Rain=Raymond

[Anne Lambert]

Those who remember the film "Rain Man" will also remember that this was
Charlie's name in childhood for his older, autistic brother Raymond--what
Werner Leopold called a child-etymology.

Natalie Maynor wrote:

> Yesterday morning I was sitting here in my office listening to the
> pounding hammers or whatevers of the construction workers outside my
> window, when I heard one of them yell, "Come onnn, Raymond!"  The
> black clouds were gathering, with rain imminent.  That took me back
> many years to when my brother spent a couple of summers in college
> working on a city surveying crew in Jackson.  I remember his imitating
> what some of the regular crew members would start saying if rain
> looked likely (meaning they'd get to quit work):  "Come on down here,
> Raymond!"
>
> Have any of you heard that, or might it be a Mississippi thing?  It's
> interesting to me that forty or so years have passed since my brother
> heard it in Jackson (about 125 miles southwest of where I heard it
> yesterday).  Calling rain "Raymond" is not really all that strange,
> of course.  I can see how it might be coined independently in various
> places.  Nevertheless, I found it interesting.
>    --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)