I had lunch yesterday with a man named Wii.

He's 26 and has been named Wii all his life, long before Nintendo got into the act. You could have mistaken him for just another cheerful guy who likes video games. Nope. There's a story to Wii Yatani and that very famous first name of his.

You can check out my profile of him at MTVNews.com.

And read this post for even more non-Nintendo uses of the word Wii that I discovered during a search of news databases over the past few days. Do you know who Wii Seeks is? Or Tay Chong Wii, record-setting climber of stairs in Singapore?

Oh, and Wii Yatani wrote his name for me in my notebook. Take a look.

The word "Wii" did not start with Nintendo. It had a life before April 27, 2006. I searched the Nexis news database over the last several days for any "Wii" references prior to that date.

Among the millions of newspaper and magazine articles I discovered more than 1900 pre-Nintendo references to "Wii," including numerous people and companies all known, in some way, as "Wii."

This is some of what I found:
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