[X] My Assistant

[Rob Pinnegar]

Mine is another one that doesn't appear to make much sense in any language. Incredibly, Pinnegar is actually an English surname, though you'd be hard pressed to guess that.

It's actually Latin for "wing feather". Seems the guy who carried the eagle in the Roman army was called the "penneger". Hence the word "pennant".

And, of course (sigh...) occasionally some curious person will make that telltale leap of logic that unambiguously identifes a keen and insightful mind, and ask me whether people ever comment on the fact that my last name rhymes with "vinegar". It's always refreshing to encounter someone who has a good, solid grasp of the fundamentally and glaringly obvious. (The last person to ask this deathless question was my financial advisor. This I found disturbing.)

[remcook]

My last name is not pronounced very politely in English. In fact, I'm not sure it will get past the censoring

[Cugel]

My last name is not pronounced very politely in English. In fact, I'm not sure it will get past the censoring

That's rather typical for us Dutch, my boss is called 'Pee'.
But we do have the most brilliant word describing a female astronaut: zweefteef.

[The Messenger]

First lier doesn't have a chance...

My family name, Woodbury, is thought to be derived from the Danish for Wild and Burg, or the 'Wild Borough'. The Woodbury castle was built in Cornwall prior to the Norman invasion. The Woodbury's fled with the puritans to New England in 1623, and get this, William and John Woodbury were granted the charters for both Salem and New Salem.

William's great great grandson, Jeremiah, converted to Mormonism in 1840. He was in the Third wagon train to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and his grandson Willian, my great grandfather, was among the first children born in the desert.

So I have Wild Danes, Polygamist and witches, and if I have to come back with a bigger story, wait until you hear about my mother's family...

Edit - year, based upon a list of the founders and settlers of the first Puritan settlement, Cape Ann & Naumkeag, 1623-1627:

Allen, Balch, Conant, Cushman, Gardner, Gray, Jeffrey, Knight, Lyford, Norman, Oldham, Palfrey, Patch, Pickryn, Winslow, Woodbury.
In ~ 1627 some of these families resettled in Salem.

[ustrax]

My own, Borges, comes from a portuguese knight back in the middle ages, Rodrigo Anes, that fought aside the king of France Phillipe Augustus, and helped releasing the city of Bourges from a siege, so brave and passionate he was on his task that he was named the Chevalier de Bourges, or the Bourges' Knight.
When he returned to Portugal he established himself in Trás-os-Montes, NE of the kingdom and with the passing of time the name became what I have today. I even got a coat of arms!

[chris]

You forgot the motto:

"Per astra ad vorago"

Chris

edit: found a better word

[climber]

It's Indian (my husband's a Parsi). "walla" is a term for a seller of something, so you see all kinds of -wallas among his community; Motiwalla, Daruwalla, even, and I am completely serious about this, Sodawaterwalla. Stupid British; the Parsis didn't have surnames until the British came in and said "What! What! Of course you must have surnames." The Parsis made up surnames either from their cities of origin or their occupations (There are also lots of "Contractors" and "Engineers" among the Parsis). "Lakdawalla" is timber-merchant; the Parsis were majorly into shipbuilding. I have heard what may be urban legends about the surnames "Waysidepetrolstationwalla" and even "Sodawaterbottleopenerwalla". I can't vouch for the veracity of those but I have actually met a Sodawaterwalla.

--Emily

Like we'd said in Parsis : et voilà !

[ustrax]

You forgot the motto:

"Per astra ad vorago"

Chris

edit: found a better word

Huumm! I liked that!
But I have already one...:
Concussus Surgo