A guy named Peter Rabe wrote a batch of books for Gold Medal in the ’50s, and he was absolutely the single largest influence on writing style. I was completely in love with the way the man wrote.
Along came a police lieutenant named Columbo, and my life would never be the same.
I’ve always loved dogs and have had one since I was three. We bought her from a kid selling puppies out of a cardboard box on the street where we lived in New York City. Great dog. We named her ‘Marcella’ after a Raggedy Ann character. She grew up with us.
It was in 1942 and I flew from St. Louis to Mexico City. I had just gotten married and we were on our honeymoon. I hit .397 and led the Mexican League with 20 home runs and was named the MVP of the league. It’s when I realized I could compete with anyone at any level.
I sometimes think I was born to live up to my name. How could I be anything else but what I am having been named Madonna? I would either have ended up a nun or this.
I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.
I had a dog named Oliver with severe separation anxiety. He couldn’t be alone… so I had to bring him wherever I went.
I was probably 8 years old; my mom let me stay up one night. She’s like, ‘You have to see this movie.’ It was ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ and it was on TV, and it was a big deal. And I saw Marlon Brando, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ That’s where it started.
Personally, I find it odd that they would name it One World Trade Center. Frankly, I think if they named it any company name, I would think it was – you know, the memorial is beautiful, but I don’t know why they don’t change the name. That just seems so odd to me.
I had a friend named Vasil Rusev in my rowing classes. I’ve always liked that name. When I first started in WWE, I had the opportunity to choose a name, and I choose Rusev.
I have a red-tail Columbian boa constrictor named ‘Jade.’
My name, my real name, is Tracy. I always thought I was like a boy named Sue. So I made my friends call me ‘Tray.’
Maybe it’s because I was named for him, but I’ve always wanted to meet Nathaniel Hawthorne. It’s oversimplifying, but all Hawthorne’s short stories and novels are, in one way or another, about guilt. Something profoundly disturbing must have happened to him at an early age. I’d like to know what that was.
I’ve always been aware that to be named after someone from the past carries with it all kinds of bittersweetness.
I hope Hong Kong isn’t just named Hong Kong but it can still be the Hong Kong we desire.
I have an old dog named Lily, and she’s a black lab.
I coached the Bucs with a Florida State quarterback named Brad Johnson. Things worked out all right.
I didn’t learn much about writing at Sarah Lawrence, but I learned a lot about the sources of poems – dreams, myth, history – from the really great teachers, Joseph Campbell, Charles Trinkhaus, Bert Loewenberg, and a young Australian anthropologist named Harry Hawthorne.
There is a tendency to presume autobiography in fiction by women or minorities. Guys named Jonathan write universal stories, while there’s this sense that everyone else is just fictionalizing their own small experiences.
I was named Rohan from the great West Indian cricketer Rohan Kanhai.
My friends know I’m a really big movie buff, and I named Vivianne after a movie character. She was named after Vivianne Walker in ‘Ya Ya Sisterhood.’
There’s a guy in London named Ben Cohen who is doing great things. In a way, we need people like Ben – we need straight guys to come out and say, ‘What’re you worried about? Get over yourself.’ That’s what we need! Because no one’s listening to us – certainly, no one is listening to me.
The ship was named the Bounty: I was appointed to command her on the 16th of August 1787.
I found poetry at 12 and 13 and, lo and behold, learned that my attorney father had a background in poetry – as he wore dashikis and Afros in the ’70s and named his kids Arabic names. He was a poet and a lot like The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron and all of these folks. He definitely was an artist.
My real name is Dijon. My mom named me Dijon, so everybody used to call me Mustard.
When I was in the ninth grade, I had a teacher in Dallas, Texas, named Elizabeth Enlow in English class. Every Friday, we had to write a little essay, and you had to incorporate three particular words into the story. That was the sole direction. And to me, this was so much fun.
Those who kept their sanity and humanity intact in the face of awful adversity. Heroes named and unnamed, some known only to God.
