Have you ever been prejudiced against something (or someone) entirely because of its/their name?

I did not like to try the poo pu plater.

When I see an article about a house burning down with several children killed, I always suspect they are black.

how odd.

“I always suspect they are black.” It is called “charring”. Fire tends to have that effect.

I distrust anyone named “Adolf”.

I never wanted Arby’s. Their fast food slogan “WE HAVE THE MEATS” grosses me out. Not sure why….

Yes. I swore to never give money to DirecTV when I saw that terrible name. How Direc is the TV? Or is it DirecT V? Did they think I wouldn’t notice? That I’d see that and just think “clever!” or “yep, I don’t think that’s stupid, or I do, but I’ll just say nothing and give them money?” Nope.

@SergeantQueen You know it’s a pun anagram name, too? R.B.s – roast beef sandwiches. I tried eating some of their food once, despite the frighteningly off customers I saw, and it was sickening – not like any roast beef I’d encountered before.

I avoided the movie True Romance for years, because I thought it would be a gushy romance movie. When I did finally see it, I really enjoyed it.

Artichokes. I didn’t even know what they were. I was just young, and had heard the name used by adults to describe “adult” food. Based entirely on the name, I mentally grouped artichokes with other horseradish (which took the spicy “villain” role in a funny story I grew up hearing, so I disliked as well solely based on name), and okra (which will forever be associated with slime and goop for me, thanks to vivid descriptions of poorly cooked okra seared into my mind… My mind has also associated a distinctive and off-putting smell with the word).

Well, the first time I had artichoke was also the first time I saw it. And the first time I found out how it was eaten—decadently leaf by leaf, dipped into butter. It quickly and easily became a favorite of mine.

I’ve since made my peace with horseradish (though I do prefer peppers-based spiciness to horseradish-based).

I’ve never eaten okra, and I doubt I ever will.

I mean, I’ve heard that gumbo’s supposed to be good, but I’m going to have to take people’s word for it.

The very first Cindy I ever knew was a bitch. She was’t pretty. She was less than average intellectually. She was bossy, evil, and she squinted when she was being mean. It made her downright ugly.
I tried not to hold the name against the next Cindy I met, but she was a stuck up, rotten piece of work too. After her, I gave up on Cindys. I never met one to change my mind.

I too have this odd aversion of/to? Arby’s. I’ve never been in one or eaten anything from an Arby’s (that I’m aware of). But for me it’s the perfect example of what I think Jeruba’s getting at— behavior that you know is irrational. Before they tore the building down, our monthly poker game was in this great office on Clay st in the financial district. The office was on the 2nd floor one flight above a golf equipment srore and an Arby’s restaurant, the only one I ever saw in this town. So I would be confronted with my irrationality on a monthly basis, but usually late arriving (traffic and parking) and thus equipped with a rational excuse to avoid confronting the issue. Anyway that great old building was destroyed in order to erect a pile of tacky ugly overpriced condos. Here’s a good one. In the process of excavating the foundation, a complete sailing ship was unearthed, proving that the bay was formerly at least half a mile inland of its current limit. It required better than a year to carefully remove the ship, and the city acquired a year reprieve on at least one ugly building.

@Patty_Melt: I’ve had a similar experience with people named “Donna”. They’ve all been selfish, pushy, and mean. I finally met a Donna who seemed nice (a nurse no less) and I thought, “I bet she’s a nightmare if I got to know her.”

This is terrible of me, and more on names, but anyone with an overtly Southern US name gets the eyebrow from me. Folks named “Jethro” or “Billy Bob” I can’t help but assume are idiots.

Bobby Joe
Bubba
Horace

There have been some names associated with me in one way or another but I don’t like to speculate how a person would be on his / her name. After all it wasn’t their choice in the first place!! I like to deal with people based on their behavior.

Doogie Howser

Chick Fil a. Sounds like they are killing women.

I could never bring myself to order the Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity pancakes at Denny’s. I don’t like to draw attention by saying something ridiculous like that in public.

I’m with you on the mushrooms. I refused to eat them when I was a kid, because they sounded mushy. Thank goodness I got over that problem in my early 20’s, because schrooms are wonderful.

I used to avoid chickpeas when I was a kid, for similar reasons, although calling them garbanzo beans didn’t help. Sounds like something a clown would eat to make him silly.

Why did they come up with the term “blue tooth”? That sounds like rotten, dead teeth.

Trump, sounds like rump.

Oh, well maybe my DirecTV example wasn’t great because it’s a rational reason to boycott them. ;-)

@janbb @Kardamom I totally agree and share the aversion to Doogie Howser, Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity, and blue tooth, though those too seem to me like rational and/or moral arguments against them. ;-)

An example of an irrational aversion: I remember back in school, a few friends and I started to (jokingly) suspect that there was just something off about people named Jeff (or especially Geoff) because of a few examples we knew. Of course it didn’t pan out over time.

I like this question @Jeruba. I do have a few and they are very silly.

Costco. I can’t really explain why. I have no desire or need to shop in bulk. I think they could have chosen a better name. Costco sounds so dull, like a warehouse. They could have made it sound a bit more inviting.

Trader Joes. I’ve never been to a Trader Joes but it sounds like a coffee shop to me. Not that I have an aversion to coffee shops, but I like my coffee black with no frills. I can grab a good cup of coffee to go at my local gas station. I know they are grocery but my mind goes to coffee when i hear the name.

