What's in a Name?

Over at earth wide moth, Derek links to this image and caption. I always get a kick out of the name "Lance" as a fictional or hypothetical name, I guess because it's my name and the choice often doesn't seem to fit what I think of as a "Lance." Here are two of the funnier examples:

Homer Simpson, on gay men: "They ruined all our best names like Bruce and Lance and Julian. Those were the toughest names we had!"

Pilot of an airplane in distress in DeLillo's White Noise (inadvertently spoken over the plane's intercom): "'This is American two-one-three to the cockpit voice recorder. Now we know what it's like. It is worse than we ever imagined. They didn't prepare us for this at the death simulator in Denver. Our fear is pure, so totally stripped of distractions and pressures as to be a form of transcendental meditation. In less than three minutes we will touch down, so to speak. They will find our bodies in some smoking field, strewn about in the grisly attitudes of death. I love you, Lance.' This time there was a brief pause before the wailing recommenced. Lance? What kind of people were in control of this aircraft?"