I have a fondness for interesting names. In the 14 years I’ve written this column, I’ve zeroed in on some curious first names, nicknames, company names and street names.

While researching another topic in the 2001 newspaper archives, I came across a Lee Cataluna article about unusual names, like Fanny Goo, Crystal Chanda Lear, Harry Legg and Dr. Yee Ha.

I realized that I have come across several interesting names recently, and the result is today’s column.

Tu Low?

David Low told me he met his wife on a flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. She was a flight attendant. They started seeing each other, and as they got more serious she had a concern.

Her first name was Tu. His last name was Low. Did she really want to be called Tu Low?

Someone suggested adding her last name as a middle name. Her last name — Dang — didn’t help.

Apparently, their love for each other overcame her hesitancy, and David and Tu Dang Low have been happily married in Honolulu for over 30 years.

Silva

Honolulu Star-Bulletin columnist Dave Donnelly wrote in 1981 about the Silva clan of Maui, “Not only is there a Hy Hoe Silva, but also brothers Quick Silva and Sterling Silva. Their parents obviously had a good sense of humor.”

Married names

My mail carrier told me he had a friend whose last name was Hino. He joked with him that if he had a son, he should name him Phillip.

Cataluna mentioned a woman named Mary Noonan who married a man whose last name was Knight.

Toby Kravet said, “I have a friend who speculated in the early 2000s (that) if UH Rainbow Wahine volleyball player Melody Eckmeier married late-’90s UH men’s volleyball player Rick Tune, she would become ‘Melody Tune.’”

Reader Arnold Lum shared an interesting name. “My classmate’s auntie’s name was Minnie Moo.

“Auntie Minnie married Walter Kau, a piano teacher. So, she became Minnie Moo Kau.”

Do re mi

The Honolulu Advertiser wrote in 1969 about eight Tai sisters with musical names. They were named Dodo, Rere, Mimi, Fafa, Soso, Lala, Sisi and Octavia.

Lala Tai explained, “Octavia, of course, was named for the eighth unit of the modern scale, and Sisi got her name because in China they sing, ‘Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, si, do’ — not ‘Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do.’”

Their two brothers were named Roy Uranium and Rex Satellite. “Roy was born in 1950, the year of the Atoms for Peace proclamation,” Lala said, “and Rex was born in 1958, a few months after the first satellite went up.”

Kim Chee lost to Sai Min

One of Hawaii’s first kimchi makers was named Joe Kim. Kim ran for the territorial House of Representatives in 1956. Since his childhood all his friends had called him Kim Chee.

One of his many opponents was Phillip Minn. He ran as Phillip “Sai Min” Minn. Both appealed to our hearts, minds and stomachs to represent the 5th District.

Honolulu Advertiser columnist Bob Krauss noted that both lost, but Minn got more votes than Kim. From that he deduced that saimin was more popular in Hawaii than kimchi!

Chew Gum

Jack Davis said: “In the early 1980s I saw an obituary in the Advertiser for the name ‘Chew Gum.’ I thought that was something mainlanders would find amusing, so I cut it out and sent it to my parents, who lived in Maryland.

“After my parents passed away, I was back in Maryland in 2014 helping my siblings go through boxes of papers and other things they had retained, and I came across that obit. They had saved it for 30 years or so.”

Ben Hur

Dr. Richard Lee-Ching said he knew a doctor from South Korea who came to Hilo in the late 1960s. His last name was Hur.

“As a foreign medical school graduate, he needed first to do an American internship and learn English. He wound up in the American South. His colleagues, fellow residents and nurses had a hard time remembering his name and asked if they could call him Ben.

“He agreed, not knowing anything about the movie ‘Ben Hur,’ which won 11 Academy Awards. The doctor was not built anything like Charlton Heston. He was slim, about 5’-6”, with glasses and very soft- spoken. He got used to Ben Hur and even changed his name formally.”

“Ben” means “son of” in Hebrew.

Ah Chew Goo

Hilo High School was the territorial basketball champ three years in a row from 1934-36. Its leader and MVP was 5-foot-4-1/2 guard Ah Chew Goo.

In 1941-42, Goo headed up an all-star team hired to oppose the visiting Harlem Globetrotters.

Vince Goo, who coached the UH women’s basketball team from 1987 to 2004, was Ah Chew Goo’s son. He said the Globetrotters usually had a team that toured with them, but could not afford to send one to Hawaii. His father was asked to put a “patsy team” together to play two to three games against the Globetrotters.

“Dad pulled a couple of tricks in the first game, and Abe Saperstein, the Globetrotters owner, told him he couldn’t do that again.” Tricks were for the Globetrotters.

“One trick involved a ball with a screw in it, attached to fishing line. After a timeout he switched the ball, and when Dad shot the free throw, the ball would be pulled back. The players standing on the lane would rush towards the basket, but the ball would be back in the shooter’s hand. That got a lot of laughs.

“Another trick was switching to a deflated ball, again following a timeout. He intentionally inbounded to a Globetrotter, and when he tried to dribble the ball, it did not bounce. Seventy-five years later these tricks remain part of the Globetrotters’ entertainment.”

Given Goo

Ah Chew wasn’t the only Goo to teach the Harlem Globetrotters a few tricks. Glenn Martin said: “In the late ’40s the Globetrotters played a game at the old Civic Auditorium. Walter Wong was part of a team made up of local basketball players.

“With seconds left in a tie game, Walter Wong came up with a play that is now a part of all Globetrotters performances.

“Given Goo dribbled the ball until there was only a few seconds left on the clock, and then Walter Wong jumped on a teammate’s shoulders, received a pass from Given Goo and laid the ball in the basket at the buzzer.

“This play was drawn up in the huddle with no clipboards, pencils or pens, (but) by using his fingers. Francis Sing (1938 McKinley basketball all-star) described it for the Star- Advertiser in 2008.

“Teammates hoisted Given Goo on their shoulders so that he could dunk a shot. Globetrotter manager Abe Saperstein was furious that his team was upstaged by a bunch of locals. But it was a stunt that the Trotters would later add to their repertoire.”

God-given

Allyson Kealani Pang, news editor at MidWeek, said: “Given Goo is actually my great-grandpa! His name originated from being the only child of his parents to survive past a year.

“Their living conditions were poor, and most of his siblings did not make it past one year, so his parents didn’t name their kids because of this.

“My great-grandpa, however, did survive and thus was named Given — because he was ‘God-given’ to them.”

Fanny Goo

Many residents of the Crescent City, as Hilo is sometimes called, had a Mrs. Fanny Goo as their teacher. Fanny Tam married Paul Goo, who worked for Amfac. The two were noteworthy golfers.

Do you know of an interesting or unusual name? If so, send me an email.

Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.