Well-meaning folks just trying to give their kids a head start in life routinely get taken to the woodshed for giving their children synthetic monikers that make them sound like science-fiction characters, perhaps the slimy progeny of unscrupulous succubi.
Though Mr. O'Hara's once-popular novels and short stories are no longer widely read, he was famous in 1940 for his well-tuned ear, and the characters in "Pal Joey" sound like they stepped out of a real-life alley after throwing a couple of punches.