WHAT'S IN A SOAP NAME?

The AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel's broadcast of vintage Search for Tomorrow episodes currently features a character by the name of Kentucky Bluebird.

Really.

Two years earlier, the actor, Will Patton (a two-time Obie winner, no less), appeared on Ryan's Hope as a fellow by the name of Ox.

Really.

With several hundred characters to baptize a year on your average soap opera, is it any wonder that the writers, at times, get a little... out there?

Lucky Gold, during his 2001 stint as Guiding Light's Headwriter claimed naming characters was the toughest part of the job. "After a while, you start naming them after cars," he sighed.

Other interestingly named soap folks have included GL's Sugar Hill (Taye Diggs), Torchy Reynolds (Gladys Heen), Muffy Baxter (Bradley Bliss), Tangie Hill (Marcy Walker), Pharoah (Don Chastain), I.Q. (Jaison Walker) and Zamana (Adolph Caeser).

Texas' Striker Bellman (Clifton James), Clipper Curtis (Scott Stevenson), Bubba Wadsworth (Stephen Joyce) and Hannibal (Richard Young).

Another World's Lefty Burns (Lawrence Keith), Bunny Eberhardt (Marcia McCabe), Apple Annie (Lisa Eichorn), Vena Venucci (Mallory Jones) and Lahoma Vane Lucas (Ann Wedgeworth).

As The World Turns' Ambrose Bingham (William LaMessena), Lexi Funk (Annie Meisels), Hey You (Jean Wolfman), and Sparky Wells (Ray Arnaha).

When Finola Hughes played Anna on AMC, she said she knew her and David Hayward's baby wasn't destined to live when the writers called her Leora. "What kind of name is Leora?"

And ATWT's Jennifer Landon figured her character wouldn't be long-term, either. "Who names their kid Gwen?"

Guess she was wrong...

Those are some of my favorite soap monikers. What are yours?