Pun Intended

Do you know what we don't hear enough of these days? Punny names. Okay, so we all know the classics like Pussy Galore from Goldfinger (and thus, from Austin Powers, Alotta Fagina), or Ben Dover from the Simpsons. Maybe these are too obvious for everyday life. Really though, with all of these crazy celebrity baby names, you would think there would be at least a couple clever puns involved!

Well today, I realized that my relatives had done their part to keep the world entertained through clever names.

I present to you: Granny Dot.

I know what you're thinking, "Oooh! Granny Dot! How clever! I totally see the pun here... or not." But wait! My great-grandmother's name was Dorothea Morse. She was related (somehow... and I just spent like 45 minutes searching genealogy sites online) to Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code (made up of dots and dashes for those of you who are unfamiliar with the code). And then my great-grandmother's parents decided to name their daughter Dorothea, or "Dot" for short. Get it?! Granny Dot?! OMG my family is amazing.

Aaand I just realized the punniness of my great-granny's name today while talking family history with my mom. It went something like this:

J: OMG mom, Granny Dot like the Morse Code! Because she was a Morse!! And he invented the Morse Code!!!

Mom: Yeah. You didn't put that together earlier?

J: No. Do you think they did it on purpose?

Mom: Oh, I don't know...

J: MOM!! Of course they did! How clever of them!

Seriously, though. These are the types of clever names we need more of. Less "Ben Dovers" and more "Dot Morses."

ps, this post was on track to being way more entertaining before I got sucked into Genealogy.com. Sorry.