]

Tom Lehrer [rhino.com] told the story about his "unique" friend who had decided to spell his name Hen3ry. He would just say the 3 is silent.

Re:First use of a number in a name

[nomadic]

It's later, not earlier, but in Asimov's Prelude to Foundation the Mycogenian names contained numbers (i.e. Sunmaster Fourteen).

In real life it was quite common in ancient Rome to give children numeric names (Quintus, Sextus, etc.).

Re:First use of a number in a name

[Gwenna]

How about Tom Lehrer's reference to his friend Hen3ry in one of his songs (well, it was the opening to a song, and unfortunately I can't remember which one right now.) I am certain that the friend is either fictitious or that this wasn't his legal name.

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

If you need further reference, look at the flack that the musician Prince put up with when he changed his name to an unprononucable symbol.

The flack Prince got was orchestrated by the RIAA as he was showing them up for the arseholes they are not because of what he changed his name to; his record contract wouldn't allow him to release records under the name "Prince" without his record company's say so, despite the fact that he was born with that name. You may remember an incident at the Grammies I think it was, at around the same time where he had "slave" emblazoned across his face. At no point in the media frenzy did they explain why he did this.

Re:The word is "sex"

[Fedallah]

(because they don't know what the word gender means)

You mean definition (3a) here? [reference.com]

Re:oy

[Trigun]

+42, but you really have to know what you're doing to get that one.

Wrong

[Mr. Underbridge]

unless you expect your first-born to be either masculine or feminine. English grammar does not have genders, which is why most people don't realize how screwed up this sounds (because they don't know what the word gender means). In many (most?) other languages words have geneders, e.g. in French a table is of feminine gender and in Russian it's masculine. Gender is purely a grammar term. Confusing the words "gender" and "sex" is equivalent to using "it" when referring to a person.

That's true for other languages, but you might have consulted a dictionary before attempting (incorrectly and pedantically) to correct the poster regarding English usage. As seen from definitions 2-3, gender is an acceptable term in English to refer to a male/female distinction for humans.

Other languages can do what they like, but simply because English is different from other languages doesn't make it wrong. Many languages use one word for two usages that are split in other languages See below. Sex and gender in this usage are accepted synonyms.

*****************

gender ( P ) Pronunciation Key (jndr) n.

1. Grammar.

1. A grammatical category used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.

2. One category of such a set.
3. The classification of a word or grammatical form in such a category.
4. The distinguishing form or forms used.

2. Sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture.

3. a) The condition of being female or male; sex.
b) Females or males considered as a group: expressions used by one gender.

This is illegal in most states.

[httpamphibio.us]

I'm getting married soon and I looked up the laws about changing your name in a couple different states, Washington, Oregon, and Ohio, and every single one of the says that it's alright to have a number spelled out, but having a numeral isn't allowed. Granted, things may be different outside of the US.

Re:In my family

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a reference to a song by Johnny Cash in which a boy is named Sue, curses his father for it, then grows up to thank his father for making him tough.

No, it isn't standard Slashdot fare. What's next, sports jokes?

Re:My Grandpa is 1337!

[FortKnox]

Aye, just like Harry S Truman (the S didn't stand for anything).

A famous example

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple's own Bo3b Johnson [google.com]. He's been a member of Apple Developer Support since time immemorial, and has managed to get Bo3b on credit cards and (it's rumored) drivers licences since way before many slashdotters were born.

The 3 is silent by the way. And apparently Bo3b is short for Ro3bert.

Re:Ry4an

[ry4an]

Yeah. Leet wasn't the goal. Hell 10 years ago it wasn't even called leet, but called "hacker" on the BSSes, and that wasn't the goal either.

Re:The word is "sex"

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, reference.com does not mention when this came into common use - during my university days, "gender" was used in the "grammatical" sense exclusively. Then, the postmodernist quacks and the politically correct somehow decided that the word "sex" was inappropriate to describe, for example, studies about inequalities between female and male humans these were therefore termed "gender studies" instead of "sex studies".

The actual reference says...

[mdfst13]

The actual reference from your link says "You can not use numbers in your name, like 911, in order to intentionally confuse people." From that, I take it that if your intent is not to confuse, you can use numbers in your name. If not, they should revise their wording in that statement.

