The Name of the Game

I'm writing this like an adventurer back from a voyage of internet discovery.

Today my sister bought me a new hoodie with the following design.

The joke being that my name is Hoffi.

Now, throughout my life my unusual name has been both a blessing and a burden. I have had to endure nicknames like 'Hoffman' 'Hoffstar' 'Hasselhoff' '2sugars' 'banoffi pie' 'Hoffi coffee' 'Hoffi toffee' .... on the other hand my name seems pretty powerful. Have you ever introduced yourself to someone and had them freeze for over a minute- mid handshake? I have. Apparently he just couldn't believe that was my nice. Well believe it, because it most certainly is. It is also not short for anything (in case you are wondering).

When investigating my hoodie I discovered the following label:


Yep, that's right, my hoodie is not an isolated David Hasselhoff inspired garment. In fact, a little bit of internet research and you can find 'The Hoff Shop' with all sorts of crazy merch. Scary.

http://hasselhoff.americommerce.com/store/default.aspx

Now what am I meant to call my own shops? I suppose I could always have a coffe shop? No, actually that has been done too- here is the Hoff Coffe shop in Cardiff.


Apparently Hoffi means 'like' in welsh (or something similar- I am no Wlesh expert, I'm afraid). At least I have a pretty likeable name... just remind me not to visit Wales too often. I would find it strange to meet someone called 'Like' after all.

Further internet searching finds my name lending itself to hairdressers and designers- again lucky I don't plan to do either of those. Do you think I can sue them for using my name? (I might not be serious about that last comment).

I was named after an Icelandic Miss World when my dad heard the name on the news and took a liking to it.

Holmfriour 'Hofi' Karlsdottir won theMiss World contest in 1985 at the age of 22 (my age now). She was a kindergarten school teacher before that.


Somehow I don't think I am quite Miss world Material.... I am definitely not as sucessful as her either. We are both blonde, however....

So yeah... that's a brief history of my unusual first name.