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| Actor Robbie Coltrane |
Isn't it funny the things that stick in your head as the years go by? I remember one day, back in the late 1960s, my brother asking our parents about his middle name. It turned out that he shared the same middle name as our grandfather on my mother's side. This led me to ask from whom mine had come. "You're named after Doctor McMillan", I was told.
DOCTOR McMILLAN - Doctor IAN McMillan - (now sadly deceased) was our family doctor whose Practice was in Rutherglen. I remember him as a tall, thin, kindly-faced gentleman, with grey or white receding hair and spectacles. I also recall sitting in his waiting room on occasion, and, before that, him coming out to our house to attend to me when my mother splashed a kettle of boiling water on me when I was an infant. Don't worry, it was an accident. (Well... that first time anyway.)
Doctor McMillan was the kind of doctor that older people often lament doesn't exist anymore. On many an occasion, I'd hear my mother extolling his virtues as a doctor and as a person to visiting friends. Both of my parents thought extremely highly of him and were much saddened when he died. They held him in such genuine regard and affection that he must've been a very fine man indeed. It's safe to say that, as far as my parents (and doubtless his other patients) were concerned, a lot of doctors have since been measured against him - with no doubt quite a few found to be severely wanting.
Imagine my surprise then, when, sometime in the early '80s, I read a profile about actor ROBBIE COLTRANE in a local newspaper and discovered that he was the son of our old family doctor. Robbie's real surname is actually McMillan - he took the name Coltrane from the famous jazz saxophonist JOHN COLTRANE. I wonder if John put up much of a fight? (Little joke there.)
So there you go. I'm named after Robbie Coltrane's dad. What's even more strange is that my father was called Robbie. Thoughts of a NEW GENESIS-APOKOLIPS 'pact' spring to mind, but as to which one of us is ORION and which is MISTER MIRACLE I'll leave for others to decide.
(You must've known I'd squeeze some kind of tenuous comicbook link in there somehow.)
My middle names are Roy and Andrew. When I was born I was given the name Roy but after six months my mother wanted to change my name to Colin so Roy became a middle name and Andrew (my father's name) was also added. I got a second birth certificate (which I still possess) but it's a bit confusing because it says:
ReplyDeleteBoy's name: Roy
Names added after registration: Colin Andrew
So it still seems to be saying that my name is Roy, which it's not.
That's interesting. Why did your mother want to change your name to Colin? Your initials are CRAJ - just as well your surname wasn't Potter, eh?
ReplyDeleteI don't know why my mother wanted to change my name - she was forever changing her mind. One day she'd believe in God, next day she didn't. One day she'd love the Queen, next day she thought the Royals were an anachronism etc
ReplyDeleteOne of my father's middle names was Millar - like Mark Millar.
Talking about changing one's mind - I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.
ReplyDeleteMy middle name is Alexander. Named after the bloody movie my parents were watching a couple of days before I was born. Alexander the Great.. .Oh well could have Dracula
ReplyDeleteOr The Man Called Flintstone. Lionel Flintstone Hancock. Hey, that might work.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever get called Lah for short?
No but surprisingly LH... .
ReplyDeleteYabba dabba do
ReplyDeleteI occasionally get called Gir. Just as well my surname isn't Robson-Laughton.
ReplyDelete