Kitchen Sink | Posted by Jannie on 29 October 2008 @ 12:44 PM
How’d I get to be Jannie Funster? Funny you should ask.
Jannie’s the nickname for my unusual first name of Bla-bla-bla. (Back in school I had everybody call me Jan so I wouldn’t feel so weird. Sorry, Mom.)
Right out of college I married what’s-his-name but off to Texas with my landlord did I run. Married the landlord and changed my last name to his almost 17 years ago.
Couple years ago I fell in with the Funsters. After we amicably went our own musical ways, I vascillated between Jannie Funster and Jannie Sue (my middle name,) for my site’s name, because my solo songs are not all of a funny nature and would I get pelted with limp carrots and day-old pizza for not living up to audience’s funstering expectations?
Did consider my married surname but the E at the end of Jannie clashes with the E at the start of my landlord’s last name most unharmoniously for optimum web address readability. In the end I decided to stay with Jannie Funster for fear of losing some of my then 27 web fans.
So Jannie Funster it is.
Or just Jannie 
And because everyone’s an axe-wielding nut out there I cannot divulge my true name, altho I’m sure it’s all out there in Cyberland somewhere to be found, anyway.
So that’s my name story. Exciting, isn’t it? What’s yours?
On 29 October 2008 at 2:39 pm wade said,
You have to be careful with names. My best friend in college had a different last name than his grandfather because a nun at school misspelled it his first day and the family was too shy to tell them about the mistake. Then he saw his birth certificate a year ago and found out that the middle name he has always been called was not his middle name at all. This sounds bad but at least it makes identity theft difficult.
On 29 October 2008 at 3:00 pm Mia said,
Well, at least there was some thought to your “name”. My process wasn’t quite as ‘fun’ to come up with. But, sometimes the change is necessary to protect the innocent and all that…axe wielding nuts and all.
On 29 October 2008 at 6:04 pm karyn said,
I like how you say your names. Very clever.
On 29 October 2008 at 6:18 pm Patricia said,
I have changed my name to fit my life changes – I formalized it as I am turning 60 and liked that Patricia means woman of wealth and wisdom – it felt just like me now.
Your process for your name is very interesting and significant and I heard a person who is expert on names say that we all have a rhythm built into us for our right and proper name and you will discover it as you proceed in your living – some folks do get it right at birth, but most grow into a true name-
I have had several friends change their names when they got divorced or turned an age.
also we have an adopted child who was just assigned the next name on the list…her adoptive name is the same phonetic rhythm as her assigned name…her name means pearl of truth….she likes the US version of her name better
Fun post and good to think about. Thank you
On 29 October 2008 at 6:42 pm Caitlin said,
My names are boring, really. I was given the name Caitlin Ann C**** at birth, and the only change I’ll have is when I change my name this june at my wedding. It’s the same number of letters and both names are objects. Pretty funny.
On 29 October 2008 at 8:52 pm Lisa said,
When I was in school, I always felt my last name was really “weird” because it’s so uncommon (in this country, anyway). The only people I knew with my last name were people who were related to me. So when I married my husband (who has an extremely common last name) I couldn’t wait to change it. NOW, however, I sometimes regret that decision. My name may have been unusual, but it was MY family’s name… and I’m proud to be a part of my family. (Of course, I love my husband’s common-last-name family, too!)
On 29 October 2008 at 9:21 pm Shay said,
Wasn’t there an old tv show called The Funsters? They lived in a spooky old house with a dragon under the stairs and….oh wait, that was The Munsters, never mind.
My name? There’s a story behind it but I’m not telling, not here anyway.
On 29 October 2008 at 9:35 pm Jannie said,
Shay, are you named after a Pacific Fastmail train? My hubby is a model rail-roader and loves his little brass PFM “Shay,” the first loco he had in his collection. Do tell.
On 29 October 2008 at 9:44 pm Vered - MomGrind said,
That was actually interesting. I just use my real full name which may be stupid or maybe not, I don’t know but it’s too late now.
On 30 October 2008 at 3:30 am Michael Lee said,
I post under the ident of a man who was, pre Andy Murray, Scotlands greatest ever tennis player – he was one round away from playing Andre Agassi at Wimbledon…then he lost…oh well!