I was in Fort Lauderdale from about age 7 to 14. And that’s where I learned the most about music. My favorite DJ was this guy named DJ Laz and the Miami bass guys. I was super into, like, Arthur Baker, that kind of stuff.
That’s why I named my album ‘Finding Forever,’ because that’s what I was thinking about: What did I want to contribute to this world that would live beyond my physical existence?
It’s humbling and an honor to be named AP Player of the Year, to be mentioned in the same realm as a lot of great players, a lot of hall of famers.
I’m fascinated by Greta Garbo. My cat’s named Greta, and I have a framed photograph of her from 1949.
As far as I know, there is only one other director who was a stuntman – guy named Chuck Bail who directed ‘Gumball Rally.’ Doing stunts isn’t exactly a common path to directing.
There’s a musicologist named Peter van der Merwe whose theory is that the blues generates tune families, and that their similarity to each other is in fact part of the pleasure you take in them – rather than the differentiation in which Jerome Kern and George Gershwin indulged to great effect.
I have a Maltipoo named Blondie. She is so cute!
As a candidate, Obama disdained the game of politics, a self-conscious contrast to all the tireless political athletes named Clinton.
That’s why I named my album ‘The Life,’ because it’s appreciating life and not taking it for granted and living it day by day.
The next generation of entrepreneurs are already named Martinez or Sanchez.
I think being named role models kind of happened just naturally, we never really asked for it. Which is lovely, I love the fact that girls look up to us and we empower people and inspire them.
I am more interested in how people interpret the phrase ‘Elect The Dead’ than what I may or may not have intended. I named the album after the track, which is a spiritual song about love, life and death and is the heaviest song on the album without having any heavy instruments.
You know what? At the end of the day, funny is funny. I hope to see the end of all the female cliches that are written in a lot of comedies that are named chick flicks.
I named all my children after flowers. There’s Lillie and Rose and my son, Artificial.
It is an incredible honor to be named the Colts’ Walter Payton Man of the Year.
I have a rescue dog named Walter, and Walter and I are such fans of the ‘Jersey Shore’ that we changed his name to DJ Wally D.
My black cat was named Blackie.
People who don’t know how old I am can cast me as the woman in ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ and can cast me as Stella in ‘Streetcar Named Desire,’ and they are miles apart.
I named my dog ‘Messi’ because Messi is the best in the world, and so is my dog.
I do have a ski lift named after me in Sweden… It’s an honour. I got to smash a bottle against the first pillar and say, ‘I name this chairlift James Blunt. God bless her and all who rides me.’
As with wine, geography affects the flavor. Oysters are usually named for a locale.
It’s interesting, because I named my first album after my dad because I wanted to find him. My second album was named after my mom because I felt like I learned all my creative talents I learned from her. All the survival stuff, too. And then the next album is ‘Maya,’ which is not my real name. It’s fake.
I signed with Big Yellow Dog and have been with them for years. The president of the company is a woman named Carla Wallace, who is an amazing publisher who just has a knack for female artists.
The major reform legislation, Dodd-Frank, was named after two guys bought and sold by special interests, and one of them should be shouldering a good amount of blame for the crisis.
I always wanted my kids to like me and think I was funny, so I made up this story about a kid named Jake and his racecar that he had built from scratch, fully loaded with whatever fantastical gadget he or I wanted him to have at the moment. I loved making up the stories off the top of my head.
I got a buddy named Brandon, who I boxed with for a long time, and I always think about him, or my daughter. If they look at something I’ve done, or they’ve seen me in the world and they don’t recognize me, then I’ve done something wrong.
Yes, I’ve just bought a new horse, named Jedi.
My friends always said that I should be a comedienne – I was named my class clown.
I was born in Den Bosch, where the painter Hieronymus Bosch named himself after. And so I’ve always been very fond of this painter who lived and worked in the 15th century.
I’ve said publicly, and it’s true, I’ve had a lot of wonderful things come my way. But personally, the greatest thing I ever accomplished was when I was named the starting quarterback at Ole Miss. That was my childhood dream, as it was thousands of kids in Mississippi.
