One of my lifelong hobbies has been to collect 'aptronyms' - the newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams's term for people whose names were curiously appropriate to, or provided ironic comment on, their occupations.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My thought was I should try to stick with names that people may recognize like Robert Johnson, Son House, and Hoagy Carmichael, so if somebody cared to research, they would find a wealth of material.
I know somebody from university who's called Phil Collins, and I think there's something terribly unfortunate about sharing a name with somebody who either is famous or becomes famous.
I make up names for people all the time - it's part of writing. Very often, the name comes with the character, along with of a sense of who they are and what they do.
I get called all kinds of things - an investigative comedian, a comedian activist - I've lost track of what my job title is.
I always was fascinated by neat nicknames.
I'm an unorthodox type of guy, a funny guy - at least I think I'm funny. And one of the things I like to do is come up with nicknames for myself.
One of my other nicknames was Thomas Edison, because I invented so many moves.
Nicknames are the most essential in life, more valuable than names.
I don't like names that are clever or made-up sounding.
'In Memoriam' has been my companion for all my grownup life.