On 30 October 2008 at 4:08 am SnaggleTooth said,
I always accused my mother of giving me an old Lady’s name… so I expect to get pretty darn old! I too had a short marriage, to some one with a very common last name- My writing pen name has the same initials as my legal name.
A Snag can catch you n pull you under, I broke my tooth just before I started blogging, n I wanted something to do with a cartoon kitty, but SnagglePuss was male, n a trademark already of Hanna-Barbera. So I became a hybrid of ideas, which in England is a rock band’s name… (They’ll never figure out who I am!)
On 30 October 2008 at 7:49 am Barry said,
For most blogging and online things I use my real name. At first I was paranoid about it, and used a nom de plume for a few months, but then I decided I didn’t care.
I do still occasionally use that alias when, for whatever reason, I feel that some thin veneer of identity insulation is preferable. When I was about 20 or so I booked my band to play a gig at the local VFW. The old soldier that signed our contract never could get my name right, though, and kept calling me Benny Park. Naturally, my bandmates found that inordinately humorous so I adopted it as an alter-ego and have used it sporadically for the last 30 years.
Benny is marginally better-looking than I am, but somewhat less civil and more given to creative fiction.
On 30 October 2008 at 8:52 am kingofnewyorkhacks said,
I killed the prior King….with my axe..of course….and thats how I got my name.The end.
On 30 October 2008 at 11:44 am Jannie said,
Wade, until I looked at my birth certificate at age 17 I always thought my middle name was Susan, not the Sue it actually is.
Mia, I guess my name is more to protect the guilty.
Karyn, I guess they work. But I so would have love to be Katie Cooper or Laura Knotsworth.
Patricia, if I ever got divorced (which I can’t ever see happening,) but if I did, I’d cannge my name to Esther Von Vandervester or Starshine Interloper.
Caitlin, let me guess, you are Caitlyn Candy and in June you will become Caitlyn Crate?
Lisa, I think a different last name would be easier to handle than a first name that everybody teases you for. I used to hide in closets to avoid the taunts of my peers.
Vered, yours is a lovely name. What is its derivitive?
Michael, anything from your more than fertile mind would not surprise me.
Snag, my brothers used to tease me because my teeth took a long time to come in. They called me … get this… Snaggletooth! No lie. I still hear it once in a while from them even tho we’re all in our 40s.
Benny, you’re my creative man. You still play music?
King, I’m sure he deserved it! Was the king a fink?
On 30 October 2008 at 2:15 pm MANDY said,
Can I just tell you, you calling your significant other, “the landlord”, still, 17 years later, makes me laugh! That is funny. I love how honest you are with “your running off” statement in a post about not being too honest with a name!
On 30 October 2008 at 2:28 pm Lynn said,
I always feel pretty safe posting as Lynn since it is everyone’s middle name. My married last name was strange and didn’t go well with Lynn, so I went back to my current last name – which is beautiful and of Scottish origin. How’s that for vague?
On 30 October 2008 at 4:19 pm Kerri said,
Kerri. I hate my name very much. I am very soft spoken so when someone new asks me my name, they always think I say Terri, Sherri, or anything else other than Kerri. It is rather annoying. My middle name is Lynn, after my mother. Its Ok, I guess. I do find it interesting that my initals are in alphabetical order. KLM.
Other than that, my mom saw the movie Carrie and decided that is what she was going to name me, but she was going to change the spelling around.
If it were up to me, I would change my name to something else. Something interesting, but it just wouldn’t be the same.
On 30 October 2008 at 5:59 pm Thomma Lyn said,
Jannie is a great name, and how can a person not love “Funster.”
My name is actually Thomma Lyn — I was named Thomma for my dad (Thomas) and Lyn (part of Mom’s name). My parents almost named me Jane, which would have been fine, too, but for the most part, I enjoy having an unusual name, even though people often have difficulty with it.
On 30 October 2008 at 8:01 pm Jannie said,
Mandy: Observant and very well said! The landlord’s sure a keeper.
Lynn: your vagueness astounds with it’s beautiful mystery.
