Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten; Dan Weingarten & David Clark for September 12, 2024

Now that’s bored.

Historical Tidbit: Some occupation names in English used to come in male/female versions: Baker/Baxter, Brewer/Brewster, Weaver (Weber)/Webster, and a few others. Later the feminine -ster ending became generic, yielding words such as youngster or gangster. But one -ster occupation survived as feminine and derogatory: spinster.

“Elderly” being a relative term. In some cultures, an unmarried woman in her thirties would be considered a spinster.

No but there was a Perry Proctologist!

What’s a “Clark”?

I know of two dentists who used to have a practice together… their names… Pinch and Hurt. Also know of a retired gynecologist named Dr. Clapp.

“Zimmerman(n)” means that someone in my ancestry was a carpenter. Specifically a builder rather than a furniture maker, I assume, since it translates to “room man.”

In English there’s still a specific (but somewhat obsolete) word for a maker of furniture and cabinets and such, a “joiner.” That appears as a surname as well (the German is “Schreiner”).

Then there’s all the “son” endings: Jackson (son of Jack), Anderson (son of Anders). But Simpson? Know anyone named Simp?

Relating people’s names to family occupations etc. became pop psychology long ago. Some even tried to tie names to technology.

When I was in grade school we had a teacher (credentials = bored housewife, available when the school had to fill a teaching position and had run out of candidates with proper credentials) go around the room and tell each one of us “how our last names came about”. Of course she was just making stuff up. My last name is similar to an item that was invented in the 1920s, and she declared that it was named after our family – nobody in our family had anything to do with that invention. But she was the teacher, so she was “right”…

There was a gynecologist in Chicago in the 70s whose name was Hyman Meltzer.

What’s a Clark? a clerk maybe"