Re^6: Do you have a middle name?

If it was a hoax, it was a damned elaborate one that way pre-dated the internet.

Yeah excellent! It gets more and more amusing ... 8)

I don't know if he is really listed in GBR from 1978 with the 600 letter name, but it's definitely a hoax which is quite obvious for German-speakers. Spaceship? 1904? Come on!

The 600 letter version is full of typical errors for English-speakers translating with a dictionary and by far too modern for a family name.

Some retarded spirits even try to use it as a prove that ETs visited Earth 12000 years ago! (NOTE: German was the first language ...)

Already the given names are almost all very English (1904? Kenneth? Irvin? Lloyd? Quincy? Yancy? Why not IceCube?).

And even the shortened 35 letter version is only likely when hyphens or spaces got lost in translation, because they are placenames you can't easily combine.

I'd rather say they are typos, or the immigration officer was too lazy to copy and even concatenated the birthplace and in reality it's "Wolf Schlegel from Steinhausen born in Bergedorf" (both placenames in northern Germany)! Anyway I doubt that 35 letters are long enough for a record. (BUT: there are even Facebook people with that name, with one f in the "dorf" hihihi =)

Germantown is the oldest German settlement in America (320 years), I suppose it's a Philly inside-joke and folklore to fool GBR and other outsider. xD

Have a look at Museum of Hoaxes, seems like this Myth has been heavily copied.

I'd only be interested to know if there is really a poor family named Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff living in Philadelphia... 8)

Cheers Rolf

Comment on Re^6: Do you have a middle name?

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Re^7: Do you have a middle name? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Dec 03, 2009 at 02:59 UTC
Have a look at Museum of Hoaxes, seems like this Myth has been heavily copied. I saw that also, but you apparently didn't notice the feint line at the top of the page: Status: Seems to be true Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. RIP PCW It is as I've been saying!(Audio until 20090817)	[reply]
Re^8: Do you have a middle name? by LanX (Saint) on Dec 03, 2009 at 03:14 UTC
And the last phrase is For now I suppose we'll have to trust that the Guinness people did their homework and weren't the victims of a hoax. Read the comments, very amusing ... I remember when National Lampoon announced that the IRA had set a world record for assassinating editors of the Guiness Book of Records ... xD And I think a whole lot of the stuff in the Guiness book is of questionable validity and/or not very carefully researched. Remember that the Book of World Records was originally written as a promotion for the pubs owned by the Guiness brewery behemoth, and was (I guess) never intended as a scholarly reference work. 1978... Anyway like Americans believe that Germans could have 35 letter names, I believe that American officials might simply forget to copy the white-spaces. There are so many immigration names which got distorted... The Brits even write and pronounce the house of "Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha" like "Windsor"... * fg * Cheers Rolf UPDATE: A comment bringing it to the point Second, the "story" part of the name is highly babelfishy. Some of the spelling problems are due to imperfect copying, but in other places the most likely explanation is that someone was translating word-for-word by dictionary, with little attention to fancy linguistic stuff like polysemy, agreement or even noun/verb distinctions. For instance, "vor Altern" is very suspicious, ("ages ago"?); "Menschlichkeit" is the wrong sense of "humanity" ("Menschheit" would make sense in this context); there are case and genus errors all over, some plurals are creatively formed by just adding "-s", and let's not even discuss "Stern welche gehabt bewohnbar Planeten Kreise drehen sich" ... This phrase is not, nor has it ever been, a card-carrying member of the German language. The "shortened" version consists mostly of suffixes that do appear in names (-stein, -hausen, -berger, -dorff), but they make little sense crowded up like this.	[reply]
Re^9: Do you have a middle name? by davies (Prior) on Dec 03, 2009 at 22:42 UTC
On that subject, I'm sure most monks have seen this (or a variation) on various computers. It's not politically correct, but ... ACHTUNG! Das Elektromaschine ist nicht fur Fingerpoken und Mittengrabben. Ist easy snappen das Springenwerk und blowenfusen mit Poppencorken und Spitzensparken. Das bloodunddammit rubbernecken Sightseeren mussen keepen das Hands in das Pockets. Relaxen, und watchen das Blinkenlights. Original author unknown. Regards, John Hywel Davies (who needs a middle name to avoid confusion with the thousands of others). Update: fixed minor typo	[reply]
Re^10: Do you have a middle name? by LanX (Saint) on Dec 04, 2009 at 03:35 UTC
Re^8: Do you have a middle name? by LanX (Saint) on Dec 03, 2009 at 03:44 UTC
...talking about English names! xD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNoS2BU6bbQ Cheers Rolf	[reply]
Re^7: Do you have a middle name? by tbone1 (Monsignor) on Dec 03, 2009 at 14:47 UTC
"Already the given names are almost all very English (1904? Kenneth? Irvin? Lloyd? Quincy? Yancy? Why not IceCube?)." Keep in mind, this is America. I've met a Heidi Sanchez, a Karl O'Brien, and a Michelle Pfaffenberger. We are a melting pot, and names are one place where we've melted pretty well. (As an aside, my favorite name of all time was that of a former college basketball player at Memphis State: Baskerville Holmes.) -- tbone1, YAPS (Yet Another Perl Schlub) And remember, if he succeeds, so what. - Chick McGee	[reply]
Re^8: Do you have a middle name? by LanX (Saint) on Dec 03, 2009 at 16:56 UTC
But according to the "background" story he was born and baptized in Munich* and then immigrated to the US! > Keep in mind, this is America. My eldest brother was named Roy and my mum considered calling me Bruce�. ATM one of the most popular names for little boys in Germany is Kevin. But certainly NOT 1904! Believe me, if this guy exists he never got German papers with this name, not even the "short" 35 letters version! IMHO this is an April joke going wild. For comparison for decades now there is a running gag with a faked parliamentarian in Germany. The parliament even lists him in official papers and websites and journalists published plenty of faked interviews. Some newspapers are even fooling new colleagues to go and get an interview... =) Cheers Rolf (*) or Hamburg, thats like confusing Chicago and LA (1) a live full of Willis-jokes ...horror ...	[reply]


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