Kerri: But I think Kerri is a wonderful name, I’ve actually been a little jealous of it ever since we met. But what would you change it to?
Thomma Lyn: I can’t imagine you as anyone else. And wouldn’t want to.
On 30 October 2008 at 8:07 pm Renee said,
Ha! Jannie, only I know that you ARE the axe wielding stalker…hee hee hee hee….
I wish I had been clever enough to pick out a better alias. I would be Stinky Swanson or something sexy like that.
I laughed so hard about the dream you had. I dreamed last night that I was dating Harrison Ford and we went to Walmart (because I imagine he shops there all the time) to buy Gingko Biloba for my awful memory. When we got to Walmart, I couldn’t remember where the vitamin aisle was. I was p*ssed b/c Harrison had on shorts and old man socks to his knees and he kept stopping uninterested shoppers to offer his autograph. When we finally found the vitamin aisle, I bought contact solution instead (and I don’t wear contacts.) I really wish I was on drugs so I would have an excuse.
XO
Renee (a.k.a. Stinky)
On 30 October 2008 at 8:16 pm Jannie said,
Dear Lord, Stinky-Renee, I had a laugh at you right now!
My dreams of Harrison Ford are usually about him in young-girl black ribbed knee socks and orange lederhosen. He and I are at Target in the car accessories aisle and he’s humming “Away In A Manger.” He smells mysteriously of ketchup and chocolate cake. Often his head spins around, pops off and flies over to the office supply section and lands on the staplers. And once in a while I dream he and I work side-by-side on an assemblly line for semi-conductors. Go figure!
On 31 October 2008 at 6:27 am Shay said,
You two are hysterical. Myself, I can’t wait for the next Indiana Jones movie, in which HF will play bumbling but kindly old Doc Jones, opposite his much younger female costar. She will say, ohhhhh, you’re so amazing! and he will go WHAT? and she wil say I saud aMAZing, and he will go HUH? and she will scream AMAZING! YOU’RE AMAZINGLY OLD AND DEAF! and he will say, it’s quarter past five, young lady.
On 31 October 2008 at 10:07 am Pink Ink said,
Cool story! It’s awesome that you are a songwriter, btw.
I go by my nickname and here is the link to the story:
http://pink-ink-pink.blogspot.com/2008/07/hello-my-name-is.html
(I would have posted it, but it’s kind of long as a comment
On 31 October 2008 at 12:20 pm Jennifer (Danifer) said,
I am TOTALLY confused!!!! lmao
Danifer came from my fiance Dan and my name put together. We wrote (I did most of the writing) a really funny story about a year ago and posted it to the internet and it just stuck with me.
Danifer
On 31 October 2008 at 1:30 pm Jannie said,
Shay: You’re right up there on my Hysterical Scale, Girlfriend! Love quirky folks like y’all! Gotta love HF, I saw from an interview he loves himself a lot too. Love is a good thing.
Pink: off after this to click your link!
Danifer: lmao? (I’m really a newbie.) Laughing my ass off. I did it! I did it!! I figured it out all by myself, yay!! Do you have a link to that story of Danifer?
On 31 October 2008 at 7:39 pm Renee said,
Ha! I thought lmao meant “leave me alone orI’mgonnagetarestrainingorder…”
On 1 November 2008 at 9:22 am Monica said,
My name.. I was named after a nun of all people. Never quite lived up to that one. I am of Italian decent so my family name was always messed up by teachers. Only one ever pronounced it correctly and he was a sub. Go figure. My husbands family is from Austria and the name use to mean wealthy ladies man. When they came to this county during the war they dropped the von (money) part as they had lost all their money to the Germans. My site name no creativity there just my initials and how many kids I have. No creativity at all.
On 1 November 2008 at 10:16 am Tiffany T said,
I love your name! It is originally but somehow intuitive. When I see your name I think, “I know her!”
My name comes from an old coin-op game called Blasteroids. At the end of the game you have to defeat this giant asteroid-God called, Mukor. My husband was a fan of how hilarious that was, so he is nicknamed Mukor.
How creative am I?!
