12 PEOPLE YOU WON’T BELIEVE WERE ALMOST

NAMED JAY MAYNARD

The charming back story behind the least used name in America.

Beloved Japanese novelist was almost named Jay Maynard after the man who saved his father’s life during the bombing of Nagasaki. Had this savior not joined the American Neo-Nazi movement, writer of Kafka on the Shore would have a truly one of a kind name.

Former Quarryman Pete Best, born in British India, was nicknamed Jay Manner during elementary school for his quaint, almost provincial mannerism. Considered the “unluckiest man alive” this almost-Beatle was also an almost-Jay Maynard

Known for creating modern existential thought, when the author of Thus Spake Zarathustra went crazy due to tertiary syphilis he had two options for manic alter ego’s pseudonym, Dionysos and Jay Maynard. His decision was as tragic as his lasting legacy of influencing the Nazi Movement.

During testing for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, producers of the show initially tried the Tonight Show with Jay Maynard. When he passes off the torch to Jimmy Fallon after the Winter Olympics, we can only hope that Jimmy Fallon will attempt to take up this edgy and daring name.

Influential economist John Maynard Keynesmay not look it, but he was this close to beingJay Maynard Keynes.

With his constant joke about being unable to pronounce his own name, it’s no wonder that he didn’t end up being called Jay Maynard. Estaban Fajardo has touched the hearts of millions, and if we can’t pronounce his name now, how would we pronounce it Jay Maynard?

Kevin Wong may be the single most respected game runner of the year, but would he have been deemed a 2012 top player if his parents had done something as ridiculous as naming him Jay Maynard?

Had she been born a man, sources confirm that the instructor behind Reality Starts Here would’ve been called Jay Maynard. And Jay Maynard would know how to carry a mustache.

That’s right! 90s One-Hit Wonder “Reel Big Fish” was almost called Jay Maynard. Skank on that idea for awhile, why don’t you?

The picture says it all! While trying to come up with a replacement for Cali Schedeen, Minnie, Critical Studies Class of 2017, considered calling herself Jay Maynard. Don’t ask her what changed her mind, she’s not telling!

After that entire The Godfather Part III debacle, young Sofia Coppola considered going on the lam under the name Jay Maynard. She would later go onto direct Lost in Translation, where one of the three living Jay Maynards cameos as an extra in her Tokyo-based Masterwork.

Hold up? Is that Tron Guy? The famous meme? Who would have known that this man was almost called Jay Maynard. The history of the internet would have been permanently changed if this icon of American Nerd Culture has been named Jay Maynard.

Throughout the years, many people have come just about this close to being called Jay Maynard. Despite its almost-popularity, it still remains unknown if anyone will ever be named Jay Maynard. Ultimately, the name seems a happy accident, and I hope that you’ve learned a bit about the most famous not-name in American Culture.