POPE THROWER defeats JIZYAH SHORTS - the finals of the "Name of the Year" 2019

Yes, there IS somebody named JIZYAH SHORTS. It's a woman.

Not a Photoshop job hoax.

Each year, "Name of the Year" (now hosted on Deadspin) runs a kind of March Madness tournament to see who has the most amusing name.

She lost to...POPE THROWER.

Yes, another real name. Pope Thrower is a US embassy spokesman in Hanoi. At least, last time I checked.

Checking up on funny names is important, as there are cheaters. There are people who get their name changed JUST to call attention to themselves. They should be (but usually aren't) DISQUALIFIED.

Here's the full bracket. Some highly delightful names were voted out early.

POPE THROWER wins? REALLY?

Back in the days when novelty books actually got published, John Train offered a few volumes of "Remarkable Names of Real People," complete with imagined drawings of them.

I mentioned to the author that he too, had an interesting name and that Phil Ochs used it as a rather scary alias in his last days.

The real John Train was impressed.

An article in the Times once profiled a man who collected strange names. The headline was: "It all began with Olney Nicewonger."

Then again, there are some people who change their name from something wacky to something mundane.

I get this all the time: "Is SMITH your real name??"

That's a question that could've been asked of my grandfather...