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Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
Being a guy with the name Sandy (short for Sanford), you’d think I’d be the last person on Earth to make fun of other guys with feminine or androgynous names. You’d think that…
From Alec Baldwin to Eddie Murphy, we found 10 stars with girlie middle names. Can you match the manly actors to their surprising monikers? Click here to play.
Comments (42)
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that was brutal! I only got one right (quincy delight jones).
posted by jen on 11-1-2007 at 3:47 pm
Hahaha! I put in random answers, just so I could go see the quiz key (and still got three right). I had no idea. What were their parents thinking?
posted by Miss Cellania on 11-1-2007 at 4:29 pm
I completely guessed because I wanted to see the answers (got 2/10 right). HILARIOUS!
Even better – Average score of 13%. Do you think most others guessed, too???
posted by Erin on 11-1-2007 at 4:37 pm
Well I only got 3! DAMN! those girlie names.
posted by Miss Nae on 11-1-2007 at 4:44 pm
I got none. Absolutely zero. I don’t think I’ve ever done so poorly on a _floss quiz!
posted by Jeremy on 11-1-2007 at 7:57 pm
That was both fascinating and demoralizing – how could that useless knowledge not already be in my head. Because I had no clue, I just listed them 1-10 so I could see the answers – they gave me 1 right? Yep, there I am, bringing down the average!
posted by Debi on 11-1-2007 at 8:34 pm
Wow. One right. Quincy was the only one. Gah.
How sad for these guys to be saddled with names like that. I got named after my Dad, who was named after his uncle, but Mom decided right off to use one of my middle names for me (David is one of them). Then my sister has kids and names her *daughter* after me & Dad. The nerve.
posted by Dave on 11-1-2007 at 8:41 pm
Google is a girl’s best friend, honey…100%…heh…
posted by donner on 11-1-2007 at 9:17 pm
Wow! Also wanted to see the answers so just placed numbers pretty much numerically and scored 60%.
posted by winthebig on 11-2-2007 at 7:02 am
OK, here’s where I expose to the World Wide Web at large that I carry the middle name “Lynn.” And, since I’m from the South, where first and middle names are in common use, my name comes out like “Karlyn.” Talk about a moniker that sounds girly!!
posted by Karl on 11-2-2007 at 7:59 am
OK, some of them are down right goofy (Delight??!!), but some are not so bad if you think about it. Too bad some pop singer in the 80’s made Tiffany a girlie name, but if you think of it as being a family name (last name of Louis Comfort Tiffany), maybe it’s not so silly. Allison is originally a boys name, as was Shannon and Lynn (and Shirley, Lesley, Brook, etc.). All it takes is one famous girl to have a boy’s name and it’s doomed to girlie-hood forever.
posted by Becky on 11-2-2007 at 9:17 am
“Delight” is the only one I guessed correctly. It just seemed to work…
posted by natlynn on 11-2-2007 at 10:13 am
10 on 10!
I love you, IMDB!!
posted by gatguy210 on 11-2-2007 at 4:13 pm
There was a bully that was younger than me at school. His middle name? Sunrise
posted by Emily on 11-2-2007 at 5:03 pm
How could anyone NOT get 100% with Wikipedia at hand?
posted by Andrea on 11-7-2007 at 2:41 pm
I admit that I cheated by looking these up on Wikipedia before answering. I would have gotten two correct without it though (Quincy Delight Jones and Chris Shannon Penn).
Some of them are not that bad (Shannon, Tracy, or even Lynn… Shannon and Tracy at least used to be male names, and I know several male Shannons), but *Tiffany*?! Richard TIFFANY Gere?! Did his parents hate him?
posted by Niamh on 11-9-2007 at 2:06 pm
Statistically, i should have gotten a few correct, right? but no i missed them all!
posted by Shayna on 11-10-2007 at 1:10 am
I’M SO OLD, EVEN MY GUESSER IS WORN OUT!
