Surname T-shirts

This reminded me of an article that I had read in the Onion that brought back childhood memories of being distraught, because I couldn't find my name on a carnival key chain.

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Here is the Onion article:

Indian-American Child Having Difficulty Finding Bicycle License Plate With His Name On It

March 20, 2002 Issue 38•10 (The Onion)

HAYWARD, CA— Dinesh Parekh, 9, continues to struggle to find a bicycle license plate with his name on it, the Indian-American child reported Monday. "This is the third store I've checked today," said a dejected Parekh, exiting a Toys "R" Us near his Hayward home. "Derrick, Diane, Dillon and Dylan, Dirk... no Dinesh." Parekh, who has pedaled his brand-new Schwinn to more than a dozen stores during his three-week search, said he plans to ask his mother to drive him to the KB Toys in San Leandro next weekend.

Okay wipe your tears now, here we have a company called, kissmetshirts. Another Cafepress company that allows for more confusion than clarity. I attribute this to the fact that Cafepress companies don't actually produce their shirts and can basically use any graphic they want. Production makes someone really think about their concept.

Kissmetshirts takes surnames and integrates a shamrock with you country or origin's flag colors. Here is where the confusion lies. Are these t-shirts representative of the Ireland's diverse culture or is the shamrock a universal symbol that is shared by all? 

Maybe there are similarities between the shamrock and the om symbol? We might be able to attribute this to cultural symbology. Icons or symbols that represent a community. Do these logos belong on a t-shirt? Sure why not but they tend to be one liners and highly exploited. The irony in this thread are that the Irish and Indian flags share the same colors and shared issues with the British, but that might be too deep.

Maybe Dinesh Parekh, can persuade his mother to buy him a shamrock shirt with his surname and get props from his Irish friends at school?Maybe the folks at Cafepress can develop custom online bicycle license plates for personalization? Maybe we should create Om t-shirts that say, "Namaste my name is Johnson". That would be pretty whack.