What's the oddest name you've found?

[Mamsoth]

I found an Octavius Flick in an old document, sounded like a Dickens character to me 

[Seaton Smithy]

As though Zappa was not odd enough already, Frank Zappa named one of his daughters Moon Unit. I have often wondered how she feels about it; maybe she just shrugs it off, it's just her name after all.

Frank Zappa named his four children Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva Muffin.

He was once asked about whether he felt he had made things difficult for his children by giving them unusual names and replied that he felt that the worst thing he had done for his children was giving them the surname Zappa.

The name Dweezil was originally a nickname for his wife's deformed toe.  When he announced that he was naming his newborn son Dweezil the hospital refused to register it and so the official registration read Ian Donald Calvin Euclid, the middle names of his band members at the time.   When Dweezil learned that his birth certificate had his name listed as Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa he asked his parents to have it changed.

[Seaton Smithy]

I can't recall if I posted this before, but:

Andrewbella

Not unique, but certainly not common. In the case I found it certainly threw the Registrar who recorded it as Isabella which the family had amended later.

[Erato]

I actually knew someone named Illinois Central [surname withheld since he may still be alive].  Presumably his father worked for the railroad.

Here in Ecuador a few years ago, Usnavy [pronounced Oose nah vee with the stress on the second syllable] gained some popularity along the central coast when the US Navy had a base at Manta that pumped considerable money into the local economy.

[Seaton Smithy]

I actually knew someone named Illinois Central [surname withheld since he may still be alive]. 

There appears to have been an Illinois Central, Senior so presumably there is an Illinois Central, Junior as well.

[Foehn]

One thing that always bemused me was the use of "Bastard" as a surname... Surely that's not something that one would want to advertise?

I believe the origin of surnames with Fitz at the beginning was because an ancestor was born on the wrong side of the blanket. The above name probably wasn't considered a swear word as it is today.

[coombs]

I come across a Cortes Prothero when looking for a marriage of a Coombs ancestor. I thought with a colourful name like that he was Spanish. But I researched him and found his dad was Welsh. Prothero is a Welsh name.

[a-l]

One from one of my side lines Lydia Coffin 

[Geordie daughter]

There is a long line of Bastards with a county seat in Devon who stretch back to William the Conqueror's time. Apparently the surname originally signified that you were an illegitimate son of a Norman nobleman but recognised as your father's potential heir along with his legitimate sons. It was borne with pride then, but it came to have a more derogatory meaning as time went on.

"Fitz" is the French version of "son of" and is used in the same way that "Mac" is in Scotland - "MacGregor" for "Son of Gregor".