I MISSED EVERY ONE…..ONLY A PRO COULD DO THAT. :-)
posted by Wanda on 11-11-2007 at 12:06 am
well… that was strangely entertaining
thank you IMDB ;)
posted by Cedrick on 12-11-2007 at 8:55 am
Never before in my life, have I gotten zero on any test! The trouble is that they are bunch of wimps, with girl’s middle names! My fault I guess, but I see that I’m not the only one who got all of them wrong.
posted by Don Prisby on 2-16-2008 at 5:57 pm
Shannon is actually an irish boy’s name not a girls name. For some reason the translation of shannon to American culture it became female…
posted by shannon shannon o'shannon on 4-2-2008 at 6:48 pm
I totally guessed on this one and got 1/10 right – Drew Carey. He just looks like an Allison, eh?
posted by Jay on 4-12-2008 at 8:31 am
My one correct answer Richard TIFFANY???? oh my, i always thought he was kind of soft.
posted by Ella on 4-14-2008 at 11:32 am
This always comes in handy for Jeopardy. Storing for future retrieval. Oh yeah my middle name “Lane” hmmm
posted by Bret on 4-25-2008 at 4:59 pm
hee. I got 30%. Two just sounded right to me (Chris Penn and Quincy Jones), and one I knew (Matt Damon). All the rest, bzuh?? Especially “Allison” and “Tiffany”. YIKES.
posted by Lo on 6-17-2008 at 10:26 am
Doesn’t anyone else know that it was a long standing tradition to give boys their mothers’ maiden name for a middle name (a vestige of matrilinearism, perhaps)? If you think of those names as last names there is nothing odd at all about any, except of course Delight.
Just think of all the girls currently named Madison, Kennedy, Mackenzie…a dead general, a dead prez, etc. but those names probably already seem “girly” to some runts out there.
And at least 5 of those names were traditionally male 1st names that were feminized, like what recently started happening to Michael.
posted by gala on 9-2-2008 at 5:50 am
I got 4 out of 10, which is pretty good, considering I guessed on all except one (Quincy Jones).
posted by tiacheryl on 10-6-2008 at 1:54 pm
Google, right at my fingertips. I couldn’t resist. Any “macho” men named Sue!? ZZ!
Kim, Female.
I like this mental_floss!
posted by Kim on 10-23-2008 at 7:48 pm
Wow, I got 5 out of 10. Damn, thats above average.
posted by Dakota on 11-27-2008 at 2:16 pm
None. Zero. Zip. Nadda.
Guessed on all of them and totally blew it.
posted by Fidget on 12-12-2008 at 10:30 pm
Since when is “Kim” a chick’s name??; I do know a female named “Kimberly” who goes by Kim but every other Kim I know is a dude. Tracy is also a common male name… I can’t defend the others, though…
(What about first names i.e. “Robin” Williams)
posted by me on 12-29-2008 at 9:17 pm
2 out of 10 – seems to be the average for all of us guesstimates.
posted by j on 12-31-2008 at 3:25 pm
40% – yeah baby!!! I’m 2 good!!!!. An Aussie who’s smarter than your average Yank
posted by Liz on 1-3-2009 at 11:27 am
I first found out that Joe Biden’s middle name was “Robinette” on inauguration day when he was sworn in. Giggle.
posted by Andrew Triska on 1-29-2009 at 10:07 pm
IMDB-Internet Movie Data Base is my best friend 100%!
posted by FCA on 3-7-2009 at 9:13 pm
that was hard but i managed to make it thru…..
posted by LORETTA on 3-30-2009 at 3:40 pm
WOW!!!!!
posted by loretta on 3-30-2009 at 3:42 pm
Hmmm….. so many of us got “Delight” correct and nothing else??? Perhaps, it is Quincy’s face, it is a delight to look at! :)
posted by MGR on 6-12-2009 at 3:00 pm
Some of the names are THAT girly. However, Allison, Tiffany, and Shannon are.
posted by Ellie on 6-13-2009 at 2:27 pm
Wow ,so easy ….Got 10/10
posted by Brenda on 6-15-2009 at 12:25 pm
WOW! So easy……..GOT 10/10
posted by Brenda on 6-15-2009 at 12:28 pm
10 of 10!!
posted by Susan on 8-30-2009 at 11:12 pm