On 1 November 2008 at 12:59 pm Jannie said,
Renee: Little do some people know how true that actually is. I must sharpen up my blade er I mean, rosin up my bow.
Monica: “Wealthy ladies man,” that’ll work for me. “Von” stands for money?
Tiffany T: I see the bride of Mukor draped in granny apple green satin, floating down long halls that echo with digitized speech.
On 1 November 2008 at 3:03 pm Georgie B said,
Well….My name is actually the version I hate the most because it was used as an insult while growing up. Forty-two years later, after successfully invading the chat rooms and posting under my real name plus three other personas, I decided to use this version as my persona for my foray into the Blog world.
Also use it as my current chat room persona, so as to make it easier for all 9 of my subscribers and everyone else who happens to stop on by to my blog, to follow me around the chat rooms and get a taste of what it’s like to participate in chat rooms/message boards.
On 1 November 2008 at 3:13 pm Jannie said,
Welcome Georgie B!! Ain’t blogging grande, meeting so many new fokes? I have never been in a chat room, wouldn’t even know how to go about it.
On 1 November 2008 at 4:26 pm Jinxi said,
That is such a rad story and I love how your name sounds, flows and the (dare I say) “FUN” vibe that it emanates! It fits you. =)
I have a similar story with how I ended up with Jinxi; originally stemming from a birth name that never quite settled right with me (ha ha)
Yay for nicknames.
And YAY for you!
Winx, Jinxi
On 4 November 2008 at 1:28 pm Jannie said,
Jinxi-Boo, I dont even know you that well and I cannot think of a better name for you!
On 19 November 2008 at 8:17 pm Mike said,
Hi Jannie- I love to read short and sweet blogs that get to the point, like the origin of your name. I love to write epic tomes that repeat the point. And when I set up my blog’s URL, I went with my last name (fairly uncommon) – I’m usually quite cynical and disappointed in the world, but paradoxically hold out hope. So for some reason the day I created my blog, I was feeling optimistic toward my fellow humans and assumed no stalkers. And now I’m too lazy to change it and move everything over. “Mike” is ridiculously common in these parts (actually sat connected to five others in a cube farm for a year) so I’m usually called by my last name. I’m fine with my first name but I did have to get over learning it could have been Mick (another story for another day). Love the site!
Mike’s last blog post..Auto Industry Bailout? Hold on. Let me check with my sales manager…
On 18 March 2009 at 11:18 am After May 10th | Jannie Funster said,
[...] pick up a hammer and saw, or at least a paintbrush and vacuum cleaner. (Reminds me of that joke my landlord likes to tell… You hear about the blind carpenter? He picked up his hammer and [...]
On 18 March 2009 at 3:32 pm Jeanne said,
Grannie… umm… I mean Jannie,
I decided to just blog with a first name but no last name. I have had several occasions since I began blogging when I was very glad I had done so. (Those axe-wielders you mentioned, you know?)
Anyway, I think going by Jannie was a smart move over being called Bla-bla-bla. Just think of having to write Bla-bla-bla all the time.
Jeanne
P.S. Oh. I forgot to mention when Facebook forced me to pick a last name, I put down “Endo” since endometriosis is one of the things I blog about the most and since I opened my FB account to be a FB moderator of an endo group (after being asked by a medical research organization to moderate). One day someone messaged me on Facebook asking, “is Endo really your last name?”… after I had been posting a bunch of endometriosis messages.
Jeanne’s last blog post.."Jeanne’s Endo Blog": Interstitial Cystitis & Hot Peppers
On 21 March 2009 at 3:54 pm Liara Covert said,
Names can be humorous labels. Subtle nuances between the lines teach us much about our true selves.
Liara Covert’s last blog post..Why did you come here?
On 21 March 2009 at 4:17 pm Jannie said,
Mike: Hello. Sorry I’m a little late responding to this – umn, 4 months later. Whoops. Mike is a fine Biblically-based name. I just visited your blog and commented.
Jeanne: Jeanne Endo really worked out well for you I bet, as it no doubt helps in a search! Nice bonus.
Liara: I remember my first mother-in-law saying I was “lots of fun.” Good that I came back to it. And you, not so covert in spreading your light around!