Hello, and welcome to our holiday hoops edition at The Blog of Funny Names! Today, we highlight some of the best and most creative names in the newly-formed basketball academy called Overtime Elite. Catering to young men aged 16-18, the academy helps prepare them for professional basketball careers while offering courses in financial literacy as well as mental health. As an incentive, according to boardroom.tv, players receive no less than $100,000 per year, receive healthcare, may profit off their names and images, and can forego the traditional college route entirely. Who would turn that down? Not these guys.
So let’s get a handle on these ball-handlers. The roster of Overtime Elite athletes includes 27 players, of which I offer 10 for your perusal:
- Tudor Somascescu, born in Romania, where he played in the national team. Tudor can mean “king” and is a variant of Theodore. I bet you’ll never come across a Tudor in your neck of the woods!
- Kok Yat, with whom ye should not quarrel, as he stands 6’8″. His name is curt and to the point, and so much fun to say!
- Johned Walker, not to be confused with Scotch whisky Johnnie Walker. While Walker originates from Puerto Rico, Johned does not seem to be a common name there. One wonders why he isn’t simply called John Ed. Perhaps that’s too Deep South?
- Three J’s: Jahzare, Jazian, and Jai. This could get confusing when the coach calls your name.
- De’Vontes Cobbs. Now, we’ve seen in other athletic posts on this page, many L apostrophes and D apostrophes, meaning “of the” and “the” respectively, if they were actually French in origin, which they rarely are. So one cannot assume by linguistics that Mr. Cobbs’s name implies that he is of the Vontes. In fact, there exists no such thing as a Vontes. And I contend that there exists no other De’Vontes either.
- Izan Almansa, the power forward from Spain. A variant of Ethan, the name Izan has been popular in Spain since the 1990s, a decade in which none of these young men were alive.
Lastly, we end with a pair of twins. No, not Ryan and Matt Bewley, whose names could never score points on this blog, but Overtime’s second set of twins, the Thompson Twins, straight out of Florida. If you are a Gen Xer, the British trio called the Thompson Twins (who were neither Thompsons nor twins) may come to mind. But these Thompson brothers are named Amen and Ausar. Ba-bam! Mom was creative on both counts. Can I get an Amen? We expect good things from these twins, and will likely see them in the pros one day.
To all the young men of Overtime Elite, we congratulate you on your accomplishments and wish you all the best in your future sports careers. But most of all, we thank you for your interesting monikors.
