By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Staff Writer
So my plan worked. I wrote about my hobby of collecting cool names (for example, Marlon Blando and Don Tarantaran) and in a matter of days, more than doubled my list. I even have a new favorite — yes, Pua Ting has been replaced — but we’ll get to that.
There are a lot of people who stop and smile when they hear about Maui women Sweetheart Mori and HoneyBun Hayne and Kaua’i’s Duchess Boro.
There were a dozen letters about a Windward O‘ahu gentleman by the name of Atomic Kane. One writer even noted that Atomic is called by his nephews "Uncle Bomb."
Several people remembered Waipahu’s Theodore Abear, an old-time Hawai‘i businessman named Deal Crooker and a woman named Fanny Goo.
One letter told the story of longtime political activist Mary Noonan, who married a labor rep named Knight.
People wrote in about folks they met on the Mainland, like Crystal Chanda Lear and Harry Legg and Plato Foufus.
I even got a letter from Gavan Daws (signed and everything and, yeah, I’m gonna frame it ’cuz he’s famous ... and he has a beautiful name, come to think of it) that included the jewels Feather Schwartz, Jonquil Moon, Audobon Goo and Cherrypie Villongco.
In fact, a number of people wrote about a woman named Cherrypie, and I’m not sure if it’s the same person who just has a lot of friends or if there was a run on the name a few years back.
There was a family in Waikiki who was apparently well-known. Several letters talked about the eight daughters, Dodo, Rere, Mimi, Fafa, Soso, Lala, Titi and · Octavia. The boys in that family were Uranium and Satellite.
Also in the cool family category are siblings Larson, Nixon, Benson and Bernardson, whose relatives tell them their names sound like reindeer names, but in a good way.
A woman wrote in about her family, whose names include Esmenio, Elson and Elgar. Her dad loved the sound of Hawaiian names and wanted to name his only daughter Leilani, but he had committed to the "e" motif so her name is Eleilani, which is even pretty to look at.
Several people wrote to ask me how they got on my "list" of great names. I told them, "Because you have a great name." They all agreed.
Velvet Fujita wondered where I got her name (it was in the mahalo section of "Pidgin to Da Max") and relayed that she has a sister named Summer Bilski. Ebenezer Ebora wrote from Wahiawa about the joys and challenges of a literary name.
What’s in a name? A story, a family history, some creative parents, a lot of pride and, sometimes, delightful poetry, intended or otherwise.
The new No. 1 on my list? A close second was a man who used to work at the ‘Ilikai named Johnny Fiesta, but my heart was stolen by a dentist from the Big Island with the happiest sounding name I’ve ever heard: Dr. Yee Ha.
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