Re:Ry4an

[ry4an]

the 4 is silent

Re:Tom Lehrer already addressed this

[Anonymous Coward]

I am reminded at this point of a fellow I used to know whose name was Henry. Only to give you an idea of what an individualist he was, he spelled it H-E-N-3-R-Y. The 3 was silent, you see. Hen3ry was financially independent having inherited his father's tar-and-feather business and was therefore able to devote his full time to such intellectual pursuits as writing. I particularly remember a heartwarming novel of his about a young necrophiliac who finally achieved his boyhood ambition by becoming coroner.

In addition to writing, he indulged in a good deal of philosophizing. Like so many contemporary philosophers, he especially enjoyed giving helpful advice to people that were happier than he was. One particular bit of advice which I recall -- which is the reason I bring up this whole story -- was something he said once before they took him away to the Massachusetts State Home for the Bewildered. He said, "Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it."

It's always seemed to me that this is precisely the sort of dynamic, positive thinking that we so desperately need today in these trying times of crisis and universal brouhaha. And so with this in mind, I have here a modern, positive, dynamic, uplifting song in the tradition of the great old revival hymns. This one might more accurately be termed a survival hymn.

It goes like this.

("We Will All Go Together When We Go")

Re:In my family

[Mr. Slippery]

This is a reference to a song by Johnny Cash in which a boy is named Sue...

No disrespect to the Man In Black, but it was written by Shel Silverstein [banned-width.com].

See also his "sequel" to it, The Father of the Boy Named Sue [banned-width.com].

Re:Housing director at my college

[empaler]

A written '3'-like symbol in german is actually a minor 'z'. The reason for this common misunderstanding is that the old type 'B' in recent grammatical reforms has been allowed to become 'ss', where it historically was 'sz' (i.e. tall 's', curved 'z').
Incidentally, the 'B'-character is also referred to as 'the sharp s' as the 'z' requires a sharper pronounciation than double-s would.

(Try having taken german from 6th grade up)

our child

[shemnon]

We are expecting a child in october and I am trying to convince my wife to name it "Princess 247" if it's a girl and "Hot_Wheels 180" if it's a boy.

Her most convincing arguments have to do with the standardized testing that is going on in the schools now. Unless I can show her a bubble sheet with numbers for the middle initial or an underscore for the first name they are out of consideration. (I releneted on the colouring of the names as well, since I was going to make the "Hot" red and the "Wheels" a dark rubber grey but there's a chance the boy may be colour blind).

Dose anyone work for the ITBS tests or the CAT tests and can upgrade the bubble sheets for this? It doesn't have to be immediate, Since it is at least 5-7 years away until they will test I think that if I can show they will be there by then I can make her budge. That will show her to make comprimizes that aren't!

Re:Alfred Bester was here first...

[Valdrax]

Bester wrote "The Demolished Man" in 1953 when William Gibson was about 5.

You owe it to yourself to read "The Demolished Man." Aside from the prominent use of telepaths in the story, it was in every way a proto-cyberpunk novel as well as being just one of the best-written books I've ever read. Bester's "The Stars My Desitination" is even better, though. It takes an intelligent look at what society would be like if everyone could teleport at a whim and tosses it into the background of one of the most vivid revenge stories ever told. Gulliver Foyle is the single greatest "larger-than-life" protagonist that I've ever seen. His indomitable will is monstrous and his passion and fury leaps out and grabs the reader.

Bester is one of my favorite authors of all time.

Re:oy

[SandSpider]

Almost forgot about Frigga. Nice girl, I spent a whole day teling her what her name means.

Yeah, it'd be a pain to be named after the Norse Goddess [gods-heros-myth.com] of Love and Fertility. But you'd think she'd be able to understand that a little easier. Maybe you might want to pick up some mythology books next time, for help.

=Brian

Re:That's nothing

[reconbot]

Since the url does work [google.com] I figured I'd link to it.

Re:Must clarify...

[Anonymous Coward]

Class of '97. The "8" was because of the movie "Jennifer 8" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104549/) which had come out a few years earlier. I believe that she picked it out herself, although it's possible that it was at the whim of a copy editor. Personally I think it's kind of lame, and I'm still amazed that the Times let her stick with it.

The Chinese really only have 20 or so last names (although they are not as bad as the Koreans who only seem to have 6-7). I remember that there were 4 Susan Lees at one point - just in Quincy House.