One of the many Swedes in my French class is the famous Lasse Gunnar Diding. He is a businessman and hotelier, but probably most well known for trying to register his son with the name Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116
(pronounced Albin). It was in protest at the interference of the authorities into too many aspects of people’s lives. The name was rejected and the child ended with no official name until over the age of five when the boy’s parents ended up being taken to court and fined.
Lasse told us that if you google a list of the strangest names parents have tried to give their children, his sons is always in the top three. I must say I tried it with no luck but maybe it’s just in Swedish google?
Lasse does look every inch the disheveled eccentric – he has messy hair, a black tooth, and shoes that don’t match.
I must confess a newfound appreciation of Swedes since coming here.
(NB I thought the hotelier César Ritz was Swedish, and hence the name of my post, but actually he was Swiss. I can’t think of a clever way of using “Volvo” in the title – any ideas??)