Pro Bono

I was recently at a business gathering and this guy introduced himself to me as “Johnny”. No last name. Everyone else had first and last names on their name tags and this guy just went with “Johnny”. Apparently his last name is difficult to pronounce, so he thinks he can just go by his first name. I politely explained to him that he had to have a more unique name than “Johnny” to go by first name only. I mean, who does this “Johnny” think he is, Cher?  

So, what’s with these people who think they have a corner on a first name? Oprah, Madonna, Ichiro come to mind. Sting, Bono. Ringo maybe. And a bunch of current singers that I really don’t care about. They are first name only people or “FNOPs” because they have made up names, and nobody else has that name. And, of course, who in their right mind would really want any of those “names”? (You never hear a kid say, “Mom, why couldn’t you have named me Sting?”) The big question here is: Did Bono pick his name because Cher (formerly known as Cher Bono) had dropped it and it was in some celebrity-only discard pile? (“Well, if she really doesn’t want it…”)

What happens when two of these folks marry each other? If Cher and Bono married would she become Cher Bono again? Stay tuned!