Two First Names

Back in the so-called “Swing Era” there was a terrific musician named Harry James. He was a trumpeter and a bandleader. In fact he was the first bandleader to feature a young singer named Frank Sinatra, but as they say, that’s not important right now. The thing about Harry James is, (and this may place me way up there in the ‘pull out the petty’ rankings) that in one of the movie musicals in which he was featured, some gorgeous singer tunefully introduced him as “the man with two first names: Harry James!”

I know, we have a world financial crisis, terrorists trying to attack us, and an earthquake of colossal destruction in Haiti, and I’m blogging about some musician from sixty years ago. I really know how to focus on what matters, don’t I?

And yet…

Why do I recall that line from a movie I must have watched on tv with my dad a zillion years ago? Um, partly because my dad, in some photos, bore a striking resemblance to Harry James. Partly because, I don’t know—I can’t remember what shoes I’m wearing if I can’t look at my feet. I just do.

The thing is, it comes to mind when I meet someone whose surname is a common first name. In fact one of my husband’s college friends fits this category, and he recently shared a story about how it created a near-crisis in his senior year in college. Let’s call him Simon Kelly. Because that’s his name. No, it’s really not. You don’t get into AEPi with a name like Kelly, but that’s not important right now either…

It was getting close to graduation time, and his guidance counselor called him in and told him he had only about half the number of credit hours he needed for his degree. Kelly went nuts, assured the guy he had been carrying a full course load for 3 ½ years, and had carefully been documenting his requirements.

After some fast and furious digging, they realized that nearly half his grades had been turned in under the name Kelly Simon, and the rest under Simon Kelly. Clearly, we went to college before everything was computerized, bar coded and automated. Lord, we actually stood in lines to sign up for the course and section we needed to get into! How primitive!

Anyhoo, just in the past week I’ve made note of some of the surnames I’ve read in the paper (yes, many from the obits—I’m weird like that) that are commonly thought of as first names. Here are a few:

Molly (not kidding)

Lynn

Fred  (really!)

Harris

Roberta (I know!)

Guy

Fay

Simon

Mark

Shirley

Kelly

Frank

Francis

George

Kimberley

Lindsey

Phillip

Robin

Joyce

Jacob

So our pal, the so-called Simon Kelly recalls that he was so traumatized by the near-miss graduation that he deliberately named his two sons so that they would never experience a similar ‘mis-confusion’. They are Machine-Gun Kelly and Kelly Kelly. Mission accomplished.