[Shelacious]

Originally posted by dzsaigirl
she had a family name their kid Sir so that every time they said his name, they had to say "sir"...

Believe it or not, this actually used to be sort of common many years ago in most of the country (especially the South) with a high percentage of black folks (maybe very poor folks generally). Folks named their sons Sir, Mister, General, Major, etc. to provide the respect they couldn't get anywhere else. Much like you indicated, someone would have to call him "Major," all the time, for example, which maybe the only time the boy/man would get any respect in the land of Jim Crow and segregation--whenever his name was called/said.

Of course, this has generally been out of fashion for at least a generation or two by now though, so to have seen it recently...