Our disdain for lame sports nicknames is well-documented, but athletes are not the only ones to sport unimaginative monikers. Take astronauts, for instance.

Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the Moon: "Beano". (Creative!) Harrison Schmitt, the last man to walk on the moon: "Jack". Previously-profiled Scott Horowitz: "Doc".

Worst of all might be Mark Polansky, who flew three missions in the early 2000s. Polansky's nickname is... "Roman". You know, from Roman Polanski, the movie director of somewhat questionable rectitude who almost (almost!) shares Mark's last name.

Interestingly, Polansky is not only on the list of Jewish American astronauts, he is on a similarly-short list of Asian American ones: his mother is of Korean heritage. (He was raised Jewish, however.)

What was the thought process with Polansky? They couldn't think of anything, so went with "Roman" because he sort of shared his name with a creep? At this point, might as well go with "The Hebrew Hammer"...