Today I awoke to a message from Tim. In this message Tim pointed out that I follow a lot of people called Liam on Twitter, and said ‘Why not write a blog about names?’ and I thought ‘Why not write a blog about names’. So here I am now, writing a blog about names.

My first thought when I saw that message from Tim was ‘I need some breakfast’. After that thought though, I wondered what I could write about names. We all know that names are a very important tool in human communication, but really, are they interesting?

Well, names aren’t really very efficient. Think about it, how many times have you been in a room and someone has said (let’s say your name is Harry, for the purpose of this example) ‘what do you think of this idea, Harry?’ and you and the two other Harrys in the room have turned around to respond? What ensues is utter verbal chaos, as the person who asked for your (or one of the other Harry’s) opinion tries to explain which Harry they mean, and the three Harrys are all talking on top of each other.

I have a real life example of name ambiguity from just last night for you now. I was chatting on Facebook in a group chat. We were talking about the impending release of the new Hunger Games film, when out of nowhere, someone says ‘Liam is a fine specimen’. Obviously, being a Liam, I thought ‘Ooo, that’s nice, I am a fine specimen aren’t I’, then went and looked in the mirror at my fine specimenness for 5 minutes. Then it dawned on me. She was talking about Liam Hemsworth, star of The Hunger Games. I was very upset.

The above problems can normally be solved by using surnames however, so really, names are quite efficient, but we don’t really want to be going round calling people by their full names, that would be a waste of time. Things like those that I have mentioned then, can happen, and can be very funny.