Speaking of coffee. Starbucks. Stupid name and another place I have no desire to visit. My local gas station is a winner again.

Oreo sounds like the winged monkey chant in Wizard Of Oz. Maybe that’s why I don’t eat them.

“Boiled kidney” and “beef intestine” as food. That’s where the toilet waste comes from.

(Credit Chinese restaurant menu makers to be so literal.)

And while we are at it: “Rocky Mountain Oysters” ...

I refused to eat mushrooms until I was practically a legal adult because they were “fungus” and I couldn’t get over that.

I refused to eat squash as a child because of its name.

Glad I got over those hangups….I love so many foods now that I refused to eat when I was a child.

Bread pudding. Sounds gross. Sounds like soggy bread, which grosses me out. Then Rick made some. It’s super good! Even though it really IS soggy bread.

Head cheese and blood pudding. OMG. They just sound disgusting.

@Dutchess_III I saw a documentary made in Germany about the making of blood sausage. It was horrifying. They literally had these giant plastic bags filled with blood that they would dump into a huge cooking vat.

hmm, delicious.

Someone made a comment about a house fire…when I hear of house fires I assume the people who lived in them were poor.

@Dutchess_III Or just became.

When my children were little, I cooked squash for dinner. They would not eat it. The next time I made squash, I called it “Ugly Vegie.” They ate it.

Reading these posts explains the pervasive power (and apparent necessity for) insidious marketing.

My kids initially refused to eat cauliflower, so I called it cauli-flower and they took a bite.

Bobs. I don’t get along with people named Bob. Fortunately, I don’t have any kind of relationship with anyone named Bob right now. My last contact with a Bob was just before I was excommunicated from a church. One of their preachers.

Bob told a lie about me a couple weeks before they kicked me out. I asked around until I learned it was him then confronted him in a public area, while we were surrounded by church people. I asked, “Did you say . . . ?”
Bob said, “Yes.”
I said, “That is not true. Not even close. Are you going to go to the people you told that to and tell them that I said it is not true?”
Bob: “No.”
I should have followed that with “You are a liar and a preacher? Yeah. Now there’s the truth.” But instead, I shut my mouth and walked off, never speaking to him again, because of my soon excommunication by the pastor who was Well Known for his dishonesty. (It was kind of a joke around the church.)
I think that should I meet some named Bob again, I will ask permission to call them by another name.

@Qav I made my parents call squash something else too when I was a kid. The name was too gross for this picky eater.

Welcome to Fluther!

Thank you, Mariah. Mariah, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1eQo_ygSCw ? Loved the Kingston Trio when I was a girl. :)

My mom used to make this dinner of chipped beef in cheese sauce because my dad loved it. He had it in the navy. It was called SOS. It was the only food of hers that I just refused to eat. It was so nasty. Then, when I was 13, AS I was attempting to choke a bite down, my dad told me what SOS stood for.
Way to go, Dad.

It was served on toast. The toast was the “shingle”

So, what did it stand for?

Shit on a shingle.

Eh, somehow I was expecting something worse.

My parents didn’t cuss so it was pretty shocking for that to just come out like that.

I’m pretty sure the term originated in the army.

Somewhere in the armed forces, anyway. That’s what they called it in the navy, too.

It’s interesting, but the navy had a reputation for superior food at its land installations. Back in the mid 60s I had a job for 8 months on the cleaning crew in the galley on Treasure Island. I never ate so well in my life. No SOS there!

Well, Dad was in the navy in the 50s, and he said it was served.

They probably served it on the ships, particularly the smaller ships. If you like to eat, you want to draw duty on an aircraft carrier or a ship large enough to lay in plenty of provisions. Ask the sea wulf about the fare on a submarine after a month at sea.

Ew no!
I remember the hamburger gravy the fed us at school. I think you were suppose to eat it with toast, but I just slurped it down with a spoon. Man, that was good stuff. I have never been able to recreate that taste.

@Dutchess_III One of my friends absolutely loves hamburger gravy. She was explaining that her mom used to make it, and all of her kids love it, and then she described how it was made. I thought I was going to hurl.

All I can find is to brown hamburger, then mix in milk and flour. It’s notNOT the same as what they served in schools though.
Please tell me how your friend makes hers?

I don’t know. Since I don’t eat meat, I had no desire to write down a recipe. It just sounded disgusting to me.

I’m a bit lost. Are you saying that browning hamburger and making a gravy from it sounds disgusting?

No, I saw what it looked like. It was gray and lumpy. It looked like something a cat would throw up. She also described how you didn’t drain off the grease. Nothing about that prparation, or how it looked, sounded palatable.

That’s exactly what it looked like! And it was SOOOOO good!

Speaking of, sauteing onions tends to cause the overall dish to turn an ugly shade of gray. It always tastes awesome, but looks horrible. I don’t suppose there is any cure for it, is there?

As I recall, when I “saute” yellow or sweet onions in soy or teriyaki sauce, they turn from slightly off-white to translucently white.

However, as defined by Webster, I don’t know if there’s a fat that will give a different chromatic result than gray.

When I just saute them to eat right away, they turn translucent. But when I saute them to add to another dish to then be cooked longer, like stuffing, or French onion soup, then it turns the whole dish grossly grey.
I’ll start experimenting using different oils, like olive oil. Thanks for the idea.