Subtitled: Eat your heart out, Tomkat.
“What’s a Stellian?” people often ask me. (This is the natural progression from, “Wait, you’re like a WARNER Warner?”)
It’s a good question, seeing as it’s a made up word. It’s not even a real name. I looked up “Stellian” on WhitePages.com one time when I decided I would like to marry someone who could provide a humorous surname hyphenation — he doesn’t exist. (Update: upon redoing this search, I discovered a 68-year-old man by the name of Stellian in Kansas. Wonder if he’s on Facebook…)
And it’s not a fast horse, nor a foreign word — that I know of. Stellian is what’s called a portmanteau.
You might be familiar with portmanteaus from some Stellian imitators, whom I’ll show below:
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- Brangelina
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- Bennifer
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- Tomkat
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- Speidi
Back in the early ’50s, Steve and Lillian Farkas combined their first names to create Stellian Appliance on Snelling and Larpenteur, where my grandpa Jim Warner would begin working a few years later. Jim Warner bought Stellian in 1971, after years of faithful service, and added his family’s name to the already-established local store (Back then it would’ve been, “What’s a Warner?”).
We still own that location and since have added six more in the time that media covering celebrity supercouples have caught wind of Steve and Lillian’s genius.
Warners’ Stellian: spurring imitation for more than 50 years.
I love this post.
That is all.
I love this post too! My favorite part is that last line: Warners’ Stellian: spurring imitation for more than 50 years. Take that Brangelina!
Fun post 🙂 No matter how hard I try, I can’t come up with a cool way to combine my name with my hubby’s name….
Congrats on the success if Warners’ Stellian. It’s great to see family-owned and operated business do well 🙂
Thanks for participating in our giveaway — good luck!!
Kelly
Thanks, Kelly. But that begs the question — what’s your husband’s name?
This is probably one of my favorite Twin Cities Fun Facts. Our very own Warners’ Stellian started the trend. You heard it here first, folks.
Katie, M, Heidi: Thanks for the compliments.
I do think that the “Stellian” question is one of those with a surprising answer.
I got the question today and I was already on the website with a builder of mine (via phone) and I laughed and we came to this blog. I told him I could just tell him, but this is so much better! I also love the “Are you a Warner Warner” question. Cracks me up!
It puts a new spin on the same story we tell everyday, eh?