(S15) - PT3 - Namesake

[TomHanks]

Being Forrest Gump’s grandson, and all it makes sense that my name is Forrest Gump. But can you imagine if your last name was also Gump? After everything my grandfather did, you’d hear nothing but jokes about it endlessly. Even if your first name was just Forrest you’d hear “Run, Forrest, Run” a decent amount. And yet, despite the football, the ping pong, the freaking moon landing, someone else STILL made the conscious decision to name their child Forrest Gump. I can’t tell if this poor guy’s parents had just never heard the name before or if they have a serious sense of humour, but either way, he’s had a pretty rough go of it. He’s had to deal with people asking him for shrimp recipes his whole life, and he doesn’t even get to reap the rewards of the family Bubba Gump company money. Every single time Forrest introduces himself he has to make sure he doesn’t say, “My name’s Forrest, Forrest Gump,” or anything too close to that, otherwise people will think he’s making a dumb joke. Once they realize he isn’t kidding, his name really is Forrest Gump, he then has to clarify that there’s no relation to the original. Whoever he has just introduced himself to is almost always disappointed to hear that he isn’t. Which means that poor Forrest disappoints most people he meets within a few minutes, just because of his name.