"Like the pine trees lining the winding road..."

"...I got a name." (Jim Croce) Here we are, smack-dab in the middle of Celebrate Your Name Week. CYNW began in 1991, though this is the first year I heard of it. Its purpose is obvious, and probably more welcomed by people with uncommon names just because it gives them one week per year to take pride in having to spell their names to everybody every time they use them. I wish it were also the one week per year when we uncommonly-named people don't have to hear things such as, "Wow, where'd you get a mess like that?" If you are one such person, I give you my permission to carry and use an airhorn on everyone who says that to you this week. Then go off to celebrate your lovely moniker.
Some towns have clubs or annual gatherings for people who have the same first name. There is a Lois Club, and a Betty Club. But I suspect those clubs will not exist in the next generation as unique and unusual names grow in popularity. As you know, if you read the newpapers' new baby announcements, names - - like so many things now - -have become customized. People employ different spellings of ordinary names, and they create names, too. Sometimes people are named after things in pop culture. I once lived where there were people named Lexus, Camry and Nautica, not to mention those who aspired to the aristocracy and royalty by naming their children King, Prince, Princess, Queen, Marquise and Marquess.
I know of people named Spider, Uniqua (a very popular name for a while), Stormy, Misty Bay and Karma. And two altogether one-of-a-kind names belong to siblings, YuhHighness and YuhMajesty. But my all-time favorite name has to be Aphrodite Chuckass. What a hard row to hoe she must have had.