thursday 13: all about Kim

reading time: 3 minutes

play along here

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According to the Social Security administration, in 1970, when I was born, “Kimberly” was the fifth most popular female name, making me just one of the 229,106 females born with the name. I was one of five in my class until I transferred from my home school district to that of the next town over. Our teachers gave us nicknames. There was Kimberly, Kim, Kimmie, Kimber, and me… Mikki. That’s “Kim” spelled backwards, with an extra “ki” to make it “cute,” according to the teacher who saddled me with it. I hated it. Eventually, people began calling me “Kiki,” a name that’s lasted. I don’t mind that name, even though my Filipino friends mom heard her daughter call me that when we were in middle school, and she took great delight in telling me that “kiki” is also Tagalog slang for “vagina.” So, yeah, there’s that.

Let’s explore all things Kim, shall we?

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1. The Kim languages are a small group of languages spoken in southern Chad. They consist of the Mbum-Day languages of Kim, Besme, and Goundo. The latter is almost extinct, and Besme only has a thousand or so speakers.
2. The Kim language itself has four distinct dialectsL Garap, Gerep, Kolop, and Kosop.
3. There are several famous actors and actresses named Kim: Kim Basinger, Kim Cattrall, Kim Coates, Kim Fields, and Kim Novak, to name a few.
4. There are Kims in music, too, like Lil’ Kim, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, and Kim Thayll of Soundgarden.
5. Kim is the title of the 6th episode of season 2 in M*A*S*H, a show I’ve watched my entire life. It is one of my favorite episodes, in which a 5yo Korean boy, the Kim in question, comes to the camp, believed to be orphaned. Trapper becomes close to the child and begins the adoption process. Then one day, Kim wanders into a minefield while Frank and Margaret are supposed to be watching him. Trapper helps rescue him, and it is bittersweet when the child’s mother comes to the camp, and Trapper has to say goodbye.
6. Kim is a statutory town in Colorado, named after the book of the same name by Rudyard Kipling. As of the 2020 Census, it has a population of 63. As of 2014, the town had a school system, a post office, and a general store. According to the US Census Bureau, its total area is about .3 square miles. According to my perusal of Google Maps, it’s in the middle of literal nowhere.
7. The abovementioned Kim by Rudyard Kipling was orginally published as a serial in McClure’s Magazine, December 1900 to October 1901, and again in Cassell’s Magazine, January to November 1901. It was published in book form in October 1901.
8. The name “Kim” has been used for ten tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean, eight in the northwest and two in the east.
9. Kim Peek was considered a megasavant, a man with an extraordinary memory and severe social issues that likely stemmed from developmental disabilities from macrocephaly, or congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character Raymond in the 1988 Tom Cruise flick, Rain Man. Raymond in the movie was portrayed as autistic, which was Peek’s original diagnosis. But it is now believed that he had FG syndrome. a chromosomal genetic syndrome that causes physical anomalies.
10. Kim was a brand of German cigarettes, produced from 1970 to 2009. They were very slim and marketed towards women. Their 1972 advertising tagline reflects this: “Too chic for a man’s hands.”
11. There are sporty Kims, too. Kim Johnsson is a former NHL defenseman who played for the New York Rangers (my team!), the Philadelphia Flyers, Minnesota Wild, and the Chicago Blackhawks.
12. The name appears in the 1926 novel Show Boat by Edna Ferber. Kim is the daughter of the female protagonist, Magnolia, who named her after the daughter’s birth place. The convergence of three states… Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri.
13. From the 1900s to the 1960s, “Kim” was a name given more often to boys than girls.

Honorable Mention

I once dated a guy named Kim. It was a little weird!!

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